The Only Financial Advice You’ll Ever Need | Morgan Housel

Michael Gervais (0:00)

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Morgan Housel (1:04)

Getting rich usually requires being an optimist, taking a risk. Staying rich is almost the exact polar opposite. It requires a degree of conservatism and pessimism. And to do well over time, you need to marry both of those, like Jekyll and Hyde personality together. If you're purely a pessimist, you go nowhere. If you're purely an optimist, you'll run off a cliff.

Michael Gervais (1:22)

What if the hardest part of money isn't earning it, but using it in a way that actually improves your life?

Morgan Housel (1:27)

I think everyone, what they want to chase with something like money is happiness. I just want to be happier when I have a happier life. And if I have more money, I will be happier. It's not that money cannot give you a better life. It absolutely can. But happiness is a 10-second emotion. The emotion that is phenomenal and a massive life upgrade that you should chase is.

Michael Gervais (1:45)

Welcome back or welcome to the Finding Mastery podcast, where we dive into the minds of the world's greatest thinkers and doers. I'm your host, Dr. Michael Gervais.

Morgan Housel (1:53)

A high-performance psychologist named Michael Gervais.

Michael Gervais (1:55)

Who Pete Carroll brought in to work with the Seahawks.

Morgan Housel (1:58)

Famous for his work with Felix Baumgartner when he jumped out of space in the Stratos Project.

SPEAKER_3 (2:03)

Olympic athletes depend on something more than just training and talent.

Michael Gervais (2:06)

They have to stay mentally tough. The idea behind these conversations is really, really simple. It's to sit with the extraordinary, to learn, to really learn how they work from the inside out. Today's conversation is with Morgan Housel. He's one of the most influential voices shaping how we think about our behavior and decision-making around money. He's best known for his book, The Psychology of Money. This conversation centers on his newer work, The Art of Spending Money. It's a reframing of what money is actually for once all of your basics are covered.

Morgan Housel (2:37)

How would I choose to live? Even if money was no object, I had unlimited money but nobody could ever see it. People don't post on social media, they perform. And when you strip away that, how would you choose to live? I would want a nice house with a nice view. I wouldn't care if it was bigger than my neighbors or not, if nobody could see it.

Michael Gervais (2:51)

We talk about how comparison and status quietly manipulate our choices, and why the pursuit of more oftentimes crowds out joy, if we're not really intentional with how we're thinking about money.

Morgan Housel (3:02)

A lot of times people think that they are harvesting admiration for their success. What they're actually doing is fostering envy. And you don't want people to envy you. It's cool if people admire you, you do not want them to envy you. That's not a good thing. You should never be proud if people envy you.

Michael Gervais (3:15)

So with that, let's jump into this week's conversation with Morgan Housel. Morgan, this is exciting to be able to talk to you about one, your success that you've had and the impact you've had on so many of us about thinking about the psychology of money, the psychology of spending, and it couldn't be more timely than right now to have you on. So thank you for coming in.

Morgan Housel (3:41)

Thanks for having me back. Good to see you.