WEBVTT - Overcoming Our Idiot Brains #674 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:02.840 Welcome to Had the Money. I'm Joel and I'm Matt, 0:00:02.880 --> 0:00:06.320 and today we're talking about how to overcome your idiot brain. 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:29.319 Hey, we've all done some dumb things. Joel, Actually, so, 0:00:29.360 --> 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 --> 0:00:41.160 What's that 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? 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:46.720 That's not gonna minute. 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:50.239 It's probably a Matt. Well, we'll make sure to hit 0:00:50.280 --> 0:00:53.479 those topics when we have our Wives episodes later this summer. 0:00:53.880 --> 0:00:56.360 If I so, I thought about this because I was 0:00:56.360 --> 0:00:58.160 gonna ask you this question. But I think one of 0:00:58.160 --> 0:01:00.200 the dumbest things I ever did was I had a 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:01.800 jeep when I was in high school and I thought 0:01:01.840 --> 0:01:04.720 that meant oh that means I can drive through mud 0:01:04.720 --> 0:01:09.160 of any depth and worked like that. Well, I I 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:11.360 was such an idiot, Like I drove, we went, not 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:13.880 we It was just me that there's one mistake I wasn't. 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:15.680 I didn't have a buddy there to you know, who 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:17.400 had my back. But I went to this field that 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:20.720 I'd never been to before, and it brained a whole lot, 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:23.200 and there's a bunch of big puddles, or so I thought, 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:26.800 And so I'm like, why driving around mud splashing everywhere. 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:29.560 I'm just like living the life until the nose of 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:32.080 the jeep just like dives down and it was this 0:01:32.200 --> 0:01:34.240 massive hole and I couldn't get out, and we had 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:37.800 a call like a tow truck to winch me out 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:40.119 of there. There is Yeah, it was a mess. That 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:42.640 was most likely the dumbest thing I've ever done in 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:42.920 my life. 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:44.720 I mean, that's not the worst thing. A lot of 0:01:44.720 --> 0:01:46.040 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 --> 0:01:52.680 water got into the transmission and the transmission had to 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:56.160 be That was a costly misfand that's no fun. 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:58.320 Well, we're gonna talk about all sorts of things today 0:01:58.360 --> 0:02:02.200 on this episode. Ways, especially specifically that our brain works 0:02:02.280 --> 0:02:07.600 largely because of the thousands and millions of years of evolution, right, 0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:11.079 and and how it doesn't really work to our advantage 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:13.840 in the modern modern day society. That's true, Ways that 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:16.080 we're inspiring against ourselves. And then how to overcome them. 0:02:16.160 --> 0:02:18.480 Yeah, there's certain things and more in our more recent 0:02:18.560 --> 0:02:20.960 history and in our own personal lives that has an 0:02:21.040 --> 0:02:23.160 impact on how it is that we handle our money, 0:02:23.360 --> 0:02:25.360 and you didn't reciprocate. I was hoping you would have 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:27.720 a good dumb story, but you keep thinking about it. 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:30.160 Folks can hang on for at the end of the episode, 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:31.440 maybe you'll not tell you. 0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:34.239 So my girls they love to hear this one. You 0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:36.200 tell us one story. When I was in college in 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:38.360 South Carolina, it didn't really snow very often, but one 0:02:38.400 --> 0:02:41.960 time it snowed, and what idiot college dudes think to 0:02:42.000 --> 0:02:44.680 do when that happens. Well, we wanted to go skiing, 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:47.080 but there's no place to ski in Greenville, South Carolina, naturally, 0:02:47.160 --> 0:02:49.360 So what we did was we put on the skis, 0:02:49.639 --> 0:02:52.800 we threw an electrical cable, slammed it in the trunck 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:56.280 on mytoita camera, and we went skiing on the icy roads. 0:02:56.440 --> 0:03:00.000 And nobody got terribly injured. But there's some 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 --> 0:03:02.519 remember doing. 0:03:02.880 --> 0:03:04.920 See that just sounds like fun, because you know, like 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:06.840 you said, nothing bad happened, So that was just a 0:03:06.880 --> 0:03:07.320 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 --> 0:03:13.120 But I think that's about it. Stuff like that all 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:15.880 the time, Like, Okay, maybe we'll say this one for yeah, 0:03:15.880 --> 0:03:17.560 I don't want to go down this path of dumb 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:20.200 stuff that we did that was actually fun, not considered 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:21.760 dumb because it didn't come with it come at a 0:03:21.840 --> 0:03:24.839 high cost. But actually, speaking of college, a quick little 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:27.840 story to share with folks, Amazon is actually no longer 0:03:27.880 --> 0:03:30.880 in the college textbook rental business. 0:03:30.919 --> 0:03:32.680 And my wife found this out the hard way. So 0:03:32.760 --> 0:03:35.040 we've talked about this before, how that's a massive way 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:37.600 to save when it comes to the tech instead of 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:40.040 buying brand new or even buying used and then returning 0:03:40.080 --> 0:03:42.280 into the school bookstore renting it instead. 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:45.040 And if you're talking about I mean hundreds and even 0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:47.960 thousands of dollars when it comes to the amount that 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:50.400 these college textbooks 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 --> 0:03:55.120 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 0:03:58.720 --> 0:04:00.600 we're pressing 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 --> 0:04:05.720 if you want to rent a textbook to save money, 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:08.000 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 --> 0:04:16.280 be checking out. We'll link to those in the show notes, 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:17.040 but those. 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:20.120 Are I think book scouter in particular, it's like a marketplace, 0:04:20.160 --> 0:04:23.520 like it aggregates a bunch of different additional websites and 0:04:23.600 --> 0:04:27.120 you can compare prices easily on there, which is huge. 0:04:26.920 --> 0:04:30.719 Huge, and I hate to see one less competitor, especially 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:33.760 one as big as Amazon in the space. But yeah, 0:04:33.800 --> 0:04:35.880 if you were like my wife and you were bummed 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:37.160 and you're like, I don't know where to go now, 0:04:37.200 --> 0:04:39.240 we'll check out one of these sites, because yep, yeah, 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:41.000 you still it's better to rent than to buy. 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:43.320 And so I bet there's probably still a lot of 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:46.480 folks out there who have Amazon books that they had rented, 0:04:46.520 --> 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 semester. You don't 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:53.920 get to keep them. 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:57.520 We were shopping for the next semester and we were like, oh, bummer, 0:04:57.760 --> 0:05:00.880 but we found we went to cheg for some of 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:03.440 hers and save some money. But he hat just word. Otherwise, 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:05.960 if you're in school or you know someone who's in 0:05:05.960 --> 0:05:08.479 school and they're like, these books are expensive, this is 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:09.760 definitely one way to save money. 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:12.120 Absolutely. All right, man, are you ready for this beer? 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:13.839 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 --> 0:05:20.000 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 buy Burial Brewing Company. 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:26.360 We will enjoy this one during this episode and share 0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:28.360 our thoughts at the end of the episode. 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:31.760 Burial always so chill in their naming conventions. Not all right, 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:33.960 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 0:05:36.560 --> 0:05:40.680 overcoming your idiot brain, and specifically, how are brains process 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:43.680 information that make us bad with money? And we've all 0:05:43.720 --> 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 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:54.800 literally hundreds of different memes based on this goofy poorly 0:05:54.880 --> 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 --> 0:06:03.479 it says, my brain realizing him playing well as he 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:06.640 puts the stick in the front wheel, and then what happens. 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:09.320 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 --> 0:06:13.479 to this meme. 0:06:13.760 --> 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 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:27.279 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, 0:06:37.240 --> 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 --> 0:06:50.880 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 --> 0:06:58.400 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 --> 0:07:04.400 we basically do the exact opposite. Right, We have all 0:07:04.440 --> 0:07:08.080 been there and it's impacted all areas of our lives 0:07:08.120 --> 0:07:11.600 as well. I think like anyone ever sabotage relationship? Have 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:15.760 you ever sabotage 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 --> 0:07:20.960 aware of it, like what we have done after the 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:22.360 fact in hindsight. 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:24.440 Like, oh wait, that's how I That's how I ruined 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:24.680 that thing. 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:26.440 Yeah, Like, I mean honestly, like that's what it's what 0:07:26.480 --> 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. 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:46.160 And yeah, yeah, when we leave these underground, subterranean thoughts 0:07:46.160 --> 0:07:49.360 and beliefs unexamined, untapped, we're going to be prone to 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:52.560 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 0:07:55.480 --> 0:07:59.960 this far, given our tendencies to self sabotage. Luckily, we 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:04.200 have great philosophers and thinkers like Carl Jung who have paused, 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:06.040 and they cause us to think a little bit and 0:08:06.080 --> 0:08:09.560 so maybe spend some time digging below the service a 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:12.080 little bit. And honestly, even today, I think just the 0:08:12.600 --> 0:08:15.480 emotional or like mental health has risen in prominence, and 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:16.800 I think that's a good thing because I think that 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:19.200 has allowed a lot of folks to maybe think a 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:22.000 little bit more about why it is that they're doing 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:23.160 the things that they're doing. 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:26.720 So they can hopefully avoid sticking the stick in the 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:30.640 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 --> 0:08:35.719 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 0:08:38.360 --> 0:08:41.120 thinking and feeling affect the way we handle our money 0:08:41.360 --> 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. 0:08:47.000 --> 0:08:50.600 Our personal history and our personality tendencies are likely to 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:53.000 play a bigger role in how we react to spending 0:08:53.040 --> 0:08:56.960 and investing than even our age or our education level. Yeah, 0:08:57.120 --> 0:08:59.960 about your 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 --> 0:09:05.360 things probably that formed early in life. I mean, we're 0:09:05.360 --> 0:09:08.560 going to sound like a psychotherapist here, like you're laying 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:10.480 down on a couch and we're you know, picking your 0:09:10.480 --> 0:09:12.840 brain or something like that. But that's it really is 0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:14.920 true that a lot of kind of how we have 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:18.160 come to view and think about money has been tainted, 0:09:18.240 --> 0:09:21.319 has been informed by those early years. And so it 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:24.440 doesn't matter how good you are at math, that's not 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:26.440 a prerequisite for handling money well. 0:09:26.640 --> 0:09:26.920 Either. 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:31.319 It's really difficult to remove ourselves from our day to 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:34.839 day way of living in order to understand and come 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:37.800 to grips with the groundwork that we've laid already that's 0:09:37.840 --> 0:09:41.120 been laid over, you know, especially those first formative years, 0:09:41.320 --> 0:09:43.960 which informs how we're making decisions in the present that 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:45.840 impact our lives on an ongoing basis. 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:48.080 I mean, it doesn't help that everyone out there is 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:50.880 basically trying to sell you something, you know, like attention. 0:09:50.960 --> 0:09:53.280 It's the most important commodity that we have in this 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:56.000 day and age and every company out there is they're 0:09:56.040 --> 0:09:59.760 doing their absolutely best to hijack our attention for their profit. 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:03.200 We think about we recently talked about the TV and like, 0:10:03.360 --> 0:10:06.880 you're having your attention, you're having your literally your eyeball 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:09.880 is hijacked in order to get something for free, free TV. 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:12.440 And you say, and then you know it comes at 0:10:12.720 --> 0:10:13.400 a high cost. 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:15.640 That well, initially it seems like it's a low cost 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:17.400 in that case, right, like the free TV, but they 0:10:17.480 --> 0:10:19.880 ultimately except for no money. Yeah, ultimately what this means 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:23.800 are more dollars flowing out of your life because of it. 0:10:24.240 --> 0:10:26.360 And social media is a great example as well, but 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:31.040 a plethora of streaming options like that's an entirely additional front. 0:10:31.160 --> 0:10:33.599 I feel like that we have to fight right, Like 0:10:33.679 --> 0:10:36.120 there are still like more good TV shows out there 0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:38.959 than any sane human being could possibly watch. There's a 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:41.160 lot of bad ones out there too, but a lot 0:10:41.640 --> 0:10:44.240 even just goofy little games like candy Crush on our phones, 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:47.360 Like these are all distractions that are pulling at us. 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:49.520 And the more that we give into these distractions, the 0:10:49.600 --> 0:10:52.800 less productive and the more unhappy that we're going to become. 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:55.280 And we say it like no judgment here right by 0:10:55.280 --> 0:10:58.280 the way, we fall prey to these same distractions, these 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:01.080 same things that are constantly viol for our attention, and 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:03.720 so maybe a part of why we're covering this topic, 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:05.920 like we're doing this for ourselves sure, as well as 0:11:05.920 --> 0:11:07.240 for you. Yeah. 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:09.640 No, I mean, I think the goal of this is 0:11:09.720 --> 0:11:12.000 where you and I are always trying to be lifelong 0:11:12.040 --> 0:11:15.000 learners too. We don't want to just point fingers at 0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:17.839 anybody who uses candy crush and call them crazy or 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:21.240 anything like that. I try to avoid games, video games, 0:11:21.280 --> 0:11:23.560 any sort of games on my phone, but I realized 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:24.960 that they bring some people a lot of joy, and 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:27.960 in fact, they help your mooter skills and coordination to 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:29.680 some degree too. So I'm not saying there's no visit 0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:32.240 at all. Yeah, yeah, but we're talking just. 0:11:32.240 --> 0:11:34.040 A double edged sword though, you know, like like that's 0:11:34.080 --> 0:11:37.480 the thing with tech in particular, like like what we 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:39.559 were talking about counseling earlier. It also makes me think 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:41.520 of like the rise in like headspace, Like there are 0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:43.600 some different apps out there that cause people to slow 0:11:43.640 --> 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 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:54.720 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 --> 0:12:00.160 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 0:12:03.400 --> 0:12:07.720 attention is just hijacked constantly, instead of having downtime where 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:10.360 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 0:12:12.800 --> 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 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:26.440 flaming arrows that are aimed our way, we need some 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:28.800 sort of like shield to fin them off so that 0:12:28.840 --> 0:12:31.800 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 0:12:33.920 --> 0:12:35.920 we're talking about here in this episode. You know, the 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:38.840 basic part of our psyche that only cares about the 0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:43.080 most fundamental aspects of life, like surviving, eating, and procreating, 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:46.480 which are all good, yea necessary things. I like all 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:50.440 the above, you know, but that lizard brain can also 0:12:50.520 --> 0:12:54.160 cause us to function with the survivalist short term mentality. 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:58.280 And Matt, I remember hearing Tim Urban say this. He said, 0:12:58.520 --> 0:13:00.840 the world we were programmed to be in and didn't 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:04.240 have long term projects that often. So so basically the 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:08.079 reality that our ancestors grew up in long term wasn't 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:11.960 really a thing, Like nobody was investing for retirement. Like 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:14.480 our brains haven't kept up with the new reality of 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:16.960 much longer life spans and four one k's and all 0:13:17.000 --> 0:13:19.760 the stuff that come along with those things, right, and 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:22.400 so it's just no surprise that our brains have had 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:26.040 trouble keeping up with this new reality, albeit a very fortunate. 0:13:25.679 --> 0:13:26.360 Reality, right. 0:13:26.360 --> 0:13:29.800 I mean, I personally like electricity or plumbing. I'm not 0:13:29.880 --> 0:13:31.720 mad about any of the progress that we've made, but 0:13:31.760 --> 0:13:33.839 it comes with, like I said, double edged short, it 0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:36.400 comes to the downside and somethings with something we need 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:38.520 to pay attention to if we want to live a 0:13:38.559 --> 0:13:41.319 fulfilling life and one that also comes along with financial 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:42.240 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 --> 0:13:54.319 Like I'm very, very happy to be living in the 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:54.760 air that word. 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:57.760 I mean, even even if you're in the bottom twentieth 0:13:57.800 --> 0:14:00.160 percentile of Americans, you're living better than French kings did 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:03.640 three hundred years ago, which is I mean just pretty 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:05.600 amazing to think about, Like had some perks they would 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:06.440 trade places for. 0:14:07.320 --> 0:14:09.160 Yeah, okay. So one of the problems I think we 0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:13.439 face that stems from what Seth Goudin calls the lizard brain, 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:16.760 is 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 --> 0:14:27.000 likely to spend in the present and less likely to 0:14:27.120 --> 0:14:31.080 save for the future. And obviously this makes sense given 0:14:31.360 --> 0:14:35.240 where we've come from ancestrally, like our brains they just 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:38.320 haven't adapted to this long term thinking that's required as 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:40.800 lifespans have increased and just our need to build up 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:44.560 assets for you know, like potentially multiple decades. That's the 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:46.240 reality now that we live in Like this is. 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:48.320 The exact opposite of what used to happen when our 0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:51.760 ancestors would come across food like they didn't. Now we 0:14:51.800 --> 0:14:53.720 have as much food as we want and our fingertips 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:54.960 to a certain career. Right, you can walk into a 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:56.960 gross shore get whatever you want. Before it was like 0:14:56.960 --> 0:14:59.280 you come upon food, you almost have to hoard it. Yeah, 0:14:59.360 --> 0:14:59.880 you almost have to. 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:02.880 You can arrise that honey, like that's some good stuff. 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:06.200 But now everything is sweet, and we still crave sugar, 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:07.160 that's right. 0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:09.880 But unlike our ancestors, we can get them whenever we 0:15:09.920 --> 0:15:11.440 want it, and so we don't have to. 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:13.680 And they're quite refined, but we still like to eat. 0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:15.160 Them the way ancestors did. And so when we have 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:16.200 it like we want to consume it. 0:15:16.280 --> 0:15:18.440 Yeah. Yeah, because this present bias is something that we're 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:21.040 continually rubbing up against. We just have a hard time 0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:23.720 mustering this self control, even though we know that we 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:26.480 don't need, for instance, those additional calories via that sugar. 0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:28.960 We lack this self control that's needed when it comes 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:32.120 to your finances, curb spending and to set more aside 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:34.280 for your future. But the good news is that there 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:37.080 are some tools at our disposal in order to help us, 0:15:37.440 --> 0:15:38.920 you know, within this quest on our as we're on 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:42.320 our path to financial independence. So we'll discuss some other 0:15:42.480 --> 0:15:45.640 psychological hurdles that we face and how to overcome them 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:46.680 right after this. 0:15:56.080 --> 0:15:58.880 All right, Matt, let's keep going. We're getting psychological with 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:02.040 this one. It's true our brains conspire against us and 0:16:02.240 --> 0:16:03.800 they cause us to do things that aren't in our 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:04.440 best interest. 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:07.400 And overcoming the ancestral lizard brain. 0:16:07.520 --> 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 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:16.400 babb with the ladies and I remember trying, like I 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:18.600 wanted to ask somebody out on a date or something 0:16:18.640 --> 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 --> 0:16:24.720 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 --> 0:16:32.200 with this person that you would really like to spend 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:32.720 some time with. 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:36.400 So I com 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 0:16:44.200 --> 0:16:45.800 the stakes were actually a lot lower than. 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:48.880 I thought that you weren't in literal life harm because like, 0:16:48.920 --> 0:16:50.840 that's what it feels like. That's exactly when it's when 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:53.440 faced with either confrontation, at least when you're sixteen, Yeah, 0:16:53.560 --> 0:16:55.680 something like that. It feels that like, literally, I'm going 0:16:55.720 --> 0:16:58.040 to die, like, which is why that's a phrase that 0:16:58.080 --> 0:16:59.600 you hear teenagers say, because I think a lot of 0:16:59.640 --> 0:17:02.640 time like the haven't oftentimes like identified that, No, you're 0:17:02.640 --> 0:17:05.719 not literally gonna die, even though I totally get that 0:17:05.720 --> 0:17:08.400 that's what it feels like. Yeah, that's what we're oftentimes 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:10.480 trying to overcome. Right, But like we were just talking 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:13.040 about present bias, you know, just before the break, and 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:15.080 how we fail to think ahead, how we fail to 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:17.280 prepare for the future by investing our money. And I 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:19.720 think that one of the reasons that so many folks 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:22.159 don't have enough in retirement is simply because it's so 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:26.160 difficult for us to understand the concept of compounding, right, 0:17:26.240 --> 0:17:28.879 Like it is tough to wrap your mind around. I 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:31.840 would say that most things in our lives actually occur linearly. 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:35.320 It's nice and orderly. One thing happens after the other, 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:40.240 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 --> 0:17:45.679 but it's also more difficult to comprehend. 0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:47.960 It's too complex for us to really wrap our minds are. 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:50.280 It's kind of like those big, big numbers, like, oh, 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:52.320 we a trillion dollars worth of. 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:54.560 This 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 --> 0:18:00.480