Cranking Up Your Money Dials
This week, I was lucky enough to spend my time in Lake Tahoe celebrating my Mom’s 60th birthday. For anyone who knows my Mom, you know very well that a) she doesn’t look even close to 60 and b) she can probably still run circles around you (myself included).
Tahoe was a very special place for me growing up, which is a value and tradition my Mom instilled in us because of her family trips here. She was the youngest of seven children so lugging a family that large to go on a family vacation was rarely in the cards.
This week taught me something very special. Ramit Sethi loves to talk about the concept of money dials (his blog post here or a video here). In a nutshell, money dials are the things that you absolutely love to spend on because they provide you the highest amounts of value, joy, etc.
Experiences with loved ones cracks the top of my Money Dial list, no doubt. This concept closely aligns with the concept I’ve written about how you should spend extravagantly on the things you love (aka your money dials) and cut costs mercilessly on the things you don’t.
This is why I like to refer to budgets as conscious spending plans instead of budgets. The word budget implies scarcity while conscious spending feels a bit more guilt-free.
Of the group who was here in Tahoe, we all spent quite extravagantly (my Mom included, because if you’ve met her, you know how generous she is). Here are some of the things we spent quite a bit of money on:
Multiple amazing dinner experiences at incredible restaurants (the smoke didn’t help with the views, but it was still gorgeous)
Golfing at Edgewood - probably the nicest golf course I’ll ever play (where the celebrity golf tournament is played if you’ve ever watched before)
Renting a boat and spending the day at Emerald Bay
None of these experiences were cheap, but they were worth every penny and then some because we all love my Mom and spending time with one another.
There may be some things people scoff at in the world when they figure out how much you spent on something. Don’t let them get to you. They probably just have different money dials or haven’t even taken the time to think about their own so they resort to negativity about yours.
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I’ll leave you with story this week I loved. It was about billionaire Chuck Feeney who finally spent all of his money and is officially broke.
What’s his money dial? I’d encourage you to read the article. I’ve picked out my favorite few paragraphs below, too.
Charles “Chuck” Feeney, 89, who cofounded airport retailer Duty Free Shoppers with Robert Miller in 1960, amassed billions while living a life of monklike frugality. As a philanthropist, he pioneered the idea of Giving While Living—spending most of your fortune on big, hands-on charity bets instead of funding a foundation upon death. Since you can't take it with you—why not give it all away, have control of where it goes and see the results with your own eyes?
“We learned a lot. We would do some things differently, but I am very satisfied. I feel very good about completing this on my watch,” Feeney tells Forbes. “My thanks to all who joined us on this journey. And to those wondering about Giving While Living: Try it, you'll like it.”
Over the last four decades, Feeney has donated more than $8 billion to charities, universities and foundations worldwide through his foundation, the Atlantic Philanthropies. When I first met him in 2012, he estimated he had set aside about $2 million for his and his wife's retirement. In other words, he's given away 375,000% more money than his current net worth. And he gave it away anonymously. While many wealthy philanthropists enlist an army of publicists to trumpet their donations, Feeney went to great lengths to keep his gifts secret. Because of his clandestine, globe-trotting philanthropy campaign, Forbes called him the James Bond of Philanthropy.