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Speaker 1: Hey, Joel, you're hearing my voice first, and you know

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Speaker 1: that means it's a bestI episode, best the episode of

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Speaker 1: Christmas Day, best Man, Marry Christmas? To you, Marry Christmas?

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Speaker 1: Do you Marry Christmas? To everyone listening, I receive your

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Speaker 1: well wishes. I hope you're listening to this to day

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Speaker 1: after Christmas. Hope you're delayed like you're listening, because Christmas

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Speaker 1: Day not a time to be listening to Money podcast

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Speaker 1: right now. Sometimes you need to get out of the house,

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Speaker 1: you're you want to kind of take a break from

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Speaker 1: the family, go on a nice brisk walk with that

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Speaker 1: fresh air. Okay, actually sounds really good, but it's like

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Speaker 1: seven or eight pm, like after you spent that good

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Speaker 1: time with the fan. But of course we're releasing a bestie.

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Speaker 1: It's Christmas Day, Like we need some time off too,

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Speaker 1: but we're this episode that we're rereleasing. We talked about money,

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Speaker 1: Your Brain and Buying Happiness, which, by the way, I

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Speaker 1: think that specific title is one of our best titles. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: Money your Brain and Buying Happiness. It feels like that

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Speaker 1: your Brain on drugs kind of thing the Friday, right, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I'm particularly fascinated by behavioral finance and kind of what

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Speaker 1: makes us tick and what makes us do what we do.

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Speaker 1: And I think sometimes when we understand kind of what's

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Speaker 1: happening but the surface, when it comes to the actions

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Speaker 1: that are causing us to delay saving, to actually a

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Speaker 1: crue debt to buy more stuff, just that awareness can

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Speaker 1: help us then begin to curb some of those habits

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Speaker 1: that have become ingrained and that are leading us down

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Speaker 1: a path of handling our finances poorly. So, yeah, I

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Speaker 1: really enjoyed this episode and I think it's definitely worthy

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Speaker 1: of our replay here. Certainly, well, we we dive into

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Speaker 1: hedonic adaptation as well on this episode. Part of that

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Speaker 1: is that there's basically this sort of baseline happiness that

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Speaker 1: we have regardless if good things or bad things happen

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Speaker 1: to us. And I think this is timely as well,

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Speaker 1: with it being Christmas, that sometimes folks get bummed out

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Speaker 1: around the holidays or you know, like right after the holidays,

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Speaker 1: and I think sometimes people put a lot of stock

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Speaker 1: into just the parties and the presence and all of that,

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Speaker 1: and there's this high, whether it be emotional or just

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Speaker 1: whatever you have going on, and then a few days

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Speaker 1: later that's not there, and you're kind of like, oh man,

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Speaker 1: all all that excitement is kind of gone. You never

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Speaker 1: see that with children after opening all those presidents like

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Speaker 1: the crash, Like, oh my gosh, I just had the

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Speaker 1: best time in my life, and now what do I

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Speaker 1: have to look at? Everything sucks? It's all over. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: But like you said, the just the awareness of it, right,

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Speaker 1: I think in this way it's good to be aware

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Speaker 1: of that as well, because sometimes folks do struggle with that,

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Speaker 1: and certainly there's a lot of reasons that folks might

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Speaker 1: deal with that around the holidays, but this might be

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Speaker 1: one of them. And so keep that in mind when

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Speaker 1: it comes to spending and how that can influence, you know,

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Speaker 1: your mood and even beyond your mood. So yeah, that's

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Speaker 1: why we're replaying this episode. Joel. You mentioned, like, you know,

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Speaker 1: kids kind of being bummed out or something like that

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Speaker 1: after the holidays. Did you ever have a gift that

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Speaker 1: you didn't receive as a kid or even as an

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Speaker 1: adult where you were totally sad about because you didn't

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Speaker 1: receive that one gift. I'm sure there was, Like, honestly,

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Speaker 1: I can't think of anything at the time, and it's

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Speaker 1: not because I always got everything I wanted, because it

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Speaker 1: certainly wasn't the case. Sure, baby Joel, Christmas were pretty

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Speaker 1: chill around our house, but I specifically remember I think

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Speaker 1: my biggest Christmas let down. I remember the hardest Christmas ever,

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Speaker 1: and it was because my dad had to work on

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Speaker 1: Christmas Day and I just remember like us sitting around

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Speaker 1: our whole fan, my mom, my two sisters, and we

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Speaker 1: were just counting down the minutes until my dad got

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Speaker 1: home because I think I think he probably gonna hold

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Speaker 1: off and do gifts until he got hung exactly. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: So like we're like staring at the presence under the

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Speaker 1: tree and we couldn't unwrap until like, oh my gosh,

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Speaker 1: this ontally sucks. Yeah, it was like two thirty in

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Speaker 1: the afternoon before we could actually get cracking. So I

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Speaker 1: think that was probably the hardest Christmas for me. But also,

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Speaker 1: you know what, that was probably a really good lesson

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Speaker 1: for me to learn too, that you wake up and

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Speaker 1: you gotta wait for everybody. You gotta wait for your

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Speaker 1: whole fan. So it was hard, but looking back, I

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Speaker 1: kind of looked back on it with fondness. Too. Well,

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Speaker 1: there you go. My my parents like to recount the

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Speaker 1: story of me as a little kid, where I had,

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Speaker 1: of course, as a little kid, plenty of amazing, fantastic gifts.

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Speaker 1: But you know what, I didn't receive hungry hungry hippos

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Speaker 1: as a little kid. I was so bummed because I

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Speaker 1: had my heart set on that for whatever reason. And

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Speaker 1: my parents asked me, were you happy? You know, did

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Speaker 1: did you have a good Christmas? And I kind of

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Speaker 1: looked up at him and just said, but I didn't

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Speaker 1: get my hungry, hungry hippos. I could just imagine young

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Speaker 1: Matt so disappointed. They were just like you, ungrateful, a

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Speaker 1: little punk. Well, hopefully, I'm sure we're gonna experience that

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Speaker 1: with our kids someday where they're just totally unhappy with

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Speaker 1: how it goes down. But those are learning experiences for

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Speaker 1: all of us. And and again, ultimately, we're not satisfied

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Speaker 1: by the more we accrue, and I think this episode

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Speaker 1: points us in that direction. There's some really good information

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Speaker 1: here and it was a fun one to create. Some

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Speaker 1: I'm really excited to re release this one on Christmas Day. Matt.

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Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy yours with your family, my friend,

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Speaker 1: and uh yeah, for everybody out there, Merry Christmas, happy Holidays,

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Speaker 1: happy honka, whatever you celebrate. We're glad you listen to

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Speaker 1: the show, and we're thankful you're a part of our

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Speaker 1: podcast community. Yes, that is right, man, So without further ado,

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Speaker 1: here's that episode. Welcome to How to Money. I'm Joel

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Speaker 1: and I am Matt, and today we're discussing money, your brain,

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Speaker 1: and buying happiness. Joel, what's up? What's up? Best, buddy?

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Speaker 1: Hey man? I wanted to mention I asked you how

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Speaker 1: you're doing, but then I just immediately moved on, you

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Speaker 1: don't care about me. How are you doing? I'm fantastic, dude.

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Speaker 1: I really am uh slight cold. I feel like I

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Speaker 1: might have a touch of the sniffles. I hope people

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Speaker 1: out there don't notice. It's too bad, but I feel excellent.

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Speaker 1: Other than that, well you look excellent. Thank you, my friend.

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Speaker 1: So um. A couple episodes ago, I mentioned how my

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Speaker 1: credit score got dinged because I got confused when it

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Speaker 1: came to paying a payment through a credit union because

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Speaker 1: they had a jankie, almost nonfunctioning website, which we did

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Speaker 1: say was is one of the biggest downfalls to doing

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Speaker 1: business with the credit huge, huge downside. So many positives,

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Speaker 1: but there is the fact that they're running on like

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Speaker 1: Microsoft Doss level systems. Yeah, it really is like Geo

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Speaker 1: CDs but for banking. But you mentioned at the end

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Speaker 1: of that little piece, at the end of that segment,

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Speaker 1: you kind of suggested for me to give the credit

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Speaker 1: union a call. And then a couple of days after that,

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Speaker 1: I thought, man, I really should have given them a call.

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Speaker 1: You're like, and that got Joel. He's right, he's so smart. Um, oh,

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Speaker 1: I didn't because I was able to quickly after that

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Speaker 1: applied for another credit card because I like the credit

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Speaker 1: card sign up bonuses. Yet again, I talked about that

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Speaker 1: too much and I got it, so I didn't. I

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Speaker 1: was like, who cares, right, but just the principle of it,

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Speaker 1: and I kind of wanted to see how easy it was.

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Speaker 1: And dude, it was so easy. I called up my

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Speaker 1: credit union and yeah, man, I just told him the

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Speaker 1: straight up truth. I said, hey, I got a little sloppy.

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Speaker 1: This is my first time working with you guys, and

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Speaker 1: notice I had a delinquent payment. I was talking to

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Speaker 1: the lady. She was super nice and said, all right,

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Speaker 1: right now, I'm gonna go ahead and send you a

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Speaker 1: letter and you just take a look at that fill

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Speaker 1: it out. And basically it was a letter for disputing

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Speaker 1: something that was incorrectly reported on your credit report, right,

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Speaker 1: but the problem is that it was correctly reported. And

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Speaker 1: so I told her that. I was just like hey,

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Speaker 1: I said, hey, nothing was done and properly or incorrectly.

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Speaker 1: I'm just looking for forgiveness, like some mercy, you know.

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Speaker 1: And she totally heard me. It was just like, you know,

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Speaker 1: let me see what I can do. She stuck me on. Hold.

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Speaker 1: How was the hold music? Oh, I will say, it

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Speaker 1: wasn't like the big Bank hold music where it's like

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Speaker 1: the you know, talking about it. Yes, because they couldn't

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Speaker 1: afford that jump. But somebody else got on, like some

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Speaker 1: Brian Adams rolling at the background of something like the Summer.

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Speaker 1: But they got somebody else on, dude, And within five

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Speaker 1: minutes they were like, yeah, we can take care of

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Speaker 1: that for you. And I was like, wait, seriously, like yeah,

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Speaker 1: I don't even worry about filling out the letter. And

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Speaker 1: I asked, is there some sort of confirmation number? And

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Speaker 1: they say, well, we'll go ahead and send you an

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Speaker 1: email once we can. Once we send the email out

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Speaker 1: to the three credit agencies, to the three credit bureaus. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: we'll confirm that and send that TUV email. And then

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Speaker 1: two minutes later I got that email as well. So

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Speaker 1: twenty minutes later, from start to finish, I had that

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Speaker 1: lifted off of my credit report. How cool is that?

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Speaker 1: Boom shakaka buddy to go. Yeah, so I'm doing my

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Speaker 1: best NBA j in at first day show, and I

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Speaker 1: wanted to share that because I wanted folks to know

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Speaker 1: how crazy easy it was to just ask for forgiveness

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Speaker 1: in this case, and specifically working with the Credit Union.

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Speaker 1: We kind of knocked them last time, how they just

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Speaker 1: don't have a a slick of an interface and how

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Speaker 1: their controls that's just not very user friendly, I guess,

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Speaker 1: but they make up for it in real human interaction,

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Speaker 1: and because of that, I still I'm happy with that

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Speaker 1: Credit Union. Man. Yeah, that's awesome. Man, I thank you

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Speaker 1: for challenging me, by the way, of course, Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: love that because I feel like most of the time,

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Speaker 1: people resign themselves to whatever it is in their life,

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Speaker 1: you know, whether it's paying too much for cable or

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Speaker 1: whether it is something happens that they forgot about and

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Speaker 1: they're like, well, I guess that's the system, and I

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Speaker 1: gotta pay the price. And I think most of the time, right,

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Speaker 1: that is the system. But you can make a request, right,

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Speaker 1: you can make a phone call, you can ask for forgiveness.

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Speaker 1: And the same thing has happened to me before. Let's say, uh,

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Speaker 1: we paid the credit card bill like two days late.

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Speaker 1: I feel like every time that has happened, which is

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Speaker 1: super rare, like once every three or four years, that happens.

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Speaker 1: And then I call the credit card company and they

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Speaker 1: waived the late fee and they waived the interest charges.

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Speaker 1: And that's just one of those things that most people

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Speaker 1: don't think to ask. They just say, well, I guess

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Speaker 1: that's what happens. This is kind of how it is

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Speaker 1: to move on with life. You know, it sounded like

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Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago and we talked about that,

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Speaker 1: you were thinking, all right, well, I guess you know

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Speaker 1: it's fine, it's something big of a deal. I'm glad

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Speaker 1: you made the call because you found something out and

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Speaker 1: he found out that, like, you can do it. And

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Speaker 1: then most people, most of the times companies will respond

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Speaker 1: positively if you just if it was something small and

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Speaker 1: by the way, well, especially with your local credit unionship,

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Speaker 1: That's what I'm gonna say, but especially with a local

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Speaker 1: credit union company that actually cares about you, because, to

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Speaker 1: be honest, if that was well Fargo, well Fargo, not

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Speaker 1: so much. Another one happened in all likelihood. So yeah,

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Speaker 1: I love that. And sometimes all you gotta do is ask,

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Speaker 1: all right, And Matt, I wanted to mention to you.

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Speaker 1: The other day, I was at Costco because that happens

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Speaker 1: every other week usually for me, and they got all

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Speaker 1: the Christmas toys and stuff like that out, and I

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Speaker 1: noticed that they're selling smart watches for kids, and that

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Speaker 1: just seemed like the craziest, creepiest thing to me. And

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Speaker 1: I don't really have much to say about it except

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Speaker 1: for the fact, at what are we doing to our kids?

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Speaker 1: How should we be thinking about how our kids are

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Speaker 1: on screens, how they interact with the technology. I just

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Speaker 1: thought that having a smart watch something that's buzzing on

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Speaker 1: a kid's arm. And I don't know exactly what ages

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Speaker 1: they're intended for specifically, but it just seemed like to me,

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Speaker 1: as you know, two guys who we try to be

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Speaker 1: conscious about how much we use technology and then how

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Speaker 1: much our kids do. To write, like I don't know

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Speaker 1: about you, but my kids are not allowed to use

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Speaker 1: smartphones or iPads ever. Ever. I just don't see that

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Speaker 1: as good for them right now in their developmental cycles exactly.

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Speaker 1: But just to see that it's becoming like a new

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Speaker 1: thing and that kids for Christmas are going to get

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Speaker 1: a smart watch and they'll be on their technology and

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Speaker 1: attached to text messaging and Twitter and Instagram whatever even

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Speaker 1: more on their wrist, I don't know, it just seemed

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Speaker 1: a little scary to me. Yeah, well, I was gonna ask,

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Speaker 1: how did you know that they were meant for kids

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Speaker 1: because of all the colors, and yeah, yeah, it's the colors. Well,

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Speaker 1: it's the section they're in, so they're not Yeah, it's like,

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Speaker 1: didn't say, because if it's just colorful, like I could

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Speaker 1: see you wearing one of those, and like, oh man,

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Speaker 1: I love that thing. I do. I do like colorful stuff,

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Speaker 1: and so yeah, but no, it was totally labeled as

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Speaker 1: a kid's smart ride. I didn't even I don't even

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Speaker 1: remember how much it was or I don't know how

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Speaker 1: many functions they perform. I just thought that that trend,

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Speaker 1: overall trend in general, just a little Yeah, that's so great.

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Speaker 1: There was an article recently on New York Times. Did

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Speaker 1: you see that article going around about kids and screens,

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Speaker 1: like whether it be smartphones or tablets that I thought

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Speaker 1: that was super enlightening. Yeah. Right, And so they're talking

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Speaker 1: about how it used to be where one tablet per kid.

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Speaker 1: It was like a huge selling point. So parents would

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Speaker 1: see that and think, oh, this is the school system

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Speaker 1: I want to be in, or this is the class

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Speaker 1: that I want my kid, and that that sort of thing.

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Speaker 1: They saw it as an advantage. But what was crazy

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Speaker 1: without article is that they were highlighting how the sort

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Speaker 1: of more knowledgeable folks in Silicon Valley specifically that had

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Speaker 1: created the technology and we're behind the programming and the

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Speaker 1: ones who were in charge of making it addicting and

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Speaker 1: satisfying to be on your phone to like hit the

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Speaker 1: refresh where it's like a slot machine. Right, they're the

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Speaker 1: ones who are not allowing their kids to be on tablets.

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Speaker 1: They're the ones who are pushing for reform within the

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Speaker 1: school systems to not have any sort of technology like

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Speaker 1: that to force kids to talk to each other. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and if they respond to their teachers. I feel like

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Speaker 1: that was a thing too where Steve Jobs was the

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Speaker 1: kind of the first person where that kind of came up,

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Speaker 1: where he was asked about his kids playing on an

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Speaker 1: iPad back in the day, and he said, what are

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Speaker 1: you talking about. I would never let my kids use

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Speaker 1: one of these things. And that's kind of the general

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Speaker 1: trend in Silicon Valley is the people that create this

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Speaker 1: technology to keep us addicted, they're not letting their own

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Speaker 1: kids play on phones or are you crazy, Yeah, not

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Speaker 1: letting their own kids play Fortnite or download those apps

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Speaker 1: because they know, you know, what it does and it

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Speaker 1: turns out how it turns us into zombies. And so yeah,

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Speaker 1: I thought that was a really enlightening article just from

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Speaker 1: the standpoint that the people that create these technologies aren't

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Speaker 1: letting their own offspring participate. And for me, I mean,

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Speaker 1: it makes me think twice about how much I let

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Speaker 1: my kids engage with those things. I don't want them

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Speaker 1: to know what an app is yet, you know, when

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Speaker 1: just in kindergarten and something like, I want them to

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Speaker 1: be to be blissfully ignorant for quite a while to come.

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Speaker 1: And I thought the kids smart watches was like this

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Speaker 1: opposite point where we're slipper slow man. Yeah, we're technologizing

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Speaker 1: our kids to death at the same time. So interesting stuff. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and interestingly too. We're gonna we'll kind of get towards

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Speaker 1: some of that at the end of this episode. But

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Speaker 1: we talked about we're talking about happiness to a certain extent,

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Speaker 1: and that's just a distraction. The technology, the screens, the games,

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Speaker 1: the apps are like all a lot of that our distractions,

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Speaker 1: and there are things that promise happiness, and uh yeah,

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Speaker 1: by the end of this episode, I think we will

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Speaker 1: kind of get to some of the things that actually

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Speaker 1: do provide happiness and how you can't actually buy it,

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Speaker 1: but if you could, you would buy a beer because

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Speaker 1: beer makes you happy. And let's tell everyone we're drinking

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Speaker 1: right now. So our buddy Andrew donated a beer for

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Speaker 1: the show that he brought back from Chicago. It is

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Speaker 1: Mars Brewing, Mars Community Brewing. Oh yeah, manget fera Flux

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Speaker 1: and this is a berlinervice with mangoes and Brett. So

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Speaker 1: we will tell you more about this magnificent mango beer

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Speaker 1: at the end of the show. All right, man, you

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Speaker 1: want to kick it off, yeah, buddy, So let's get

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Speaker 1: into this money your brain and buying happiness. And you

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Speaker 1: kind of just alluded to it. Buying new things makes

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Speaker 1: us happy, right always? Sure? For a minute, And there's

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Speaker 1: a concept that we really want to broach today on

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Speaker 1: the show, and it's called hedonic adaptation or the hedonic treadmill.

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Speaker 1: And I feel like this concept can help us frame

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Speaker 1: uh an understanding of what buying happiness looks like. Well,

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Speaker 1: it helps us understand the effects of consumption, how we buy,

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Speaker 1: and it kind of helps us come to grips with

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Speaker 1: some of the potentially unhealthy cycles that we have with spending,

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Speaker 1: assuming that it will move the needle on our path

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Speaker 1: to happiness. And so I think delving intoto an understanding

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Speaker 1: of this concept will help us do better at thinking

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Speaker 1: about our spending and then prioritizing saving for the future

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Speaker 1: at the same time. So let's go ahead and definance.

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Speaker 1: Hedonic adaptation is the tendency of humans to quickly return

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Speaker 1: to a pretty stable level of happiness despite major positive

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Speaker 1: or now getive events or life changes. And also too,

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Speaker 1: so that that's hedonic adaptation. If you want to think

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Speaker 1: about the hedonic treadmill as like you're moving forward, like

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Speaker 1: it seems like you're making progress, like you're moving towards happiness,

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Speaker 1: but when in fact you're stationary, like you're not moving anywhere,

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Speaker 1: Like in in relation to the things that you're around,

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Speaker 1: you're not moving anywhere, even though you're putting forth effort

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Speaker 1: to move forward, you're just kind of doing all that

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Speaker 1: in order to just stay in the same place. And

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Speaker 1: we're gonna sort of relate that to spending and happiness.

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Speaker 1: And oftentimes that's when you do hear about hedonic adaptation.

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Speaker 1: That's specifically in regards to how we register our own

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Speaker 1: happiness and and the things that we do to to

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Speaker 1: get there. And so, for example, if you make more money,

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Speaker 1: your expectations or your desires for things or whatever it

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Speaker 1: is that you like, those also rise. The arise in

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Speaker 1: tandem with you making that more money. And so because

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Speaker 1: that you have the same amount of happiness, right, there's

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Speaker 1: no net gain, there's no gain, and happiness you're you're

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Speaker 1: sort of stuck there. And it's also important to keep

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Speaker 1: in mind too that this is sort of a theory, right, Like,

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Speaker 1: this isn't necessarily like a law, but it's something that

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Speaker 1: scientists and researchers have seen, but you know, you can't

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Speaker 1: really really prove it. Yeah, there have been a few

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Speaker 1: studies done on it that I feel like help frame

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Speaker 1: this concept for us. And it's yeah, not certainly not

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Speaker 1: like an apple falling on your head from a tree.

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Speaker 1: It's not like Newtonian in that way. But but yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's it's not it's not biological science or anything, but

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Speaker 1: there are It certainly makes sense, I feel like from

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Speaker 1: a human experience standpoint, and it also makes sense based

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Speaker 1: on some of these studies that have been performed, and

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Speaker 1: we'll get into some of those a little bit later

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Speaker 1: on too, But I don't know about you, Matt, just

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Speaker 1: literally from a human experience standpoint. I have often found

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Speaker 1: myself in the past buying something thinking that it was

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Speaker 1: going to satisfy a need, or that it was a need,

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Speaker 1: that it was a legitimate need right that then and

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Speaker 1: there for me making that purchase thinking it would move

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Speaker 1: the needle, and ultimately I forget that I even ordered it,

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Speaker 1: and then it shows up on my doorstep and I'm like, oh, yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's the thing I ordered. And then I try that

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Speaker 1: item of clothing on or I you is that item

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Speaker 1: whatever it was, Or I eat that piece of food

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Speaker 1: whatever it was I shipped to my dorm and I

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Speaker 1: completely forget about it pretty soon after the fact, right, So,

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Speaker 1: so in the end, it didn't really move the needle

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Speaker 1: on my happiness level to any meaningful degree, although they

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Speaker 1: were a little bursts right where I thought it would, yeah,

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Speaker 1: sort of like a sugar rush, right, yeah, exactly, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean I specifically remember that more poignantly as a

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Speaker 1: like a kid. I can't remember if I was saving

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Speaker 1: up my own money or if I had convinced my

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Speaker 1: parents to buy me this slingshot, like a serious slingshot,

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Speaker 1: Like it had a extra bar that one of your

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Speaker 1: forearms to kind of like stabilize it, and it had

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Speaker 1: like a sight on it. It was like part crossbow,

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Speaker 1: part slingshot. Was this your red Rider? We begun? Is

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Speaker 1: that what? That was? Sort of sort of like that moment.

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Speaker 1: But I was so stoked about that thing and how

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Speaker 1: I was just gonna be able to like walk through

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Speaker 1: the woods and start shooting squirrels shot stuff exactly, and

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Speaker 1: the freaking band on the thing broke man And maybe

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Speaker 1: we should have taken it back, But I think maybe

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Speaker 1: I was too embarrassed to like tell my parents because

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Speaker 1: I had so much of my hope and like my

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Speaker 1: ambitions of my happiness set on this object, and I quickly,

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Speaker 1: you know, sort of found out that this wasn't at

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Speaker 1: all something that was satisfying, and I didn't want to

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Speaker 1: make the trip back to the p X U to

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Speaker 1: return that thing. You know what a p X is. Nope,

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Speaker 1: I ever heard of that term. It's like on a

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Speaker 1: military basis. It's like, you know, I grew up that

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Speaker 1: my dad was in the army when I was growing up,

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Speaker 1: and so we would go on post to the p

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Speaker 1: X There's I don't I don't think there's any sales tax.

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Speaker 1: That's why I was always cheaper. It's sort of like

404
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Speaker 1: the Walmart, I guess for the army base. They had

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Speaker 1: everything there. You could go there and yeah, yeah, especially

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Speaker 1: sling shots and like pocketing eyes. Man. So, Matt, let's

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Speaker 1: talk about that study that we referred to about relative happiness,

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Speaker 1: and it showed that lottery winners were no happier eighteen

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Speaker 1: months later than their counterparts than people that didn't win

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Speaker 1: the lottery. And so that it's super interesting study that

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Speaker 1: followed these lottery winners that had a control group, and

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Speaker 1: then they had this group of people that won the

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Speaker 1: lottery and they kind of tracked their happiness levels over

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Speaker 1: a year and a half, and it turns out that

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Speaker 1: the people that won the lottery there happiness certainly peaked

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Speaker 1: like the sugar rush that you mentioned immediately after winning,

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Speaker 1: but the levels of happiness soon thereafter kind of reverted

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Speaker 1: back to a normal state. And people that didn't win

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Speaker 1: the lottery, right, they didn't have that sugar rush bike,

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Speaker 1: but their levels of happiness remained relatively constant as well.

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Speaker 1: They're at the exact same place eighteen months later. Which

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Speaker 1: is insane to think that, right, right, right, right, it's

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Speaker 1: and and actually the thing is, I've thought about this

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Speaker 1: a lot, just especially with recently we had some really

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Speaker 1: high lottery that's right. A couple of folks want it, right,

426
00:19:35,119 --> 00:19:37,560
Speaker 1: and everyone, like the office is talking about do you

427
00:19:37,560 --> 00:19:39,400
Speaker 1: play the lottery? Are you buying tickets? You know, there's

428
00:19:39,400 --> 00:19:42,880
Speaker 1: a lot of like water cooler chatter about it. And honestly,

429
00:19:43,040 --> 00:19:45,640
Speaker 1: I would never play the lottery. And it's not because

430
00:19:45,680 --> 00:19:47,639
Speaker 1: I'm too cheap to buy a ticket. It's because I

431
00:19:47,680 --> 00:19:50,159
Speaker 1: think winning the lottery is actually worse for you in

432
00:19:50,200 --> 00:19:53,640
Speaker 1: so many ways than than it's better. Yeah, I think

433
00:19:53,720 --> 00:19:55,960
Speaker 1: if you won the lottery and everyone found out about it,

434
00:19:55,960 --> 00:19:58,640
Speaker 1: Everyone would treat you differently. There's so many negative side

435
00:19:58,640 --> 00:20:01,719
Speaker 1: effects of having crap tons of money that people come

436
00:20:01,760 --> 00:20:03,600
Speaker 1: out of the woodwork and they want to You'd probably

437
00:20:03,600 --> 00:20:05,880
Speaker 1: be asking for a loan right now, and I like, man,

438
00:20:05,880 --> 00:20:07,360
Speaker 1: I don't want to talk of Joe. You're gonna cover

439
00:20:07,359 --> 00:20:12,080
Speaker 1: beers again? Right exactly? What if you could win the lottery?

440
00:20:12,440 --> 00:20:14,600
Speaker 1: Like nothing insane, but let's just say a million, right,

441
00:20:14,640 --> 00:20:17,160
Speaker 1: But if you could win the million dollar jackpot and

442
00:20:17,240 --> 00:20:20,080
Speaker 1: it was secret, so no one knew, what would you do? Like,

443
00:20:20,240 --> 00:20:21,639
Speaker 1: was there like one thing that you would change in

444
00:20:21,640 --> 00:20:23,760
Speaker 1: your life or would you switch it up completely? No?

445
00:20:23,920 --> 00:20:25,679
Speaker 1: So I think too, I've thought about that. I think

446
00:20:25,720 --> 00:20:27,800
Speaker 1: if I won the lottery, the amount of things that

447
00:20:27,800 --> 00:20:30,880
Speaker 1: would change in my life would be relatively small. Yeah,

448
00:20:30,920 --> 00:20:32,560
Speaker 1: I think you and i've talked about this before, actually

449
00:20:32,560 --> 00:20:34,200
Speaker 1: this kind of somebody if we won the lottery. I

450
00:20:34,240 --> 00:20:35,880
Speaker 1: don't think we've talked about it on the show before though,

451
00:20:35,920 --> 00:20:37,560
Speaker 1: but if we want the if I won the lottery,

452
00:20:37,720 --> 00:20:41,240
Speaker 1: my life would be incrementally better in the points that

453
00:20:41,280 --> 00:20:44,280
Speaker 1: I care about. So, for instance, we've talked about the

454
00:20:44,320 --> 00:20:46,600
Speaker 1: why of money. In that episode, I mentioned a few

455
00:20:46,640 --> 00:20:49,560
Speaker 1: things that I prioritize. So I would probably prioritize those

456
00:20:49,560 --> 00:20:52,000
Speaker 1: things just a little bit more. You'd get two pieces

457
00:20:52,040 --> 00:20:54,560
Speaker 1: of folk art every year instead of one, exactly, and

458
00:20:54,600 --> 00:20:57,600
Speaker 1: I would take two awesome international trips every year as

459
00:20:57,600 --> 00:20:59,480
Speaker 1: opposed to one, and so that it would be that

460
00:20:59,560 --> 00:21:02,560
Speaker 1: sort of of incremental change, because there's not really much

461
00:21:02,600 --> 00:21:04,760
Speaker 1: in my life that I want to change that you're

462
00:21:04,760 --> 00:21:07,600
Speaker 1: doing now that isn't already making you happy, right, yeah, yeah,

463
00:21:07,680 --> 00:21:10,320
Speaker 1: so that's yeah, that's kind of my thought process behind it.

464
00:21:10,480 --> 00:21:12,040
Speaker 1: I think that's a really good place to be too,

465
00:21:12,080 --> 00:21:13,359
Speaker 1: because I know that there are a lot of people

466
00:21:13,520 --> 00:21:17,199
Speaker 1: that are you know, have hard financial situations where that

467
00:21:17,240 --> 00:21:19,880
Speaker 1: would make just an amazingly big difference in the way

468
00:21:19,920 --> 00:21:23,240
Speaker 1: that they can live. But then again, for those people oftentimes,

469
00:21:23,119 --> 00:21:26,920
Speaker 1: as you see reported out, who start off with very

470
00:21:26,960 --> 00:21:29,240
Speaker 1: little money when the lottery have all that money and

471
00:21:29,320 --> 00:21:31,720
Speaker 1: then wreck their lives basically they completely wrecked their lives.

472
00:21:32,320 --> 00:21:34,479
Speaker 1: They throw it all away, they spend it quickly, uh,

473
00:21:34,520 --> 00:21:37,320
Speaker 1: they buy things that then they can't afford the recurring

474
00:21:37,359 --> 00:21:40,919
Speaker 1: costs on and it damages their lives irreparably in the

475
00:21:41,000 --> 00:21:43,320
Speaker 1: end too. So well, I probably would buy a tesla.

476
00:21:43,359 --> 00:21:46,000
Speaker 1: I'll say that. So, oh, that's a good call, all right,

477
00:21:46,080 --> 00:21:47,840
Speaker 1: you probably want to get tesla too, right when I

478
00:21:47,920 --> 00:21:49,680
Speaker 1: might have to do that. Yeah. Actually, Emily and I

479
00:21:49,720 --> 00:21:51,080
Speaker 1: were driving the other day and I saw one on

480
00:21:51,119 --> 00:21:53,080
Speaker 1: the road and I said, you know, in about ten years,

481
00:21:53,119 --> 00:21:55,160
Speaker 1: we're gonna have one of those, because in ten years

482
00:21:55,480 --> 00:21:58,720
Speaker 1: that model, everybody's gonna have one of those. In ten years, basically, well,

483
00:21:58,720 --> 00:22:00,960
Speaker 1: they will just be have become so much cheaper. It'll

484
00:22:00,960 --> 00:22:02,359
Speaker 1: be like a four year old hand accord. It's like

485
00:22:02,400 --> 00:22:04,399
Speaker 1: you see him everywhere, and the technology is gonna improve

486
00:22:04,400 --> 00:22:06,120
Speaker 1: so much their ten year old Tesla, and nobody's gonna

487
00:22:06,119 --> 00:22:08,680
Speaker 1: want it at that point in time. So it's probably true, man,

488
00:22:08,800 --> 00:22:10,640
Speaker 1: kind of like nobody wants my six year old niece

489
00:22:10,680 --> 00:22:12,159
Speaker 1: on leave right now to slap a new battery in

490
00:22:12,160 --> 00:22:14,440
Speaker 1: that Tesla. Get a go. That's what I'm talking about, man,

491
00:22:14,440 --> 00:22:15,960
Speaker 1: I can't wait. So back to that study. It was

492
00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:19,040
Speaker 1: a nineteen seventy study about lottery winners. It turns out

493
00:22:19,040 --> 00:22:21,480
Speaker 1: they were no happier eighteen months later than they were

494
00:22:21,680 --> 00:22:24,679
Speaker 1: when they had actually won the lottery. Right, So just

495
00:22:24,760 --> 00:22:26,960
Speaker 1: realize and keep in mind that those things won't give

496
00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:30,280
Speaker 1: you that ultimate happiness and keep in mind that needless

497
00:22:30,280 --> 00:22:33,240
Speaker 1: consumption just won't make you happy. So here's what we're

498
00:22:33,240 --> 00:22:36,560
Speaker 1: not saying. We're not saying that you shouldn't reach for

499
00:22:36,560 --> 00:22:38,800
Speaker 1: a better job or that you shouldn't attempt to try

500
00:22:38,800 --> 00:22:41,320
Speaker 1: to make more money. No way, those are worthwhile goals.

501
00:22:41,520 --> 00:22:43,080
Speaker 1: We're just saying that they're not going to move the

502
00:22:43,160 --> 00:22:46,280
Speaker 1: ultimate happiness needle. And that also applies to the little

503
00:22:46,280 --> 00:22:48,920
Speaker 1: things as well. If you're used to keeping your house

504
00:22:48,920 --> 00:22:51,920
Speaker 1: cleaning like in house and doing it yourself as a family, well,

505
00:22:52,040 --> 00:22:54,680
Speaker 1: once you step up to hiring a professional cleaner every month,

506
00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:57,240
Speaker 1: you add in that cost and that convenience, well it's

507
00:22:57,400 --> 00:22:59,240
Speaker 1: really hard to go back. But after a while, it

508
00:22:59,320 --> 00:23:01,480
Speaker 1: just becomes routine. You get used to having someone else

509
00:23:01,520 --> 00:23:05,320
Speaker 1: clean your house. And that's another example of hedonic adaptation

510
00:23:05,760 --> 00:23:08,560
Speaker 1: that adds a cost into your life brings you a

511
00:23:08,640 --> 00:23:11,600
Speaker 1: nice little birth of happiness, but it doesn't really have

512
00:23:11,720 --> 00:23:15,560
Speaker 1: that same effect month after month as it did initially

513
00:23:15,560 --> 00:23:18,000
Speaker 1: when you first made that change. Yeah, that's that can

514
00:23:18,040 --> 00:23:21,360
Speaker 1: also be called lifestyle creep. Right, We've talked about this before, um,

515
00:23:21,400 --> 00:23:23,919
Speaker 1: and so these are ways that hedonic adaptation can be

516
00:23:24,280 --> 00:23:27,160
Speaker 1: a negative thing when it comes to spending in your lifestyle.

517
00:23:27,520 --> 00:23:30,480
Speaker 1: After the breakthough, we're gonna talk about how hedonic adaptation

518
00:23:30,680 --> 00:23:33,440
Speaker 1: can be a good thing or a necessary thing. Tell

519
00:23:33,480 --> 00:23:37,320
Speaker 1: me more, Matt, I will after the break. I guess

520
00:23:37,320 --> 00:23:47,000
Speaker 1: I'll wait then, all right, Matt. Back in the break

521
00:23:47,240 --> 00:23:50,240
Speaker 1: and just a second ago, we talked about hedonic adaptation.

522
00:23:50,280 --> 00:23:53,080
Speaker 1: We brought up this big concept. We talked about how

523
00:23:53,280 --> 00:23:56,960
Speaker 1: it is similar to this treadmill, right, that we make

524
00:23:57,000 --> 00:23:59,399
Speaker 1: an incremental change in our lives and we feel like

525
00:23:59,640 --> 00:24:02,520
Speaker 1: we're beer and then boom, it dies off pretty quickly

526
00:24:02,520 --> 00:24:05,560
Speaker 1: and we ultimately haven't gotten anywhere in the process exactly.

527
00:24:05,760 --> 00:24:09,480
Speaker 1: So let's talk about how hedonic adaptation can actually be

528
00:24:09,560 --> 00:24:12,600
Speaker 1: a good and necessary thing too. That study that you

529
00:24:12,640 --> 00:24:15,680
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier about the Lorry winners, so in that very

530
00:24:15,760 --> 00:24:20,040
Speaker 1: same study, they also focused on severe accident victims, uh so,

531
00:24:20,200 --> 00:24:23,520
Speaker 1: like paraplegics, and they found out that they were no

532
00:24:23,600 --> 00:24:26,920
Speaker 1: less happy eighteen months later than the control group, like

533
00:24:26,960 --> 00:24:29,240
Speaker 1: the folks that were not involved in an accident. Yeah,

534
00:24:29,280 --> 00:24:31,760
Speaker 1: that's crazy. That that's crazy to think that someone that

535
00:24:31,840 --> 00:24:34,840
Speaker 1: went through such a traumatic experience that you know, lost

536
00:24:34,960 --> 00:24:39,040
Speaker 1: limbs was no less happy eighteen months later. That you

537
00:24:39,080 --> 00:24:42,080
Speaker 1: would think to something like that that's completely life changing.

538
00:24:42,440 --> 00:24:46,520
Speaker 1: In the negative would result in a loss of happiness

539
00:24:46,560 --> 00:24:48,719
Speaker 1: over time, right, But to think that it has that

540
00:24:48,880 --> 00:24:52,120
Speaker 1: even flip side coin effect, it all just bounces out,

541
00:24:52,520 --> 00:24:56,080
Speaker 1: It all bounces out. Yeah, it's so obviously I'm not recommending.

542
00:24:56,080 --> 00:24:57,480
Speaker 1: I don't think even that of us would say like

543
00:24:57,520 --> 00:24:59,520
Speaker 1: this is a good thing, right to to lose a

544
00:24:59,560 --> 00:25:02,440
Speaker 1: limb or anything like that. But it is a fascinating

545
00:25:02,480 --> 00:25:04,360
Speaker 1: concept and it was there the study was done back

546
00:25:04,359 --> 00:25:07,399
Speaker 1: in the nineteen seventies. And so just just to think

547
00:25:07,840 --> 00:25:13,199
Speaker 1: that interviewing these paraplegics over time that their happiness was

548
00:25:13,480 --> 00:25:18,159
Speaker 1: obviously after the event was precipitously down, but over time

549
00:25:18,560 --> 00:25:22,280
Speaker 1: it didn't suffer and their happiness rose back to kind

550
00:25:22,280 --> 00:25:25,240
Speaker 1: of normal levels. And that's just a fascinating thing about

551
00:25:25,480 --> 00:25:28,560
Speaker 1: the human mind, the human brain and the way it's wired,

552
00:25:28,640 --> 00:25:31,600
Speaker 1: and what it is wired to do is to withstand trauma.

553
00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:34,879
Speaker 1: That is the good part of hedonic addication, right, that

554
00:25:34,960 --> 00:25:37,800
Speaker 1: we can withstand trauma and kind of result back to

555
00:25:37,960 --> 00:25:41,640
Speaker 1: a baseline sense of happiness. We can see something crazy

556
00:25:41,720 --> 00:25:44,399
Speaker 1: and utterly horrific and kind of go back to living

557
00:25:44,440 --> 00:25:47,199
Speaker 1: life right in a normal way. And and to me

558
00:25:47,280 --> 00:25:49,000
Speaker 1: that that that just kind of blows my mind that

559
00:25:49,040 --> 00:25:51,720
Speaker 1: we're wired in that way. But just knowing that, right,

560
00:25:51,920 --> 00:25:54,320
Speaker 1: just knowing that knowledge is power in that way to

561
00:25:54,400 --> 00:25:56,600
Speaker 1: kind of see that this is how my brain is wired,

562
00:25:56,760 --> 00:25:58,840
Speaker 1: and we can see the positives and then we can

563
00:25:58,840 --> 00:26:02,160
Speaker 1: also see the negatives and you can adapt accordingly with

564
00:26:02,200 --> 00:26:04,720
Speaker 1: that knowledge. Yeah, most of all, it just shows like

565
00:26:04,760 --> 00:26:07,560
Speaker 1: the resiliency of like the brain, because it's the brain

566
00:26:07,600 --> 00:26:10,560
Speaker 1: that's making these decisions, right, maybe not actively, but it's

567
00:26:10,560 --> 00:26:12,800
Speaker 1: the brain that's saying, Okay, we're gonna kind of keep

568
00:26:12,800 --> 00:26:15,480
Speaker 1: an even keel here. Another term used to sort of

569
00:26:15,520 --> 00:26:18,679
Speaker 1: describe hedonic adaptation was sort of like this emotional thermostat,

570
00:26:19,040 --> 00:26:21,800
Speaker 1: so that anytime there's like an extreme or not even extreme,

571
00:26:21,840 --> 00:26:23,399
Speaker 1: but like one way or the other from where you

572
00:26:23,400 --> 00:26:25,720
Speaker 1: wanted it, that it would adjust and just kind of

573
00:26:25,760 --> 00:26:28,119
Speaker 1: bring it back to the sort of this baseline. And

574
00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:30,359
Speaker 1: so after enough time, like you said, man, like you

575
00:26:30,400 --> 00:26:33,520
Speaker 1: adjust to the things that you do just regularly or

576
00:26:33,600 --> 00:26:35,119
Speaker 1: the things that just happened to you, and so it

577
00:26:35,480 --> 00:26:39,119
Speaker 1: essentially just becomes the new normal. And so in terms

578
00:26:39,119 --> 00:26:42,120
Speaker 1: of money and spending, like like we're talking about if

579
00:26:42,119 --> 00:26:45,360
Speaker 1: you're consistently being frugal instead of it feeling like you're

580
00:26:45,400 --> 00:26:49,440
Speaker 1: depriving yourself and doing something that's painful. You eventually view

581
00:26:49,640 --> 00:26:53,080
Speaker 1: those frugal choices as normal, and then the more expensive

582
00:26:53,200 --> 00:26:56,520
Speaker 1: and lavish choices that you used to make those then

583
00:26:56,560 --> 00:26:58,679
Speaker 1: become the sort of abnormal way of doing things, the

584
00:26:58,720 --> 00:27:01,000
Speaker 1: things that just seem foreign to you. Yeah, And so

585
00:27:01,119 --> 00:27:03,840
Speaker 1: we recently had the episode Are You Frugal or Are

586
00:27:03,840 --> 00:27:07,960
Speaker 1: You Cheap? And we talked about that concept, and we essentially, Matt,

587
00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:10,480
Speaker 1: you and I we held up the value of frugality

588
00:27:10,520 --> 00:27:12,719
Speaker 1: and we said that's a really important thing to adopt,

589
00:27:13,080 --> 00:27:14,760
Speaker 1: and being cheap is not a good thing, but being

590
00:27:14,760 --> 00:27:18,320
Speaker 1: frugal is. And I think one thing though, when people

591
00:27:18,320 --> 00:27:20,800
Speaker 1: hear the word frugal, they they ultimately one of the

592
00:27:20,800 --> 00:27:23,119
Speaker 1: first words that comes to mind is the word deprivation,

593
00:27:23,560 --> 00:27:26,560
Speaker 1: and they think, if I'm frugal, I'm depriving myself of

594
00:27:26,600 --> 00:27:28,800
Speaker 1: the things that are actually gonna bring me happiness. And

595
00:27:28,840 --> 00:27:32,159
Speaker 1: I think what this concept of hedonic adaptation brings to

596
00:27:32,200 --> 00:27:35,960
Speaker 1: the surface is that you're not foregoing happiness by being frugal.

597
00:27:36,040 --> 00:27:38,600
Speaker 1: What you're doing is you're adapting to this way of

598
00:27:38,680 --> 00:27:41,880
Speaker 1: normal and you're realizing kind of what's true about yourself

599
00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:44,520
Speaker 1: that those other things that you're pursuing that you think

600
00:27:44,520 --> 00:27:47,160
Speaker 1: will provide you happiness aren't going to and so you're

601
00:27:47,200 --> 00:27:51,160
Speaker 1: foregoing them. You're choosing instead something that is simpler and

602
00:27:51,440 --> 00:27:53,920
Speaker 1: something that allows you to save more and find more

603
00:27:53,960 --> 00:27:56,440
Speaker 1: financial freedom in your life. And I'll have to say

604
00:27:56,480 --> 00:27:58,919
Speaker 1: that initially there might be some pain still, right like

605
00:27:58,960 --> 00:28:01,280
Speaker 1: that initial like after you say that, like, no, I'm

606
00:28:01,280 --> 00:28:03,760
Speaker 1: no longer going to purchase this, Like they're sort of

607
00:28:03,800 --> 00:28:05,640
Speaker 1: like with the accident of victims, maybe like there might

608
00:28:05,880 --> 00:28:08,600
Speaker 1: be an immediate decrease in what they would consider happiness.

609
00:28:08,800 --> 00:28:11,080
Speaker 1: But then after that it levels out, right, Like you know,

610
00:28:11,200 --> 00:28:14,320
Speaker 1: we still have emotions and there's still sort of pulls

611
00:28:14,320 --> 00:28:16,000
Speaker 1: and draws to like I want to go by that

612
00:28:16,040 --> 00:28:19,760
Speaker 1: tesla or or whatever it is. But what's amazing, and

613
00:28:19,760 --> 00:28:21,320
Speaker 1: this is what we're talking about, is that the mind

614
00:28:21,400 --> 00:28:24,720
Speaker 1: is able to sort of reconfigure and adjust to that

615
00:28:24,800 --> 00:28:27,680
Speaker 1: new point, and like you said, it doesn't become deprivation

616
00:28:27,680 --> 00:28:30,040
Speaker 1: anymore because you have told yourself, no, this is how

617
00:28:30,080 --> 00:28:31,879
Speaker 1: I'm going to live my life. Now. I am in

618
00:28:31,960 --> 00:28:34,159
Speaker 1: charge of my own spending, and fruit will becomes a

619
00:28:34,200 --> 00:28:36,080
Speaker 1: new rallying cry. It's it's just it's sort of the

620
00:28:36,160 --> 00:28:39,000
Speaker 1: new motto that you follow. And that's what you're all about,

621
00:28:39,200 --> 00:28:41,360
Speaker 1: all right, Since we're already like talking about science, right,

622
00:28:41,440 --> 00:28:45,040
Speaker 1: like in hidonic adaptation, we're talking big words. Well, that's

623
00:28:45,080 --> 00:28:47,720
Speaker 1: talk about Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Because there is a

624
00:28:47,760 --> 00:28:50,440
Speaker 1: basic level, right that you can't make cuts to that

625
00:28:50,680 --> 00:28:53,320
Speaker 1: and you can't adapt. There are these basic needs that

626
00:28:53,360 --> 00:28:55,440
Speaker 1: you have to meet and you can't say, well, you

627
00:28:55,480 --> 00:28:58,239
Speaker 1: know what, I'm gonna starve myself for weeks on end

628
00:28:58,560 --> 00:29:00,960
Speaker 1: and assume that my happiness of but we'll just revert

629
00:29:01,040 --> 00:29:04,080
Speaker 1: to that basic mean and that's that's just not the case, right.

630
00:29:04,080 --> 00:29:06,320
Speaker 1: There are these basic needs that you need to have met,

631
00:29:06,480 --> 00:29:08,800
Speaker 1: and if you don't have those things, there's just no

632
00:29:08,920 --> 00:29:12,360
Speaker 1: amount of adapting that can make your brain be able

633
00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:18,560
Speaker 1: to understand having a lack of things like food, shelter, clothing, safety,

634
00:29:18,760 --> 00:29:21,000
Speaker 1: and love. Right, and even like there's more sort of

635
00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:24,880
Speaker 1: intangible emotional thing. Yeah, you can't deny yourself those things

636
00:29:24,880 --> 00:29:27,200
Speaker 1: and then think you're gonna adapt. Yeah, So ultimately we're

637
00:29:27,240 --> 00:29:30,200
Speaker 1: not talking about, right, those baseline needs that are innate

638
00:29:30,240 --> 00:29:33,480
Speaker 1: to every human being. The concept of hedonic adaptation, and

639
00:29:33,520 --> 00:29:37,240
Speaker 1: the hedonic treadmill doesn't apply there. What it does apply

640
00:29:37,320 --> 00:29:40,680
Speaker 1: to what we're talking about in reality is how we consume,

641
00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:44,520
Speaker 1: how we spend, and how we think about upgrading our lives. Right,

642
00:29:44,560 --> 00:29:47,240
Speaker 1: there's kind of a sentiment out there in popular culture.

643
00:29:47,280 --> 00:29:49,560
Speaker 1: I think that and when we get a little extra cash,

644
00:29:49,840 --> 00:29:52,239
Speaker 1: or even if we don't have the cash, we need

645
00:29:52,280 --> 00:29:55,080
Speaker 1: to upgrade ourselves, upgrade our lives. And if we upgrade

646
00:29:55,080 --> 00:29:57,200
Speaker 1: it in this way or that way and make our

647
00:29:57,240 --> 00:29:59,479
Speaker 1: lives just a little bit better here or there, even

648
00:29:59,520 --> 00:30:01,560
Speaker 1: if we don't have the money, there's a sentiment that

649
00:30:01,560 --> 00:30:04,360
Speaker 1: that's okay. And what we're trying to push back against

650
00:30:04,400 --> 00:30:06,560
Speaker 1: that and we're saying no, no no, no. Think about this

651
00:30:06,640 --> 00:30:09,560
Speaker 1: concept of hedonic adaptation. Anytime you're thinking about, you know,

652
00:30:09,600 --> 00:30:12,520
Speaker 1: increasing your lifestyle in a meaningful way, buying a new

653
00:30:12,560 --> 00:30:15,320
Speaker 1: car or you know, getting a bigger house, or just

654
00:30:15,360 --> 00:30:18,240
Speaker 1: those little purchases that you make on Amazon that you

655
00:30:18,320 --> 00:30:20,600
Speaker 1: think are going to gratify you and ultimately you forget

656
00:30:20,600 --> 00:30:22,240
Speaker 1: the ordered it and it shows up on your doorstep

657
00:30:22,280 --> 00:30:24,120
Speaker 1: and you're like, oh, yeah, I guess I did order

658
00:30:24,160 --> 00:30:26,239
Speaker 1: that thing. That is what we're talking about. Those are

659
00:30:26,240 --> 00:30:28,720
Speaker 1: the ways that you can kind of use this concept

660
00:30:28,720 --> 00:30:32,280
Speaker 1: of hedonic adaptation to your benefit. That's exactly right, and

661
00:30:32,320 --> 00:30:34,960
Speaker 1: that's what we're talking about. So like hedonic adaptation we like.

662
00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:37,560
Speaker 1: Earlier we're talking about how it's negative because you get

663
00:30:37,640 --> 00:30:40,560
Speaker 1: used to things just from a consumption standpoint, and now

664
00:30:40,560 --> 00:30:43,440
Speaker 1: we're talking about hedonic adaptation being a good thing because

665
00:30:43,600 --> 00:30:45,719
Speaker 1: you can use it to you know, to your own advantage,

666
00:30:45,880 --> 00:30:49,280
Speaker 1: specifically trying spending less and then just notice that you'll

667
00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:51,320
Speaker 1: get used to it. Plus you'll be more happy by

668
00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:53,520
Speaker 1: saving more of your income. Because of that, you're going

669
00:30:53,600 --> 00:30:56,800
Speaker 1: to be more prepared for financial disasters, and so because

670
00:30:56,800 --> 00:30:58,840
Speaker 1: of that, you'll have less stress. And then in the

671
00:30:58,920 --> 00:31:01,600
Speaker 1: end as well, you'll be working towards financial independence. And

672
00:31:01,640 --> 00:31:03,680
Speaker 1: that's the end goal of trying to be smart and

673
00:31:03,720 --> 00:31:06,200
Speaker 1: wise with your money and you're spending uh yeah. Another

674
00:31:06,520 --> 00:31:10,120
Speaker 1: thing practically to consider is to delay your purchases. I

675
00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:13,200
Speaker 1: think it's really smart for us to take something like

676
00:31:13,240 --> 00:31:15,959
Speaker 1: a two week gap between the I need it phase

677
00:31:16,120 --> 00:31:19,400
Speaker 1: and then clicking the purchase button online or going to

678
00:31:19,400 --> 00:31:21,280
Speaker 1: a store to buy what you think you need. That's

679
00:31:21,320 --> 00:31:23,760
Speaker 1: a good rule of thumb. So yeah, think about instituting

680
00:31:23,800 --> 00:31:26,320
Speaker 1: that sort of gap in between something that you say

681
00:31:26,320 --> 00:31:28,560
Speaker 1: that you want and the time that you actually make

682
00:31:28,600 --> 00:31:31,040
Speaker 1: the purchase. That can prevent you for buying something that

683
00:31:31,360 --> 00:31:35,040
Speaker 1: is impulse and that leads to that sugar rush of happiness,

684
00:31:35,160 --> 00:31:38,880
Speaker 1: but ultimately doesn't move the needle practically in your life. Plus,

685
00:31:38,920 --> 00:31:40,280
Speaker 1: you don't want to have just food showing up on

686
00:31:40,280 --> 00:31:42,000
Speaker 1: your doorstuff like it does at your house dog. I

687
00:31:42,040 --> 00:31:44,520
Speaker 1: know it's weird, right. And another thing too, Matt, A

688
00:31:44,600 --> 00:31:47,480
Speaker 1: lot of people I think it's become so easy for

689
00:31:47,560 --> 00:31:50,479
Speaker 1: us to buy things today, just one click to purchase

690
00:31:50,520 --> 00:31:53,880
Speaker 1: on something like Amazon. So maybe ending your Prime membership,

691
00:31:53,920 --> 00:31:55,880
Speaker 1: even though you like it and you feel like it

692
00:31:55,920 --> 00:31:58,640
Speaker 1: does serve you well in some ways, maybe that's actually

693
00:31:58,640 --> 00:32:00,880
Speaker 1: the smart move for you because it prevent you from

694
00:32:01,200 --> 00:32:04,400
Speaker 1: these sort of behaviors that you think or maybe making

695
00:32:04,400 --> 00:32:06,520
Speaker 1: you happy, But when you actually take stock, you take

696
00:32:06,520 --> 00:32:08,400
Speaker 1: a step back and you think about it, they're not

697
00:32:08,480 --> 00:32:11,240
Speaker 1: making you happy. So maybe actually kind of giving a

698
00:32:11,280 --> 00:32:14,920
Speaker 1: buffer for yourself by not having Amazon Prime, maybe that

699
00:32:14,960 --> 00:32:17,080
Speaker 1: could actually help you out in the long run. Worth

700
00:32:17,120 --> 00:32:20,320
Speaker 1: noting that happiness levels in the US are not increasing

701
00:32:20,320 --> 00:32:24,040
Speaker 1: despite big increases you know in wealth, living standards, technology,

702
00:32:24,160 --> 00:32:26,760
Speaker 1: just all the stuff that we have. That's what that means, though,

703
00:32:26,840 --> 00:32:30,840
Speaker 1: is that our stuff and our circumstances have little impact

704
00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:33,719
Speaker 1: on our happiness. There are studies that show that we

705
00:32:33,800 --> 00:32:37,680
Speaker 1: control roughly of our own happiness, which is huge, man,

706
00:32:39,080 --> 00:32:41,600
Speaker 1: is our set point and so typically that means it's

707
00:32:41,640 --> 00:32:43,800
Speaker 1: just determined by our genetics. It's just kind of built

708
00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:46,560
Speaker 1: into who we are. And then the remaining ten percent

709
00:32:47,280 --> 00:32:50,240
Speaker 1: is what's controlled by circumstances. So those are the things

710
00:32:50,800 --> 00:32:53,640
Speaker 1: that are a little more outside of our control. But yeah,

711
00:32:53,720 --> 00:32:57,480
Speaker 1: that's just amazing that we still have control over almost

712
00:32:57,600 --> 00:33:00,280
Speaker 1: half of our own happiness. All Right, Matt, after the break,

713
00:33:00,360 --> 00:33:03,800
Speaker 1: let's get into those specific things that will increase our

714
00:33:03,840 --> 00:33:06,800
Speaker 1: happiness and they'll also help put our finances in better

715
00:33:06,880 --> 00:33:17,640
Speaker 1: order to all right, man, like you mentioned, let's go

716
00:33:17,640 --> 00:33:20,880
Speaker 1: ahead and talk about those specific things to increase your happiness.

717
00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:24,240
Speaker 1: And these are things again that don't involve that mindless

718
00:33:24,240 --> 00:33:26,840
Speaker 1: spending and consumption. The first thing I wanted to mention

719
00:33:27,000 --> 00:33:31,160
Speaker 1: was appreciation for what we already have. Dude. What I

720
00:33:31,280 --> 00:33:33,640
Speaker 1: love about this is that this is almost the exact

721
00:33:33,680 --> 00:33:38,040
Speaker 1: opposite of hedonic adaptation. This is focusing on something rather

722
00:33:38,120 --> 00:33:40,680
Speaker 1: than taking it for granted and just letting it fade

723
00:33:40,680 --> 00:33:42,640
Speaker 1: into the background. Yeah, it's what I mean by that, though,

724
00:33:42,720 --> 00:33:44,960
Speaker 1: is to savor the things we own. And like, savor

725
00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:48,200
Speaker 1: seems like a weird word to say, but experiences that

726
00:33:48,200 --> 00:33:50,320
Speaker 1: we get to take part in in our relationships. These

727
00:33:50,320 --> 00:33:52,960
Speaker 1: are things that you want to not just take for

728
00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:55,040
Speaker 1: granted and just assume that they're always going to be there,

729
00:33:55,040 --> 00:33:58,480
Speaker 1: but just really focus on and really enjoy. You want

730
00:33:58,480 --> 00:34:00,520
Speaker 1: to hang on to the happiness that you already have

731
00:34:00,800 --> 00:34:03,840
Speaker 1: right there, right there with you, dude. And specifically, like,

732
00:34:03,880 --> 00:34:05,680
Speaker 1: do you read about the Stoics or anything like that,

733
00:34:05,920 --> 00:34:09,239
Speaker 1: like that branch of philosophy and I don't know, I

734
00:34:09,239 --> 00:34:11,759
Speaker 1: don't know much about it the Greeks. Yeah, no, I

735
00:34:11,800 --> 00:34:14,399
Speaker 1: mean I know a little, but definitely don't don't delve

736
00:34:14,400 --> 00:34:16,319
Speaker 1: into it too hard. Yeah, I haven't either. But what

737
00:34:16,360 --> 00:34:19,920
Speaker 1: I've specifically learned is really helpful for me is to

738
00:34:19,960 --> 00:34:22,359
Speaker 1: do this thing that Stoics focus on, which is called

739
00:34:22,480 --> 00:34:25,040
Speaker 1: negative visualization, and it is a way for them to

740
00:34:25,200 --> 00:34:28,200
Speaker 1: practice appreciation and to focus on something that they have

741
00:34:28,280 --> 00:34:30,160
Speaker 1: that they feel like they're taking for granted. And you

742
00:34:30,200 --> 00:34:32,839
Speaker 1: do that by imagining that you don't have that thing

743
00:34:32,960 --> 00:34:35,799
Speaker 1: or that like something really terrible happens to that thing, right,

744
00:34:35,840 --> 00:34:38,160
Speaker 1: So whether that be like a relationship, right, like imagine

745
00:34:38,239 --> 00:34:40,920
Speaker 1: something terrible happens to your wife or just you know,

746
00:34:40,920 --> 00:34:42,279
Speaker 1: I just imagine you don't have a wife and what

747
00:34:42,320 --> 00:34:45,239
Speaker 1: your life would be like. Or say you're kind of

748
00:34:45,239 --> 00:34:46,840
Speaker 1: getting fed up with your job and you're kind of

749
00:34:46,840 --> 00:34:48,800
Speaker 1: complaining about it, but or imagine I started in a

750
00:34:48,840 --> 00:34:53,080
Speaker 1: new podcast with Dave Ramsey and left you behind exactly.

751
00:34:53,160 --> 00:34:55,120
Speaker 1: I think about how terrible you would feel if if

752
00:34:55,160 --> 00:34:57,560
Speaker 1: you actually did that. But no, it's it's sort of

753
00:34:57,560 --> 00:35:00,759
Speaker 1: removing from your mind, uh, the apariences that you have

754
00:35:00,880 --> 00:35:04,560
Speaker 1: of something that you already have and imagining how terrible

755
00:35:04,560 --> 00:35:06,279
Speaker 1: it would be if that thing wasn't there in your life.

756
00:35:06,440 --> 00:35:08,759
Speaker 1: It's just a way to focus on the things that

757
00:35:08,800 --> 00:35:10,719
Speaker 1: you do have. And for me, man, it makes it

758
00:35:10,719 --> 00:35:12,600
Speaker 1: really tangible and it brings to light the things that

759
00:35:12,680 --> 00:35:15,120
Speaker 1: I do have, like the you know, amazing blessings I

760
00:35:15,160 --> 00:35:18,680
Speaker 1: have and you know, the amazing family just everything like right,

761
00:35:19,120 --> 00:35:20,960
Speaker 1: pretty much everything that that I have. If that, if

762
00:35:20,960 --> 00:35:22,680
Speaker 1: you think about it long enough, you're like, man, this

763
00:35:22,760 --> 00:35:25,200
Speaker 1: is actually a fantastic thing, and it can be something

764
00:35:25,200 --> 00:35:27,520
Speaker 1: that I've been complaining about or something that I'm fed

765
00:35:27,640 --> 00:35:30,080
Speaker 1: up with, and if I got my head around it properly,

766
00:35:30,239 --> 00:35:32,960
Speaker 1: you really start to appreciate what it is that you have. Yeah,

767
00:35:33,000 --> 00:35:35,680
Speaker 1: that's a really good point, actually, And that's not something

768
00:35:35,719 --> 00:35:37,919
Speaker 1: that I feel like that I have never really thought

769
00:35:37,920 --> 00:35:41,680
Speaker 1: about it like that, the negative visualization aspect. But two

770
00:35:41,719 --> 00:35:43,440
Speaker 1: things I feel like my wife and I do try

771
00:35:43,480 --> 00:35:46,440
Speaker 1: every night with our girls to ask them and get

772
00:35:46,480 --> 00:35:48,680
Speaker 1: them to to talk about one thing that they're thankful

773
00:35:48,719 --> 00:35:50,600
Speaker 1: for based on that day. And I think it's a

774
00:35:50,600 --> 00:35:52,759
Speaker 1: really good practice for all of us because then I

775
00:35:52,800 --> 00:35:55,160
Speaker 1: have to think of one too, and some days I'm like,

776
00:35:55,200 --> 00:35:57,200
Speaker 1: go in a really bad mood and I don't want to,

777
00:35:57,280 --> 00:36:00,600
Speaker 1: but Daddy doesn't want to thing tonight Daddy's not happy.

778
00:36:00,760 --> 00:36:02,840
Speaker 1: It's really good for me every day to have to

779
00:36:02,880 --> 00:36:04,719
Speaker 1: think and call out loud and say it and talk

780
00:36:04,760 --> 00:36:06,959
Speaker 1: about it with my girls something I'm thankful for, because

781
00:36:07,000 --> 00:36:08,719
Speaker 1: I have so many things to be thankful for. And

782
00:36:08,760 --> 00:36:11,319
Speaker 1: then another thing. The other day, actually, Emily and I

783
00:36:11,360 --> 00:36:13,480
Speaker 1: had to talk about this because I feel like I

784
00:36:13,520 --> 00:36:16,480
Speaker 1: was maybe complaining a little bit about one of our tenants.

785
00:36:16,760 --> 00:36:18,839
Speaker 1: At one of our rental houses. There was just really,

786
00:36:18,880 --> 00:36:20,840
Speaker 1: I don't think any need for me to be grumbling

787
00:36:20,960 --> 00:36:24,000
Speaker 1: like I was about the circumstance. It was pretty minor

788
00:36:24,200 --> 00:36:28,120
Speaker 1: after all, And ultimately those rental houses have been so

789
00:36:28,200 --> 00:36:31,440
Speaker 1: good for us as a family. They have been so

790
00:36:31,480 --> 00:36:34,279
Speaker 1: good for our ability to kind of live life on

791
00:36:34,320 --> 00:36:36,880
Speaker 1: our terms the way that we want to live, and

792
00:36:36,880 --> 00:36:38,799
Speaker 1: and so it just I don't know, talking about that

793
00:36:38,840 --> 00:36:42,440
Speaker 1: with Emily after my grumbling kind of allowed me to

794
00:36:42,600 --> 00:36:45,520
Speaker 1: have a different perspective on the tenant and kind of

795
00:36:45,640 --> 00:36:48,200
Speaker 1: on the good thing that is that rental house and

796
00:36:48,239 --> 00:36:51,080
Speaker 1: what it means to our family. So it wasn't necessarily

797
00:36:51,120 --> 00:36:54,960
Speaker 1: this concept of negative visualization, which I think is really interesting.

798
00:36:55,320 --> 00:36:58,240
Speaker 1: It's like a step beyond appreciating, right, maybe a little depressing.

799
00:36:58,239 --> 00:37:00,120
Speaker 1: I don't know if I'm gonna do that, but at

800
00:37:00,200 --> 00:37:02,960
Speaker 1: least just thinking about what am I grumbling about? Why?

801
00:37:03,160 --> 00:37:06,680
Speaker 1: And am I grumbling about something that in actuality, like

802
00:37:06,880 --> 00:37:09,200
Speaker 1: can I think about the positive side of that? Because yeah,

803
00:37:09,239 --> 00:37:11,320
Speaker 1: for me, that was just huge to sweet just to

804
00:37:11,400 --> 00:37:14,719
Speaker 1: kind of think about that problem from the complete flip

805
00:37:14,760 --> 00:37:17,319
Speaker 1: side of like how good I have it? And I

806
00:37:17,320 --> 00:37:19,919
Speaker 1: think that is a really good way to to change

807
00:37:19,920 --> 00:37:23,200
Speaker 1: your mindset, especially when you're grumblinger or complaining. Oh and

808
00:37:23,280 --> 00:37:26,600
Speaker 1: oftentimes I feel like it is a conscious thing, like

809
00:37:26,640 --> 00:37:28,920
Speaker 1: you have to consciously do it. Oh yeah, you're not

810
00:37:28,960 --> 00:37:30,920
Speaker 1: going to naturally want to do that, right, yeah, And

811
00:37:30,960 --> 00:37:32,960
Speaker 1: so you have to write it down or something and

812
00:37:32,960 --> 00:37:35,240
Speaker 1: put it, put it in front of yourself in the morning,

813
00:37:35,280 --> 00:37:37,879
Speaker 1: maybe so that you're reminded to do that, or put

814
00:37:37,920 --> 00:37:39,600
Speaker 1: yourself in the path of others that are going to

815
00:37:39,680 --> 00:37:42,880
Speaker 1: remind you. Right, Like my wife she does that for

816
00:37:42,960 --> 00:37:44,560
Speaker 1: me well, and hopefully I do that for her a

817
00:37:44,560 --> 00:37:47,560
Speaker 1: while that if if she is coming to something with

818
00:37:47,560 --> 00:37:49,880
Speaker 1: a bad attitude, I can talk to her, not in

819
00:37:49,920 --> 00:37:52,720
Speaker 1: a chastising way, but hey, well think about this, and

820
00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:55,560
Speaker 1: you know what, remind each other of the good things

821
00:37:55,560 --> 00:37:58,640
Speaker 1: that we have because as humans too, right, it's easy

822
00:37:58,680 --> 00:38:01,720
Speaker 1: for us to get bogged down in those negative feelings.

823
00:38:02,040 --> 00:38:05,359
Speaker 1: And having each other to bounce something off of and

824
00:38:05,440 --> 00:38:07,839
Speaker 1: to help us to think about something in a new way.

825
00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:10,600
Speaker 1: I think that's really important too, all right. Man. So

826
00:38:10,640 --> 00:38:13,440
Speaker 1: that was appreciation, which is awesome something that you have

827
00:38:13,880 --> 00:38:17,440
Speaker 1: control over. And so some additional factors and things that

828
00:38:17,480 --> 00:38:20,520
Speaker 1: do create real happiness that you can change are things

829
00:38:20,560 --> 00:38:23,319
Speaker 1: like meaningful work. When I say meaningful work. I think

830
00:38:23,320 --> 00:38:24,880
Speaker 1: a lot of times the first thing people think of

831
00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:26,360
Speaker 1: our oh, I need to go ahead and quit my

832
00:38:26,440 --> 00:38:27,840
Speaker 1: job and get like a real job with that I

833
00:38:27,880 --> 00:38:31,200
Speaker 1: really feel fulfilled in. And I think there's a lot

834
00:38:31,239 --> 00:38:33,160
Speaker 1: of people out there that have jobs that they would

835
00:38:33,160 --> 00:38:36,280
Speaker 1: say aren't great. But like you said, if you're mindful

836
00:38:36,320 --> 00:38:38,640
Speaker 1: about it, and if you're conscious about it, you can

837
00:38:38,680 --> 00:38:41,920
Speaker 1: within that job find meaning. Within that job, you can

838
00:38:41,960 --> 00:38:44,759
Speaker 1: find uh and sort of decipher like, how through this

839
00:38:44,880 --> 00:38:47,520
Speaker 1: am I serving other people? How am I helping people?

840
00:38:47,719 --> 00:38:49,640
Speaker 1: And that's the sort of thing that we talked about

841
00:38:49,640 --> 00:38:51,680
Speaker 1: when we were talking about meaningful work. You can think

842
00:38:51,680 --> 00:38:55,359
Speaker 1: about the positive things that your job brings you, even

843
00:38:55,400 --> 00:38:58,319
Speaker 1: though it's not necessarily the dream job right that you

844
00:38:58,360 --> 00:39:00,520
Speaker 1: wanted to be. And it's also helpful to look at

845
00:39:00,520 --> 00:39:03,680
Speaker 1: the bright spots, right the good things that do happen,

846
00:39:04,040 --> 00:39:07,400
Speaker 1: whether it's just one thing that day that was good

847
00:39:07,440 --> 00:39:10,759
Speaker 1: that happened at your job, or one great interaction that

848
00:39:10,800 --> 00:39:12,560
Speaker 1: you had with a coworker. I think it's a good

849
00:39:12,600 --> 00:39:14,120
Speaker 1: way to kind of put a spin on a job

850
00:39:14,200 --> 00:39:15,920
Speaker 1: that maybe you're a little tired of or board with.

851
00:39:16,200 --> 00:39:18,719
Speaker 1: That's kind of a good way to help you reframe, right,

852
00:39:18,760 --> 00:39:22,359
Speaker 1: the good things that your job is currently, even though

853
00:39:22,480 --> 00:39:25,320
Speaker 1: maybe it's not necessarily the dream job that you've always

854
00:39:25,320 --> 00:39:27,880
Speaker 1: wanted or that you're super excited to wake up and

855
00:39:27,920 --> 00:39:30,240
Speaker 1: go to every day every day. So true, man. Another

856
00:39:30,320 --> 00:39:34,439
Speaker 1: thing that we have control over our our relationships, at least,

857
00:39:34,520 --> 00:39:37,080
Speaker 1: we have a lot of control over the inputs, right,

858
00:39:37,120 --> 00:39:40,280
Speaker 1: the things that go into relationships, and so be embedded

859
00:39:40,320 --> 00:39:43,800
Speaker 1: in good relationships, and this includes you know, friends and family.

860
00:39:44,200 --> 00:39:46,439
Speaker 1: You need to make sure that you're in a nice,

861
00:39:46,440 --> 00:39:50,000
Speaker 1: tight community where you feel understood and we're you know,

862
00:39:50,080 --> 00:39:51,920
Speaker 1: you're able to help others and others are able to

863
00:39:52,200 --> 00:39:54,040
Speaker 1: help you and pour into your life as well. Yeah,

864
00:39:54,040 --> 00:39:56,440
Speaker 1: and we also have a whole episode on the necessity

865
00:39:56,480 --> 00:39:59,080
Speaker 1: of community where we kind of extrapolate that concept further.

866
00:39:59,200 --> 00:40:00,719
Speaker 1: So you go check that out in our backlog as

867
00:40:00,760 --> 00:40:03,960
Speaker 1: well back in the archives, man. So try and grow

868
00:40:04,120 --> 00:40:06,520
Speaker 1: and invest in these relationships, right, and trying to do

869
00:40:06,560 --> 00:40:09,479
Speaker 1: that too by engaging with other folks without being glued

870
00:40:09,480 --> 00:40:11,400
Speaker 1: to your smartphones. Yeah. We talked about the whole smart

871
00:40:11,400 --> 00:40:13,880
Speaker 1: watch this thing earlier and just screens in general and

872
00:40:13,880 --> 00:40:16,200
Speaker 1: how distracting they can be. It's sort of like this

873
00:40:16,360 --> 00:40:18,719
Speaker 1: just sneaky thing that's like weaving its way into our

874
00:40:18,719 --> 00:40:22,400
Speaker 1: relationships where you're not seeing the other person for who

875
00:40:22,440 --> 00:40:24,400
Speaker 1: they are. And then ultimately what that means is like

876
00:40:24,440 --> 00:40:27,359
Speaker 1: you yourself, you're not being known and what that leads

877
00:40:27,360 --> 00:40:30,920
Speaker 1: to are just sort of shallow, unfulfilling relationship. So keep

878
00:40:30,920 --> 00:40:34,160
Speaker 1: tabs on that. Another factor that leads to happiness in

879
00:40:34,200 --> 00:40:37,120
Speaker 1: your life that you have a substantial amount of control

880
00:40:37,160 --> 00:40:40,600
Speaker 1: over is good health. There are so many studies connecting

881
00:40:40,600 --> 00:40:44,680
Speaker 1: our physical bodies to our happiness. And doing yoga, taking

882
00:40:44,680 --> 00:40:47,080
Speaker 1: a hike, bike riding right like we love bike riding,

883
00:40:47,280 --> 00:40:50,800
Speaker 1: those kind of things are instrumental to your good health

884
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:53,759
Speaker 1: and in turn your happiness. Yeah, what about yoga, man,

885
00:40:53,800 --> 00:40:56,239
Speaker 1: you you've been doing yoga recently? Oh, you're gonna let

886
00:40:56,280 --> 00:40:59,120
Speaker 1: everybody know that. I like it all right? So I

887
00:40:59,200 --> 00:41:02,160
Speaker 1: mentioned that though definitely not a yoga pro yet, but

888
00:41:02,280 --> 00:41:04,719
Speaker 1: my my wife's super into it and she's kind of

889
00:41:04,719 --> 00:41:06,600
Speaker 1: been asking me to go. Hey, will you like go

890
00:41:06,640 --> 00:41:09,319
Speaker 1: on a Friday morning before work go to yoga with me?

891
00:41:09,640 --> 00:41:11,520
Speaker 1: And so I've given it a try a couple of times.

892
00:41:12,000 --> 00:41:14,400
Speaker 1: I'm really digging it, Manye like it. I feel like

893
00:41:14,400 --> 00:41:16,080
Speaker 1: it's really good. For a couple of reasons. I think it's,

894
00:41:16,080 --> 00:41:18,200
Speaker 1: you know, good for my body, but it's like so

895
00:41:18,239 --> 00:41:20,760
Speaker 1: good for my mind. Like we're talking about with smartphones

896
00:41:20,800 --> 00:41:22,360
Speaker 1: and stuff like that, there's so few times where I

897
00:41:22,400 --> 00:41:26,920
Speaker 1: don't feel just completely connected, and like that yoga hour

898
00:41:27,400 --> 00:41:31,200
Speaker 1: is a time where I'm completely disconnected from anything except

899
00:41:31,239 --> 00:41:34,600
Speaker 1: for my own mind and my own breathing. And so

900
00:41:34,680 --> 00:41:37,000
Speaker 1: it's it's been it's been really fun to kind of

901
00:41:37,040 --> 00:41:39,600
Speaker 1: do that together, and and so yeah, I don't know,

902
00:41:39,640 --> 00:41:41,680
Speaker 1: I would recommend yoga to people. And you know what,

903
00:41:42,000 --> 00:41:44,560
Speaker 1: there's like the stereotype too, I think for dudes that

904
00:41:44,680 --> 00:41:47,759
Speaker 1: yoga is for women. Maybe I'm wrong. I feel like

905
00:41:47,800 --> 00:41:52,680
Speaker 1: that stereotype is changing, and there are a few a few,

906
00:41:53,520 --> 00:41:55,719
Speaker 1: but I would tell any guy that's hesitant or the

907
00:41:55,719 --> 00:41:58,799
Speaker 1: things that it's not for guys, you're wrong, And it's

908
00:41:58,920 --> 00:42:02,120
Speaker 1: totally for guys and girls. It's just such a good

909
00:42:02,160 --> 00:42:04,960
Speaker 1: experience for your mind and your body. Yeah, highly recommend it.

910
00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:06,719
Speaker 1: I just think it would be awesome for everyone else

911
00:42:06,760 --> 00:42:09,480
Speaker 1: that's there actually with you, that gets to watch you

912
00:42:09,560 --> 00:42:11,880
Speaker 1: try to stretch, because you know, you're like six ft

913
00:42:11,920 --> 00:42:14,399
Speaker 1: seven or whatever, and trying to see you bend over

914
00:42:14,440 --> 00:42:17,600
Speaker 1: and actually touch your toes might be hilarious. There are

915
00:42:17,600 --> 00:42:19,920
Speaker 1: certain questions that my wife asked me. She's like, did

916
00:42:19,960 --> 00:42:23,680
Speaker 1: you hear the instruction correctly on that? Because you aren't

917
00:42:23,680 --> 00:42:27,040
Speaker 1: really doing what You're all facing that wall, buddy. Yes,

918
00:42:27,480 --> 00:42:30,360
Speaker 1: so yeah, I'm pretty inflexible. Um and some of the

919
00:42:30,360 --> 00:42:33,040
Speaker 1: moves after kind of but you're working on it, so

920
00:42:33,160 --> 00:42:35,000
Speaker 1: keep it up. Yeah, I'm working on we get I

921
00:42:35,080 --> 00:42:39,239
Speaker 1: get there. And lastly, man, you have control over your purpose, right,

922
00:42:39,320 --> 00:42:41,279
Speaker 1: the things that drive you, the things that you make

923
00:42:41,280 --> 00:42:43,520
Speaker 1: time for. Figure out what those things are and make

924
00:42:43,520 --> 00:42:46,399
Speaker 1: sure that you're doing them, things like hobbies and also

925
00:42:46,480 --> 00:42:48,760
Speaker 1: to sort of like again, like I mentioned what drives

926
00:42:48,800 --> 00:42:52,680
Speaker 1: you financial freedom, Like, that's for us a big why

927
00:42:52,800 --> 00:42:54,640
Speaker 1: behind why it is that we say and why it

928
00:42:54,719 --> 00:42:57,319
Speaker 1: is that we invest and why we spend less. Yeah.

929
00:42:57,360 --> 00:42:58,919
Speaker 1: I think when we bring it back to the right, Matt,

930
00:42:59,000 --> 00:43:02,920
Speaker 1: that concept of idonic adaptation, we think that maybe working

931
00:43:03,040 --> 00:43:05,680
Speaker 1: a little bit more to make a little bit more

932
00:43:05,719 --> 00:43:09,400
Speaker 1: money to buy a few more things, right, that that

933
00:43:09,640 --> 00:43:12,960
Speaker 1: kind of treadmill, assuming that those things will be the case.

934
00:43:13,040 --> 00:43:14,879
Speaker 1: A little more work, a little more money, a little

935
00:43:14,920 --> 00:43:17,879
Speaker 1: more consumption, that that will lead to happiness that's kind

936
00:43:17,880 --> 00:43:20,040
Speaker 1: of the treadmill that we're saying you need to jump

937
00:43:20,080 --> 00:43:23,239
Speaker 1: off of that thing, right, that is the scary thing

938
00:43:23,520 --> 00:43:25,719
Speaker 1: that there there is no end to it, right, there

939
00:43:25,840 --> 00:43:28,880
Speaker 1: is no end to that sort of mindset and finding

940
00:43:28,880 --> 00:43:33,360
Speaker 1: your purpose, making time for meaningful hobbies and exercise relationships,

941
00:43:33,360 --> 00:43:36,400
Speaker 1: and we're and an important work that is meaningful. Like

942
00:43:36,480 --> 00:43:38,640
Speaker 1: those kind of things are life changing. And so I

943
00:43:38,680 --> 00:43:42,480
Speaker 1: would recommend anybody that's listening right now to maybe stop

944
00:43:42,520 --> 00:43:45,600
Speaker 1: after this episode and right down some of those things

945
00:43:45,800 --> 00:43:48,520
Speaker 1: that are meaningful to you, do the work of kind

946
00:43:48,520 --> 00:43:50,880
Speaker 1: of thinking about it and putting pen to paper, because

947
00:43:51,440 --> 00:43:54,000
Speaker 1: that's how you're going to make a meaningful change and

948
00:43:54,160 --> 00:43:56,080
Speaker 1: jump off the treadmill of like a little more, a

949
00:43:56,120 --> 00:43:58,919
Speaker 1: little more, a little more. And I think probably Matt

950
00:43:58,960 --> 00:44:00,840
Speaker 1: and I would both admit that for us, this is

951
00:44:00,840 --> 00:44:05,120
Speaker 1: difficult to write. You kind of do that natural brain shift,

952
00:44:05,239 --> 00:44:07,560
Speaker 1: right we talked about for good or for bad, whether

953
00:44:07,680 --> 00:44:11,640
Speaker 1: it helps a paraplegic recover after an accident or it

954
00:44:11,719 --> 00:44:14,080
Speaker 1: hurts a lot of winter and their happiness level is

955
00:44:14,160 --> 00:44:16,480
Speaker 1: just the same eighteen months later as it was before

956
00:44:16,480 --> 00:44:18,520
Speaker 1: they won the lottery. That's sort of way that your

957
00:44:18,520 --> 00:44:21,640
Speaker 1: brain works, well, it's got good and bad and Matt

958
00:44:21,640 --> 00:44:24,160
Speaker 1: and I would say it is easy to get on

959
00:44:24,200 --> 00:44:26,400
Speaker 1: the treadmill, and it takes a lot of work and

960
00:44:26,480 --> 00:44:30,960
Speaker 1: conscious thought to hop off. And hopefully after this episode

961
00:44:31,000 --> 00:44:32,919
Speaker 1: is done, you can take a little bit of time

962
00:44:32,920 --> 00:44:35,040
Speaker 1: to kind of think through some of these things and

963
00:44:35,120 --> 00:44:38,239
Speaker 1: what brings you actual, meaningful happiness in your life and

964
00:44:38,280 --> 00:44:40,480
Speaker 1: make some changes. Yeah. Man, a lot of what you're

965
00:44:40,480 --> 00:44:42,920
Speaker 1: just saying right there is the why behind money, and

966
00:44:42,960 --> 00:44:45,720
Speaker 1: that's an actual episode. We spent an entire episode talking

967
00:44:45,760 --> 00:44:47,920
Speaker 1: about what it is that drives you, what is your

968
00:44:48,000 --> 00:44:50,839
Speaker 1: why behind money? And that is so essential and so

969
00:44:51,000 --> 00:44:54,120
Speaker 1: core to the decisions that you make every day when

970
00:44:54,120 --> 00:44:55,920
Speaker 1: it comes to your spending. And lastly, if we're going

971
00:44:55,960 --> 00:44:59,480
Speaker 1: to continue the sort of treadmill analogy, is being generous

972
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:02,440
Speaker 1: and to be generous and to give your money away

973
00:45:02,480 --> 00:45:04,560
Speaker 1: and to spend it on others sort of like hit

974
00:45:04,600 --> 00:45:06,759
Speaker 1: and reverse on the treadmill, right, because instead of like

975
00:45:06,800 --> 00:45:09,520
Speaker 1: going full speed forward just to sort of stay in

976
00:45:09,560 --> 00:45:12,839
Speaker 1: the same spot, what you're doing is doing the opposite. So, yeah,

977
00:45:12,920 --> 00:45:14,960
Speaker 1: try to give of what you have and think about

978
00:45:14,960 --> 00:45:17,240
Speaker 1: what good you can do with your money to seeing

979
00:45:17,239 --> 00:45:19,640
Speaker 1: the needs of others, around you and in your community

980
00:45:20,000 --> 00:45:22,839
Speaker 1: is a much much healthier lens to look through than

981
00:45:22,960 --> 00:45:25,840
Speaker 1: comparing what you have or what you don't have to

982
00:45:26,360 --> 00:45:28,640
Speaker 1: your friends or your neighbors. I love that, buddy. I

983
00:45:28,640 --> 00:45:31,160
Speaker 1: feel like the hedonic treadmill is almost kind of gotta

984
00:45:31,160 --> 00:45:33,800
Speaker 1: flip it. Yeah, I feel like it's almost this myopic

985
00:45:33,880 --> 00:45:38,200
Speaker 1: thing where you're looking at yourself. Really you here, that's

986
00:45:38,239 --> 00:45:41,000
Speaker 1: all it is, right, Yeah, And and the opposite of

987
00:45:41,040 --> 00:45:43,719
Speaker 1: that probably the number one way to combat that, right,

988
00:45:43,840 --> 00:45:45,960
Speaker 1: maybe creating a list of all those things that like

989
00:45:46,000 --> 00:45:47,920
Speaker 1: I just talked about. But but then the other thing

990
00:45:48,000 --> 00:45:51,080
Speaker 1: is being generous with what you have, Yeah, because being

991
00:45:51,160 --> 00:45:54,160
Speaker 1: generous with what you have is this great way to

992
00:45:54,239 --> 00:45:57,680
Speaker 1: kind of combat this natural instinct to want to accrue more.

993
00:45:58,080 --> 00:46:01,520
Speaker 1: It just completely reframes things, and it gives you just

994
00:46:01,640 --> 00:46:07,160
Speaker 1: a proper perspective on life, humanity, community, and what actually matters. Yeah.

995
00:46:07,160 --> 00:46:09,480
Speaker 1: I almost see it as like an antidote to like

996
00:46:09,520 --> 00:46:14,360
Speaker 1: selfish spending and just consumption, commercialism, just everything sort of

997
00:46:14,400 --> 00:46:16,759
Speaker 1: gross and bad out there, right, Trampling people for a

998
00:46:16,880 --> 00:46:19,759
Speaker 1: hundred fifty dollar TV on Black Friday, Right, Yeah, it's

999
00:46:19,800 --> 00:46:23,319
Speaker 1: the exact opposite exactly. Yeah, all right, man, let's get

1000
00:46:23,320 --> 00:46:26,120
Speaker 1: back to this beer. Then. This was the Manga Ferra

1001
00:46:26,239 --> 00:46:30,239
Speaker 1: Flux and that is by Mars and the r Z

1002
00:46:30,640 --> 00:46:33,799
Speaker 1: Community Brewing Company out of Chicago. Yeah, and our friend

1003
00:46:33,840 --> 00:46:37,440
Speaker 1: Andrew brought this beer back from Chicago for us. So

1004
00:46:37,640 --> 00:46:39,640
Speaker 1: thanks Andrew. What do you think of this? It was

1005
00:46:39,719 --> 00:46:42,480
Speaker 1: really good. I tell you what, man, I think mango

1006
00:46:42,640 --> 00:46:44,719
Speaker 1: beers are where it's at. Not a huge fan of

1007
00:46:44,760 --> 00:46:47,000
Speaker 1: mangoes themselves, you know, like mangoes like the fruit. I

1008
00:46:47,040 --> 00:46:49,560
Speaker 1: think it's the texture. It's kind of slimy, like you

1009
00:46:49,560 --> 00:46:51,440
Speaker 1: slice it and it's still stuck together. You're like, why

1010
00:46:51,480 --> 00:46:53,759
Speaker 1: is that still stuck together? Yes, So I don't really

1011
00:46:53,800 --> 00:46:56,879
Speaker 1: like to eat mangoes, but mangoes and adhesion to itself,

1012
00:46:57,760 --> 00:46:59,600
Speaker 1: it's like the perfect beer fruit. Yeah. So it's a

1013
00:46:59,600 --> 00:47:03,360
Speaker 1: bottle Nition Berlin of ice with mangoes and Brett and

1014
00:47:03,400 --> 00:47:06,480
Speaker 1: that bread gives it like a nice dryness, but with

1015
00:47:06,520 --> 00:47:08,680
Speaker 1: the mangoes, they're nice little fruit, little fruit touched to

1016
00:47:08,719 --> 00:47:10,360
Speaker 1: the end of it. I really dig it. Yeah, and

1017
00:47:10,400 --> 00:47:14,160
Speaker 1: almost have like a champagne effervescence too. Yeah, so that

1018
00:47:14,239 --> 00:47:15,840
Speaker 1: was kind of nice. It was nice and bubbly right

1019
00:47:15,840 --> 00:47:17,759
Speaker 1: when you're pooring it. Yeah, yes, So I've never had

1020
00:47:17,760 --> 00:47:20,840
Speaker 1: anything by this brewery before and uh mangat Farrell Flux,

1021
00:47:20,920 --> 00:47:23,040
Speaker 1: I would recommend it, man, really good, all right, Matt,

1022
00:47:23,040 --> 00:47:25,839
Speaker 1: final thoughts tell me with it. We talked about how

1023
00:47:25,880 --> 00:47:28,719
Speaker 1: hedonic adaptation can be a bad thing. We think they're

1024
00:47:28,760 --> 00:47:31,359
Speaker 1: buying things make us happy, but it turns out it's

1025
00:47:31,400 --> 00:47:33,880
Speaker 1: more like a sugar rush and it doesn't lead to

1026
00:47:34,080 --> 00:47:37,960
Speaker 1: ultimate happiness. So really, just understanding the concept and the

1027
00:47:38,000 --> 00:47:40,680
Speaker 1: reality of the treadmill that we're on, that's the place

1028
00:47:40,719 --> 00:47:42,960
Speaker 1: to start. That's right, man, Like buying that quick little thing,

1029
00:47:43,200 --> 00:47:45,160
Speaker 1: you think it's gonna improve your life, but in reality,

1030
00:47:45,320 --> 00:47:47,520
Speaker 1: your happiness level comes right back down to that sort

1031
00:47:47,560 --> 00:47:50,879
Speaker 1: of baseline happiness. And because that hedonic adaptation can also

1032
00:47:50,920 --> 00:47:52,680
Speaker 1: be a good thing because there's something negative where to

1033
00:47:52,719 --> 00:47:55,160
Speaker 1: happen to you. If you get enough time, you're also

1034
00:47:55,280 --> 00:47:57,480
Speaker 1: gonna readjust before you know it, you're gonna be at

1035
00:47:57,480 --> 00:48:00,000
Speaker 1: a point to where you feel close to the same

1036
00:48:00,000 --> 00:48:02,520
Speaker 1: amount of happiness that you did before that terrible event

1037
00:48:02,560 --> 00:48:04,799
Speaker 1: were to happen. And so ultimately you want to use

1038
00:48:04,800 --> 00:48:08,080
Speaker 1: this concept of hedonic adaptation or the hedonic treadmill to

1039
00:48:08,160 --> 00:48:11,080
Speaker 1: your advantage in spending less money. If you kind of

1040
00:48:11,160 --> 00:48:14,800
Speaker 1: realize these characteristics about your brain and the way it works,

1041
00:48:15,120 --> 00:48:18,800
Speaker 1: it helps you to combat that and fight the urge

1042
00:48:18,840 --> 00:48:22,600
Speaker 1: to spend more, realizing that those little sugar rushes of

1043
00:48:22,640 --> 00:48:26,120
Speaker 1: happiness that you get from a quick purchase don't really

1044
00:48:26,239 --> 00:48:28,640
Speaker 1: move the needle in the long run, and that changing

1045
00:48:28,719 --> 00:48:31,840
Speaker 1: your habits can actually lead toward more long term happiness

1046
00:48:31,880 --> 00:48:35,520
Speaker 1: by creating real financial stability in your life. That's right, man.

1047
00:48:35,560 --> 00:48:37,399
Speaker 1: And so one of the ways that you can bring

1048
00:48:37,440 --> 00:48:40,359
Speaker 1: that long term happiness is appreciation. And what I love

1049
00:48:40,400 --> 00:48:42,839
Speaker 1: about this is that this is is truly is the

1050
00:48:42,880 --> 00:48:47,320
Speaker 1: complete opposite of hedonic adaptation. It's savoring the things that

1051
00:48:47,360 --> 00:48:49,800
Speaker 1: we own, the experiences that we get to take parton,

1052
00:48:50,320 --> 00:48:54,239
Speaker 1: and most importantly, our relationships. Hang on to that happiness

1053
00:48:54,280 --> 00:48:56,960
Speaker 1: that you already have. I love that concept, my friend.

1054
00:48:57,200 --> 00:48:59,400
Speaker 1: It's just so good to sit back and appreciate there

1055
00:48:59,440 --> 00:49:01,799
Speaker 1: are the good things that you have in good friendship. Man.

1056
00:49:01,880 --> 00:49:03,440
Speaker 1: That's like at the top of the list. Are you

1057
00:49:03,480 --> 00:49:05,759
Speaker 1: savoring our relationship right now? Is that what you're thinking of?

1058
00:49:05,880 --> 00:49:10,640
Speaker 1: That's very instant. I love you, buddy. So also being generous,

1059
00:49:11,040 --> 00:49:14,400
Speaker 1: that is the other main antidote to that hedonic treadmill

1060
00:49:14,600 --> 00:49:18,080
Speaker 1: to get you to hop off by giving of what

1061
00:49:18,200 --> 00:49:20,960
Speaker 1: you have, your time and your money, in serving other

1062
00:49:20,960 --> 00:49:24,320
Speaker 1: people around you and meeting needs that exist in your community.

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00:49:24,680 --> 00:49:26,640
Speaker 1: If you live a life of generosity, it's kind of

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00:49:26,640 --> 00:49:29,400
Speaker 1: like throwing a wrench in that treadmill. The electronic partsuff

1065
00:49:29,440 --> 00:49:32,480
Speaker 1: like fizzle and spurts and marks of flying exactly. Uh.

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00:49:32,520 --> 00:49:35,840
Speaker 1: And so that's kind of the way to get yourself

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00:49:35,960 --> 00:49:38,560
Speaker 1: off of that crumby treadmill life right and getting into

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00:49:38,600 --> 00:49:41,279
Speaker 1: something more meaningful. Plus, running on a treadmill sucks. Man.

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00:49:41,360 --> 00:49:43,000
Speaker 1: Have you ever run on a treadmill? Dude? I try

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00:49:43,040 --> 00:49:45,520
Speaker 1: to avoid running all together. Like, if I want to

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00:49:45,600 --> 00:49:46,960
Speaker 1: run somewhere, I want to go to get outside and

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00:49:47,000 --> 00:49:50,360
Speaker 1: actually run. Running on treadmill is terrible in my opinion.

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00:49:50,360 --> 00:49:52,759
Speaker 1: I feel the same way about stationary bikes. Yes, I

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00:49:52,760 --> 00:49:54,400
Speaker 1: don't get it. Yeah, yeah, I don't don't get it

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Speaker 1: at all. Get outside, yep. Alright, that's gonna be it

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00:49:56,920 --> 00:49:59,920
Speaker 1: for this episode. Thanks everyone for listening. Our home on

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00:50:00,000 --> 00:50:03,200
Speaker 1: a web is how to Money dot com. Check it out.

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00:50:03,200 --> 00:50:05,120
Speaker 1: We'll have some show notes up there for you. If

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00:50:05,120 --> 00:50:07,200
Speaker 1: you like what you hear and you found this podcast helpful,

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00:50:07,239 --> 00:50:09,080
Speaker 1: please let us know by giving us a review on

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00:50:09,160 --> 00:50:12,080
Speaker 1: Apple Podcast or wherever you listen. We'd love to hear

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00:50:12,120 --> 00:50:14,359
Speaker 1: from you, and be sure to subscribe while you're there.

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00:50:14,840 --> 00:50:18,200
Speaker 1: Until next time, Man, best Friends Out, Best Friends Out,