Tacos in LA

Very good post on what happens when you become extremely wealthy

One of my readers, @tylerhuff, created a wonderful money ritual with his wife Every 5 years, they fill out the Rich Life Journal. They keep all the editions on their bookshelf to see what they’ve accomplished, how their vision has evolved, and what they want to do next

Guy: "You can talk about finances without getting into politics. There's nothing political about teaching someone fiscal responsibility" Same guy: "I can't afford beef!"

They should hire Cassandra at Next Level Wardobe to style them

I cannot emphasize how stupid you must be to willfully believe there is a "non political" side of money including taxes, healthcare, housing, childcare, water rights, energy costs, the CFPB, school lunches, interest rates, tariffs, mortgage interest deductions, and medical debt

I spoke at a YIMBY event this week for @yimbyaction to spread the message about building more housing in Los Angeles Money is political!

In the comments, nobody identified why a renter would have $22 MILLION more than a buyer Primary answer: You can make MILLIONS from investing the down payment. Very few Americans understand this, which is why they believe homeownership is the only/best way to make money

"I would rather skip the fancy hotel and travel for an extra week" "I would rather have a simple wedding & use the money for a down payment" Reality: Most people making very expensive purchases are not making these tradeoffs. They're doing both I've found that when everyday people think about spending LOTS of money, they often bring their current financial values to a hypothetical situation ("I would never fly business class. What a waste of money!") For many people, if they had 10x the money, their spending patterns would dramatically change -- for very good reasons! They simply don't realize it

Will never forget when I posted a pair of my sneakers getting shipped back to Italy for free lifetime repair and people got insanely interested -- almost manic at the idea of FREE REPAIRS -- until I told them the shoes cost like $900 We love the idea of paying for quality until it comes down to actually doing it

Get extremely interested in personal finance and build a totally automated financial system that targets 60% of take-home pay to Fixed Costs, 5-10% to savings, 5-10% to investments, and 20-35% to Guilt-Free Spending. (Adjust as necessary.) Understand the impact of fees on investment returns and avoid an AUM advisor at all costs, as well as whole life insurance. Fight for simplicity in your finances with 1-2 credit cards. Use tax-advantaged accounts such as your Roth IRA and 401k. Study compound interest and recognize that in your early 20s, any additional money you invest now will be worth much more later. Finally, remember to also develop the skill of spending money meaningfully. Whether that’s travel or health or self care or generosity, use your money to live your vision of a Rich Life

After building a bunch of custom software in my company, we finally decided to almost exclusively use off-the-shelf software. The more popular, the better -- less maintenance, bigger talent base we could hire to run it Funny how you see similar patterns across different domains

Julie's comment is extremely interesting: "A lot of people who have lived in San Diego for decades have no idea [low rents concessions are] being offered" In my experience, people do not understand that it can be cheaper to rent than to own. Even in the city they live in! That's because... 1. People conceptually don't understand investing & opportunity cost of a massive down payment 2. People don't run the numbers so they do not understand even basic buy vs. rent calculations, especially current rates 3. Once people own, their psychology & incentives change to support the decision they've made This is how someone can live in a city like NYC and have literally no idea that it's frequently a better financial decision to rent than to own -- to the tune of millions of dollars!