WEBVTT - Overcoming Our Idiot Brains (Bestie Ep) #1014 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:02.800 Welcome to Had of Money. I'm Joel and I'm Matt, 0:00:02.880 --> 0:00:06.280 and today we're talking about how to overcome your idiot brain. 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:29.320 Hey, we've all done some dumb things. Joel, Actually, so 0:00:29.320 --> 0:00:32.559 what's the is there something that you do on a 0:00:32.640 --> 0:00:35.800 recurring basis that is kind of an idiot thing or 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:39.479 a dumb thing? Or ask my wife? You have two options. 0:00:39.479 --> 0:00:41.080 What's the one of the dumbest things you've ever done, 0:00:41.360 --> 0:00:44.519 or what's something that you do more regularly that you're like, 0:00:45.080 --> 0:00:45.960 why do I do that? 0:00:45.720 --> 0:00:47.520 That's not gonna minute, that's probably Matt. 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:51.040 Well, we'll make sure to hit those topics when we 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:54.960 have our Wives episodes later this summer. If I said, 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:56.880 I thought about this because I was gonna ask you 0:00:56.880 --> 0:00:58.680 this question. But I think one of the dumbest things 0:00:58.720 --> 0:01:00.800 I ever did was I a jeep when I was 0:01:00.840 --> 0:01:03.200 in high school, and I thought that meant oh that 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:05.800 means I can drive through mud of any depth and. 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:08.520 Pipe worked like that. 0:01:08.560 --> 0:01:10.720 Well, I I was such an idiot, Like I drove, 0:01:10.800 --> 0:01:12.720 we went not we It was just me that there's 0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:14.880 one mistake I wasn't. I didn't have a buddy there, 0:01:15.280 --> 0:01:16.920 you know, who had my back. But I went to 0:01:16.959 --> 0:01:19.280 this field that I had never been to before, and 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:21.360 it brained a whole lot, and there's a bunch of 0:01:21.360 --> 0:01:23.840 big puddles, or so I thought. And so I'm like, 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:27.479 why driving around mud splashing everywhere. I'm just like living 0:01:27.480 --> 0:01:30.280 the life until the nose of the jeep just like 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:33.000 dives down and it was this massive hole and I 0:01:33.000 --> 0:01:35.920 couldn't get out, and we had a call like a 0:01:35.920 --> 0:01:39.160 tow truck to winch me out of there. There is Yeah, 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:41.479 it was a mess. That was most likely the dumbest 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:42.920 thing I've ever done in my life. 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:44.640 I mean, that's not the worst thing about A lot 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:46.040 of people have done a lot of dumber things. 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:49.320 It ruined the transmission, okay, like like mud and liquid 0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:52.640 water got into the transmission and the transmission had to 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:55.760 be That was a costly misfan. 0:01:55.520 --> 0:01:57.720 That's no fun. Well, we're gonna talk about all sorts 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:01.520 of things today on this episode. Ways, especially specifically that 0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:05.640 our brain works largely because of the thousands and millions 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:09.200 of years of evolution, right, and and how it doesn't 0:02:09.240 --> 0:02:13.200 really work to our advantage in the modern modern day society. 0:02:13.200 --> 0:02:15.400 That's true, ways that we're conspiring against ourselves. And then 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:16.080 how to overcome them. 0:02:16.160 --> 0:02:18.120 Yeah, and there's certain things and more in our more 0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:20.720 recent history and in our own personal lives that has 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:23.120 an impact on how it is that we handle our money, 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:25.360 and you didn't reciprocate. I was hoping you would have 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:27.680 a good dumb story, but you keep thinking about it. 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:30.440 Folks can hang on for at the end of the episode. Uh, 0:02:30.520 --> 0:02:33.400 maybe you'll not tell you So my girls they love 0:02:33.520 --> 0:02:35.200 to hear this one. You tell us one story. When 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:37.480 I was in college in South Carolina, it didn't really 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:40.000 snow very often, but one time it snowed, and what 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:43.680 idiot college dudes think to do when that happens. Well, 0:02:43.720 --> 0:02:45.320 we wanted to go skiing, but there's no place to 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:47.920 ski in Greenville, South Carolina, naturally, So what we did 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:51.480 was we put on the skis, we threw an electrical cable, 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:54.440 slammed it in the trunck on Mytota camera, and we 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:56.280 went skiing on the icy roads. 0:02:56.400 --> 0:02:59.959 And nobody got terribly injured. But there's a minor injury 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:02.000 at least. That's just like one dumb thing that I 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:02.480 remember doing. 0:03:02.840 --> 0:03:04.880 See that just sounds like fun because it was, like 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:06.840 you said, nothing bad happened, So that was just a 0:03:06.840 --> 0:03:07.280 good time. 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:09.960 It's not been like a dislocated shoulder or something like that. 0:03:10.080 --> 0:03:13.520 But that's about it. Stuff like that all the time, 0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:15.880 Like okay, maybe we'll say this one for yeah, I 0:03:15.880 --> 0:03:17.880 don't want to go down this path of dumb stuff 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:20.400 that we did that was actually fun, not considered dumb 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:22.280 because it didn't come with it come at a high cost. 0:03:22.440 --> 0:03:25.160 But actually, speaking of college, a quick little story to 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:28.120 share with folks, Amazon is actually no longer in the 0:03:28.919 --> 0:03:30.880 college textbook rental business. 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:32.919 My wife found this out the hard way. So we've 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:35.400 talked about this before, how that's a massive way to 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:37.920 save when it comes to the tech instead of buying 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:40.200 brand new or even buying used and then returning into 0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:43.360 the school bookstore renting it instead. And if you're. 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:46.200 Talking about I mean hundreds and even thousands of dollars 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:49.360 when it comes to the amount that these college textbooks 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:50.360 cost for sure. 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:52.360 And so my wife, she's in grad school and she's 0:03:52.400 --> 0:03:55.160 been using Amazon Textbooks, checking it against the prices other 0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:58.520 places too, But Amazon Textbooks, I guess they found out 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:00.560 we're pricing these things too low and we're not making 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:02.800 any money, so they shut her down. And so now 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:05.680 if you want to rent a textbook to save money, 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:07.960 which I think is still a good way to go, 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:10.880 still good route to choose, get a tactic. Yeah, book Scouter, 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:14.200 e Campus, and cheg are the three websites you should 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:16.520 be checking out. We'll link to those in the show notes. 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:19.240 But those are I think book scouter in particular, it's 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:22.240 like a marketplace, like it aggregates a bunch of different 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:25.680 additional websites and you can compare prices easily on there, 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:27.600 which is huge, huge. 0:04:27.520 --> 0:04:30.880 And I hate to see one less competitor, especially one 0:04:30.880 --> 0:04:33.880 as big as Amazon in the space. But yeah, if 0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:35.960 you were like my wife and you were bummed and 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:37.320 you're like, I don't know where to go now, we'll 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:39.320 check out one of these sites, because yep, yeah, you 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:41.000 still it's better to rent than to buy. 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:43.280 And so I bet there's probably still a lot of 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:46.440 folks out there who have Amazon books that they had rented, 0:04:46.480 --> 0:04:48.640 and you actually have I think it's until sometime this fall, 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:51.479 like August or September, in order to return those those books. 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:53.360 We just returned hers for the last sulster. You don't 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:55.600 get to keep them. We were shopping for the next 0:04:55.640 --> 0:04:58.960 semester and we were like, oh, bummer, but we found 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:01.600 we went to cheg for some of hers and save 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:03.600 some money. But if he had just word otherwise, if 0:05:03.600 --> 0:05:06.320 you're in school or you know someone who's in school 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:08.760 and they're like, these books are expensive, this is definitely 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:10.360 one way to save money. Absolutely. 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:12.120 All right, man, are you ready for this beer? 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:13.800 I'm ready, We're born ready. 0:05:13.839 --> 0:05:16.919 It's time to tap some of the beers that I 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:19.960 grabbed recently from Asheville, North Carolina. But this is End 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:23.920 of Plagues and this is a beer by Burial Brewing Company. 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:26.400 We will enjoy this one during this episode and share 0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:28.400 our thoughts at the end of the episode. 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:31.760 Burial always so chill in their naming conventions. Not all right, 0:05:31.800 --> 0:05:33.919 let's move on, Matt. Let's say, let's get to the 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:36.080 topic we want to discuss on this episode, which is 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:40.640 overcoming your idiot brain, and specifically, how are brains process 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:43.640 information that make us bad with money? And we've all 0:05:43.680 --> 0:05:46.320 seen the meme of the guy on the bike who 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:48.279 puts a stick in his own wheel and he falls off. 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:50.880 That's kind of becoming ubiquitous at this point. There are 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:54.760 literally hundreds of different memes based on this goofy poorly 0:05:54.839 --> 0:05:57.520 drawn comic and for instance, Matt I saw one. The 0:05:57.520 --> 0:06:00.600 first line says, fifteen holes a good go, and then 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:03.480 it says, my brain realizing I'm playing well as he 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:06.680 puts the stick in the front wheel, and then what happens. 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:09.279 He's lying on the ground writhing in pain. It's amazing. 0:06:09.600 --> 0:06:13.000 That just reveals a deeper truth whenever you attach something 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:13.480 to this meme. 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:15.400 Yeah, one of my favorite. It makes me think of, 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:18.360 Like the first one's like, I'm tired at work, falling 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:20.760 asleep at my desk, drinks a big old cup of 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:24.279 afternoon coffee as he sticks the stick in the spokes 0:06:24.600 --> 0:06:27.280 and can't sleep that night. Is the end result, which 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:28.600 I feel like is something we've all done. 0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:31.919 Yeah, for sure. And the truth is it's not really 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:33.880 all that hard for any of us to become our 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:36.920 own worst enemy on the money front, right, and that, yeah, 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:39.360 good intentions just aren't going to get the job done. 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:41.159 So today we want to talk about some of the 0:06:41.279 --> 0:06:44.640 common ways we're inspiring against ourselves, and we want to 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:47.520 offer an antidote or multiple antidotes to help us make 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:50.840 the progress we're looking to achieve more possible, more of 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:51.400 a reality. 0:06:51.480 --> 0:06:53.880 Yeah, Like that's what makes these memes so hilarious and 0:06:54.080 --> 0:06:56.360 poignant at the exact same time. Right is that because 0:06:56.400 --> 0:06:58.360 like we know the truth, like we know what it 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:01.320 is that we should be doing, but then we go 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:04.360 we basically do the exact opposite. Right, We have all 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:08.040 been there and it's impacted all areas of our lives 0:07:08.080 --> 0:07:11.600 as well. I think like anyone ever sabotage relationship? Have 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:15.720 you ever sabotaged a job interview? Almost like subconsciously though, right, Yeah, 0:07:15.760 --> 0:07:18.760 Like even without realizing. I think sometimes we only become 0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:20.920 aware of it, like what we have done after the 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:22.160 fact in hindsight, like. 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:24.680 Oh wait, that's how I That's how I ruined that thing. 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:26.400 Yeah, Like, I mean honestly, like that's what it's what 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:28.560 it means to be human. Like we get to just 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:33.200 revel in the complexity and the incomprehensibility of being human beings. 0:07:33.560 --> 0:07:38.560 But as Carl Jung said, until you make the unconscious conscious, 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:41.280 it will direct your life and you will call it fate. 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:46.160 And yeah, yeah, when we leave these underground, subterranean thoughts 0:07:46.160 --> 0:07:49.320 and beliefs unexamined, untapped, we're going to be prone to 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:52.480 make the same mistakes just on repeat throughout our lives. 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:55.440 It's honestly, it's truly amazing that humanity has even come 0:07:55.440 --> 0:08:00.360 this far, given our tendencies to self sabotage. Luckily, great 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:04.280 philosophers and thinkers like Carl Jung who have paused, and 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:06.120 they cause us to think a little bit and so 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:10.000 maybe spend some time digging below the service a little bit. 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:13.120 And and honestly, even today, I think just the emotional 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:15.520 or like mental health has risen in prominence. And I 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:16.920 think that's a good thing because I think that has 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:19.480 allowed a lot of folks to maybe think a little 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:22.120 bit more about why it is that they're doing the 0:08:22.160 --> 0:08:23.200 things that they're doing. 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:26.720 So they can hopefully avoid sticking the stick in the 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:30.600 wheel again exactly basically styming their own progress and hurting 0:08:30.640 --> 0:08:32.640 their inability to do the things that they really do 0:08:32.679 --> 0:08:35.679 want to achieve in favor of often kind of some 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:38.240 sort of short term reward. And I do think that 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:41.120 thinking and feeling affect the way we handle our money 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:43.240 so much more than we give it credit for, and 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:46.480 even more so than the immutable characteristics that we possess, 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:50.440 like our personal history and our personality. Tendencies are likely 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:52.520 to play a bigger role in how we react to 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:56.680 spending and investing than even our age or our education level. 0:08:56.760 --> 0:08:59.880 Yees about their skills and how good you are, right, yeah, 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:03.120 it's it's really about your history and kind of different 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:04.959 things probably that formed early in life. 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:07.160 I mean, we're going to sound like a psychotherapist here, 0:09:07.240 --> 0:09:09.920 like you're laying down on a couch and we're you know, 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:12.440 picking your brain or something like that. But that's it 0:09:12.480 --> 0:09:14.480 really is true that a lot of kind of how 0:09:14.520 --> 0:09:17.040 we have come to view and think about money has 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:20.880 been tainted, has been informed by those early years. And 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:23.400 so it doesn't matter how good you are at math, 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:27.880 that's not a prerequisite for handling money well. Either. It's 0:09:28.040 --> 0:09:31.600 really difficult to remove ourselves from our day to day 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:34.920 way of living in order to understand and come to 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:37.920 grips with the groundwork that we've laid already that's been 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:41.560 laid over, you know, especially those first formative years, which 0:09:41.600 --> 0:09:44.360 informs how we're making decisions in the present that impact 0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:46.760 our lives on an ongoing basis. I mean, it doesn't 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:49.120 help that everyone out there is basically trying to sell 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:52.000 you something, you know, like attention. It's the most important 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:54.360 commodity that we have in this day and age. And 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:57.000 every company out there is they're doing their absolutely best 0:09:57.040 --> 0:09:59.760 to hijack our attention for their profit. 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:03.200 We think about we recently talked about the TV and like, 0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:06.880 you're having your attention, you're having your literally your eyeball 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:09.840 is hijacked in order to get something for free, free TV. 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:12.480 And you say, and then you know it comes at 0:10:12.720 --> 0:10:13.360 a high cost. 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:15.640 That well, initially it seems like it's a low cost 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:17.320 in that case, right, like the free TV, but. 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:18.680 They ultimately except for no money. 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:22.360 Yeah, ultimately what this means are more dollars flowing out 0:10:22.400 --> 0:10:25.120 of your life because of it. In social media is 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:27.880 a great example as well, but a plethora of streaming 0:10:27.880 --> 0:10:31.040 options like that's an entirely additional front. 0:10:31.160 --> 0:10:33.199 I feel like that we have to fight. 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:35.760 Right Like there are still like more good TV shows 0:10:35.760 --> 0:10:38.360 out there than any sane human being could possibly watch. 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:40.200 There's a lot of bad ones out there too. 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:43.360 But a lot even just goofy little games like candy 0:10:43.360 --> 0:10:46.320 Crush on our phones, Like these are all distractions that 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:48.440 are pulling at us. And the more that we give 0:10:48.480 --> 0:10:51.720 into these distractions, the less productive and the more unhappy 0:10:51.880 --> 0:10:53.880 that we're going to become. And we say it like, 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:56.960 no judgment here right by the way, we fall prey 0:10:57.000 --> 0:10:59.679 to these same distractions, these same things that are constantly 0:10:59.760 --> 0:11:02.000 viol for our attention. And so maybe a part of 0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:04.440 why we're covering this topic, like we're doing this for 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:05.840 ourselves sure, as well. 0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:08.400 As for you. Yeah no, I mean I think ye 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:10.240 that the goal of this is where you and I 0:11:10.240 --> 0:11:13.560 are always trying to be lifelong learners too. We don't 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:16.079 want to just point fingers at anybody who uses candy 0:11:16.080 --> 0:11:19.439 crush and call them crazy or anything like that. I 0:11:19.480 --> 0:11:21.920 try to avoid games, video games, any sort of games 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:24.040 on my phone, but I realized that they bring some 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:25.720 people a lot of joy, and in fact, they help 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:28.640 your voter skills and coordination to some degree too. So 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:30.680 I'm not saying there's no visit at all. Yeah, yeah, 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:32.280 but we're talking just. 0:11:32.200 --> 0:11:34.040 A double edged sword though, you know, like like that's 0:11:34.080 --> 0:11:37.440 the thing with tech in particular, Like like when we 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:39.559 were talking about counseling earlier. It also makes me think 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:41.520 of like the rise in like headspace, Like there are 0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:43.560 some different apps out there that cause people to slow 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:46.320 down and to pause and reflect. But it's a double 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:49.120 edged sword because like five hundred years ago, like back 0:11:49.120 --> 0:11:53.280 in the day. I'm guessing there was probably less issues 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:54.719 when it came to mental health. I don't know if 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:57.280 that's proven. That's just this is that's just my assumption. 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:00.120 They probably didn't need some of these apps because today 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:03.360 environment like the way things are today, our again, our 0:12:03.360 --> 0:12:07.720 attention is just hijacked constantly, instead of having downtime where 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:10.280 we might naturally reflect on things, where we might naturally 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:12.720 have a conversation with the loved one and do some 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:15.640 of the things that matter more. Instead, yeah, we're just 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:17.920 scrolling social media, and so we have to be more purchases, 0:12:17.960 --> 0:12:18.560 more proactive. 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:22.560 Basically because of the nature of the society society we 0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:24.600 live in, and because of the things that are the 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:26.440 flaming arrows that are aimed our way, we need some 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:28.800 sort of like shield to fin them off so that 0:12:28.840 --> 0:12:31.840 we can protect ourselves and seth godin he writes about 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:33.880 defeating the lizard brain, and that's kind of like what 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:35.920 we're talking about here in this episode. You know, the 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:38.800 basic part of our psyche that only cares about the 0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:43.040 most fundamental aspects of life, like surviving, eating, and procreating, 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:46.960 which are all good, necessary things. I like all the above, 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:50.920 you know, but that lizard brain can also cause us 0:12:51.040 --> 0:12:55.320 to function with the survivalist short term mentality. And Matt, 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:58.600 I remember hearing Tim Urban say this. He said, the 0:12:58.640 --> 0:13:01.000 world we were programmed to be in and didn't have 0:13:01.040 --> 0:13:05.200 long term projects that often. So so basically the reality 0:13:05.200 --> 0:13:08.440 that our ancestors grew up in long term wasn't really 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:12.080 a thing, Like nobody was investing for retirement. Like our 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:14.960 brains haven't kept up with the new reality of much 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:17.040 longer life spans and four one k's and all the 0:13:17.040 --> 0:13:19.600 stuff that come along with those things. Three baby, right, 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:22.200 And so it's just no surprise that our brains have 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:24.920 had trouble keeping up with this new reality, albeit a 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:28.119 very fortunate reality, right. I mean, I personally like electricity, 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:31.079 indoor plumbing. I'm not mad about any of the progress 0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:33.160 that we've made, but it comes with, like I said, 0:13:33.160 --> 0:13:35.200 double edged short, it comes with the downside and somethings 0:13:35.240 --> 0:13:37.880 with something we need to pay attention to if we 0:13:37.920 --> 0:13:40.120 want to live a fulfilling life and one that also 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:42.240 comes along with financial security at the same time. 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:43.800 Yeah, yeah, there's no part of me that wants to 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:47.160 go back five hundred years ago. There are a lot 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:48.640 of things that we don't have to worry about There 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:52.440 are a lot of diseases that would not so much progress. Yeah, exactly, 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:54.280 Like I'm very, very happy to be living in the 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:54.760 air that works. 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:57.760 I mean, even even if you're in the bottom twentieth 0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:00.160 percentile of Americans, you're living better than French kings did 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:03.680 three hundred years ago, which is I mean, just pretty 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:04.560 amazing to think about. 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:05.439 Like had some perks they. 0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:08.160 Okay. 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:09.839 So one of the problems I think we face that 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:14.200 stems from what Seth Goudin calls the lizard brain, is 0:14:14.240 --> 0:14:16.760 that we all have a tendency to overvalue the present. 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:20.360 This is called present bias. There's a study from twenty 0:14:20.440 --> 0:14:23.920 nineteen and they found that present biased consumers are more 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:27.080 likely to spend in the present and less likely to. 0:14:27.120 --> 0:14:28.480 Save for the future. 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:33.720 And obviously this makes sense given where we've come from ancestrally, 0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:36.560 like our brains they just haven't adapted to this long 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:39.960 term thinking that's required as lifespans have increased and just 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:42.400 our need to build up assets for you know, like 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:45.480 potentially multiple decades. That's the reality now that we live 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:46.360 in Like this is the. 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:48.760 Exact opposite of what used to happen when our ancestors 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:51.880 would come across food like they didn't. Now we have 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:53.760 as much food as we want at our fingertips to 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:55.200 a certain area. Right, you can walk into a gross 0:14:55.200 --> 0:14:57.040 story get whatever you want. Before it was like you 0:14:57.080 --> 0:14:59.280 come upon food, you almost have to hoard it. Yeah, 0:14:59.360 --> 0:15:00.120 you almost have to eat. 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:02.880 You can arrise that honey, like that's some good stuff. 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:06.520 But now everything is sweet, and we still crave sugar. 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:09.360 That's right. But unlike our ancestors, we can get them 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:11.320 whenever we want it, and so we don't have to 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:13.480 and they're quite refined, but we still like to eat 0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:15.120 them the way ancestors did. And so when we have 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:16.440 it like we want to consume it. Yeah. 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:18.840 Yeah, because this present bias is something that we're continually 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:21.600 rubbing up against. We just have a hard time mustering 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:24.240 this self control, even though we know that we don't need, 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:26.880 for instance, those additional calories via that sugar. We lack 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:29.840 this self control that's needed when it comes to your finances, 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:33.080 curb spending and to set more aside for your future. 0:15:33.280 --> 0:15:35.120 But the good news is that there are some tools 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:37.600 at our disposal in order to help us, you know, 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:39.720 within this quest on our as we're on our path 0:15:39.840 --> 0:15:43.600 to financial independence. So we'll discuss some other psychological hurdles 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:46.680 that we face and how to overcome them right after this. 0:15:56.080 --> 0:15:58.840 All right, Matt, let's keep going. We're getting psychological with 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:02.000 this one. It's true our brains conspire against us and 0:16:02.200 --> 0:16:03.800 they cause us to do things that aren't in our 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:04.400 best interest. 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:07.360 And overcoming the ancestral lizard brain. 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:10.400 Yeah, I mean, I think back to middle school and 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:13.560 uh it just or even even high school. I was 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:16.400 babb with the ladies and I remember trying, like I 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:18.560 wanted to ask somebody out on a date or something 0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:20.920 like that. I was so nervous that that person was 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:22.320 going to say no. And it took me a while 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:24.680 to come to grips with the fact that what if 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:26.480 they do say, Now, what's the worst thing that happens, 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:28.480 Like you feel bad for a second. What if they 0:16:28.520 --> 0:16:30.400 say yes, you have this awesome chance to hang out 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:32.160 with this person that you would really like to spend 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:32.680 some time with. 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:36.880 So, coming back to Joel's base desire, exactly. 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:39.320 Well, these are the kind of things that, like we 0:16:39.080 --> 0:16:41.520 we have a hard time rationalize. It took me a 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:44.040 long time to come to that conclusion, to realize that 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:46.160 the stakes were actually a lot lower than I thought. 0:16:46.000 --> 0:16:49.040 That you weren't in literal life harm because like, that's 0:16:49.040 --> 0:16:51.200 what it feels like. It's exactly when it's when faced 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:53.800 with either confrontation, at least when you're sixteen, Yeah, something 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:56.320 like that. It feels that like, literally, I'm going to die, like, 0:16:56.360 --> 0:16:59.000 which is why that's a phrase that you hear teenagers say, 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:01.040 because I think a lot of time, like haven't oftentimes 0:17:01.200 --> 0:17:03.840 like identified that, No, you're not literally gonna die, even 0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:07.199 though I totally get that that's what it feels like. Yeah, 0:17:07.480 --> 0:17:09.959 that's what we're oftentimes trying to overcome. But like we 0:17:09.960 --> 0:17:12.160 were just talking about present bias, you know, just before 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:14.560 the break, and how we fail to think ahead, how 0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:16.840 we fail to prepare for the future by investing our money. 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:19.280 And I think that one of the reasons that so 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:21.880 many folks don't have enough in retirement is simply because 0:17:21.880 --> 0:17:26.160 it's so difficult for us to understand the concept of compounding, right, 0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:28.840 Like it is tough to wrap your mind around. I 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:31.800 would say that most things in our lives actually occur linearly. 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:35.280 It's nice and orderly. One thing happens after the other, 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:40.280 as opposed to things happening exponentially, which, at least personally, 0:17:40.359 --> 0:17:43.080 it feels a bit more chaotic. It's certainly more complex, 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:45.639 but it's also more difficult to comprehend. 0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:48.040 It's too complex for us to really wrap our minds arend. 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:50.320 It's kind of like those big, big numbers, like, oh, 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:52.400 we a trillion dollars worth of this. 0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:54.560 Or that spending. It's like, what exactly does that mean? 0:17:54.600 --> 0:17:56.480 And we see a bill like that and we just 0:17:56.560 --> 0:18:00.520 chalk it up to how future generations just ahead paying 0:18:00.520 --> 0:18:03.239