Rational economics doesn’t always govern how we make decisions about our money in the real world. We’re launching a series called Brain Drain with Marketplace’s Wealth and Poverty desk to explore the ways in which our minds are rigged to cost us money. 

The first topic in our series: When to spend your savings. 

Financial advisers tell us to stash away money in a safe place and leave it there, untouched. But are we being too protective of our savings? Abigail Sussman, a professor of marketing at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, explains how acting too responsibly with our savings can cost us.

Click the media player above to hear more.