Du'ers who have degrees or advanced degrees in math, do you think that

[phantom power]

2. I don't generally cross-check that sort of thing, however...

I think my math background helps me because I have an intuition about exponential functions, and how they can either work for you or against you in various financial situations. Like, compounding interest on debt is an exponential function working against you, while compounding returns on investment are exponential function working for you.

I have a feel for how exponential functions behave because I've studied them in various contexts. I think most people have no intuitions about them whatsoever, and it causes people to not understand the implications of some decisions.

Also, I think having an understanding of scale-free distributions as applied to market behavior and black swan events gives one a sense of -- well... perspective on what is possible. Lots of people I think genuinely just consider Big Bad Events as impossible.

And, I suppose a mathematical understanding of what risk/payoff matrixes are, how to use them to make sense of investing/retirement decisions, etc.

It's not exactly that I actually go and do math on this stuff, it's more that when I'm working with our financial advisor I have some intuitions about what's going on and what I'm really doing when I make predictions.