Part One Here

Group your spending into buckets:

• Essential
• Discretionary
• Luxury

The most “costly” part of the pie is whatever you happen to believe is “essential.” It usually doesn’t feel this way => you truly believe you need this stuff. I feel the same!

When you suffer your first serious setback, you’ll be surprised how little is essential. In 2009, I cut my “essential” in half, overnight.

Similarly, as we age, we may find we were giving time, money and attention to things that don’t seem to matter anymore.

Know your buckets – they will help you think more clearly.

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Remember => I think of wealth in time

Specifically, Net Worth expressed in “years spending.”

$1,000,000 / $125,000 = 8 years

As we change the spending, we change the years.

Risk, and INFLATION, are easily mitigated when you understand how easily you can change spending.

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Risk Concept => not all spending, or financial obligations, are created equal

Be most aware of:

Debt, including contingent – an obligation where non-payment can force the sale of an asset

Spending that comes with spending – large HOA/Club fees come to mind here – put plainly, a hotel visits feel just the same on an ego, yet, don’t require an annual membership fee

Going further => Don’t Capitalize Luxury Spending => the “luxury bucket” from above, if you turn it into a capital obligation then it can bite you, especially when combined with debt.

We don’t need to own the hotel to receive the services offered to a guest.

Same with… plane, waterfront, ski chalet… whatever you find inside your “luxury” bucket.

Staying flexible with the ability to stop spending can feel like a “waste” – even more so when highly-leveraged peers appear to be making easy money.

This feeling is false!

• We over-estimate the value of current spending
• We adapt very quickly to any level of spending
• We notice changes, not absolutes

You are paying for the flexibility to: (a) stop paying; (b) change your mind; and (c) keep your capital invested productively.

Also remember, the generation that follows will build upon your spending.

The choices of family leaders scale.

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This concept is important as we age:

1. We will want to spend on different things
2. We will want to “do” different things
3. The generation that follows us:
   1. they will INDIVIDUALLY want to spend differently
   2. they will certainly want to do different things
   3. they will have a thirst for more

For your future self, and your legacy, give maximum flexibility to change.

You will most certainly change your mind later.