The Brain Glitch That Keeps You Paying for Things You Hate

The gym membership you haven't used since February. The series you hate but keep watching. The renovation you keep funding because stopping would mean it was all for nothing. That voice saying "I can't quit now, I've put too much in"? It's one of the most expensive cognitive biases in behavioral economics — the sunk cost fallacy. And in this episode of The Money Walk, we walk through how it quietly spends your money, and the one question that breaks the spell. 00:00 – The things you can't quit 00:35 – The $15 movie ticket (and why everyone stays) 01:25 – Why your brain counts backwards 02:05 – Subscriptions, stocks, careers — the quiet leaks 02:50 – The Zero Question 03:40 – Walking out of the bad movie What this video covers: This episode unpacks the sunk cost fallacy — a cognitive bias described by Daniel Kahneman and Dan Ariely that shapes our decision-making patterns around money, time, and effort. We explore why loss aversion makes quitting feel like losing, how behavioral economics explains holding losing stocks and unused subscriptions, and a simple mental model (zero-based thinking) that helps you make better financial decisions starting today. No math. No shame. Just a clearer view. The Money Walk is a weekly show about cognitive biases, behavioral economics, and the invisible rules that quietly run your financial life — explained the way a wise friend on a long walk would. 🚶 New walk every Sunday. Shorts in between. #behavioraleconomics #cognitivebias #sunkcost #psychologyofmoney #kahneman