The Psychology of Money with Morgan Housel
Alle afleveringen
101 afleveringen, van nieuw naar oud
-
Universal Laws of the World
27 november 2024 · 18 min
A few laws from random sciences that almost certainly apply to your own -- regardless of what you do for a living. Lees meer
Thanks to my friends at Nitrogen -- check out nitrogenwealth.com
-
Why Pessimism Sounds So Smart
15 november 2024 · 17 min
If you're a student of history, you know that most things have gotten better for most people over time. But read the news and what do you hear? Pessimism, pessimism, pessimism. Lees meer
There are several reasons why.
Special thanks to my friends at Readwise -- check out Readwise.IO/morgan.
-
Rare and Powerful Skills
4 november 2024 · 16 min
A few easy-to-overlook skills that are so vital in today's world. Lees meer
Brought to you my friends at Readwise -- visit Readwise.io/morgan.
-
My Favorite Book: An Astounding Look at How Fast the World Can Change
23 oktober 2024 · 37 min
This episode digs into one of my favorite books of all time: The Big Change by Frederick Lewis Allen. Written in 1952, it's a remarkable look at how quickly the world can change, with so many profound insights that I find relevant today. Lees meer
Special thanks to my friends at Readwise.io/morgan for making this happen.
-
This Was Never Easy: A Brief History of Nostalgia
10 oktober 2024 · 23 min
There's a Russian saying that I love: "The past is more unpredictable than the future." It explains so much about nostalgia, and the twisted ways we all view the economic past. Lees meer
This episode is brought to you by my friends at 10 East – an investment platform for sophisticated investors to access private markets. To learn more visit 10east.co.
-
Everything In Life Is Cyclical
4 oktober 2024 · 14 min
A lot of mistakes in life come when you think risk is something caused by external forces, when in fact the weight of your own success is enough to pull you down without any outside help. Lees meer
This episode is brought to you by my friends at 10 East – an investment platform for sophisticated investors to access private markets. To learn more visit 10east.co.
-
Do It Your Own Way
27 september 2024 · 14 min
The ultimate success metric is whether you get what you want out of life. But that’s harder than it sounds because it’s easy to try to copy someone who wants something you don’t. Lees meer
This episode is brought to you by my friends at 10 East – an investment platform for sophisticated investors to access private markets. To learn more visit 10east.co.
-
A Few Little Ideas And Short Stories
12 september 2024 · 15 min
Some of the most interesting stuff I've come across lately.
-
Cumulative vs. Cyclical Knowledge
29 augustus 2024 · 13 min
In some fields our knowledge is seamlessly passed down across generations. In others, it’s fleeting. To paraphrase investor Jim Grant: Knowledge in some fields is cumulative. In other fields it’s cyclical (at best).
-
Different Kinds of BS
25 juli 2024 · 14 min
Jeff Bezos once said there are different kinds of smart. Distinguishing the various flavors is important because if you think smarts comes in just one form, you’ll miss dozens of other nuanced varieties. Lees meer
BS is the same. It comes in countless forms, some harder to spot than others. False modesty, projecting, double standards, hypocrisy, tugging at heartstrings – these aren’t lies; they’re subtle forms of BS which is why they’re so prevalent.
-
I Have A Few Questions
1 juli 2024 · 14 min
A few important money and life topics to make you ponder.
-
Quiet Compounding
17 juni 2024 · 8 min
"Nature is not in a hurry, yet everything is accomplished,” said Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu. Lees meer
Giant sequoias, advanced organisms, towering mountains – it builds the most jaw-dropping features of the universe. And it does so silently, where growth is almost never visible right now but staggering over long periods of time.
It’s quiet compounding, and it’s a wonder to see.
I like the idea of quietly compounding your money. Just like in nature, it’s where you’ll find the most impressive results.
-
History's Seductive Beliefs
11 juni 2024 · 18 min
My deepest forecasting belief is that you can better understand the future if you focus on the behaviors that never change instead of the events that might. Lees meer
And those behaviors have a common denominator: They follow the path of least resistance of people trying to simplify a complex world into a few stories that make sense and make them feel good about themselves.
Simple stories, feel-good stories. Those are some of history’s most seductive beliefs, and they always will be.
Here are a few that stick out.
-
Lazy Work, Good Work
24 mei 2024 · 10 min
The most productive work you can do often looks like the laziest -- but it can be hard to accept that because of how the workplace has changed over the last 100 years.
-
The Long Run Is Just A Collection of Short Runs
13 mei 2024 · 9 min
Every great idea can be taken too far. Lees meer
Take the notion that investors should ignore the short run.
It's important to recognize that the long run is just a collection of short runs, and capturing long-term growth means managing the short run effectively enough to ensure you can stick around for a long time.
-
The Best Financial Advice I Know (What I Want My Kids To Learn)
6 mei 2024 · 11 min
I wrote letters to both of my kids the day before they were born. Lees meer
Here's what I wanted them to know about money.
And even if you don't have, or want, kids, I think you'll find this helpful.
-
Realistic Personal Finance Hacks
25 april 2024 · 10 min
Hacks are hard because shortcuts rarely exist. Prizes take time and effort. Lees meer
The personal finance industry – filled with advice that sounds and feels good without moving the needle – needs to recognize this.
These aren’t fun hacks, but no one said this was easy.
-
Lucky vs. Repeatable
11 april 2024 · 9 min
Luck plays such a big role in the world. But few people want to talk about it. If I say you got lucky, I look jealous. If I tell myself that I got lucky, I feel diminished. Lees meer
Maybe a better way to frame luck is by asking: what isn’t repeatable?
And maybe better yet: The way to get luckier is to find what’s repeatable.
-
No One Is Crazy
5 april 2024 · 14 min
The fun part of behavioral finance is learning about how flawed other people can be. The hard part is trying to figure out how flawed you are, and what stories make sense to you but would seem crazy to others.
-
Smart Things Smart People Have Said
28 maart 2024 · 12 min
A few of the best and most insightful things I've read lately.
-
Accountable to Darwin vs. Accountable to Newton
18 maart 2024 · 15 min
Woodrow Wilson was the only president with a Ph.D. in political science. Lees meer
He came to office having thought more about how a government functions than most before him or since.
One of his complaints was that too many people in government held the belief that it was a Big Machine: that once you set up a series of rules you could take your hands off the wheel and let the government run on its own forever. They viewed government like physics, with a set of customs and laws that required no updating or second-guessing because they were believed to be precise and perfect as they were.
Wilson thought that was wrong. He viewed government as being a living thing that adapted and evolved.
I really don't care about politics. But he had a theory that I think is so important, and so applicable, to us ordinary people managing our money.
-
The Dumber Side of Smart People
8 maart 2024 · 14 min
Mae West said, “Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.” That might be true for some things – health, happiness, golden retrievers, maybe. Lees meer
But in so many cases the thing that helps you can be taken to a dangerous level. And since it’s a “good thing,” not an obvious threat, its danger creeps into your life unnoticed.
Take intelligence.
How could someone possibly be too intelligent? How do you get to a point where you realize you could have been more successful if you had been a little dumber?
Let me share three reasons why.
And if you're looking for another podcast to listen to, check out The Rundown by my friends at Public.com. It's a quick five-minute listen that gets you all caught up on the latest in the stock market, the economy, and in crypto. Hope you enjoy it.
-
How to Engage With History
28 februari 2024 · 11 min
This episode discusses my take on what you should pay attention to when reading history. Lees meer
There’s a quote I love from writer Kelly Hayes who says, “Everything feels unprecedented when you haven’t engaged with history.”
It’s so true. History’s cast of characters changes but it’s the same movie over and over again.
To me, the point of paying attention to history is not the specific details of certain events, which are always random and never repeat; it’s the big-picture behaviors that reoccur in different eras, generations, and societies.
-
Compounding Optimism
14 februari 2024 · 12 min
Let me share a little theory I have about optimism, and why progress is so easy to underestimate. Lees meer
I’ll explain it in four parts.
-
A Few Thoughts on Spending Money
1 februari 2024 · 13 min
Behavioral finance is now well documented. But most of the attention goes to how people invest. But the study of how you spend money might be far more interesting -- and practical. How you spend money can reveal an existential struggle of what you find valuable in life, who you want to spend time with, why you chose your career, and the kind of attention you want from other people. Lees meer
There is a science to spending money – how to find a bargain, how to make a budget, things like that.
But there’s also an art to spending. A part that can’t be quantified and varies person to person.
-
Information That Would Get Your Attention
17 januari 2024 · 13 min
There’s obviously a hierarchy of information. It ranges from life-changing good to life-changing disastrous. Lees meer
That got me thinking: What would be the most interesting and useful information anyone could get their hands on?
Years ago I asked that question to Yale economist Robert Shiller. “The exact role of luck in successful outcomes,” he answered.
I loved that answer, because nobody will ever have that information. But if you did, your entire worldview would change. Who you admire would change. The traits you think are needed for success would change. You would find millions of lucky egomaniacs and millions of unlucky geniuses. The fact that it’s impossible to possess this information doesn’t make it useless – just thinking about how powerful it would be to have it forces you to ponder a topic that’s important but easy to ignore.
Keeping the idea that the most interesting information doesn’t have to be realistic – it can be impossible-to-obtain, magical-wish thinking – here are three other things that would get your attention.
-
Active vs. Passive Learning
5 januari 2024 · 12 min
There are two big ways to learn: Lees meer
Active learning: Someone tells you what to learn, how to learn it, on a set schedule, on pre-selected standardized topics.
Passive learning: You let your mind wander with no intended destination. You read and learn broadly, talk to people from various backgrounds, and stumble haphazardly across topics you had never considered but spark your curiosity, often because it’s the topic you happen to need at that specific time of your life.
I can’t be alone in realizing that most of what I’ve learned in life has come from passive learning.
-
Respect Each Others’ Delusions
22 december 2023 · 9 min
One sentence that knocked me off my feet when I read Will and Ariel Durant’s The Lessons of History was: "Learn enough from history to bear reality patiently, and respect one another’s delusions." Lees meer
I love that so much.
The key here is accepting that everyone is deluded in their own unique way. You, me, all of us.
When you realize that you – the good, noble, well-meaning, even-tempered, fact-driven person that you are – have views of how the world works that are sure to be incomplete if not completely wrong, you should have empathy for others whose deluded beliefs are obvious to you. I am such a fan of Daniel Kahneman’s observation that we are better at spotting other people’s flaws than our own.
This episode shares three reasons why all of us become deluded in our own way.
-
The 10 Most Important Financial Skills
12 december 2023 · 16 min
My wife recently bought me an old book. It's called The Mathematical Theory of Investment. It was written in 1913 and it's as dry and boring as it sounds (but the old weathered cover looks awesome on a bookshelf). Lees meer
I flipped through it and thought, "Does any of this matter?" These formulas, these charts, this data?
Well, yes.
But not nearly as much as the soft, behavioral side of investing.
This episode shares 10 of what I think are the most critical financial skills -- none of which you'll find in a 100-year-old academic text.
-
Expiring vs. Permanent Skills
17 november 2023 · 15 min
Expiring skills tend to get more attention. They’re more likely to be the cool new thing, and a key driver of an industry’s short-term performance. They’re what employers value and employees flaunt. Lees meer
Permanent skills are different. They’ve been around a long time, which makes them look stale and basic. They can be hard to define and quantify, which gives the impression of fortune-cookie wisdom vs. a hard skill.
But permanent skills compound over time, which gives them quiet importance. When several previous generations have worked on a skill that’s directly relevant to you, you have a deep well of relevant examples to study. And when you can spend a lifetime perfecting one skill whose importance never wanes, the payoffs can be ridiculous. Anything that compounds over decades usually is.
This episode discusses a few permanent skills that apply to many fields.
-
My New Book, Same As Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes
7 november 2023 · 15 min
My new book, Same as Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes, is out today. Lees meer
Books are hard, a multi-year slog from start to finish. But I’m excited for you to read this. I think it’s the best writing I’ve ever done. And it was fun to write! My hope is that you enjoy reading it half as much as I enjoyed writing it.
My first book, The Psychology of Money, was really about how you, the individual behave. Same As Ever is about how we, the collective, behave, and what we keep doing over and over.
It’s 23 short stories about what never changes in a changing world.
I’ve been thinking about this book for my entire career. I’ve always been skeptical of forecasts, because the world’s track record on predicting the next recession, the next election, or the next technology is so bad. That should draw you to the question: What’s never going to change?
What do we know for certain is going to be part of our future?
-
Justifying Optimism
30 oktober 2023 · 13 min
All optimistic beliefs can be dangerous because they’re so comforting, so easy to accept without asking further questions. Hope often masquerades as optimism when you think things will improve only because the alternative is too scary to contemplate. Lees meer
Every optimist needs to justify exactly why they're optimistic. In this episode, I offer my own three reasons.
-
Little Flaws
21 oktober 2023 · 11 min
Daniel Kahneman says, "The long-term success of a relationship depends far more on avoiding the negative than on seeking the positive." Lees meer
It's like that in so many areas of life.
Most people know what they're good at, or at least they think they do. Flaws, though, tend to be nuanced, and we're often blind to them.
This episode shares dozens of little flaws I often think about -- ones that are easy to ignore, but can compound into disasters over time.
-
A Few Laws of Getting Rich
12 oktober 2023 · 18 min
Measuring wealth is easy. You just count it up. Measuring some of the downsides of wealth is so much harder and more nuanced. They can be so nuanced and hard to measure that many people won’t even believe they exist. A downside to wealth? How could that possibly be? Lees meer
Let me propose that the absurdity of talking about the downside of wealth is part of why wealth doesn’t tend to make people as happy as they thought it would.
When the benefits of money are so obvious but the downsides are so subtle, the downsides you didn’t anticipate can be more jarring than the benefits you expected.
I want more money, of course. Almost everyone does, albeit for different reasons.
This is not an anti-wealth list -- just a collection of subtle downsides that are easy to ignore, and so common you may as well call them the only true laws of getting rich.
-
Death, Taxes, and a Few Other Things
6 oktober 2023 · 18 min
My new book, Same As Ever, comes out in a month. Lees meer
It's about things that never change -- what's always happened in the world, and will keep repeating again and again?
This episode shares five examples.
-
Respect and Admiration
27 september 2023 · 12 min
Just after my son was born I wrote a few things I thought he’d find helpful as an adult. One of them was: Lees meer
"You might think you want an expensive car, a fancy watch, and a huge house. But I’m telling you, you don’t. What you want is respect and admiration from other people, and you think having expensive stuff will bring it. It almost never does – especially from the people you want to respect and admire you."
Eight years later I still believe this to be true, and I might even double down.
-
Trying Too Hard
18 september 2023 · 14 min
A truth that applies to almost every field is that it’s possible to try too hard, and when doing so you can get worse results than those who knew less, cared less, and put in less effort than you did. Lees meer
There are mistakes that only an expert can make. Errors – often catastrophic – that novices aren’t smart enough to make because they lack the information and experience needed to try to exploit an opportunity that doesn’t exist.
-
Intelligence vs. Smarts
22 augustus 2023 · 15 min
This episode is about the difference between intelligence and smarts, and why one is valued more than the other despite being less useful in the world. Lees meer
The core here is realizing that people are not spreadsheets. They are emotional, hormonal, misinformed, status-seeking, insecure creatures trying their best to make it through the day. So if you have to choose between understanding how the world should work in theory vs. how it actually works in practice, lean towards the latter. It’s like historian Will Durant once said: “Logic is an invention of man and may be ignored by the universe.” That is so smart.
-
Fluke -- A Story About How Fragile The World Can Be
10 augustus 2023 · 11 min
This is a short personal story about a fluke event 16 years ago that changed everything in my life. You probably have a similar story, and there is so much to learn about how everything can change from an event you never saw coming.
-
A Few Ideas That Changed My Life
4 augustus 2023 · 15 min
You spend years trying to learn tons of new stuff, but then look back and realize that just a few big ideas truly changed how you think and influenced most of what you believe. Lees meer
Let me share a couple that had a big impact on me.
-
The Spectrum of Wealth
29 juni 2023 · 12 min
Chris Rock joked that Bill Gates would jump out the window if he woke up with Oprah’s money. Like most comedy, it’s funny because it contains a nugget of truth. Lees meer
There is no objective level of wealth -- everything is just relative to something, or someone, else. That means a billionaire can feel poorer than someone with infinitely less money.
This episode tries to create a spectrum of wealth based on the quality of your life, feelings, and social circles, versus measuring it on money alone.
-
Low Expectations
14 juni 2023 · 15 min
The knee-jerk way to set expectations is to anchor to what everyone else has right now. But imagine the tragedy of there being unbelievable progress throughout your life and you enjoy none of it because you expected all of it. Lees meer
This episode is all about expectations, and how the key to happiness in so many things in life is to aim low.
-
A Few Short Stories
5 juni 2023 · 18 min
Sometimes the best you can do when learning about any topic is to memorize a few short stories -- quick, direct, and to the point, that you're likely to remember forever. Lees meer
This episode shares 15 short stories that have stuck with me, and helped me contextualize so many things in life, work, and investing.
One other note: I have a new book coming out this November. It's called Same as Ever, and you can pre-order it here: http://amzn.to/41CHgKM
-
The Power of Staying Put
23 mei 2023 · 15 min
There are so many times in life where what you do is less important than how long you've been doing it for. Lees meer
It's true in careers.
It's true in relationships.
It's true in sports.
And it's true with money.
This episode is about compounding -- and how staying put, uninterrupted, is often the most overlooked skill.
-
A Few Things I'm Pretty Sure About
8 mei 2023 · 17 min
If you can explain something important in just a few words, it's a double win: You've probably found something that's obviously true, without needing further explanation or detail. And it's probably something you'll remember for a long time, easy to recall without having to memorize dozens of details. Lees meer
This podcast is a smattering of ideas that have been important and impactful to me, shared in as few words as I can manage.
-
Little Ways The World Works
26 april 2023 · 19 min
This episode has little to do with money. But in some ways it has everything to do with money. Lees meer
That's the riddle I want to unpack.
I want to share a bunch of examples of what one field can teach us about another.
What can we learn from biology that teaches us something about money?
What can we learn from physics that teaches us something about business?
If you find something that is true in more than one field, you’ve probably uncovered something particularly important. The more fields it shows up in, the more likely it is to be a fundamental and recurring driver of how the world works.
-
Your Money and Your Family
21 april 2023 · 20 min
One of the most complicated topics in money: How it impacts your family. Lees meer
Your spouse.
Your kids.
How do you avoid spoiling kids?
How do you and your spouse learn to agree about the best way to spend?
There are no easy answers -- but I try my best here, including sharing the letters I wrote to my kids when they were born.
-
The Highest Form of Wealth
13 april 2023 · 24 min
The highest form of wealth is the ability to wake up every morning and say, “I can do whatever I want today.” Lees meer
People want to become wealthier to make them happier. Happiness is a complicated subject because everyone’s different. But if there’s a common denominator in happiness -- a universal fuel of joy -- it’s that people want to control their lives.
The ability to do what you want, when you want, with who you want, for as long as you want, is priceless. It is the highest dividend money pays.
-
Getting Rich vs. Staying Rich
23 maart 2023 · 24 min
Getting rich and staying rich are two different skills. They are often conflicting skills, so many people focus on one or the other. Lees meer
But you need both to do well over time.
This episode tells a 100-year-old story of two investors, neither of whom knew each other, but whose fates converged during the same week in the 1920s.
It shows why a barbell personality of optimistic on one hand, and paranoid on the other, is vital to success.
-
Rules of the Money Game
15 maart 2023 · 49 min
There are only a handful of financial rules, ideas, and observations that really move the needle -- and explain the majority of what you need to know to do better with your money. Lees meer
I could have narrowed this down to 10, but I had fun with this thought experiment, so here are my top 30 rules of the money game.