Inherent Value Doesn't Exist
The Jesse Mecham Show
YNAB
4.7 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 18 March 2024
⏱️ 7 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Jesse argues that the common refrain of a thing having "inherent value" or "intrinsic value" is not actually a thing. As Jesse explains, value is a moving target, constantly shifting along with our desires and material circumstances. To a starving man, food is worth more than gold. To that same man well-fed, it can be worth little. We see this with our own money -- as our circumstances change, the categories we prioritze shift. Rule 3, roll with the punches, acknowledges the ever-shifting nature of our needs and desires, and challenges us to make trade-offs to materialize those changes in our financial plans. To that end, nothing has an inherent value, but rather a variable value, the only certainty being that it will fluctuate over time.
Beginning Balance Podcast -- the show Jesse mentions has not aired yet, but will be coming soon! In the meantime, check out more of Jesse's musings about money here:
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beginning-balance/id1569423517
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7APubdzXN2eeeMdNpCLkiy?si=19e8c25d5b104494
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, Wineabbers. My name is Jesse Meekham with another episode of the Wineab |
| 0:08.5 | Podcast and I'm here each week to obsess out loud about spending purposefully, saving aspirationally and even giving joyfully, it |
| 0:16.0 | all comes down to just these four simple habits. |
| 0:19.4 | We give every dollar a job and start to feel what it means to trade off or maybe just to trade. |
| 0:24.8 | Mark and I just recorded a beginning balance episode where we talked a lot about trade |
| 0:29.3 | and what that does and the fact that we do it all the time and we don't even realize we're doing it. |
| 0:33.0 | And we learn to do it well, it feels better. |
| 0:37.0 | It feels the way you feel when you're running Wineab. |
| 0:40.0 | And to compare that, it feels a lot better than the way you were doing things beforehand. |
| 0:45.7 | Perhaps. |
| 0:47.8 | The second rule is to embrace your true expenses, which just kind of means some of these trades are going to happen further out into the future. |
| 0:55.6 | Rolling with the punches means new information may come about and that will mean that you're going |
| 1:02.2 | to trade a little differently than you originally thought. |
| 1:05.0 | And the fourth is the fourth habit, we call it. |
| 1:08.0 | We've called it rules for years, so I'm going to say that sometimes. |
| 1:11.0 | I'm just, I'm going to say rule sometimes and you are just going to be like yep it's a rule also a |
| 1:16.4 | principle a guideline a good thing to do and that is to age your money and what we're really trying to do there is just give you time to think about the next trade |
| 1:28.4 | When we say trade we just mean I've got this dollar |
| 1:32.1 | What do I want to trade it for? And we as humans are always in the |
| 1:37.0 | pursuit of trade. Always. We can't help it. And it's how wealth is created and that's that so there's this |
| 1:48.2 | bit that I've come across in my studying and I use that term very loosely but a lot of times people will talk about things |
| 1:58.8 | not having inherent value and at WINAP we, we are kind of known for not caring how you spend your money. |
... |
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