Morgan Housel: What You Need to Master (And Avoid) to Get Rich, Stay Rich, and Build Wealth

The skills it takes to get rich are drastically different from the skills it takes to stay rich. Few understand this phenomenon more than Morgan Housel.

In this conversation, Shane and Housel discuss various aspects of risk-taking, wealth accumulation, and financial independence. Morgan explains the importance of understanding personal financial goals and the dangers of social comparison, lets everyone in on his personal financial “mistake” that instantly made him sleep better at night, and why the poorest people in the world disproportionately play the lottery—and why it makes sense that they do. They also touch on the influence of upbringing on financial behaviors, the difference between being rich and wealthy, and the critical role of compounding in financial success. Of course, we can’t have a writer as good as Morgan Housel on the podcast and not ask him about his process, so Housel concludes with insights into storytelling, his writing processes, and the importance of leading by example in teaching financial values to children.

Morgan Housel is a partner at Collaborative Fund. Previously, he was an analyst at The Motley Fool. He is a two-time winner of the Best in Business Award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers and was selected by the Columbia Journalism Review for the Best Business Writing anthology. He’s the author of two books: The Psychology of Money and Same as Ever.

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00:00 - Intro
01:20 - Risk and income
04:14 - On luck and skill
06:44 - Buffett's secret strategy
09:02 - The one trait you need to build wealth
12:54 - Housel's capital allocation strategy
13:22 - Index funds, explained
17:33 - Expectations and moving goalposts
18:51 - Your house: asset or liability?
24:13 - Money lies we believe
28:46 - How to avoid status games
31:38 - Money rules from parents
36:49 - Rich vs. wealthy
38:20 - Housel's influential role models
39:22 - Why are rich people miserable?
42:33 - How success sows the seeds of average performance
46:24 - On risk
47:33 - Making money, spending money, saving money
49:24 - How the Vanderbilt's squandered their wealth
1:00:45 - How to manage your expectations
01:03:00 - How to talk to kids about money
01:06:26 - The biggest risk to capitalism
01:10:30 - The magic of compounding
01:12:52 - How Morgan reads
01:19:16 - How to tell the best story
01:21:16 - How Morgan writes
01:32:16 - Parting wisdom and thoughts on success

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ABOUT THE KNOWLEDGE PROJECT
Like the mentor you’ve always dreamed of having, The Knowledge Project shares timely yet timeless lessons for work and life. Past guests include Naval Ravikant, Daniel Kahneman, Jim Collins, Angela Duckworth, Seth Godin, Melanie Mitchell, & Esther Perel.

[tkppodcast]

Share your favorite part of the convo below 👇

[alexsteven.m]

Building wealth involves developing good habits like regularly putting money away in intervals for solid investments. Instead of trying to predict and prognosticate the stability of the market and precisely when the change is going to happen, a better strategy is simply having a portfolio that’s well prepared for any eventually, that’s how some folks' been averaging 150K every 7week these past 4months according to Bloomberg.

[gingerkilkus]

Sometimes Protecting your capital is much more important than making money. Basically because if you lose your capital, making money is much harder. ''Missing the train'' vs. ''losing your money''. There are a lot of trains, but if your money is gone, it's over.

[jerrycampbell-utyf]

Developing sound investing habits is a key component of building wealth. Rather than attempting to forecast market stability and the exact moment when a shift will occur, a better course of action is to simply have a well-diversified portfolio. As Bloomberg reports, some people have been investing $150K every seven weeks for the past four months on average.

[TickerSymbolYOU]

It's criminal that YouTube didn't push this podcast to everyone on planet Earth. This should have 12M views. Awesome episode!

[caseybills]

Your commitment to educating your audience is truly admirable. We all aspire to attain financial stability and improve our lives. This goal can be achieved through smart investments, mindful spending, and prudent budgeting. I'm thankful for realizing the significance of striving for financial freedom from a young age.

[Angelinacortez]

The US economy's influence on the global economy means that its instability has far-reaching consequences. In such times, safe-haven assets like those with strong FA and cryptocurrencies offer protection. Investors must prioritize asset protection, diversification, and balanced portfolios to weather market fluctuations.

[lukefisherDD]

As an investing enthusiast, I often wonder how top level investors are able to become millionaires off investing. . I’ve been sitting on over $545K equity from a home sale and I’m not sure where to go from here, is it a good time to buy into stocks or do I wait for another opportunity?.

[benjaminsmith]

The difficulties that the current generation faces are quite depressing. I wanted to know how to use some money that I had. I used a small portion of it for online sales, but that failed. My primary concern is safeguarding my $300K stock portfolio from loss, but I'm not sure how to go about it.

[JohannLang-ry]

I feel investors should be focusing on small caps stocks, and considering the current rollercoaster nature of the stock market, Because 35% of my $270k portfolio comprises of plummeting stocks which were once revered and i don't know where to go here out of devastation.

[Riggsnic_co]

These are very valuable rules for anybody who wants to get rich. Unfortunately, most people who will watch this video will not really be able to apply the principles. We may not want to admit, but as Warren Buffett once said, investing is like any other profession-- it requires a certain level of expertise. No surprise that some people are losing a lot of money in the bear market, while others are making hundreds of thousands in profit. I just don't know how they do it. I have about $89k now to put in the market.

[natasharobinson]

“Wealth is the money that you don’t spend” was my favourite part

[Willi-wq]

Its worse here, our economy is like a flailing fish, fighting for its life. The normal state of the U.S. economy is actually very bad. Because of this it goes into convulsive spasms fighting to grow any way it can out of desperation. Tricks, gimmicks, rule changes try to stimulate the economy and prevent it from falling but they only bring temporary relief to people since, when you factor in inflation we are declining.

[Shery]

“To be average for an above average period of time’ my new mantra!

[Ziggler-kykv]

The fact that nobody talks about the book Matrix Golden Cashflow Tactics, speaks volumes why people dont earn a lot of money..

[MigelBottinelli]

*Money is not meant to control people, rather it is meant to be put to work producing more money for you. You cannot build wealth without putting money in its rightful place*

[Willycheng]

This time last year I considered investing without much knowledge and decided to have a consultation with a fiduciary, and it was incredibly insightful. One year and a couple of months in, and I'm almost debt free. I truly cannot stress enough how helpful experts in this field are!

[MaryLawson]

The economy is grappling with uncertainties, global fluctuations, and pandemic aftermath, causing instability. Rising inflation, sluggish growth, and trade disruptions need urgent attention from all sectors to restore stability and stimulate growth.

[muxi]

I listen to every Morgan episode. He says the same things on most episodes but I always come away with something new from it.

[bennettross]

I lost over $80k when everything started to tank. Not because I was in an exchange that went belly up. I was just stupid to hold and because that's what everyone said. I'm still responsible. It just taught me to be a better investor now that I understand more of what could go wrong. It took me over two years of being in the market, I'm really grateful I found one source to recover my money, at least $10k profits weekly. Thanks Brooke Miller.