How 20 Seconds Can Make You a Better Investor
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    HOUSE MEDIAN ASKING PRICES AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney $1,664,237 (-0.59%)       Melbourne $1,033,450 (+0.65%)       Brisbane $1,081,028 (+0.65%)       Adelaide $985,065 (+1.78%)       Perth $950,560 (-0.18%)       Hobart $777,999 (+0.89%)       Darwin $786,482 (+1.68%)       Canberra $952,466 (-2.00%)       National $1,094,758 (-0.02%)                UNIT MEDIAN ASKING PRICES AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney $782,104 (+0.40%)       Melbourne $498,897 (+0.23%)       Brisbane $701,683 (+2.16%)       Adelaide $513,743 (+2.48%)       Perth $535,535 (+0.22%)       Hobart $517,946 (+0.06%)       Darwin $387,696 (-0.18%)       Canberra $486,097 (+1.41%)       National $578,371 (+0.96%)                HOUSES FOR SALE AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney 11,905 (+214)       Melbourne 13,995 (+360)       Brisbane 8,080 (-32)       Adelaide 2,812 (+63)       Perth 7,563 (+9)       Hobart 1,219 (-23)       Darwin 158 (-3)       Canberra 1,092 (+27)       National 46,824 (+615)                UNITS FOR SALE AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney 9,269 (+98)       Melbourne 7,693 (+15)       Brisbane 1,591 (-38)       Adelaide 442 (+7)       Perth 1,605 (-9)       Hobart 215 (-13)       Darwin 289 (-12)       Canberra 1,183 (+20)       National 22,287 (+68)                HOUSE MEDIAN ASKING RENTS AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney $800 ($0)       Melbourne $595 ($0)       Brisbane $650 ($0)       Adelaide $630 ($0)       Perth $700 ($0)       Hobart $560 ($0)       Darwin $725 (+$25)       Canberra $700 (-$10)       National $678 (+$2)                UNIT MEDIAN ASKING RENTS AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney $750 ($0)       Melbourne $590 ($0)       Brisbane $650 ($0)       Adelaide $525 (-$5)       Perth $650 ($0)       Hobart $498 ($0)       Darwin $520 (-$60)       Canberra $580 ($0)       National $606 (-$7)                HOUSES FOR RENT AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney 5,789 (-25)       Melbourne 7,602 (+102)       Brisbane 3,854 (+40)       Adelaide 1,449 (+10)       Perth 2,298 (+17)       Hobart 233 (+17)       Darwin 84 (+1)       Canberra 469 (+14)       National 21,778 (+176)                UNITS FOR RENT AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney 7,814 (+1)       Melbourne 5,490 (+10)       Brisbane 1,803 (-14)       Adelaide 422 (+10)       Perth 757 (+29)       Hobart 94 (0)       Darwin 85 (-4)       Canberra 567 (+2)       National 17,032 (+34)                HOUSE ANNUAL GROSS YIELDS AND TREND       Sydney 2.50% (↑)        Melbourne 2.99% (↓)       Brisbane 3.13% (↓)       Adelaide 3.33% (↓)     Perth 3.83% (↑)        Hobart 3.74% (↓)     Darwin 4.79% (↑)      Canberra 3.82% (↑)      National 3.22% (↑)             UNIT ANNUAL GROSS YIELDS AND TREND         Sydney 4.99% (↓)       Melbourne 6.15% (↓)       Brisbane 4.82% (↓)       Adelaide 5.31% (↓)       Perth 6.31% (↓)       Hobart 4.99% (↓)       Darwin 6.97% (↓)       Canberra 6.20% (↓)       National 5.45% (↓)            HOUSE RENTAL VACANCY RATES AND TREND       Sydney 2.0% (↑)      Melbourne 1.9% (↑)      Brisbane 1.4% (↑)      Adelaide 1.3% (↑)      Perth 1.2% (↑)      Hobart 1.0% (↑)      Darwin 1.6% (↑)      Canberra 2.7% (↑)      National 1.7% (↑)             UNIT RENTAL VACANCY RATES AND TREND       Sydney 2.4% (↑)      Melbourne 3.8% (↑)      Brisbane 2.0% (↑)      Adelaide 1.1% (↑)      Perth 0.9% (↑)      Hobart 1.4% (↑)      Darwin 2.8% (↑)      Canberra 2.9% (↑)      National 2.2% (↑)             AVERAGE DAYS TO SELL HOUSES AND TREND       Sydney 31.4 (↑)      Melbourne 30.7 (↑)        Brisbane 33.3 (↓)     Adelaide 29.3 (↑)      Perth 39.6 (↑)      Hobart 35.5 (↑)        Darwin 32.1 (↓)     Canberra 30.7 (↑)      National 32.8 (↑)             AVERAGE DAYS TO SELL UNITS AND TREND       Sydney 31.2 (↑)      Melbourne 30.6 (↑)      Brisbane 34.1 (↑)      Adelaide 26.0 (↑)      Perth 40.0 (↑)      Hobart 31.3 (↑)      Darwin 40.5 (↑)        Canberra 39.2 (↓)     National 34.1 (↑)            
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How 20 Seconds Can Make You a Better Investor

Investors are taming impulsive money moves by adding a little friction to financial transactions

By IMANI MOISE
Tue, Mar 14, 2023 8:00amGrey Clock 4 min

To break the day-trading habit that cost him friendships and sleep, crypto fund manager Thomas Meenink first tried meditation and cycling. They proved no substitute for the high he got scrolling through investing forums, he said.

Instead, he took a digital breath. He installed software that imposed a 20-second delay whenever he tried to open CoinStats or Coinbase.

Twenty seconds might not seem like much, but feels excruciating in smartphone time, he said. As a result, he checks his accounts 60% less.

“I have to consciously make an effort to go look at stuff that I actually want to know instead of scrolling through feeds and endless conversations about stuff that is actually not very useful,” he said.

More people are adding friction to curb all types of impulsive behaviour. App-limiting services such as One Sec and Opal were originally designed to help users cut back on social-media scrolling.

Now, they are being put to personal-finance use by individuals and some banking and investing platforms. On One Sec, the number of customers using the app to add a delay to trading or banking apps more than quintupled between 2021 and 2022. Opal says roughly 5% of its 100,000 active users rely on the app to help spend less time on finance apps, and 22% use it to block shopping apps such as Amazon.com Inc.

Economic researchers and psychologists say introducing friction into more apps can help people act in their own best interests. Whether we are trading or scrolling social media, the impulsive, automatic decision-making parts of our brains tend to win out over our more measured critical thinking when we use our smartphones, said Ankit Kalda, a finance professor at Indiana University who has studied the impact of mobile trading apps on investor behaviour.

His 2021 study tracked the behaviour of investors on different platforms over seven years and found that experienced day traders made more frequent, riskier bets and generated worse returns when using a smartphone than when using a desktop trading tool.

Most financial-technology innovation over the past decade focused on reducing the friction of moving money around to enable faster and more seamless transactions. Apps such as Venmo made it easier to pay the babysitter or split a bill with friends, and digital brokerages such as Robinhood streamlined mobile trading of stocks and crypto.

These innovations often lead customers to trade or buy more to the benefit of investing and finance platforms. But now, some customers are finding ways to slow the process. Meanwhile, some companies are experimenting with ways to create speed bumps to protect users from their own worst instincts.

When investing app Stash launched retirement accounts for customers in 2017, its customer-service representatives were flooded with calls from panicked customers who moved quickly to open up IRAs without understanding there would be penalties for early withdrawals. Stash funded the accounts in milliseconds once a customer opted in, said co-founder Ed Robinson.

So to reduce the number of IRAs funded on impulse, the company added a fake loading page with additional education screens to extend the product’s onboarding process to about 20 seconds. The change led to lower call-centre volume and a higher rate of customers deciding to keep the accounts funded.

“It’s still relatively quick,” Mr. Robinson said, but those extra steps “allow your brain to catch up.”

Some big financial decisions such as applying for a mortgage or saving for retirement can benefit from these speed bumps, according to ReD Associates, a consulting firm that specialises in using anthropological research to inform design of financial products and other services. More companies are starting to realise they can actually improve customer experiences by slowing things down, said Mikkel Krenchel, a partner at the firm.

“This idea of looking for sustainable behaviour, as opposed to just maximal behaviour is probably the mind-set that firms will try to adopt,” he said.

Slowing down processing times can help build trust, said Chianoo Adrian, a managing director at Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America. When the money manager launched its online retirement checkup tool last year, customers were initially unsettled by how fast the website estimated their projected lifetime incomes.

“We got some feedback during our testing that individuals would say ‘Well, how did you know that already? Are you sure you took in all my responses?’ ” she said. The company found that the delay increased credibility with customers, she added.

For others, a delay might not be enough to break undesirable habits.

More people have been seeking treatment for day-trading addictions in recent years, said Lin Sternlicht, co-founder of Family Addiction Specialist, who has seen an increase in cases since the start of the pandemic.

“By the time individuals seek out professional help they are usually experiencing a crisis, and there is often pressure to seek help from a loved one,” she said.

She recommends people who believe they might have a day-trading problem unsubscribe from notifications and emails from related companies and change the color scheme on the trading apps to grayscale, which has been found to make devices less addictive. In extreme cases, people might want to consider deleting apps entirely.

For Perjan Duro, an app developer in Berlin, a 20-second delay wasn’t enough. A few months after he installed One Sec, he went a step further and deleted the app for his retirement account.

“If you don’t have it on your phone, [that] helps you avoid that bad decision,” he said.



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Bhutan is pioneering a new frontier in travel by allowing tourists to pay for flights, visas, hotels and even fruit stalls using cryptocurrency via Binance Pay.

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Bhutan has become the first country in the world to implement a national-level cryptocurrency payment system for tourism, marking a major milestone in digital innovation and travel.

Launched in partnership with Binance Pay and Bhutan’s fully digital DK Bank, the system enables travellers with Binance accounts to enjoy a seamless, end-to-end crypto-powered journey. More than 100 local merchants, from hotels and tour operators to small roadside vendors in remote villages, are already live on the system.

“This is more than a payment solution — it’s a commitment to innovation, inclusion, and convenience,” said Damcho Rinzin, Director of the Department of Tourism, Bhutan.

“It enables a seamless experience for travellers and empowers even small vendors in remote villages to participate in the tourism economy.”

Using supported cryptocurrencies, tourists can now pay for nearly every part of their trip, including airline tickets, visas, the Sustainable Development Fee (SDF), hotel stays, monument entry fees, local guides, and shopping, all through secure static and dynamic QR code payments.

Binance CEO Richard Teng praised the move, saying: “We are excited to partner with Bhutan as we are not only advancing the use of cryptocurrencies in travel but also setting a precedent for how technology can bridge cultures and economies. This initiative exemplifies our commitment to innovation and our belief in a future where digital finance empowers global connectivity and enriches travel experiences.”

Known as the “Kingdom of Happiness,” Bhutan has long prioritised Gross National Happiness over GDP, with a strong focus on sustainability, cultural preservation, and societal well-being. The new system aligns with these values by reducing payment friction and bringing financial inclusion to local communities.

Among the key features of the system:

  • Seamless Experience: Tourists can pay with crypto for all travel-related expenses.

  • Inclusive Reach: Small vendors, even in remote areas, can accept QR code payments.

  • Lower Fees: Transactions cost significantly less than traditional payment methods.

  • Comprehensive Support: More than 100 cryptocurrencies supported, including BNB, BTC, and USDC.

  • Secure and Instant: Real-time confirmations, 2FA, and encrypted transactions via the Binance app.

Behind the local settlement mechanism is DK Bank, Bhutan’s first fully digital bank. Licensed by the Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan, it aims to deliver accessible financial services to all, including marginalised and unbanked communities.

The launch is being hailed as a bold step forward in integrating digital finance with global tourism — one that could set the benchmark for other nations looking to modernise the travel experience while empowering their local economies.

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