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S4.E7 - Psychology of Money - Ch. 19-Postscript
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Welcome back to the last episode of the Books Brothers Podcast! Listen as Flez leads our discussion of chapters 19, 20, and the Postscript from The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness by Morgan Housel.
- Chapter 19: “All Together Now” - How has your behavior impacted your financial success more than the strategies you’ve used? (0:33 - 10:59)
- Chapter 20: “Confessions” - Have you ever made a financial decision that you later regretted, and what did you learn from it? (11:00 - 23:29)
- “Postscript: A Brief History of Why the U.S. Consumer Thinks the Way They Do” - What historical events shaped your financial behavior, and how did it do so? (23:30 - 31:49)
- What are your biggest takeaways from the book, and what can you apply to your life? (31:50 - 39:34)
- Matt previews the next book! (37:57 - 39:35)
We’ll take the month of July off! When we return in August, we’ll read The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt.
You can buy the book on Amazon by clicking here.
You can also borrow it at your local library. Don’t have a library card, or unsure where your local library is? Search on Google Maps, or find your local library by clicking here.
Follow us on Instagram @booksbrotherspodcast
Email us at [email protected]
Please subscribe and give us a review! We would really appreciate it.
See you next week! Until then - read, reflect, and connect.
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Transcript
Introduction to Books Brothers Podcast
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome to the Books Brothers podcast, where six dudes sit down late at night and use the book we're reading as an excuse to hang out, reflect on life, and hopefully become better men.
Focus on 'The Psychology of Money'
00:00:14
Speaker
I'm Adam, aka Fles, and I'll be leading today's episode on chapters 19, 20, and the postscript of The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housal. I'm here with Adam, Rob Thomas Garrett. All right, let's get into the final chapters of this awesome book.
Behavior vs. Technical Knowledge in Finance
00:00:31
Speaker
So chapter 19 is titled All Together Now. And the chapter pulls together the key lessons from the book focusing on how our behavior, emotions, and mindset are more important than technical know-how in money matters. Some of the key lessons from the chapter are to have a personalized financial approach. Everyone's money journey is unique.
00:00:54
Speaker
patience and long-term thinking so building well takes time and steady effort. It's good to be humble and adaptable and ready to adjust your plans. ah You really want to avoid extremes so balance is key avoiding taking extreme risks but also avoiding being overly cautious. and then behavior over strategies. So success with money is more about your mindset and habits than having the perfect strategy.
Personal Experiences on Financial Behavior
00:01:20
Speaker
So with all that in mind, how has your guys behavior impacted your financial success more than the strategies you've used?
00:01:30
Speaker
Yeah, man. Good question. I guess I can get going. I would say, you know, the strategies component is interesting because it is important. So I think, you know, basics of contributing to a 401k, making sure that you're matching it so that you get your full employers deduction. paying off debt as quickly as you can so that it doesn't compound like those types of fundamental strategies have been good for me just in terms of setting up some like financial success but i think the behavior component which this book is really about just the psychology of money but it talks a lot about our behaviors is has been a big um
00:02:13
Speaker
impact for me. So I know we've talked about in previous episodes about just living within our means. For me, I think I have shared a part of this book that I'm always looking for opportunities to save. I'm always looking for opportunities to get the best deal. So within that it comes like research and you know making sure that I'm looking into something and trying to get the most bang for my buck um through the behaviors of not impulse buying, really sleeping on bigger decisions. um They say like if you like if you're going to make a big decision, you should not get it the first time. You should go there, think about it. And then if you're still thinking about it or doing your research, come back like the next day.
00:03:03
Speaker
So I think that there's some truth in there, but just also being conservative with lifestyle to an extent.
Mindset: Saving vs. Spending
00:03:09
Speaker
I think I'm in the camp of work hard, play hard. So work really hard, budget, get groceries. And then when you do take the trip, it's like spending extra on dinners or extra on the trip is made possible by the sacrifices that you have to make throughout the month or throughout whenever. So I think those are some of the behaviors rather than putting it in low cost index funds or putting it in certain stocks or continuing to raise my 401k allocation that have helped me. Yeah, that's, that's really, that's really good, Rob. I appreciate a lot where you're sharing. And as you were talking there, something that I processed through as you were explaining that is
00:03:59
Speaker
You may not be in a situation where you feel like you can be super strategic in how you save and grow your wealth. You just may not have the financial means to, but you can affect your behavior. You can live in such a way that you're managing your finances well. And as I've kind of mentioned, and I feel like Ruth and I are pretty novice when it comes to, you know, we save, but like we're not really doing a lot of, you know, financially savvy things to grow our money. But I'd like to think that because of our behaviors, the fact that we've you know made a strong attempt to pay off debt, that we've made an attempt to live within our living standards, and we're not spending a lot on a lot of things that we shouldn't, that we've enabled ourselves then to strategize. So it's like through that behavior, you then can strategize. So i I mean, I think I'm still, I still feel like I'm very much in the early phases of
00:04:54
Speaker
really thinking through financial strategies but i'd like to think that the behaviors are there and i think it's important with you mentioned rob about two you know but you know you you need to be enjoying yourself too you know if you spend all this time about thinking about just saving and waiting until one day you know working in physical therapy i mean i don't remember having old wealthy patients that worked until layer 75 and then you know i thought they were going to enjoy the retirement and had health issues and I know Tom has talked about the fire movement a couple of weeks back and my takeaway from that was that behavior that they had for a while ah almost like crippled them where they they did struggle to then start spending money because they developed this kind of habit. Yeah. it's ah It's kind of comical right now just with going through this home buying process.
00:05:42
Speaker
I have been on a complete like save, save, save mentality for like a decade plus. I would think Garrett, I was telling you maybe yesterday, but it's like the down payment in the house has ah has has always been like in the account is like, that's a down payment. Like I've ah like i've associated that money as like that's a down payment. And so when you turn that over, are you prepared to turn that over? It's almost like, uh, you know, those, those like slinkies or whatever that you used to put on, like on stairs. And once it made that like first revolution, then it just kept on going and going by itself.
00:06:23
Speaker
I feel like that is what this process is like. It's just once you kind of start shelving some money out, it just starts going with this process. And so I don't know, it's been interesting to change my short term ah mindset from rather than like save, save, save for this moment. And now the moment's here and now it's, It almost seems inauthentic to quickly change it to be like, okay, now is when you spend, spend, spend, but obviously within reason, right? The only thing I would add is moving the goalposts.
Managing Impulsive Financial Decisions
00:07:01
Speaker
I think that behavior kind of in your heart.
00:07:05
Speaker
I think being able to stop playing the comparison game because when you're keeping up with the Jones, comparing yourself to your peers, your colleagues, your friends, whoever, that's when the temptation rises to make financial decisions more on behavior and supplant any strategies you might have. So you can have all strategies in the world, but if you're not able to stop moving the goalposts or stop being discontent or making impulse buy after impulse buy after impulse buy, then those strategies will come nothing. And like Fluz said, that's the whole point of this book, the psychology.
00:07:48
Speaker
So I think for me, it has been really processing what behaviors in my heart and my viewpoints about others and myself and my relationship with money. Once I come to grips with that and what I want to be true of my life, that helps at least slow down the goalpost moving, if not stop it entirely. And I also think, and a piece of advice from scarcity brain, I think Michael Easter said at the author, is if you want something like an impulse buy, wait like a week or something and then come back and see if you want it and most likely you won't want it. So there those are like small but powerful behavior ideas to help you make more financially sound decisions.
00:08:36
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's all about just managing emotions, like in a moment and avoiding impulsive decisions. And then just maintaining discipline, obviously, which looks different for everyone. But I know for me, it's, you know, I've talked about the behavioral things are deferring a lot. And yeah, just like getting help with finding like the strategies aspect, I guess. And then the behavioral stuff is more or less I don't know, it was taken away because the strategy is in place to prevent the behavior. So yeah, I don't know. It's like a little different way to look at it. It's funny because both all like you Garrett and myself all talked about just that relationship of behavior and strategy where you can't have strategies if your your behavior is not there and if your behavior is bad, then like you can't strategize
00:09:30
Speaker
and if you have you know if you can control yourself, then you can strategize. And so it's it's definitely an interesting relationship really just comes down to discipline, right? That's what we're talking about. Can you be disciplined to put yourself in a better situation? And again, I mean, there's certain people that the concept of strategizing just feels so far off because they're ah can't feel like they can catch up but i think in that place there's still strategies you can take on and just mindsets, you know, of how can I, I mean, Rob, and you know, you joke about it, but, you know, you're one of the more like financial savvy people that I know in terms of the ways that you've sought ways to save money. And, you know, I'm sure it's done you very well. Thank you.
Chapter 20: Learning from Mistakes
00:10:13
Speaker
I'm sure Marianne would appreciate though, if you had the AC turned on now.
00:10:19
Speaker
Well, full disclosure for everyone, we do have the AC running tonight and we just got internet for the first time. Oh snap. For the first time in 10, 12 years. I don't think I've paid for internet since college, which I don't even remember if we were paying for internet back then.
00:10:46
Speaker
I didn't need it. I didn't need it like early on right out of college. And then when I moved to Kansas City, Kansas City was a Google Fiber hosted city. So they gave it out for free. So for anyone listening, this has been a continued point of contention is Rob's internet.
00:11:06
Speaker
All right, Chapter 20. Moving on to Chapter 20, which is titled Confessions, Morgan Hausl talks about his own financial screw-ups and what he learned from them, reminding us that even the pros can mess up. Some of the key themes from the book are that experts make mistakes too. um Even the best in the business can get it wrong sometimes. Learning from your mistakes. So mistakes are part of the game and learning from them is really what counts. And then emotional decision making. Emotions can mess with our financial choices and managing them is crucial. So that being said, have you ever made a financial decision that you later regretted and what did you learn from it? I'll ah point to Adam. I'll let you go first.
00:11:53
Speaker
I mean, I have a very, I could probably think of lots of different different things, but I'll think of the thing that comes first to my mind. And it's something that it's one of these things where it looking back, it would have seemed smart, but I don't know if in the moment it would have. But we bought our home in 2019. And we refinanced in I think 2021 is what I recall. When we refinanced our interest rate and Rob who just bought a home, you're gonna hate to hear this. I think our interest rate was 4.2. gets like 2.8 now. And when we refinanced, Ruth was like, let's do a cash out refinance and take some money out because our home had increased in value. And so she was wanting to do a cash out refinance and start like investing in ah another property or just starting to do other investment stuff. And for me, it was just too
00:12:47
Speaker
risky it just seemed like a risk and You know, we were still kind of in the COVID times at this point. And so I was discouraging of it. That's one that I i would say I regret um because I think it would have helped us in some ways financially um to start kind of growing a little more wealth, like not just having more, changing what we're paying for things, but we'd actually be able to like find the property and start like renting and and and getting that. What I learned is to listen to Ruth um because Ruth is a very wise woman.
00:13:20
Speaker
And she is not really a risk taker either, but she at that time was thinking that that would have been the right option I think gar you talked a couple weeks ago about the opportunities that you that you lost, but it like wasn't a big deal because it was like you've lost a gain. You didn't have like a big loss. So mine isn't really like a situation where it was like we actually had a negative effect. Yeah, the what could have been. Yeah. And so, I mean, who knows? Maybe it wouldn't have really changed things that much, but it's one that, again, just listening to Ruth Moore and and
00:13:53
Speaker
knowing that she's conservative or that she also is not going to take a risk that's going to fit us in a bad spot. I think all of my experiences or examples are more the ignorant and acts of omission rather than commission, like what you just talked about. Yeah, so there's one example in Denver, again, you can't really predict a once in a centennial pandemic that will boost housing prices like crazy. But I think of other things, especially in the context of confounding, compounding. My first job after a crew, well, even during crew, not thinking through enough the value of having a job that had a 401k set aside. And I mentioned that I've invested in my own personal Roth IRA from a young age. So that should be good. That's great.
00:14:48
Speaker
But I think, looking back, I can't say I regret my path that I'm on, my journey, but I never did an internship in college. And again, it all worked out, like intern, but not like in business. I worked for my church and I worked on campus. I had summer jobs, but I didn't prepare for life after nonprofit ministry. So my first job after crew, I didn't know what I could and could not negotiate. I was just very ignorant and their benefits package was very behind the times, I would say. All I remember is the month that I joined,
00:15:33
Speaker
was one month late from when they start people on your 401k match, if you're an employee. So I had to wait a full year, which eight years later, I'm like, I would have fought that tooth and nail. So I didn't even start like a company 401k period until probably three years after college. And when you think of the some of that was my personal choice, I decided to work a nonprofit job that their job position didn't offer that. But then my first job out of after that, I just didn't pay attention enough for advocate enough for myself or know to advocate enough for myself.
00:16:17
Speaker
And looking back and thinking of confounding, compounding, even if it was a few thousand dollars, because I didn't make a lot of money at that job, I think I made less than 40 grand. But that's not the point, like what we've been talking about. It's not about how much you make, it's starting with something and letting it compound. And that's something that looking back, I'm like, yeah, maybe it only would have been a few thousand dollars in that one year. But that was eight years ago. That was when I was 24, 25, you know, how much that more that would compound in the future. But it is what it is. Right.
00:16:52
Speaker
Yeah, man.
Financial Blunders and Lessons Learned
00:16:52
Speaker
I mean, I'm kind of in that camp too. When I got out of college, I wanted to pay off loans aggressively. And so I know that I wanted as much cash as possible in an effort to do that. But Caterpillar was matching up to 6%, like full 6%. And I remember just putting like, 3%, 4%. So I was literally throwing away like 2%, 3% of free money, 10, 12 years ago, right? And just the fact of throwing away free money is something I regret. Another like silly thing that I regret is, so when I lived in Texas,
00:17:34
Speaker
I was five hours away from Dallas. They were flights to go from Victoria to Dallas for like $100 through like a little economy airline. But I found a car, my current car in Dallas, drove my old car up there. The like AC I think had gone out. I didn't get it looked at, but I was like filling it with like refrigerant or whatever to get the AC blowing cold. And I drove it up there to look at this car. And I ended up buying the car. And the most that they were going to give me for my old car was $500. Now, I could have sold my old car for probably four to five grand. But I was stuck in Dallas and it was like, well, I'm driving away here in a car. And so I sold my car to them for $500.
00:18:30
Speaker
and drove away in my new car. And they got me, man. Like... Got him. That was a whole grand mistake where it was just like, dude, I should have just drove my car back home, booked the $100 flight to come back the next day, and then drove back home in the new car. And it's just like, what was I thinking? so little like inconvenience things where it's like with cars and stuff like that. It's like if it's an inconvenience, but you're going to save money, thousands of dollars or make it inconvenience yourself so that you don't lose that money was my lesson. Rob, you're talking about the inconveniencing of money and stuff. And I remember whenever AC went out,
00:19:24
Speaker
I remember I like joking, they told, so our AC went out during the, when we had had Daphne. So we were at the hospital when our AC went out. So it was like mid July, early July. And I really like joking with the guy. I was like, I'll give you $30,000 to fix this AC. I was joking, but it's funny how like you get these extreme scenarios and I wouldn't have really done that, but that was how I felt. Like i'm about to bring home a two-day-old baby and my house is 94 degrees i'll go bankrupt cuz either way if if i don't do that then my wife is gonna kill me and so might as well spend the money right speaking of wife killing you mine almost did when i made a poor financial decision and bought an entire home jam
00:20:14
Speaker
How much was that home gym flex? I don't even want to tell you that. I'm not even is it like 20 grand. No, but it was enough to have my life to put my life in danger. It was enough. Yeah. Hey, the thought was good though. The thought was being home to know to be home to whenever, if we were going to have people, little ones that want to be at the gym all the time. But yeah, that was silly. What did I learn from that? Um, well, and I'd do that again.
00:20:50
Speaker
i ever give times Sometimes it's just that simple, isn't it? Yeah. so do that again i take that ah what's a flow Baker I feel like quoted is like, sometimes I think to myself, would a dumb person do that? And if so, I try to not do that. Hey man, overconfidence and greed. That'll get you. I think, though, I think what we're hitting on, though, is a couple kind of takeaways if, you know, for our audience, I know a lot of people who tune in and listen are our age. But regardless of your age, I think there's like a couple competing thoughts is the story of.
00:21:39
Speaker
when we were younger, right out of college, sometimes there are sacrifices that are worthy to be made for long-term gains. so Matching that 401k, that extra 3% would hurt out of your literal paycheck, but that free money you're leaving on the table that can compound, can you afford to eat out once or twice less per month? or can you afford a slightly smaller apartment or whatever. But then there's the other side of it where, man, I'm gonna have to spend more money on an airplane ticket than driving and paying for gas, but the long-term effect is, oh, I could sell my car for more value. there's It's not always black and white. what Some short-term, present decisions can have longer-term effects, and it takes wisdom. It takes discernment.
00:22:30
Speaker
And it's not always, you know, there's a lot of gray in between. Yeah. And you learn, right? Like that's, that's kind of one of the takeaways from all of this is absolutely is learning from mistakes. you'll You'll figure that out over time. Yep.
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00:22:47
Speaker
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Historical Impact on U.S. Consumer Mindset
00:23:32
Speaker
And moving on to the postscript, which is titled A Brief History of Why the U.S. Consumer Thinks the Way They Do. I thought this chapter was really interesting. It talked about all the historical events and culture and have shaped how Americans think about and handle money.
00:23:51
Speaker
like ah the Great Depression made folks super cautious with money and then poor post-war boom brought prosperity and a positive outlook and then the 70s and stagflation created ah economic uncertainty and then the 80s and 90s boom encouraged optimism and risk taking. And then we had the 2008 financial crisis, which made millennials more cautious and skeptical. And I just thought that the general generational differences it was interesting. So different experiences shape how each generation handles money. And then the difference in good cultural shifts, so changes in society and technology, how those play a role.
00:24:35
Speaker
And then, so do you guys think, are there any historical events that have shaped your own financial behavior and how? I have to admit, I love watching documentaries and stuff about the financial crisis in 2008, sort of like people like watching apocalyptic movies. I feel like it's kind of an obsession that shouldn't be an obsession, but it's like watching a train wreck. And then when you watch it, you just expect that it's going to continue to happen. like every other year. Like the big short, isn't that one of them? That's actually a really a good movie. Yeah, the big short. That's what it's all about. But yeah, like the.
00:25:16
Speaker
kind of the pessimism I feel like we've talked about. that That's hard for me to shake as a millennial just based on the stuff that we've seen, the 2000 bubble, the crisis with homes in 2008, the pandemic. It just kind of feels like every few years you should watch out even though as we've learned in this book, the long-term history is that things keep going up. Yeah. Do you guys like remember it being bad in 08, 09? Yeah, I mean, I was going to say, I think maybe controversially, I think we were at an interesting point. Cause I mean, so we all graduated high school in like Oh nine. Right. And so, I mean, it could obviously affect you if you had a family that were affected and stuff, but I remember feeling pretty insulated and we were kind of in a weird spot too, where it didn't make a huge difference for us personally.
00:26:07
Speaker
I remember it's my brother's four years older. And I remember years and years later thinking, you know, my brother would have been in the time, you know, he had graduated from college in around probably 2010 2011. And it's like he would have been in a great time to buy a house. And it's something that I've just thought about. But I mean, for my me and my family, I don't think it affected us a ton. I did a girl that her family lost their house and it was a really big deal. for them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we graduated in 09, like you were saying, which the, maybe this kind of goes back to the, one of the first chapters when it was like, well, if you, you know, grew up in this era, then the stock market would have been like, you don't put your money there. But if you grew up, well, I think it was like eight, 10 years later, it's like the stock market is all, you know, and it's been good.
00:26:59
Speaker
And I feel like, I don't know, this is a thought I'm just having, but it's like, we almost were lucky that we went to college during that time. So that the next four years, like imagine if we were coming out of college at that time, maybe our financial path would be a lot different right out of college, entering the workforce in 2009 versus 2013. It's interesting, I was golfing with a buddy the other day too and it's like I know a guy that literally right when COVID was happening and the stock market was falling. It's buy low sell high and he got in literally like that was his cue and it's like every time it starts doing something crazy going down, that's the time he buys.
00:27:45
Speaker
And I mean, that's really the time to buy. It's hard to buy during that time. But yeah, I mean, like Warren Buffett says, if you believe in America, if you believe that America will continue to progress, then get in regardless, but especially when it's going down. Because history says it always continues to grow go up. Yeah, I think one of the most impactful statements in in this book is the question, do you wake up every day thinking the average person tries to make things better or tries to destroy everything? And I mean, I have a lot of faith in people as a whole, so that really made me realize I have a overly pessimistic view on the projection of where things are going overall than I should have, because I do believe almost everybody's waking up trying to do the right things.
00:28:36
Speaker
I'll just briefly say COVID I think has really impacted me with being very conservative, mainly with are giving to be honest. As a percentage of our income we don't give as much as we used to. I've shared before I think some of it has to do with we have kids now and a mortgage and there's other financial responsibilities but I also think part of it too is just the last few years it was man if something can go wrong it will go wrong and
00:29:08
Speaker
wanting to hunker down or be overly conservative on the safe side in case there's some variability that comes into play. Then, all right, we we have a little extra in the budget, things like that. I think COVID has, because of inflation, things like that, I've i've become a lot more fiscally, like very thrifty.
COVID-19's Influence on Financial Behavior
00:29:29
Speaker
I mean, I feel like you can't talk about big financial changes that occurred in our lifetime and not talk about COVID, but obviously it's played a huge role in buying habits and costs of things in general.
00:29:40
Speaker
It makes me wonder what the ah folks getting out of college now that, you know, they were in college during COVID or maybe the kids that were in the graduated high school during COVID, they are definitely going to have a different outlook. ah Getting into the job market where it's really hard to get a job right now, just kind of totally different than really a lot of the generations we we hit on here. Also, they're shifting all their spending towards different goals than I feel like maybe we had getting out of school with everyone thinking, hey, I can still buy a house that's affordable enough. You know, I'm going to I'm going to go for that. I don't really know if that's something 20 something college graduate really thinks is possible for them right this minute. I will say I have a coworker who's 22 and he is buying a house.
00:30:28
Speaker
blows my mind. I can't imagine having a house at 22. Good for him. That's awesome. Hopefully he's not super house poor though. That's the scary part. Go back to that. The earlier regret regret regret question, uh, is not, not yoruer's no regrets. regrets. A condo or a town home sooner. Likewise. I don't know if I'll get into it, buy anything anytime soon. You know, like I feel like my situation is probably different. I mean, Thomas's situation is different. Oh, it's crazy how different all of our situations are. Renting has a place too, man. If you just want to save and not worry about variable expenses and just pay your rent and be done. Just be a 33 year old bachelor.
00:31:19
Speaker
A single 33-year-old bachelor that's handsome, has a good job. Has a cute dog. You know, free on Friday night. Average size. Has a cute dog. Average size dog. Likes to hike. His thumbs don't look that weird. The godfather. Nice dog. There's actually a surgery that you can have now to have your thumbs. They actually break your thumb and then it. We'll include a picture of Adam's thumb in the show notes. but
00:31:51
Speaker
So yeah, just wrapping up, think some final summary thoughts, I guess, to get a better handle on your financial behaviors, just to do a lot of self-reflection, set clear goals, educating yourself, creating a budget, building an emergency fund, and then staying patient and seeking balance. And then that being said, what are some of the biggest takeaways you guys have from the book?
Key Takeaways: Patience and Consistency
00:32:13
Speaker
How can you apply those to your lives? I think the biggest one for me is just slow and steady is going to win the race. I've been following some like accounts as well. And there's this one guy that he posts some additional things that like the Ramsey folks post too. And it's just like the power of compounding over time, the importance of budgeting, like you said, Flez.
00:32:37
Speaker
I think some of those just like behavioral lifestyle things are going to translate the most success over 30 years and not to try to beat the market. Trying to beat the market is only going to be more risky. You're likely going to lose in the end. It's not worth the risk. Slow and steady wins the race. Overtime is kind of the biggest lesson that I've learned. I'd say a lot of this stuff, especially behaviorally, is not at all intuitive. And I feel like a lot of the risk tolerance stuff that he talked about made me want to take more risks than I'm usually comfortable with.
00:33:21
Speaker
because I have listened to a lot of the more pessimistic news and projected that out in my mind as the reality of what's going to happen instead of looking at things from more of a mathematical probabilistic perspective, which I think is is more logical. But we tend to fall back into the same stories that are told and sensationalized every single year. Every single year, somebody wants to promote some story of destruction for everything, which prevents people from taking the proper amount of risk so that they can get that slow and steady return like Rob mentioned.
Closing Thoughts and Reflections
00:34:00
Speaker
So I think yeah, just setting it and forgetting it, being happy with the amount of risk you're taking and knowing the potential consequences and the upsides is really what it's all about. And it's it's like fitness, it's every every person has their own journey. So don't try to compare yourself to everybody else's situation.
00:34:17
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I would say I, for one, really appreciated the author's approach on this book. I think that Morin Hassel did a great job. I really enjoyed that he shared his own experience at the end. You definitely see humility in him as a writer, which I i really appreciate. I feel like one of the biggest pet peeves in my reading a book is when the writer comes across as arrogant. So I really appreciate that from him. I think this category of book, personal finance has been a category that I've really stayed away from a lot in the past. And I think that this book.
00:34:48
Speaker
Definitely opened my eyes and interest in a little bit more as I mentioned a lot in the past I don't feel like I've done a lot personally to seek ways to grow our you know quote-unquote wealth um But I think that this sparked my interest to Take simpler steps. I think you really simplified it So take simple steps as well as continue to like learn more and grow more in this category. Honestly for me This is probably one of my favorite books. I've read this ah so far this year. I'd say it's a top three for sure and Staylen, real quick, why have you shied away from finance books? I think they've been intimidating. I think that I like to read stuff that interests me or maybe even stuff that I know more about.
00:35:29
Speaker
and learn about those kind of things. And so i you know um I think maybe my approach with learning has been strengthen the strengths and not so much to work on the weaknesses. And so I think that with that, I i don't feel super competent when it comes to personal finances. I feel like we're smart and where we maintain a budget, but and have we done things that have long-term could affect us or that kind of thing? I don't think we've done as much as I would like. I think my biggest takeaway, I liked this book a lot because it was less about strategies, obviously more about behavior. And I feel like I can relate to that better for whatever reason. I'm just like you, Adam. I just don't... My interests don't push me to learning more about the strategies of finance. I don't know why. like I wish I had the knowledge and all that. It just sounds so boring to me.
00:36:21
Speaker
ah to be honest, I'm just being honest. And I tend to only really put my attention on things that I'm extremely interested in. But the the behavioral and mindset aspect of the book is why I liked this book a lot. And then it could maybe be sort of more, maybe more interested in kind of looking into some other stuff. Yeah, just being talking about like impulse control and all that like that. So that's all the those kinds of things are why I like this book is just like I said, all the behavioral aspect and how that's really the most important thing. You can have all the best strategies in place, but a few poor decision making and behaviors and it doesn't really matter in the end. Realistic, not rational, realistic. I would just add being gracious with yourself. For me, I can be a perfectionist. So you you literally, I know that you can't tell the future.
00:37:13
Speaker
But when you miss out on an opportunity, I can get down on myself or something like that, or, oh, man, I should have done this or pursued this thing. And reading all these different examples of based on what generation you're born into is going to impact your views in one way or another. You're never going to get everything right. And each generation, we've made it thus far. So having a more optimistic view, like Thomas shared, combined with having having grace, setting those baseline budgets, patience, live within your means, having an optimistic view, I think it's going to be okay, kind of mindset. That's probably a big takeaway for me.
Introduction to 'The Anxious Generation'
00:37:57
Speaker
All right, that wraps up another book. We're really excited about our next book, The Anxious Generation.
00:38:03
Speaker
How the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness. Matt, you recommended this book to us. What gets you excited about reading this next? Yeah, like you said, our next book is called The Anxious Generation, written by Jonathan Haidt. Jonathan Haidt is an American social psychologist and a New York Times bestselling author. And his main areas of study are the psychology of morality and moral emotions. What gets me excited about the anxious generation is to dive into the epidemic of mental illness from the use of technology. The book discusses how the shift in kids' energy and attention from a physical world to a virtual world has been disastrous. Technology has changed over the last 40 years or so. Since the early 2010s, rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide rose sharply.
00:38:52
Speaker
more than doubling in some measures. The author explores why this happened and recommends action steps for parents, teachers, schools, tech companies, and governments that they can take to end this epidemic of child illness. While this book focuses mostly on childhood, I think we will look at the impact it has had on us as men and how it's affected our own lives. Some of us are parents of young children, so I am personally very interested in learning the issues that come from technology and how to combat it, handle situations, and have knowledge and tools for how it will affect my own kids. So we're excited to explore this book with you. Grab yourself a copy and follow along with us.
00:39:34
Speaker
Thank you for listening to this week's episode of the Books Brothers podcast. We will be taking the month of July off, but for our next episode, we will be starting the book, The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Hight. Go ahead and get the book and start reading. If you have enjoyed listening or benefited from our conversation, please subscribe, give us a review, and share with a friend that you want to connect with. Lastly, we would love to hear your thoughts. You can reach us by email at connect at booksbrotherspodcast.com or on Instagram at booksbrotherspodcast. Until August, read, reflect, and connect.