Carl Richards on Money Conversations, Financial Planning, and Why Couples Fight About Money

Oh, I mean... it's such a challenging question to narrow it down to one or two things.

Um, because it's really, it's, it's, it's, it's so interesting to me that a lifetime of success with money is actually super, super simple, right? And, and, and not to be confused with easy, um, And I think the reason it's still hard is in part because it's so simple.

You know, it's an interesting paradox because it feels to the brain.

And I also think like genetic wiring,

we feel like it's got to be more complex than this,

right? Because it feels so important.

And there's this thing that goes on in our minds when you feel like something's important,

you think it must be complex, right?

And so I think what we get wrong most of the time is probably back to our earlier conversation about we're continually looking for the hack.

You know, the seven tricks.

When it turns out that everything of value, and I would go so far as to say everything of value in my life, and this is just an observation from my life.

I don't know if we can, I don't know where the boundary conditions are of this.

It's not advice.

But everything of value in my life is the result of compounding.

Like my relationships with my kids, result of compounding.

It's the result of doing small, simple things repeatedly over time.

My health, my sleep, anything related to money, my relationships, it's all very small, very simple things done repeatedly over time.

And so I think financial planning, a lifetime success with money, a good relationship with money, is not amenable to hacks.

It's not amenable to shortcuts.

And so I think the one thing we get wrong is like, man, and then to like anybody listening that's younger and university, early career, take all of your time devoted to try and getting a greater return on your investment.

And maximize your human capital, right? Yes.

Like,

figure out how to make yourself more bad.

Because it turns out that stuff over there that everybody's waving their hands about on the Financial Pornography Network makes almost no difference relative to doing small, simple things over time and focusing on your own human capital in terms of your ability to earn income.

Yes, yes, absolutely.