What are your "money rules"?

Office Hours
#1

Hey Jeremy, not sure if you’re familiar with Ramit Sethi and his concept of “money rules” (Ramit is great BTW!) - but they are his 10 PERSONAL money rules that he lives life by and encourages others to come up with their own set of money rules as well. These should be personal and not necessarily recommendations for others.

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Could you share with us what YOUR 10(ish) money rules are?

For reference, these are mine!

  1. Prioritize and max out your annual retirement contributions.
  2. Max out your contribution to your company’s ESPP. Cash out and reinvest in a more diversified portfolio at the end of each period (unless you work at Amazon or Apple).
  3. When you get a discount: you’re not “saving" money, remember that you’re still spending on something.
  4. Before you buy a home: RUN THE NUMBERS and factor in the TCO, not just the mortgage cost. Plan to live there for at least 5 years.
  5. Maximize your earnings. Buy low-cost funds.
  6. Cut unnecessary reoccurring expenses and negotiate down all of your bills and payments.
  7. Be frugal, but don’t be cheap.
  8. Prioritize spending your money on experiences, not things.
  9. Find and marry the right partner. They will have the single biggest impact on your finances.
  10. Always have a plan. And a backup plan (prepare for the worst).

Understand if you don’t get to this one but thought it would be interesting!

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#2

This was a good read thanks for sharing!

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#3

Very nice, thanks for sharing.

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#4

For those interested, here is some more context from Ramit about his money rules https://twitter.com/ramit/status/1315027769290440704?s=21

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#5

I’ll cover this in tonight’s office hours (12/2/2020) with the recording available afterwards on the course site!

If you’re not signed up for office hours, you can sign up here.

#6

From Me to Everyone: (8:16 PM)
@chronicallyillfinanciallyfit

  1. We donate to any charities when asked, especially for anything related to health and children.
  2. We enjoy our money
  3. We prioritize self care: therapy, massages, + good quality food
  4. We work hard but set work aside when not at work
  5. We plan to stay married and do the work to continue enjoying our relationship. Divorce is expensive and being unhappily married is worse. We choose to do neither.
  6. We value experiences over things
  7. We protect our health and family - short and long term disability insurance, term life insurance, excellent health insurance, and prioritize other work benefits like time off as equal to level of pay in terms of importance
  8. The best investments is one you can live in if it all goes to shit. We wouldn’t buy a property we wouldn’t feel comfortable living in. However, we keep our investments varied and simple. Real estate, VTSAX through our Roth IRA, and my pension
  9. We don’t care what we drive as long as it runs
  10. We prioritize quality over quantity - except for wine and cheese (then we require both)

Bonus ones:
We don’t buy Samsung products unless its a TV
We buy most furniture from estate sales or build our own
Anything we can learn how to do for ourselves and enjoy the process, we learn
We plan for the future - and constantly discuss and readjust

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#7
  • Money is a construct created by society. People and my time matter more than dollars. (That being said, they’re very useful to have.)
  • Live on less than I make. No exceptions. If I want more money, go make more money.
  • Maximize all possible earning boosts: Employer match on 401k, education stipends from work, shopping portals and credit card points/miles for free travel and experiences.
  • Put all possible spend on credit cards, and pay them off in full each month unless in super-specific cases (I funded a home reno on a 0% APR credit card once, then paid it off in cash when the promo term was up).
  • After tax, my priorities go in this order: Savings, bills, charitable giving, groceries, fun. If I don’t have fun money left over, oh well. I’ll either go make more, or else I go without fun until next month.
  • Splurge on the things that matter to me, and cut out all of the expenses that don’t (This is Ramit-influenced)
  • Separate finances from romantic partners, but with transparency in a relationship and shared access (with freedom to terminate access) in marriage. I believe this is wildly important, especially for women: Financial dependence is a huge trap in abusive situations.
  • Track my expenditures each month and monitor my net worth growth.
  • On that note… serious romantic partners who do not have and follow their own set of money rules are a dealbreaker.
  • Always spend on professional mental health support.
  • Book that trip — ideally on points.

I think there are more, but they’d get pretty specific.

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#8

Wow, these are really good Katherine thanks for sharing! Love your point about splurging, or as Ramit puts it “living your rich life”. Honestly between Jeremy and Ramit I think we have all the information we’ll ever need!

Also like your point about finances being kept separate from partner but with transparency. No partner should be/should have to be financially dependent on their partner

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