Wise & Wealthy: Pretending You’re Fine And Managing Emotions To Build Wealth

Wise & Wealthy: Pretending You’re Fine And Managing Emotions To Build Wealth

Wise

Too often, ambitious and hard-working people have an urge to pretend that everything is fine.

The house might be burning down, and they’ll say, “It’s fine!” Your house is on fire! How can it be fine?!

Sometimes, we need to admit things are not fine. In his book, Get Out of Your Own Way, the psychiatrist Mark Goulston writes:

“Admitting to yourself that you are upset or in pain can make you feel exposed. You fear that acknowledging a bad feeling gives it more power. The pain might get worse. You might not be able to tolerate it.”

For the past two years, we’ve been dealing with one challenge after the other. Now, it’s inflation. I’m sure something else will come after that. Sometimes it can get a bit too much.  And that’s fine. No one can live like a superhuman every day. We must always be aware of the signals our mind and body give us.  The key is to acknowledge that you don’t have to be doing well all the time. Sometimes we need to take a step back. And sometimes we need to put our feet on the gas.

What matters is that you always stay connected to body and mind. And never give up.

↳ The Dark Art of Pretending You Are Fine

Wealthy

Whether you’re a seasoned trader or a retail investor who’s just starting out, investing comes with pain. Stocks and other asset prices fluctuate. Growth isn’t linearly. It’s more like a pendulum. It goes up and down.   If you’re afraid of the downturns, you won’t be able to keep investing.

https://dariusforoux.com/pretending-you-are-fine-and-managing-emotions-to-build-wealth/

21 Small Actions That Will Make You Richer

21 Small Actions That Will Make You Richer

Small Actions to Get Richer

Despite the “success stories” you might see online, the vast majority of wealthy people got to where they are after many years.  But most of us have this idea that getting rich can be easy. “You just need to have the right idea!”    Deep down, we know that it’s not that simple. We also know that consistent action over time can lead to big results. As Warren Buffett said:

“It’s pretty easy to get well-to-do slowly. But it’s not easy to get rich quick.”

Whether you’re training for a marathon or working towards financial independence, your best bet is to aim for consistency. What is consistency when it comes to wealth?

Financial consistency is about moderation and perfect execution of your strategy.

A financially consistent person is dedicated to getting richer just a little bit, year after year. It’s about doing the least amount of saving and investing to grow one’s net worth.

If you are financially consistent, it’s a guarantee you will become wealthier over time. It’s all about how well you execute the little things.

Over the years, I’ve identified many small financial actions that sound obvious but few people execute consistently. Here they are.

Reading books — Not only leaders are readers, but so are many wealthy people. Books usually contain quality information and are crafted with care. You usually learn more from books than from other mediums.

Spending time with smart people — Being around smart people gives you an idea of how they think and operate. That’s inspiring.

Asking questions — Being curious leads to new realizations, which in turn leads to better decisions.

Controlling the urge to buy stuff — If you’re on a quest to accumulate nice things, you will never be satisfied. You will only empty your bank account.

Ignoring fake geniuses — There are many people who pretend they are smart. Not only on social media but also in real life. The ability to distinguish the fake from the real will help you avoid stupid things.

Limiting social media consumption — No matter how great social media can be, too much of it will turn you into a mindless consumer. And consumers don’t get rich.

 To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://dariusforoux.com/richer/

The Art of Money

The Art of Money

Turning financial success into a creative pursuit Jacob Schroeder Mar 15, 2022

What do you consider the act of ‘making money’? Is it an act of accounting and measuring? Or, is it an act of imagining and contemplating? Our finances involve numbers and data, but they’re intractably tied to our personal ideas, experiences, feelings and behaviors – intangible things you can’t formulate in a spreadsheet. Therefore, to manage the human side of money, it’s better to think more like an artist than a scientist. 

It’s a shame many famous artists had financial troubles. 

Johannes Vermeer is said to have left behind 10 young children, a house full of paintings no one wanted and enormous debts, causing his wife to declare bankruptcy. Mozart wracked up massive amounts of debt, too, to feed an extravagant lifestyle. Not to be out done, Oscar Wilde lived far beyond his means, until he eventually fell into poverty and supposedly spent his last bit of money on booze. When he took his own life, Vincent van Gogh was poor and destitute. 

It’s a shame, because some principles great artists follow to make art could also apply to making money. 

Art and money share more similarities than we like to think. Money, like art, is a means of self-expression; it helps you turn the life you imagine into reality. They’re both deeply personal. There is no one right way to sculpt a Greek goddess or invest in stocks. Most of all, money offers a lot of insights into human behaviors and sensations. 

It is often those human elements that lead to financial problems, but that also give our financial decisions meaning. Therefore, when trying to create a financially successful future, we may need a little more right-brain than left-brain thinking. 

Take it from Andy Warhol, an artist who loved to blur the lines of commerce and culture, who declared:

“Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.”    Andy Warhol

Why it helps to think of money as more art than science

Is personal finance an art or a science?

The juncture of art and money has gotten most attention as it relates to investing. Investor Howard Marks said:   “Investing, like economics, is more art than science.”

Why?

Investing encapsulates the vagaries of human nature in the face of uncertainty. There is an element of personal intuition that guides the algorithms. That element of variance and uncertainty is what Barry Ritholtz expands upon in his definition:

“Investing is the art of using imperfect information to make probabilistic assessments about an inherently unknowable future.”

Perhaps it’s not a coincidence then that some investment charts resemble the art of Piet Mondarian, as if an abstract geometric representation of human behavior, financial enterprise and economic forces. 

The art of investing

Retired adviser and author Paul Merriman, meanwhile, advises us not to take the investing-as-art concept too far:

“Follow your own instincts and hunches and amateur research if you want to bet on sports teams. But don't do that with your savings.”

While contemplating risk and return expectations based on intuition and feelings may not be wise, there is a good reason for thinking about money from an artistic point of view.

The art critic Jerry Saltz describes art as “a means of expression that conveys the most primal emotions: lonesomeness, silence, pain, the whole vast array of human sensation.” These primal emotions are often the source of our financial challenges. 

More than 80% of Americans have financial regrets, according to a Bankrate survey. Most of these regrets can be attributed to personal attitudes and behaviors, such as spending beyond our means (too much debt), thinking more of the present than the future (not saving) and comparing ourselves to others (too much house). 

You can have all the financial data, research and evidence in the world. But what good is it if you never analyze yourself?

As Morgan Housel puts it:  “Financial success is not a hard science. It’s a soft skill, where how you behave is more important than what you know.”

Thinking artistically about money – to have deeper awareness of our emotions and behaviors – may not be just an interesting perspective but a necessity. But I’d argue that an artistic mindset can do more than just help us make better financial decisions. 

Alain de Botton and John Armstrong in their book, Art as Therapy, describe art as a tool:

“Like other tools, art has the power to extend our capacities beyond those that nature has originally endowed us with…Art can help us identify what is central to ourselves, but hard to put into words.” 

Money is also a tool that has the power to extend our capacities beyond our natural abilities. It allows us to buy things we couldn’t create on our own. Investing allows us to grow our money and create a desired lifestyle that most of us couldn’t achieve by saving a portion of our paychecks alone. Money, like art, can help us imagine a better life, whether that means going to college, retiring from work or giving back to our communities.

Further, money can help us identify what is central to ourselves. When thinking about our financial futures we’re forced to determine what needs, wants and values are most important. 

Money is one part data and math, two parts imagination and personal awareness. The science is the data and information we gather; the art is what we decide to do with it. 

So, how can we think more artistically about money? And, how can it specifically improve our relationship with money? Well, let’s learn from the artists themselves. 

Money Lessons From Famous Artists

Here are some words of advice from artists that could double as insight for turning financial success into a creative pursuit.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://rootofall.substack.com/p/the-art-of-money

Don’t Turn Your Hobby Into a Side Hustle

Don’t Turn Your Hobby Into a Side Hustle

Analysis by Erin Lowry | Bloomberg  December 26, 2022 

During a holiday dinner party, the host suggested we each share a significant moment from the year. As one woman shared how her pottery class had allowed her to explore her creative side, another cheekily said, “Oh, you could totally open up an Etsy shop and sell your work.” Before she even finished the sentence, I exclaimed, “No! Don’t monetize your hobby!”

It’s advice that perhaps seems heretical in this time of high inflation. After all, it took $107 in November 2022 to buy what $100 bought in November 2021, according to the US Department of Labor. Between 2019 and 2020, the increase was only $1.17. But despite rising prices, it’s important to keep the side-hustle mindset in check.

A hobby, by definition, is supposed to be something you pursue outside of your job for relaxation. Of course, you can have hobbies that are mentally or physically challenging such as chess or hiking. However, a hobby is no longer a hobby once you add a price tag and start to sell your wares to consumers. That’s a job.

Grind culture has faced a modest reckoning in the last few years, with some going so far as to label it toxic. There is certainly a dark underbelly in pushing people to relentlessly consider profitability. 

As a recovering member of the constantly-side-hustling community, I can say confidently that respecting the sanctity of at least one or two hobbies for fulfillment does wonders for one’s mental health.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/dont-turn-yourhobby-into-a-side-hustle/2022/12/26/0214300e-851e-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html

Why It’s Easier Than Ever For Americans To Fall Into This 'Invisible Addiction'

Why It’s Easier Than Ever For Americans To Fall Into This 'Invisible Addiction'

1.9k  Serah Louis  Sun, January 1, 2023

'I was stealing from Peter to pay Paul': Why it’s easier than ever for Americans to fall into this 'invisible addiction'

Noah Vineberg, a bus driver based in Ottawa, Canada, lost over $1 million to his gambling addiction.

Vineberg traces the roots of his addiction all the way back to elementary school, where he avidly traded marbles and hockey cards on the schoolyard.

“It wasn't until much later — like 16 to 18, 19 — I knew that I was gambling heavier than anybody else. And I knew that I definitely had a problem.”

It's a problem he grappled with for 48 years. But Vineberg is now in his fourth year free from gambling.

Many others are still struggling to find their way out their addiction. The National Center for Responsible Gambling points to research that indicates 1% of the U.S. population suffers from a severe gambling problem. And young adults are especially vulnerable, with an estimated 6% to 9% of young people experiencing problems related to gambling.

And while not all those problems are financial, they often come with a hefty price tag.

The Pandemic Contributed To the Issue

Gambling has long been one of Americans' favorite pastimes. And access to it has only gotten easier since 2018, when the Supreme Court overturned a decision that limited sports betting to Nevada.

Ads and apps have been popping up everywhere since, even some featuring celebrities like Aaron Paul and Shaquille O'Neal.

But those ads can have a troubling effect, says Vineberg. Because while they may show people winning, “winners” are not who the advertisers are really trying to target.

The client they’re after is the ‘me’ that's going to go to four different check-cashing places … and going to just try and make enough on the weekend in my bets to cover my butt by Monday.”

And it's only going to get more difficult for people like Vineberg. More than two dozen states have legalized sports betting in the past few years. And according to a report by the American Gaming Association, 2022 is on track for another record-setting year. Sports betting and iGaming revenue grew by double digit percentages over the first ten months of the year compared to the same period from the previous year.

“The incidence of online gambling, and the severity of it, have increased considerably,” says Diana Gabriele, a gambling counselor at Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare (HDGH) in Windsor, Ont. in Canada. Ontario is the first province in Canada to regulate sports betting.

Gabriele adds the increased isolation during COVID-19 lockdowns didn't help.

 “As a result of that isolation, and the change in lifestyles and loss of employment, people became bored, they became strapped for money, they were looking for ways to make money easily,” she says.

“They were looking for entertainment.”

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/people-six-figure-incomes-living-110000551.html

11 Quick Steps That’ll Have You Managing Your Money Like A Millionaire

11 Quick Steps That’ll Have You Managing Your Money Like A Millionaire

By The Penny Hoarder Staff  Updated December 27, 2022

Life would be a whole lot easier if someone would just Venmo us $1 million, but unfortunately the chance of that happening is, well, probably zero. (Venmo doesn’t allow transactions that large anyway.)

But even though our chances of becoming a millionaire are slim, we can still manage our money like one. No, we’re not going to tell you how to buy hundreds of shares of Apple stock. Or how to pick out the perfect yacht.  These are simple money moves any normal, non-millionaire person can make today. Each tip can get you closer to achieving your big goals.  

Take a look:

1. Cancel Your Car Insurance

Here’s the thing: your current car insurance company is probably overcharging you. But don’t waste your time hopping around to different insurance companies looking for a better deal.

Use a website called EverQuote to see all your options at once.

EverQuote is the largest online marketplace for insurance in the US, so you’ll get the top options from more than 175 different carriers handed right to you.

Take a couple of minutes to answer some questions about yourself and your driving record. With this information, EverQuote will be able to give you the top recommendations for car insurance. In just a few minutes, you could save up to $610 a year.

2. Get a Free $25 to Invest Like an Elite Hedge Fund

Hedge funds feel like an elite, sophisticated way to invest — and out of reach for most of us. Something like a $250,000 minimum makes this kind of investing feel like an exclusive club for the wealthy.

But an app called Titan makes this kind of elite investing strategy accessible to the rest of us — and you can get started with just $100. Plus, they’ll give you $25 for free once you sign up and invest.

Titan is a simple, user-friendly investment app that mirrors the financial moves of top hedge funds. It invests money in top stocks, based on what all those hedge funds have been buying — because it knows those are best set up for growth.

And unlike robo-investing apps, you get access to fund managers and insights into what goes into their recipes. Titan’s portfolio managers and analysts aim to beat the stock market from day one.

All three of Titan’s co-founders are former hedge fund guys who are now heavily invested in their Titan portfolios — the same stocks they’d invest your money in.

More than 50,000 people already use Titan, and it takes just a few minutes to fund your account and get started — and get your free $25 so you can invest even more. Isn’t it time you had access to invest like the elite?

3. You Can Become Debt Free — Without Paying it All Off

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.thepennyhoarder.com/budgeting/money-management-in-10-steps/

6 End-of-Year Money Moves to Make Now and Set Yourself Up for 2023

6 End-of-Year Money Moves to Make Now and Set Yourself Up for 2023

By Molly Moorhead, CFP®   Assistant Managing Editor  Updated December 21, 2022

The year is almost over, and you’re no doubt rushing to wrap up holiday shopping, get ready to travel or meet a final work deadline.  The last thing you need is another item on your to-do list, but a little bit of financial reflection and planning is essential before the calendar turns to 2023.  Making these end-of-year money moves will help you handle whatever comes your way next year.

6 Money Moves to Make Before the End of the Year

1. Set Your Financial Goals for the Coming Year

When you think ahead to the end of 2023, what would make you feel accomplished? What if you cut your credit card debt by half? What if you were able to boost your savings account to four — or even five — figures? Or build up that emergency fund you may have had to dip into this year?

Think about what you want to celebrate at the end of 2022, and then set some goals to help you get there.

We’re fans of the SMART method of goal-setting. A SMART goal is:

Specific

Measureable

Attainable

Realistic

Timely

For instance, “become financially secure” isn’t a SMART goal because it’s ambiguous.

On the other hand, “save $5,000 in my emergency fund by the end of 2023” would be considered SMART because it’s specific, measurable and timely.

By thinking through your financial goals in this way, you’ll have more clarity about what you’re trying to do, and that will give you a better sense of how to allocate your resources and energy in the year to come.

Need a professional checkup? Answer a few questions about yourself to receive a customized financial plan — it's totally free and totally anonymous.

2. Review Your Spending Over the Past Year (and Be Honest About It)

We know this isn’t going to be fun. In fact, it’s probably going to be pretty tedious.

Here’s a shortcut: If you use your bank or credit card app, you likely have access to graphs that show how much of your income went to specific spending categories, like food, entertainment and household expenses.

However, you can reconcile your spending without digital tools.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.thepennyhoarder.com/budgeting/end-of-year-money-moves/ 

How Much Cash Can I Withdraw From My Bank?

How Much Cash Can I Withdraw From My Bank?

Eric Reed  Mon, January 2, 2023

Just about every bank puts a limit on how much cash you can withdraw each day. In part, this is a security feature to prevent thieves from cleaning out unauthorized accounts. In other part, this helps banks and ATMs to stabilize liquidity. If accessing cash, especially on an unscheduled basis, is important to you, here’s what you need to know about daily withdrawal limits from a personal account at a commercial bank.

If you’re not sure what type of financial institution should keep your money then you may want to consider working with a financial advisor.

What Are Withdrawal Limits?

A daily withdrawal limit is the maximum amount of money you can withdraw from your bank account in a single day. These limits largely exist for two reasons.

The first is to manage cash flow and liquidity. Banks keep a limited amount of cash on hand at any given time, as do ATMs. By setting withdrawal limits, the bank can control how much they have to distribute at any given time.

Just as importantly, if not more so, withdrawal limits are a security feature. By limiting daily withdrawals, banks help protect their customers against unauthorized access. Even if someone gets your debit card and PIN number, there’s a limit to the damage they can do.

There are three main categories of withdrawal limits:

ATM Withdrawals

This is by far the most common use of the term “withdrawal limit.” Your bank’s ATM withdrawal limit is the maximum amount of physical cash you can take out of an ATM in one 24-hour period. For example, many banks have a $500 limit, which means you can’t take out more than $500 in cash during a single 24-hour period.

Typically banks apply the ATM limit cumulatively, across all ATM transactions in a single 24-hour period. This means that it is not a limit on how much you can withdraw at once, but rather a limit on how much you can withdraw from ATMs altogether over the course of a day.

While your bank sets a limit on ATM withdrawals, individual ATM operators can do so as well. This limits how much money you can take out of that operator’s machines over the course of a single day. For example, say your bank has a $1,000 withdrawal limit and you use an ATM with a $600 limit.

This means that you can withdraw up to $600 from that ATM operator’s machines in a single day, but you can withdraw an additional $400 from other ATMs before hitting your bank’s limit.

Cashier/Teller Withdrawals

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://news.yahoo.com/much-cash-withdraw-bank-140036657.html

This Family Escaped… Because They Had A Second Passport

This Family Escaped… Because They Had A Second Passport

Notes From the Field By Simon Black  Janury 2, 2023

On November 26, 1927, a 47-year old Austrian naval officer stood at the altar of the Nonnberg Abbey in Salzburg to marry his young, 22-year old bride. His name was Commander Georg Ritter von Trapp; and hers-- Maria.  They were the couple who would become famous from the 1965 movie The Sound of Music, a popular musical which was loosely based on their true story.

Von Trapp came from a naval family; his father was a decorated officer who had been elevated into nobility for his service, and Georg followed in his father’s footsteps when he entered Austria-Hungary’s Imperial Naval Academy in 1894 at the age of 14.

And more than 20 years later, von Trapp distinguished himself as one of the most successful submarine commanders of World War I.

But Austria-Hungary was on the losing side, and the war had devastated the empire.

By the time the war ended in 1918, Austria-Hungary’s economy was near collapse. Food supplies had dwindled, plus the famous Spanish flu pandemic had set in (which nearly killed the Emperor).

The empire disintegrated in a matter of months; its former territories became independent states, including the newly landlocked Republic of Austria. So Commander von Trapp had suddenly become a naval officer with neither a navy, nor even a coastline.

He initially retired and enjoyed a life of leisure; his first wife was a wealthy heiress, so the von Trapps had money. When she died in 1922, she left him with a vast fortune... along with seven children.

Five years later von Trapp married his children’s nanny, Maria, who was just 22 at the time.

At first the family continued to live comfortably on their estate near Salzburg. But von Trapp lost his fortune in the early 1930s during the Great Depression, and the family was forced to make ends meet by singing at concerts.

They became relatively famous and went on tour, singing their way across Europe during the late 1930s. But when Germany invaded Austria in 1938, von Trapp could see the writing on the wall and knew it was time to leave.

The Sound of Music ends with the von Trapp family dramatically escaping the Nazis and fleeing Austria by literally walking over the mountains into Switzerland. But the filmmakers completely made that up.

In reality, the von Trapps simply went to the local station and boarded a train for Italy.

But the reason they were able to do so amid the Nazi’s occupation of Austria is because Commander von Trapp had a second passport.

Georg von Trapp was born in the city of Zadar (modern day Croatia), where his father was stationed at the time.

Back then, Zadar was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. But after the empire was formally dissolved following World War I, Zadar became (strangely) part of the Kingdom of Italy.

And since von Trapp had been born in a city that was now part of Italy, he was eligible for Italian citizenship.

Commander von Trapp was famously a staunch Austrian. But even a patriot like him could see the value in having a second passport; it’s like an insurance policy to mitigate the what-if’s. The unknown. The unexpected. The unthinkable.

And if there’s anything we should have learned from the past few years, it’s that the unthinkable absolutely happens. Life can change fundamentally, overnight. And having a second passport, or at least foreign residency, can really help mitigate those unthinkable risks.

Von Trapp probably wasn’t contemplating Nazi occupation of Austria when he became eligible for Italian nationality in 1918. In fact the Nazi party wouldn’t even become prominent in Germany for at least a decade.

But as a former submarine commander, Von Trapp understood risk and uncertainty. And he knew that having Italian nationality would help his family be better prepared for a world full of unknowns.

This made their departure quite simple. Instead of a dramatic escape, they merely used their Italian papers to leave Austria and cross the border into Italy.

(They didn’t remain in Italy for very long; almost immediately they traveled to London, and then finally to the United States where the family eventually settled in Vermont.)

I was able to do the same thing for my in-laws recently; my wife’s family is from Ukraine, and we were able to get them out of Kiev, across the border to Poland, and eventually to Cancun, because they have legal residency in Mexico.

And the reason they have legal residency in Mexico is because both of my kids were born there. Under Mexico’s nationality law, whenever foreigners give birth in Mexico, the child automatically becomes a Mexican citizen, plus both parents AND both sets of grandparents are eligible for permanent residency.

So because my kids were born in Mexico, my in-laws became Mexican residents. And this really smoothed their departure from Ukraine.

(Once they arrived in Mexico, we applied for US visas for them, which were quickly granted. And they are now at my home in Puerto Rico under a two-year refugee status.)

Another benefit of a second passport is that it often passes down to the next generation. My kids, for example, have five passports. Their children will inherit all of them, as will their children’s children.

So even if the unthinkable doesn’t happen again in my lifetime, my kids will still have the insurance policy, as will their children and grandchildren.

But a second passport isn’t just for warzones and catastrophes.

A second passport ensures you always have another place to go. It gives you more options for retirement. More places to live. More places to do business and invest. Better ease of travel. Often there may even be tax, healthcare, legal, and pension benefits.

And, with very few exceptions, there's no downside whatsoever.

(A handful of places, like Israel, require citizens to serve in the military, but this is very rare.)

Now, I don’t want to give you the impression that a second passport is some Panacea that's going to solve all of your problems. That’s not the idea.

But it can be a great help to mitigate crazy, unforeseen, life-wrecking risks. Both for you, and for future generations of your family.

It’s a rare thing to be able to put in a little bit of effort today, and have that effort create lasting benefit for generations to come. But you can absolutely do this with a second passport.

Best of all, you might even be entitled to one already; one of the best ways to obtain a second passport is through ancestry, or bizarre accidents of birth like Georg von Trapp.

Italy is one of those places; if you have grandparents from the old country, you might very well be eligible for Italian citizenship and a second passport. And there are many other countries too, including Ireland, Greece, and more.

You can read more about citizenship by ancestry here, including a number of countries that offer it.

If you’re inclined towards New Year’s Resolutions, I’d definitely encourage you to put citizenship by ancestry on your list for this year. Again, it takes some up-front effort. But the benefits can truly last for generations.

To your freedom,  Simon Black, Founder  Sovereign Research & Advisory

https://www.sovereignman.com/international-diversification-strategies/this-family-escaped-because-they-had-a-second-passport-144898/

The Ups and Downs of Money and Marriage

The Ups and Downs of Money and Marriage

By Billy B | Purpose

If you want to be happy and rich, don’t marry someone based on pretty looks, charming words, and fuzzy feelings of love. Instead, marry someone who has the same goals, dreams, and shares the same decision-making logic as you. If you can do this when choosing a partner, you’ll find you’ll be happier, less-frustrated, and if you’re both frugal along the way, you can become richer than you ever imagined.

I know, because this outcome happened to us. It’s true: The spouse you choose will have a massive impact on the amount of wealth and happiness you will be able to experience over your lifetime together.

Choose a spouse recklessly, and you may spend the next few decades in the same reoccurring arguments on what decisions are smart, and how you should spend your money.

But choose a spouse wisely, and you can spend the next few decades planning, executing, and living a dream future you both want to live together.

But, no matter who you choose as a partner, a conflict-free, emotionally-perfect, and completely-blissful marriage does not exist. Even the best marriages have disagreements, arguments, and fights. But as long as you agree on the big decisions in life, at least your fights will be over the small decisions in life.

I wanted to write this article to pull back the curtain on my own marriage, and show the pros and cons that we experience as we pursue the same financial life together.

We’re lucky that we rarely argue about money, because finances are a top-10 cause for divorce and conflict in American mairrages. But as you’ll see, just because we’re on the same financial page, that doesn’t mean our marriage is perfect or argument-free. It just means that we have more time to disagree about everything else, haha.

Here are a few examples that show the pros and cons of marrying a person who shares the same frugal logic as you:

Decision Making:

Pro: When you’re on the same financial page as your spouse, all of the financial decisions you make are made using the same shared-logic you both posses. Therefore, the question as to how to spend your money wisely together becomes a logical act, rather than acting on a whim. It makes saving a ton of money easy, because you both think saving and investing makes sense, so you effortlessly do it together. But marriage and life isn’t about being 100% logical and disciplined all of the time. This overly-logical trait leads to the con of marrying someone who is on the same frugal page as you.

Con: Because you’re both so logical and disciplined financially together, sometimes you’ll miss out on taking a huge risk, or going on an awesome adventure, because spending money on this particular event just doesn’t make a lot of sense to your shared financially-logical minds.

But if you asked me what type of married-life I’d rather experience: A YOLO life (You Only Live Once life) where major life decisions are based on emotional feelings, and anything and everything good and bad may happen. Or a disciplined journey of logical decisions that will naturally lead you to the life you want to live, I’d choose the logical lifestyle 10 out of 10 times because you’re almost guaranteed to reach the destination you dream about. If you base major life decisions on emotions and feelings, there’s only a chance you’ll end up living the life you want to live, and a chance is just not enough for me. I want to be sure.

Traveling Together:

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.wealthwelldone.com/the-ups-and-downs-of-money-and-marriage/

Why You Don’t Want to Go Back in Time and Do It Over Again

Why You Don’t Want to Go Back in Time and Do It Over Again

By The Wealthy Accountant

Owen Flanagan was on a quest to understand what it takes to live a good life. As he prepared an essay for the book How to Live a Good Life: A Guide to Choosing Your Personal Philosophy he tells the story of when he interviewed the Dalai Lama. Knowing that Buddhists consider resentment and anger as very bad, he asked the Dalai Lama if it would be wrong to want to go back in time and kill Hitler.

The Dalai Lama felt that it would the the right thing to do, go back in time and kill Hitler before WWII and end all the suffering and cruelty that entailed before it happened. He felt killing Hitler should be done with “martial fanfare” even.

But not in anger.

If the goal is to reduce suffering, the Dalai Lama got the question wrong. To see why going back in time is the worst choice to right a wrong or to take a different course, we need to start closer to home. (We’ll address the Dalai Lama and the Hitler issue later.)

Going Back in Time to Fix a Mistake

Science fiction has made a subgenre out of time travel. The idea is we can “go back” and fix a wrong, right a mistake, take a different course.

Aside from the fact that travel back in time is impossible, as far as we know, there is one serious problem we can’t ignore. Travel back in time means we could kill our parents before we are born so we are never born to go back in time to. . . you know. (Causality Loop)

Astute readers might point out we can travel to the future using relativistic speed or a gravity well. True, but you can’t reverse the process. When you move forward you leave it all behind.

All this deep thinking on traveling back in time to fix a mistake or make a different life choice is counterproductive, regardless the science.

The assumption is that if you could travel back in time you could make a different choice. You would call a cab rather than drive while intoxicated. The person you killed, maybe even a family member, could be saved.

Late in life you might dream of starting over and taking a different career path. It is natural to think of the things that might have been. Maybe a different spouse. Or no significant other at all! Maybe start that business, write that book, see that exotic place.

Yet you forget one simple fact. If you “truly” go back in time and do it again you can’t take the current you—wisdom, experiences and all—with you. Going back in time means really going back. The you that goes back leaves all your experience and knowledge in the future.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.wealthyaccountant.com/2022/11/02/why-you-dont-want-to-go-back-in-time-and-do-it-all-over-again/?fbclid=IwAR0-TnlzRzSSfFieOvYgjy-ln6ViNzWenvTShAlj2jUw8OvUb7Ka3vOOy-Q