He’s 100% assuming that everyone uses the same definition as him. That’s why in order to answer her question he had to define budgets. You’d think that’d be a clue to him that his definition is not universal!
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I totally agree. It’s just fancy copy for budget, lol. I don’t understand why he thinks a budget is tallying things up at the end of the month and then doing nothing. But a CSP is allocating funds for various things. But like…at some point you have to rectify it, right? I don’t get how he thinks it will work in a functional way. If you overspend and then you do a CSP and say, “I’m going to spend $500 on freebie spending” and then at the end of the month you’ve spent $1,000 on the credit card instead…like…what’s the plan?
The whole problem people have with budgets is that they do exactly what Ramit suggests. They think in terms of wants, come up with random amounts to spend on those wants, and then don’t track what they are actually spending.
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Hahahahaha, he totally is omg. She was the doorman outside of the club who was monotone like, “sorry you’re not on the list,” without even making eye contact.
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'* conscious spending intensifies *
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spending gains sentience
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I actually really appreciated when tim ferris/ malcom gladwell/seth someone all focused in on this ten or so years ago. I really didn’t think I could learn to draw or do so many other things because I wasn’t naturally good at them! Now I have a better idea about what it takes to learn. And @plainjane and a few others taught me a lot about learning to be social
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The drawing thing got me too! I admit I thought that one was a natural talent. I think it can be confusing because some people do have more natural talents than other people. And people have different strengths and weaknesses, which can make it seem like things are just set. But in reality those are just easy buttons or hard buttons and you can still opt to play. That’s how I think about it. IDK why I thought drawing was one of those inborn things impossible to learn, lol, like of course you can! I got a book recommended by someone here and that’s how I learned I…actually just don’t like drawing. I like the idea of being good at it, and I believe I could be if I put in the work, but it feels like school to me so I don’t wanna 
haha.
ETA: And I agree on the growth mindset trend. I think it was really helpful.
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Apparently Ramit has a tiktok now. He is apparently roasting people who call owning properties “passive” income? I will check it out lol
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He hates real estate so much, lol. Almost as much as he hates target.
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Y’all this week’s episode is ROUGH. Started out angry, ended up feeling really really sad. TW: terminal illness.
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Thanks for the TW! I shall skippeth.
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This weeks is a PT 2, so skip if you need. But I’m interested in this refrain Ramit kept repeating:
“There’s no virtue in living a smaller life than you have to.”
On its surface, it seems like a no-brainer. You’re rich, there’s no reason to act like you’re poor, and it’s likely pretty fucking insulting to a lot of people if you behave that way. Like lol, no you’re not upper middle class if you have 12mil in the bank.
Then I started thinking about the phrase outside of the context of this episode.
I thought about religions/cultures where living in a thrifty way is a virtue, plain and simple. I thought about Ben Franklin. (LOL.) or living a monastic existence. Or Mary Oliver/other reclusive artists/thinkers who sort of abandon modern life in many ways and don’t participate in society the way we might expect. Maybe it comes down to the definition of “small life.”
Then I thought about myself and my ideal life. I am not fame-seeking. I am introverted. These natural inclinations and needs probably drive me to live a smaller life than I could. And I’m choosing to have children, which will probably limit my ability to amass wealth or take super daring risks with my career or hobbies? Again, speaking only about myself here. Some people live large with kids.
There’s a lot packed into the phrase. Interested in others’ interpretations!
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Another element I just thought about—living a smaller life than you have to could also be respectful of limited resources and the reality of climate change
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I think checking in with yourself about your values and desires and aligning your life accordingly is much more valuable than trying to achieve someone’s idea of a large life.
Tuning out the noise and actually knowing yourself is a beautiful thing. I think it is more than OK to not want more. Perhaps you are already living your rich life, it just looks a lot different than someone else’s.
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Wow I have definitely had this conversation with friends!! Includes Walgreens and CVS as well. You can just kind of zone out in public and no one notices how long you’re in a place
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I 100% consider it self care!
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this is part of why ramit kinda irritates me, tbh. the focus on “your rich life” … is that really the most important thing for humans to be focusing on right now? like each of us pursuing our rich lives is kinda what got us where we are in terms of the environmental stuff we are facing, isn’t it?
and i know he would say “well your rich life might be growing flowers and painting and hanging out with your family” but when he talks to people, that’s not the way he steers them. he consistently asks them to dream bigger in terms of travel, where they want to live, how much they want to spend on clothes, furniture, etc.
and i’m a total hypocrite because making myself happy is a big priority to me and is what i spend a lot of my resources on.
but i also feel like something else is emerging – focusing on “my rich life” feels like a very 1900s way to approach life and not really what it’s about anymore. with everything that’s happening from pakistan to puerto rico, it feels to me like ensuring that more people are okay is more important than a few rich people getting everything they want.
and i know it’s not a zero sum game – more people can be okay AND more rich people can have even richer lives. but, idk, the way he talks about it just rubs me the wrong way.
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One thing I’ve learnt from the podcast was definitely that Ramit and i still have very different views on things!
I really like reading Tara Sophia Mohr’s work on this, and refer back to her book “Playing Big” once a year. She’s all for really considering what a big full life is for you, and your callings in different ways instead of the way that you might think is obvious to achieve them.
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I think you have articulated well what has been niggling at me.
I appreciate Ramit for helping me not worry about how much blueberries cost and not denying my child toppings when we are getting ice cream… but also he doesn’t seem to be at all concerned about the social impact of wealth inequality or the global consequences of consumption. His idea of a rich life seems fun but also quite shallow and shortsighted?
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