Money won't solve your money problems. What's a money problem?
Unpacking Naval Ravikant on the With Joe Wehbe Podcast.
Warning — I have nothing but unpopular opinions today. Enjoy.
Context — we’re doing a series on Naval Ravikant who is famous for a podcast series of his own called ‘How To Get Rich — Without Getting Lucky’.
I think Naval Ravikant is great — but I have a few challenges to make to the points around making money.
1/ ‘Money will solve your money problems’
Naval teaches us that money won’t make us happy, but that ‘money will solve your money problems’… my question, what’s a money problem?
Usually not being able to afford food, a deposit on a home, pay off your debts…
But is having too much money a money problem?
Is having to manage and allocate money a money problem?
Is an addiction to money a money problem?
Will money solve these problems?
Corrections
👉 Money helps you buy things. It can provide temporary relief in some situations when relief can be bought. Buying anti-nausea pills. Paying down a loan shark. Buying your daughter a pony. Funding your next project.
👉 Money itself can be the trigger of other problems — but probably not the problem itself. Keeping up with the Joneses is a consequence of extrinsic motivation, our drive towards status and social comparison. Poor old money is just the measuring tool.
👉 You can’t treat a headache in isolation. That’s called the Septic Focus. Can there exist a problem that is purely money-related?
2/ ‘Money buys you freedom in the material world’
Says Naval. But is the material world separate from the rest of the world? Surely not.
Are Citizen Kane style figures better off because they’re materially free?
Can money actually imprison you in the material world? 😲
I’ve spoken about the Luxury Trap before — where people raise their living expenses, take on more debt and indulge in material possessions because they have money but don’t know what they want to do with it. They have money, but lack intentionality. Now they’re worse off than when they started, because they have incredibly high outgoings to maintain.
It’s the classic keeping up with the Joneses phenomenon.
How did MC Hammer, and countless other celebrities, go broke?
Corrections
👉 ‘For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?’ — Mark 8:36
👉 Having money without the psychology to manage it is dangerous.
👉 Figure out what freedom matters most to you. But it is hard to treat freedom as though it is fungible — like you can break it apart and possess one piece of it. Your finances might be your main concern now, but what will concern you next? There’s no point ending WWI and heading straight into WWII. There’s no point removing one dictator if another will take their place.
👉 Most people try to win a battle. Win the war instead. Have total, existential freedom. What does that look like?
3/ Examples
⭐ Famous comedian and actor Joey ‘Coco’ Diaz backed himself when he was thirty one, deciding ‘I’ll be broke for ten years if it means I can focus on comedy’. He now has a lot of money as well as a comedy career.
⭐ Derek Sivers is an accidental entrepreneur. His company CD Baby blew up but he lost the love of running and leading it. He eventually sold the business for millions, but now lives travelling all over the world and avoids ownership — he doesn’t own a car, doesn’t own a property. He put proceeds from his business sale into a trust that pays him a fixed % every year to live off.
😡 But he has money! Doesn’t that go against the point!
☝ The amount he spends is nominal. It’s the Minimum Viable Lifestyle. You don’t need to be a millionaire to live this way, but if you are, you can still live this way. Most people love alcohol, some people hate it. Just because it works for everyone else doesn’t mean it will work for you.
4/ ‘Seek wealth, not money’ — Naval
But it begs the question… what the hell is wealth? Naval Ravikant defined wealth as:
Wealth is having assets that earn while you sleep.
Well, I still operate a real estate business that manages properties, those properties earn me and their owners money while they sleep, and most of those properties are a fucking headache.
👉 Can having assets that earn while you sleep actually take away your sleep?
You will have to flesh out your own definition of wealth. Consider health, family, the ability to truly live, financial wellbeing, community and beyond…
Episode of the Week
You can also go to your preferred podcast player here like Spotify, Apple Podcasts or anywhere else you listen to podcasts. The episodes on Naval Ravikant start here and go from #212—#226 on the With Joe Wehbe Podcast.
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