5 Things I Won't Do With My Money in 2026

Tyler Gardner (0:00)

Somewhere along the way, the act of saving quietly became the goal itself. I wasn't buying freedom or funding a specific future, although obviously that's a real byproduct of responsible accumulation. No, I was hoarding what I like to call financial virtue points, like an anxious squirrel preparing for a retirement that might never come, or that it might not live to enjoy.

Hello, friends. This is Tyler Gardner, welcoming you to another episode of Your Money Guide on the Side, where it is my job to simplify what seems complex, add nuance to what seems simple, and learn from and alongside some of the brightest minds in money, finance, and investing. So let's get started and get you one step closer to where you need to be.

There's something oddly therapeutic about sitting down at the end of a year and deciding what not to do with your money next year. Like a financial New Year's resolution, but with far less kale and only slightly more self-awareness. Because every December, I start seeing those lists. I'm sure you do too. Heck, I start creating some of those lists on social media. The five things millionaires always do with their money. The seven habits of highly successful crypto bros. And sure, some are fine. But what's often missing is the other side of the ledger. The conscious, absolutely knots. The guardrails that keep you from drifting into oncoming complexity. So today, I want to talk about five things I'm not doing with my money in 2026 Some of them are practical. Some are, as per usual, more philosophical. And all are rooted in the idea that real wealth isn't necessarily about doing more. It might just be about doing less, better. Well, at least that's how I've always justified laziness and frugality to myself. And this is the point where I also remind you that I am not you. My goals are not yours. And just because I don't do something with my money doesn't make it inherently bad, nor does it mean you shouldn't do it with yours. But, as always with these shows, I will do my best to make my reasoning as objective as possible, and I will tell you directly when I'm making a personal choice that might just defy some of our inherited financial truths. And yes, I'm putting that in air quotes as I talk. And before we jump in, as always, if this show has helped you at all, maybe it gave you a way to think about money that doesn't make you want to throw your phone into the closest river. It would mean a lot if you left a quick review on Apple or Spotify. It helps others find the show, it keeps growing our community, and it continues to give me hope that we might reach a point where access to all of this type of information, you know, the highly practical and useful stuff we didn't learn in that thing called school, is free and digestible for as many as possible. Alright, without further ado, here is my New Year's resolution list of five things I will not be doing with my money in 2026

Number one, I will not be paying down my mortgage early, and you will never be able to convince me otherwise. This one always riles people up. I'll get emails from folks saying things like, Tyler, paying off your mortgage is the ultimate freedom. Sure, so is quitting your job to go live in a yurt. It doesn't mean it's the smartest use of your resources right now, nor does it mean it's the right move. For me, this one is about the math. My mortgage rate is currently 3.25% 30-year fixed. I know, you hate me right now. Today, I can earn more than that, guaranteed, in something as boring as a money market fund. And yeah, that's net fees, net taxes. So, if I paid off my mortgage early, I'd actually be giving up the chance to earn that spread. That's called opportunity cost. The value of the next best thing you could have done with your money. And for years, I had never thought of money as something you could really buy. But that's exactly what debt is. You're buying money at a certain price. The interest rate. And for a while, we could buy money pretty cheaply. Now, unfortunately for borrowers, it's more expensive. But fortunately for lenders, it's more lucrative. So if you happen to own some cheap money right now, I don't know, like a 3.25, 30-year fixed mortgage, that's an asset in and of itself. One that once we consider opportunity cost, can in fact earn you money elsewhere with zero risk. Think of it like this. If you've got a loan that costs you 3.25%, but you can safely earn 4.5% elsewhere, your money could be working harder than your debt would be costing you. You don't have to be a hedge fund manager receiving inside information just moments before an earnings report to appreciate that kind of arbitrage, aka free, guaranteed money. Now, I obviously get the emotional component here. Well, what if you lose your job? What if the market tanks? Shouldn't you just pay it off for peace of mind if you can? No, you shouldn't. I said I get it, not that I endorse it or that you should do it. Because many of you have written to me when I reflect on this topic and told me that you'd rather pay it off now and then be able to invest all the money you're saving down the road. You're missing the math here that whatever you could do down the road could be done now and give you a higher guaranteed return. If you had been steadily putting those same dollars into something earning a higher rate starting today, then technically you'd have even more money to pay down the mortgage later if you chose to do so. And even though I know and appreciate that personal finance is personal, so as always, you do what works for you, I would just ask you to press pause on your actions before you go around killing all your liabilities. This portion of the personal finance program is about understanding your spread. If you can borrow at 3% and earn 5%, you're winning. But if you can't sleep at night knowing you owe anything at all, well, that's not a math problem, that as always is a therapy problem. And for me, as I mentioned last episode, money always has kind of been therapy, so there's that. I'd rather hold on to cheap debt, keep the optionality, and invest the difference in something that grows at rate more than 3.25%, because while peace of mind is nice, I found a pretty good substitute for it in faster compound interest. But just to make sure, I'm also always rounding out the equation. Morgan Housel, one of my absolute role models, loved the guy, loved his work, and if you haven't read Psychology of Money, hit pause right now, go buy that book immediately, as he's way smarter than I'll ever be. And after he explains what I just explained above in all of its mathematical glory, he goes on to tell the reader, sorry to ruin one of his final punch lines, that he and his family decided to pay down their house early, because for them, the peace of mind was worth more than the spread to which I refer. So good news. Next time you decide you want to battle with someone in the online comments about why they're a complete ding-dong for paying down cheap debt, you're right. But guess what? So are they.