Money School with Mark Butler

When we ask money to change or maintain our emotional state, we make ourselves more less able to change with changes in our circumstances. This episode talks about the non-financial jobs we give our money, the risks that introduces into our lives, and how we can move from an externally-driven emotional state to a more sustainable internally-driven way of being.

Money is not a source of contention in a relationship, but we think it is because it exposes the dissonance between us. I know you think money is an issue in your relationship, but I promise it's not the money. The money is simply revealing something about the partnership. The solution starts with 1) honesty about our individual desires and motivations, 2) kindness toward our significant other, and 3) refusing to perpetuate parent/child dynamics.

There are people who treat money as a religion whose deadliest sin is being in debt. I'm no lover of debt, and I do plan to become and stay debt-free, but I don't think it's anything to shout or shame about. This episode offers a new perspective on debt, including a discussion of the reasons we get into debt (sometimes emotional, others not), the way to get out of debt without focusing on debt, and the difference between "borrowing" and "having debt."

I believe there are two reasons we accumulate money in the form of savings and retirement accounts. Our first goal is to keep consumption smooth. Our second goal is to make our income less expensive. Once you realize those are the real reasons we save, you're open to a totally new perspective on financial "safety" and "retirement". Hint: you can be both "safe" and "retired" in the relatively near future. This episode explains how.

The personal finance world obsesses over expense-cutting and debt-avoidance (and debt elimination). You can only reduce expenses so much; eventually the next dollar cut will meaningfully impact your quality of life. This episode explains why I think income-creation is the most-import, highest-leverage skill in personal finance.

In 2013 I decided to figure out my financial life. I studied my expenses to figure out how much I was spending, and on what, and most important of all: why. Money School class two will inspire you to open the black box of your spending habits, dig around in it, and find out what really matters to you.

The goal is not to cut spending. If you do this exercise with sincerity, you'll find your spending increases in some areas and decreases in others. But the spending isn't really the point. The point is self-understanding and acceptance. If you want to change your behavior after that, great.

Oh, and this class also features my infamous Costco story. You won't want to miss it.

The goal of Money School is to help you feel better about your finances. The negative emotions you feel about money might be coming from other people's beliefs or 'conventional wisdom' about money that's so common we treat it as fact. Money School class #1 was all about identifying and challenging ideas like "need vs want," "afford vs can't afford," "abundance vs scarcity," and "debt is evil."

In this live session I invited three different people to join me on the call to work through their struggles with these topics. This is the first in a six-part series.