The author of The Psychology of Money, Morgan Housel, has a new book “The Art of Spending Money” out this month. Its main point is that people tend to be happier spending money on things they value for their own sake- rather than things they buy to impress others, or piling up money as a yardstick to measure themselves against others (this is repeated with many variations).
Overall it is well-written at the level of sentences and paragraphs with well-chosen stories and quotes, but I’m not sure what it all adds up to. The main points seem obvious to me, though maybe that’s my fault for reading a book titled this when I’m already fairly happy with how I spend money. I think I err a bit on the frugal side, but I just don’t see many opportunities to turn money into happiness by spending it- I was maybe hoping for ideas on that front but I got none from the book. After reading it I don’t plan to do anything differently and don’t find myself thinking about spending differently.
Still, some highlights. The book is full of well-chosen quotes from others:
Warren Buffett- one of the richest men in history, who could literally buy anything he wanted- once said, “When you get to my age, you’ll really measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you…. the trouble with love is that you can’t buy it.
Irish novelist Iris Murdoch brilliantly framed the curse of not appreciating what you have: “People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us”
Housel also makes some good points himself, or at least points that match well with how I’ve been thinking about things in recent years:
People love to gawk at the power of compounding when investing their money. It’s much harder to think about the value of compounding memories you get by trading money for time, but the results can be just as incredible…. trading money for time, rather than trading it for stuff, because having more time is going to provide greater joy in your life- is probably the most overlooked aspect of spending money
If I save $100 for the future, what does that cost me today? I don’t think the answer is $100, or anything close to it. Sure, I could have used that money today to buy a $100 shirt or a $100 dinner with friends. But by saving it for the future, I gain something today: $100 in independence.
4/5 stars, just read The Psychology of Money if you haven’t yet, then pick this up if you find yourself unhappy with your relationship to spending money.
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