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

“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 Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or 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.

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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.

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

• Same as Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes by Morgan Housel | Amazon
• The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness by Morgan Housel | Amazon
• The Morgan Housel Podcast | Apple Podcasts
• For Entrepreneurs Pushing the World Forward | Collab Fund
• Insurance, Ventures, and Investments | Markel Corporation
• Morgan Housel — The Psychology of Money, Picking the Right Game, and the $6 Million Janitor | The Tim Ferriss Show #576
• Warren Buffett: Snickers Is the Most Dominant Candy Bar on the Market | The Profit Pathway
• Motley Fool: Pundits Pandering Your Wealth Away | USA Today
• Knuth versus Email | Stanford University
• Finding the One Decision That Removes 100 Decisions (or, Why I’m Reading No New Books in 2020) | Tim Ferriss
• Cuneiform: 6 Facts About the World’s Oldest Writing System | HistoryExtra
• The Tao of Seneca: Letters from a Stoic Master (aka The Moral Letters to Lucilius) | Tim Ferriss
• On the Danger of Knowing Your Audience | Morgan Housel, Twitter
• The Serenity Prayer | Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis
• What Is Stoicism? A Definition & 9 Stoic Exercises To Get You Started | Daily Stoic
• Stoicism for Modern Stresses: 5 Lessons from Cato | Daily Stoic
• Stoicism Resources and Recommendations | Tim Ferriss
• Morgan Housel on Writing | Ted Merz
• The Swooper/Basher Dichotomy | Steven R. Southard
• Respect and Admiration | Collab Fund
• Rich and Anonymous | Collab Fund
• Expectations Debt | Collab Fund
• Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty by Anderson Cooper | Amazon
• Financial Advice for My New Son | The Motley Fool
• Financial Advice for My New Daughter | Collab Fund
• Die With Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life by Bill Perkins | Amazon
• Why the 3rd Generation Always Destroys a Family Business by Scott McCollum | LinkedIn
• Microphilanthropy 101 | Charity Navigator
• A Few Laws of Getting Rich | Collab Fund
• The Solitary Billionaire: J Paul Getty (1963) | YouTube
• Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson | Amazon
• 1980s: How Donald Trump Created Donald Trump | NBC News
• “Sports Do Not Build Character; They Reveal It” | Quote Investigator
• The Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center | University of Nebraska Medical Center
• What Makes You Happy | Collab Fund
• The Three Sides of Risk | Collab Fund
• Little Ways The World Works | Collab Fund
• David McCullough on “1776” | Charlie Rose
• Be Here Now by Ram Dass | Amazon
• Global Uncertainty Related to Coronavirus at Record High | IMF
• Experts Say the ‘New Normal’ in 2025 Will Be Far More Tech-Driven, Presenting More Big Challenges | Pew Research Center
• What We Knew: Terror, Mass Murder, and Everyday Life in Nazi Germany by Eric A Johnson and Karl-Heinz Reuband | Amazon
• Public Enemy? At Home in Mexico, ‘El Chapo’ Is Folk Hero No. 1 | The New York Times
• A Few Things I’m Pretty Sure About | Collab Fund
• Very Important and Hard to Teach | Collab Fund
• The Optimal Amount of Hassle | Collab Fund
• Useful and Overlooked Skills | Collab Fund
• 11 Reasons Not to Become Famous (or “A Few Lessons Learned Since 2007”) | Tim Ferriss
• The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder | Amazon
• The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Tim Ferriss | Amazon
• Gothic Tropes: The Faustian Bargain | The Gothic Library
• Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs | Verywell Mind
• This American Life
• MrBeast | YouTube
• “Fake Famous” and the Tedium of Influencer Culture | The New Yorker
• How I Built The Tim Ferriss Show to 700+ Million Downloads — An Immersive Explanation of All Aspects and Key Decisions (Featuring Chris Hutchins) | The Tim Ferriss Show #538
• The Home for Great Writing | Substack
• The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A.J. Jacobs | Amazon
• I Think You’re Fat by A.J. Jacobs | Esquire
• Tim Ferriss | TED
• Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers by Tim Ferriss | Amazon
• Triangle: The Fire That Changed America by David von Drehle | Amazon
• Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell Jr. | Amazon
• The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst by Nicholas Tomalin and Ron Hall | Amazon
• Working by Robert A. Caro | Amazon
• The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert A. Caro | Amazon
• The Civil War | PBS
• Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire | Wikipedia
• President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal | Library of Congress
• No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin | Amazon
• Endless Uncertainty | Collab Fund
• Tao of Charlie Munger: A Compilation of Quotes from Berkshire Hathaway’s Vice Chairman on Life, Business, and the Pursuit of Wealth with Commentary by David Clark | Amazon

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

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