Morgan Housel — Contrarian Money and Writing Advice, Three Simple Goals to Guide Your Life, Journaling Prompts, Choosing the Right Game to Play, Must-Read

Morgan Housel — Contrarian Money and Writing Advice, Three Simple Goals to Guide Your Life, Journaling Prompts, Choosing the Right Game to Play, Must-Read
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“I’m not interested in anything that’s not sustainable. Friendships, investing, careers, podcasts, reading habits, exercise habits. If I can’t keep it going, I’m not interested in it.

Morgan Housel

Morgan Housel (@morganhousel) is a partner at The Collaborative Fund. His book The Psychology of Money has sold more than three million copies and has been translated into 53 languages. 

He is a two-time winner of the Best in Business Award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers and winner of the New York Times Sidney Award. In 2022, MarketWatch named him one of the 50 most influential people in markets. He serves on the board of directors at Markel

Morgan’s new book is Same As Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes. You can find my first, widely popular interview with Morgan at tim.blog/morganhousel.

Please enjoy!

Listen to the episode on Apple PodcastsSpotifyOvercastPodcast AddictPocket CastsCastboxGoogle PodcastsAmazon Musicor on your favorite podcast platform. Watch the interview on YouTube.

Brought to you by Cometeer delicious hyper-fresh, flash-frozen coffee; Momentous high-quality supplements; and LinkedIn Jobs recruitment platform with 900M+ users.

The transcript of this episode can be found here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

#702: Morgan Housel — Contrarian Money and Writing Advice, Three Simple Goals to Guide Your Life, Journaling Prompts, Choosing the Right Game to Play, Must-Read Books, and More


This episode is brought to you by Cometeer! Cometeer is hyper-fresh, expertly brewed, flash-frozen coffee that produces an incredibly delicious cup. Cometeer lets you prepare your coffee with no mess, no machines, no burning, and no bitterness. Cometeer sources high-quality beans from the country’s top roasters. The coffee is brewed using proprietary technology to pull out more flavor compounds and antioxidants. It’s then flash-frozen at minus 321 degrees Fahrenheit to lock in that incredible flavor and freshness of the specialty brew. Simply add hot water and you’ve got a game-changing cup of coffee. It’s easily customizable in seconds for iced coffees, lattes, espresso martinis, and more.

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This episode is also brought to you by Momentous high-quality supplements! Momentous offers high-quality supplements and products across a broad spectrum of categories, and I’ve been testing their products for months now. I’ve been using their magnesium threonateapigenin, and L-theanine daily, all of which have helped me improve the onset, quality, and duration of my sleep. I’ve also been using Momentous creatine, and while it certainly helps physical performance, including poundage or wattage in sports, I use it primarily for mental performance (short-term memory, etc.).

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This episode is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. Whether you are looking to hire now for a critical role or thinking about needs that you may have in the future, LinkedIn Jobs can help. LinkedIn screens candidates for the hard and soft skills you’re looking for and puts your job in front of candidates looking for job opportunities that match what you have to offer.

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Want to hear the last time Morgan was on the show? Listen to our conversation in which we discussed unorthodox career decisions, teaching children the value of money, lessons learned from being gamed by the market, counterintuitive bets, preparing for financially bumpy long hauls, understanding the difference between a fee and a fine, tolerance for petty annoyance as a valuable life skill, and much more.

#576: Morgan Housel — The Psychology of Money, Picking the Right Game, and the $6 Million Janitor

What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

  • Connect with Morgan Housel:

Website | Twitter | Instagram

SHOW NOTES

  • [07:20] Buffett’s Snickers.
  • [12:21] What prompted Morgan to write Same As Ever?
  • [17:44] Morgan’s worst advice for aspiring writers is what works for him.
  • [21:48] The upsides of being rich and anonymous.
  • [26:35] Tips for raising unspoiled kids.
  • [33:19] Should families avoid passing along dynastic wealth?
  • [35:45] Finding worthy charities and causes.
  • [41:02] Money and happiness.
  • [48:37] Avalanches and other random, life-changing flukes.
  • [54:32] We can prepare for the future, but we can’t predict it.
  • [1:00:58] What current unknowns will seem shockingly obvious in a year?
  • [1:03:22] Which of our current views would change if our incentives were different?
  • [1:06:23] The most valuable personal finance asset.
  • [1:08:54] Optimizing the chance of marrying the right person.
  • [1:11:38] Mending divergence in a marriage or relationship.
  • [1:14:49] Trying to eliminate a hassle that’s an unavoidable cost of success.
  • [1:33:16] Guessing at the future of text vs. audio/video.
  • [1:37:41] Books vs. podcasts.
  • [1:46:56] Recommended reading.
  • [2:06:00] Has writing Same As Ever changed how Morgan operates in the world?
  • [2:07:39] Who is the intended audience for Same As Ever?
  • [2:09:47] Parting thoughts.

MORE MORGAN HOUSEL QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW

“Let’s focus on what we know with certainty is going to be a part of your future, and that’s the best that we can do to see the future.”
— Morgan Housel

“In anything you do in life, you want feedback that what you’re doing is working. And in a lot of these situations, you don’t get it.”
— Morgan Housel

“Does money buy happiness? I think that answer is pretty firmly no. Can money buy contentment? I think that’s a pretty firm yes. And that’s great. Contentment is a great trait that makes your life better, but it’s very different from happiness.”
— Morgan Housel

“Some people have fuck you money. Charlie [Munger] has fuck you intelligence.”
— Morgan Housel

“I think you do your best work if you are being introspective about yourself. And “knowing your audience” slips into pandering very quickly. And pandering is the worst writing. Not only is it the worst content, it’s the worst writing style.”
— Morgan Housel

“When people want something from you, they treat you differently, and it’s not good.”
— Morgan Housel

“A lot of investors try to eliminate volatility, and they view it as a burden and something that you should get rid of when, actually … it’s the fee and not the penalty.”
— Morgan Housel

“I’m not interested in anything that’s not sustainable. Friendships, investing, careers, podcasts, reading habits, exercise habits. If I can’t keep it going, I’m not interested in it. And I think the only way to really do that is if you are going out of your way to live life at 80 percent to 90 percent potential. If you’re always trying to squeeze out 100 percent potential for something, almost certainly it’s going to lead to burnout, whether it’s a friendship or a relationship or an investing strategy.”
— Morgan Housel

PEOPLE MENTIONED

The Tim Ferriss Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world with more than 900 million downloads. It has been selected for “Best of Apple Podcasts” three times, it is often the #1 interview podcast across all of Apple Podcasts, and it’s been ranked #1 out of 400,000+ podcasts on many occasions. To listen to any of the past episodes for free, check out this page.