The Art of Spending w/ Morgan Housel #1091
How to Money
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 3.2K Ratings
🗓️ 21 January 2026
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Spending money is EASY… it’s the saving and investing that’s hard, right!? Not necessarily. Our guest today isn’t going to judge your spending habits, but he does want to help you learn what’s worth wanting. Morgan Housel wrote what many consider to be the most compelling money book in recent memory, The Psychology of Money. His new book is called The Art of Spending Money and a few of the ideas covered today:
- Spending is the ultimate purpose of money
- Independence is the most important thing money can buy
- Understanding the difference between internal and external benchmarks is crucial
- Identity should not be tied to financial metrics
- How inconsistent spending habits can lead to happiness
- Cultural shifts have changed how we view money and success
- Finding purpose beyond money is essential for a fulfilling life
- And plenty more!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.6 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:04.0 | Welcome to How to Money. |
| 0:05.6 | I'm Joel. |
| 0:06.2 | And today I'm talking the art of spending money with Morgan Houssel. |
| 0:34.0 | Thank you. Okay, so spending money is easy, right? It's saving and investing. That's the hard part of finances. |
| 0:38.9 | Well, not necessarily. So my guest today, he's not going to judge your spending habits, |
| 0:43.9 | but he does want to help you learn what's worth wanting. Morgan Housel, he wrote what many consider to be the most compelling book in recent memory, the psychology of money. His new book is |
| 0:48.9 | called The Art of Spending Money. I'm looking forward to digging in with a true legend in the personal |
| 0:53.9 | finance space today. So Morgan, thank you so much for joining me. Thanks for having me. Happy to be back. All right. First question, I got to ask you. And honestly, I can't remember what you said with, was this probably six years ago when you came on the podcast. But what is your craft beer equivalent? That tends to change over time for a lot of people, too. What do you spend money on? Like, frivolously, even though you're doing the smart and intentional thing saving for your equivalent. That tends to change over time for a lot of people too. What do you spend money on? |
| 1:15.1 | Like frivolously, even though you're doing the smart and intentional thing saving for your future simultaneously. We'll give you three different answers if that's cheating a little bit. |
| 1:19.7 | I'll allow it. The first is that I travel really well. And I pay for travel things that most |
| 1:26.6 | people would consider to be frivolous waste that I consider |
| 1:30.5 | non-negotiables. I spend a lot of my time on the road. I usually travel every week. And to me, |
| 1:36.2 | the one, it's not even a luxury when you travel that much, flying first class and doing Uber |
| 1:41.3 | black and staying at the nice hotel with the big upgraded room, |
| 1:44.6 | that becomes like survival when you're traveling as much as I do. So that is not negotiable to me. |
| 1:50.3 | That's one element. The other that's more general over time is that I'm much more willing now |
| 1:56.2 | to pay up for the quality item that I think will last longer. That could be anything from a washer and dryer to close, whatever it might be. |
| 2:05.1 | If there's a next level up that I think this one's going to last a couple years more, |
| 2:09.0 | great. |
| 2:09.3 | Now let's do that. |
... |
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