Your responses: What can you afford to buy ... but won’t?

Yesterday I asked you: What’s one thing you can afford to buy … but don't? To view this email as a web page, [click here]() [IWT Header] Replies: What can you afford to buy … but won’t? Yesterday I asked you: What’s one thing you can afford to buy … but just can’t bring yourself to spend money on? I got some great responses. [New phone] [Mercedes] [House cleaner] There were a lot of responses about phones, clothes, vehicles, and services. [Expensive clothes] [Air fryer] [Haircuts] [Clothes and restaurants] It’s fascinating to me to see what people CAN do but WON’T do. I’m going to be talking more about the psychology of money this week. Stay tuned. --------------------------------------------------------------- Living “an intentionally Rich Life” I had the pleasure of talking with Paolo Espanola at one of my book signings. [Paolo and Ramit] Paolo shared this story with me, about living “an intentionally Rich Life.” "One of the biggest mental (re)wirings I've had studying your content is that being Rich is not just having the financial resources at your disposal but being able to spend it joyfully without all the guilt associated with things like iced teas. Since high school, I've been saving airline miles. My parents conditioned me to be a good hoarder and I couldn't bring myself to spend a single mile guilt-free (or money on quality items I need for that matter) in over a decade, so this past holiday, as a way to celebrate finally receiving my Green Card, I went all out and spent almost my entire balance to get a roundtrip Business Class to Israel to meet my family. I spent hours at KLM/Air France's Business Class Lounges in Amsterdam and Paris enjoying the expensive wine, marveling at the architecture and design of the spaces, hell … even just getting a complimentary shower and finally understanding what a well-rested long-haul trip feels like. I have a side business and passion in food so being served lobster tail and cognac with real silverware on the plane was worth its price in points alone. On the flight back, I happened to get seated next to a very successful designer, and for hours we talked about real estate investing, motherhood, marriage, living intentional lives … we drank and laughed for hours so much that the staff kept swinging by with bottles of champagne just to join the convo. At the end, the purser presented us with 2 hand-crafted stones from Madagascar, saying that they enjoyed our company so much that the staff wanted us to have gifts to remember. Both that designer and I have since become friends and carry our rocks — which weren't even supposed to be given to passengers — as a reminder to live a little lighter. A younger me (and some current acquaintances of mine), going off the survival/scarcity narrative my family wrote back then about money, would have seen this as a flight valued at $4,000+ in exchange for a rock — irresponsibly extravagant and nonsensical. And in terms of purely going from point A to B, I suppose you could say it was. But that $4,000 rock carried years of hard, meaningful work behind it. That rock symbolized the realization that riding Business Class isn't so much about flaunting extravagance but being clear about which dial you want turned way up (half my clothes are hand-me-downs, I frequently took home company lunches to reheat, and even my furniture are remnants of former roommates). At the book signing, you asked me ‘What next?’ Well … I think the richest part of my life is being able to instead ask ‘What now?’ and respond to what others around are asking of me at this very moment: write more, cook and host more pop-ups, teach others my own productivity and money management systems. I'm beginning to understand how there's an even richer experience to be had helping others define their Rich Life. And underlying all that is also realizing that I already had all the components of a Rich Life from Day 0.... I just had to rewrite my story around it." Yes! I LOVE IT. Good work, Paolo. --------------------------------------------------------------- One example of how the pandemic has rippled through the economy The pandemic has impacted so many families the last few years, and it’s caused all kinds of ripple effects through the economy. We’ve heard the stories about the Great Resignation, trouble finding workers, and soaring housing costs. I recently read a great story from Outside that shows the combined effects of these things: “[How to Save a Ski Town]().” As you read, think about how these factors are at play in your own local economy. I’d love to hear back from you on what you’re seeing and what solutions you see. --------------------------------------------------------------- Spending money on purpose: The Conscious Spending Plan When you think about it, some of us have a bizarre approach to spending: - We spend more on our cell phones than most people in other countries do on their mortgages. - We buy shoes that cost more than our grandparents paid for their cars. - We obsess over small purchases ("Should I really buy such-and-such book? Is it worth reading? I don't know what to do!") but blindly jump into massive purchases (like buying a house without calculating the phantom costs that come with home ownership). Craziest of all, some of us don’t really know how much our individual choices and purchases add up to. We spend and spend, then open our bills, wince, and shrug: “I guess I spent that much!" How often do you feel guilty about buying something — but then do it anyway? This is UNCONSCIOUS SPENDING. It can be a recipe for disaster. Best case scenario, it's terribly wasteful and doesn't result in a Rich Life. Today, I want to show you how to create a new, simple way of spending. It’s time to stop wondering where all your money goes each month. I’m going to help you redirect your money to the places you choose — like investing, saving, and even spending more on the things you love (and less on the things you don’t). This isn’t about creating a fancy budget that you’ll have to maintain every day for the rest of your life. I hate budgeting. “Budgeting” is the worst word in the history of the world. “Create a budget!” is the sort of worthless advice that personal finance pundits feel good prescribing, yet when real people read about making a budget, their eyes glaze over. Who wants to track their spending? The few people who actually try it find that their budgets completely fail after two days because tracking every penny is overwhelming. Amusingly, [in a 2015 survey by Bankrate](), 82% of respondents said they have a budget — which is complete nonsense. Just take a look at the people around you right now. Do you think eight out of every ten have a budget? I doubt eight out of ten could even name the planet we’re on. “There’s probably a lot of wishful thinking in this response,” says Jared Bernstein, director of the Living Standards Program of the Economic Policy Institute, referring to a 2007 study that found the same delusions about budgets. “It’s probably more accurate to say that three-quarters think they should work on a monthly budget.” For the last 50+ years, budgeting has been the battleground for snobby personal finance writers who’ve tried to shove a daily tracking system down everyone’s throats because it sounds logical. There’s only one catch: NOBODY EVER DOES IT. Most people wouldn’t know where to start if I told them to stop spending and start saving. I might as well try to convince an ankylosaurus to dance a jig. Because we know that budgets don’t work, I've developed a better way that’s worked for tens of thousands of my readers. Forget budgeting. Instead, create a [Conscious Spending Plan](). We give a brief explanation of it on my website [here](), but I go into depth in chapter 4 of [my book](). What if you could make sure you were saving and investing enough money each month, and then use the rest of your money guilt-free for whatever you want? Well, you can — with some work. This is what Conscious Spending is all about. The only catch is that you have to plan where you want your money to go ahead of time (even if it’s on the back of a napkin). Would it be worth taking a couple of hours to get set up so you can spend on the things you love? It will help automate your savings and investing and make your spending decisions crystal clear. It will also allow you to focus your spending and saving on things you LOVE, not whatever you happen to spend out of habit. Take some time this week — or before the end of the year — to work on your Conscious Spending Plan. I’d love to see examples of what you come up with. You can send them to me at [ramit.sethi@iwillteachyoutoberich.com](). [Signature] WHAT TO DO NEXT - SEND ME YOUR CONSCIOUS SPENDING PLAN: Take some time this week to work on your Conscious Spending Plan. I’d love to see examples of what you come up with. You can send them to me at [ramit.sethi@iwillteachyoutoberich.com](). --------------------------------------------------------------- What did you think of today's newsletter? [Hated it]() [It was fine]() [Loved it]() [Logo] [insta]() [Twitter]() [twitter]() [youtube]() [Linkedin]() [podcast]() This email was sent to [{EMAIL} .]() If you no longer wish to receive these emails you may [unsubscribe]( at any time. I Will Teach You To Be Rich 548 Market St #89946 San Francisco, CA 94104-5401