TIP759: The Art of Spending Money w/ Morgan Housel

You're listening to TIP. On today's episode, we bring back Morgan Housel to discuss his newest book, The Art of Spending Money, Simple Choices for a Richer Life. Morgan needs no introduction to our listeners. He's the New York times bestselling author of The Psychology of Money and Same as Ever, and his books have sold over 8,000,000 copies. He also serves on the board of directors at Markel. During this episode, we discussed the intersection of money and happiness, why Buffet's inner scorecard can empower us to use money as a tool instead of letting money use us, why the happiest people we know are oftentimes the most content, why chasing status is a game you'll never be able to win, why not all of our big spending decisions need to be run through a spreadsheet, the shocking story of how the Vanderbilts lost billions of dollars due to social debt, why Morgan highly prioritizes spending money on independence and so much more. During the last fifteen minutes or so after I let Morgan go, I also took some time to share some of my biggest lessons from reading the book. You know, money is one of those really fascinating things where most people naturally assume that they would be better off if they had more money. But as Morgan highlights, some of the most financially successful people also turn out to be incredibly miserable. So there's more to it than what meets the eye and the psychology of why we spend money the way we do is critical to understand. Anyways, the book was super fascinating and I enjoyed chatting with Morgan about it, so I definitely encourage our listeners to go pick it up. Without further delay, I hope you enjoy today's conversation with Morgan Housel. Since 2014 and through more than 180,000,000 downloads, we've studied the financial markets and read the books that influence self made billionaires the most. We keep you informed and prepared for the unexpected. Now for your host, Clay Finck. Clay Finck (one zero three): Welcome to The Investor's Podcast. I'm your host, Clay Finck. And today I am pleased to welcome back Morgan Housel. Morgan, thank you for joining me today. Morgan Housel (3one zero three): Good to be back. Thanks again for having me. Clay Finck (3one zero three): So, I just finished reading your third book, The Art of Simple Choices for a Richer Life. I have about 20 pages of notes from reading this. So please bear with me as I grapple with all these wonderful ideas he shared. So I thought we'd start by talking about money and happiness. Most people naturally assume that more money will make them happier. The issue of course is that once you have a certain amount of money and your basic needs are met, more money really only has a marginal impact on our happiness. It just doesn't move the needle as much as we'd expect it to or like it …