Insight
Housel: Having Few People You Cannot Disappoint Is Life's Greatest Motivator
“Nothing is a bigger motivator in life than having a couple people
Rarely more than that, that you really don't want to disappoint.”
Insight
Housel: Pure Ego Causes Ruin While Pure Humility Stifles Progress
“If you only have the ego side, you're going to run yourself off a cliff, and if you only have the humble slash depressed side, you're never going to get anywhere”
Insight
Housel: Wealth Reduces Bad Days but Does Not Create Better Days
“What I think is true. Is that on average, people who have more money tend to have fewer bad days, but I don't know if they have more better days.”
Insight
Housel: Happiness Is a Fleeting Emotion Lasting Minutes, Much Like Humor
“Happiness is always a fleeting emotion. Like most people are rarely happy for more than a couple minutes at a time. And I think it's very similar to humor, where if I tell you a very funny joke, you don't laugh for 10 years. You laugh for a couple minutes. Hum…”
Insight
Housel: Financial Contentment Is Achievable at Lower Incomes Than Most Expect
“What people actually want to get to, what they aspire to, whether they know it or not, is contentment, which is not happiness. It's a different emotion. You'd want to get to a point where you're just like, I'm good. Like, I'm very grateful for everything that …”
Insight
Housel: Chronic Discontentment Is the Root Driver of All Societal Progress
“That is the root of all progress, is that the majority of people wake up every morning and say, this is not enough.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Housel: Future Generations Will Treat Cancer Diagnoses as Manageable Inconveniences
“I mean, the most, what I think is like the highest odds is that Our kids, maybe our grandkids will live in an era which being diagnosed with cancer is not, not that big a deal.”
Insight
Housel: Financial Independence Is a Continuous Spectrum, Not an End State
“Literally every dollar that you save is a little claim check on your future that you control that somebody else doesn't. I think it's an important mindset, like redefining independence like that, that it's on a spectrum and every single dollar is an independen…”
Insight
Housel: Doing Well Financially Comes Down Entirely to Survival and Endurance
“If you have to serve like sum up doing well financially in one word, I think it's survival. That's true in your career. That's true for savings. That's true for investing. Absolutely. It's just survival.”
Insight
Parrish: Nearly All Compounding Advantages Emerge at the Very End
“The other thing about compounding, I think people misunderstand is that all the advantages come at the end. And not at the beginning. They're very slow at the beginning, but it's that last double that makes a huge difference.”
Assertion Partly supported
Housel: 99% of Warren Buffett's Net Worth Accumulated After Age 65
“99% of Warren Buffett's net worth was accumulated after his 65th birthday.”
Insight
Housel: Pleasure and Wealth Are Driven by Contrast, Not Absolute Amounts
“This is true for a lot of things, you get pleasure out of contrast. It's just how much, what do you have now and what are you doing now relative to what you were doing before?”
Insight
Housel: Market Volatility Is the Necessary Cost of Admission in Capitalism
“And by and large, what you have to do in capitalism is put up with a never ending chain of uncertainty and volatility and things you didn't see coming. And so it's never fun to deal with that. A recession, a job loss or stock market goes down. It's never, it's…”
Insight
Housel: Investors Cannot Know Their True Pain Tolerance Until Tested
“I think very few people know their tolerance for pain. Looking, just trying to be, like, prospective about it. I think you have to experience it in the trenches, so to speak, before you actually know how you're going to feel.”
Insight
Housel: People Falsely Assume Market Crashes Happen in an Economic Vacuum
“And most people, if you ask them the question, how would you feel psychologically right now if the stock market fell? In that exercise, what they do is they imagine a world where everything is exactly the same as it is today, except stocks are half the price.”
Insight
Housel: Widespread Mutual Fund Underperformance Is Natural and Statistically Expected
“It's the same in investing. Like, there should not be a world in which every ambitious stock picker can beat the market. Of course, whenever you hear the statistics about 95% of mutual funds underperform their benchmark, I'm like, yeah, what would you expect?”
Insight
Housel: Buying a Home Due to Market FOMO Is Universally Terrible
“You should not do it because you have, even if you don't define it like this in your head, because you have some level of FOMO of man, housing prices have gone up a lot and like, ah, that house looks so nice and things would be, and we can't really afford it. …”
Opinion
Housel: Affordable Housing Is the Single Biggest Social Problem in America
“So housing, affordable housing, I think is the single biggest social problem, certainly in America, probably in Canada right now. Because so many other social problems that might seem bigger than that are downstream of housing. A lot of the drug problem, the d…”
Opinion
Housel: Restrictive Zoning and Underbuilding Entirely Cause the Housing Affordability Crisis
“That virtually all of the reason that housing is so unaffordable is because we don't build enough, and the reason we don't build enough is zoning.”
Assertion Supported
Housel: Tokyo Maintains Affordable Housing Through Continuous High-Volume Construction
“Tokyo, gigantic city. Bigger than the city you and I are in right now in New York. Very affordable housing, relatively. Because they build. They build and build and build and build.”
Insight
Housel: Primary Home Equity Gains Are Phantom Wealth Unless You Relocate
“The equity that you build isn't really wealth because you, when you sell that house, you probably have to buy another one that went up in value just as much. And unless you are moving to a cheaper city, which of course that happens, You're not getting any bene…”
Assertion Supported
Parrish: Government Fees Account for 30% of New Home Prices in Canada
“I've seen reports, at least in Canada, that 30% of the price of a new home is basically government fees.”
Disclosure
Morgan Housel's Entire Net Worth: House, Cash, Vanguard, and Markel Shares
“My entire net worth is a house, cash, Vanguard index funds, and shares of Markel where I'm on the board of directors, and that's it.”
Insight
Housel: Simple Index Investing Will Outperform Complex Strategies Over a Lifetime
“I bet over the course of a lifetime, not in any given year, but over a lifetime, if you compared it to someone whose finances were very complicated and had all kinds of transactions, not only would I be likely to match those, but probably exceed them.”
Insight
Housel: Simplicity Maximizes Wealth by Increasing an Investor's Endurance
“The simpler it is, the easier it is. I think the higher the odds that I'll just, I can just stay with it. Whereas if it was very complicated, I might get to a point in the economy or my career or my cognitive capacity where like, I can't keep it going. And so …”
Disclosure
Morgan Housel Has Saved Every Single Penny Earned From His Books
“I've saved all my book money. I've now, I haven't spent a single penny of the money that I made from books.”
Insight
Housel: Homeowners Prioritize Exterior Landscaping Over Interior Quality to Impress Strangers
“And I would venture, we're talking first world problems here, of course, but I would venture that many more people have landscapers. Part of which is because they don't want to get dirty. But part of which is, like, I think whether you know it or not conscious…”
Insight
Housel: Careers Progress From Skill-Building in Twenties to Monetization in Forties
“Probably age birth to 20, you're forming an identity. You're just trying to figure out Who you are. You're trying to make sense of how you're wired and whatnot. You're just figuring out your identity. 20 to 30, I think by and large, you are learning a skill. H…”
Insight
Housel: Older Generations Inevitably Criticize Twenty-Year-Olds Across Every Historical Era
“I think the truth is no matter the generation, no generation handles their twenties with a lot of grace and dignity. It's a very difficult period because you're still trying to figure out who you are. You are technically an adult. You are technically on your o…”
Insight
Housel: Long-Term Financial Decisions Should Be Guided by Future Regret Capacity
“It is never as simple as being like live for today or save for tomorrow. It's always just, what are you likely to regret at some point in the future? It could be a year from now. It can be on your deathbed. 70 years from now, whatever it is, always thinking ab…”
Insight
Housel: You Cannot Switch From Youthful Reckless Spending to Saving at 35
“I think it's impossible to have a YOLO paycheck to paycheck mentality young in your young years and then assume that you're going to flip a switch when you're 35 and become a saver.”
Insight
Housel: What Looks Like Spoiled Kids Is Actually Objective Generational Progress
“It's always the case that to the previous generation that had a harder, it looks, the phrase you use is spoiled, but I think what's actually happening is progress.”
Insight
Housel: Parents Should Use Wealth as a Safety Net, Not Fuel
“Now, I want my kids, I think, as a broad formula, I want to use the money that I have
To protect within limitations, my children's downsides.
I don't ever want them to just collapse on their face and they can't work their way out in life.
I want to be there to…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Housel: Younger Generations Are Probably Wrong That They Won't Surpass Parents
“I think they're probably wrong about that in general. Of course, there's going to be lots of examples where that was the case, but I think they tend to, I think, I would bet that they would be wrong about that.”
Insight
Housel: Social Media Prevents Younger Generations From Appreciating Objective Material Progress
“I think by comparison, they won't appreciate it in greater degrees than we didn't appreciate our progress because of social media, because they have only known an era when, which not just there are some, but there are literally tens of hundreds of millions of …”
Disclosure
Morgan Housel Discloses He Struggled With a Severe Stutter Until His Thirties
“I wrote 4000 blog posts over my career, and the one that meant the most to me by far was a post I wrote in 2017. It's called Overcoming Your Demons, where I wrote about, I grew up with a very severe stutter. I really struggled to speak until my, honestly, earl…”
Insight
Housel: People's Internal Emotional Range Vastly Exceeds Their Curated Public Performances
“I think if you could see inside of everyone's head and see their thoughts you would see that people are a hundred times more anxious than you assumed. They're a hundred times funnier than you assumed. They're a hundred times more doubtful and depressed than yo…”
Insight
Housel: Transferring Wealth to Children at 30 Yields Greater Utility Than Inheritance
“If you can help them buy a house when they're 30, that is going to give them a much greater boost in life than if they get a million dollars when they're 75 after you die”
Assertion Supported
Housel: The Rockefeller Family Still Retains Billions of Dollars Today
“And the Rockef, the Rockefellers still have a lot of wealth today, have billions of wealth today.”
Opinion
Housel: The Vanderbilts Squandered an Immense Fortune Faster Than Any Dynasty
“The Vanderbilt's I think did the worst by far. And It is hard to imagine another, another family who had so much money, who had the equivalent of hundreds of billions of dollars, who squandered it, I think is the right word, so quickly.”
Insight
Housel: Wealth Cannot Increase Relationship Happiness Because Foundational Joys Are Free
“And so the things that make my wife and I happy, we like walking our dog, and we like that 10 years ago as much as we do today. And even before we had a dog, we like going for walks and doing this. We like laughing and talking about things in one. It's things …”
Insight
Housel: Flashy Sports Cars Are a New-Money Phenomenon Driven by Vindication
“The yellow sports car, so to speak, tends to be a new fun, a new money phenomenon. Not a lot of old money families with those, or fewer of them, because I think the new money, wealth, like, feels vindicated over what they overcame.”
Insight
Housel: Discretionary Spending Chiefly Fills Psychological Voids Rather Than Providing Utility
“A lot of spending is not utility. It's not even rational. A lot of times it's filling a psychological hole that you have from some point in your life.”
Insight
Parrish: Dirty Fuel Like Insecurity Inexhaustibly Drives Societal Economic Value
“Dirty fuel. It's just, it never goes out. Like you don't use it up. It just, you keep going with it and that drives in part society and it might drive that person to buy the yellow Ferrari or send their kid to the most expensive school, but they did that by cr…”
Disclosure
Housel: My High Savings Rate Originated From Low Self-Esteem and Fear
“I've always been a big saver. Not even maybe, I would say almost certainly, but part of that came from earlier periods of my life when I had a lower self-esteem, very low confidence in my ability to earn a lot of money, and that has led me to saving money with…”
Insight
Housel: Status Signaling Becomes Dangerous When Aimed at Uninvolved Strangers
“I think it becomes dangerous when the purpose of your signaling is I want to get the attention of strangers who are not in this with me, who are not part of the group that I'm trying to gain the respect and admiration of. I'm trying to gain the attention and a…”
Insight
Housel: 'Just Be Yourself' Is Good Advice for Only 5% of People
“Just be yourself and Is good advice for like five percent of people. And I love that, that joke, that mean of like, most people should not be themselves. They should meter what they say and how they behave around other people in a signaling way in order to fit…”
What-if
Housel: America's Non-Fascist Great Depression Recovery Was a Top 10% Tail Outcome
“The outcome that we, that actually happened was like a top 10% outcome. It easily could have, if not should have, turned out as it did in much of Europe, where after the Great Depression, the people's response was like, maybe we should give fascism a try. Mayb…”
Insight
Housel: People Need Seemingly Excessive Cash to Protect Against Underestimated Risks
“So just focusing on the financial independence, a level of savings that seems like it's too much. That seems like, oh, this is completely excessive. Do I need this much savings and liquidity? The answer might be yes, because you're probably underestimating the…”
Disclosure
Morgan Housel Keeps 20% to 30% of His Net Worth in Cash
“It's probably 20 to 30%. Maybe it's high teens in that in that zone. And it's been like that over the course of big changes in my net worth. I've always added about like that.”
Insight
Housel: Rental Real Estate Is Active Labor, Not True Passive Income
“The vast majority of what people consider passive income, they're working their butts off for, particularly real estate. If you're a landlord and people are like, oh, it's passive income. No, it's not. Your toilet breaks, the roof leaks, the tenant doesn't pay…”
Insight
Housel: Gut Feelings Are Usually Accurate Syntheses of Uncrystallized Knowledge
“Gut feelings tend to actually be pretty good. That's not just a gut feeling that it's just that you can't crystallize what the thought is, but you know, which way you should go, you know, which way to do it. I think that tends to be the case that gut feelings …”
Insight
Parrish: Chess Grandmasters Play Their Initial Intuitive Move 99.9% of the Time
“The grandmasters have an instinctual move in their head. And 99.9% of the time that's the move they make. And then why do they take all this time before they make a turn? Well, because they're checking, they're verifying that their instinct is correct.”
Insight
Housel: Be Highly Analytical on Irreversible Decisions, Less Choosy on Reversible Ones
“You gotta be very careful with decisions that are irreversible. They're gonna have lasting consequences. And be much less choosy and picky and analytical about decisions that are reversible and whatnot.”
Insight
Housel: All Wealth Equals What You Have Minus What You Want
“One is that all wealth is what you have minus what you want. And it is so profoundly common and easy to ignore the second part of that equation that you have to minus what you want. And you are more in control of that by and large than what you have.”
Assertion Partly supported
Housel: New American Homes Today Are Nearly Triple 1950s Average Size
“The average new house today is almost three times the size of a house in the 19 fifties. Three times.”
Assertion Supported
Housel: The Psychology of Money Has Sold Roughly 10 Million Copies
“My first book, Psychology of Money, first print runs, 5000 copies, ends up selling about ten million and counting kind of thing.”
Insight
Housel: Outcomes Feel Amazing or Terrible Depending Entirely on Baseline Expectations
“Anything amazing can feel terrible if your expectations are high enough, and everything, anything terrible can feel amazing if your expectations were low enough.”
Insight
Housel: Creative Work Is Inevitably Judged Against a Creator's Past Peak
“Everything is going to be judged relative to your highest moment in the past, and that's a very hard thing to deal with.”
Insight
Housel: Your Immediate Social Circle Inevitably Sets Your Baseline Desires
“I always say, like, be very careful who you socialize with, because it will, full stop will set your expectations of what you want.”
Insight
Housel: Wealthy People Without Frugal Habits Are Merely Conforming to Society
“If you can look at particularly someone who is above average income and there isn't something in their life that they spend very little on, I think there's a high chance that they're just a sheep going along with society tells them they should want.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Housel: Economic History Has Never Existed Without Continuous Periods of Inflation
“There is no history without inflation. It doesn't really exist. It's not really a thing.”
Insight
Parrish: Focusing on Uncontrollable Factors Directly Depletes Your Controllable Efforts
“All the time you spend thinking about something you don't control comes at the expense of something you do control.”
Insight
Housel: Stock Investors Need at Least a 10-Year Horizon for High Probability Success
“Historically, when we talk about the stock market, a good definition of long-term of like really putting the odds of success in your favor is probably 10 years. Of putting, like, earning a real rate of return after inflation, even within the cyclicality of the…”
Insight
Housel: Getting Rich Quickly When Young Uniquely Ruins an Investor's Psychology
“Nothing can be more damaging to your investing psychology. Than getting rich very quick when you're young. I think it just ruins you. It gives you this expectation.”
What-if
Housel: Jeremy Grantham Would Be a Momentum Investor Without His Early Bear Market
“Everything we know about psychology is like early experiences leave scars. They stick around for a long time. So you can easily imagine an alternative history of where Jeremy Grantham started his career during a tech bubble and became a momentum investor, like…”
Disclosure
Morgan Housel: The Vast Majority of My Portfolio Is Invested in VTI
“The vast majority is the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, VTI. Not all of it, but the vast, vast majority is that it is as broad as you can get.”
Disclosure
Morgan Housel Refuses to Own International Index Funds
“No, I don't own any international funds. Part of that is I don't think you necessarily need to, because even among U.S.-based companies, I mean, they're doing half their revenue or more overseas, and so you get international exposure”
Assertion Supported
Housel: Earning Average Market Returns for 50 Years Beats 97% of Investors
“And the idea that let's say if I can be average for 50 years, I'll end up in the top Three percent of investors. That's probably about where it'll be. Historically has been the case that I will outperform 97% of people who tried to beat the market. Maybe it's …”
Disclosure
Housel Allocates 40% of Book Royalties to Taxes and Instantly Invests the Rest
“In the last five years, every book check that I've gotten at 40% to taxes, the rest of stocks, just simple, just brainless.”
Insight
Housel: Professional Loyalty Is Only Rewarding When Directed at the Deserving Few
“Loyalty to people who deserve your loyalty is a very rewarding thing. The important thing is people who deserve your loyalty, which is a small list. A lot of people do not deserve your loyalty. But loyalty to someone who deserves your loyalty is unbelievably r…”