The Skill of Spending

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Just like that it is time for the first email of 2025! Hope you had great holiday filled with stories of the Nvidia, Bitcoin, and the S&P 500.

While the offer on the house didn’t get accepted (read about it here), I was able to go ahead and max out my Roth IRA for the year.

I invested half my contribution into VUG (33%), VOO (33%), VIG (16%), and VB (16%). Will circle back in June’ish to invest the rest.

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The Skill of Spending

In this post we are going to dive into the skill of spending money.

Yes, you read that right. Just like Tom Brady has the skill of throwing a football 70 yards, you are about to learn the skill of spending money.

Right now everyone is setting their budgets for 2025, noting upcoming expenses, how much they want to save, and what investments they will be buying.

Why this planning is great, 99% have no clue how to most efficiently spend their dollars outside of rent, groceries, and bills.

After reading this you will know where to put every dollar to make 2025 the most fulfilling year yet. 👇️ 

Spending The Wrong Way

There are two main categories that fall under foolish spending.

1) Spending to impress others.

Here are a few examples - Buying a new car when used would have satisfied your needs. Designer clothes that are 3x normal prices. A huge house outside of what you can afford. Basically, anything that makes one have a “richer” image to impress Bob next door.

2) Spending on junk.

Examples - Buying “things” just because you see your bank account has money left over. This is stuff that you buy, then forget about in two weeks. Never to be used again. If you have a bunch of junk lying around, this might be your problem chief.

Spending Where It Matters

Now this is going to be different for everyone because we all have different things that bring us joy and fulfillment.

For me, you can’t beat a day on the water catching redfish (here is how I bought a boat without going broke), or a mountain ski trip with some of your best friends. Although, some might hate fish, and the thought of being freezing on a mountain pisses them off.

Long story short, your dollars are best spent on specific items and experiences that you KNOW you won’t regret.

Here is an exercise to find what gets you all excited inside.

How To Find What Matters

This is an exercise I heard Ramit Sethel mention in one of his podcasts (he has some weird takes outside of finance, but his money advice is good lol). It’s great for identifying areas where you should spend you hard earned dollars.

1. Open the camera roll on your phone.

2. Create an album you can save pictures too.

3. Look back over the last couple years and pick out 15-20 of your favorite experiences/memories for this album.

4. Study these and see what they involved.

Whatever is shown in these images, that is where you should focus your fun spending.

Pro tip: If while doing this exercise you notice other “larger” expenses that you didn’t enjoy, significantly cut these from your budget this year.

Conclusion

Earning, budgeting, and spending are all key parts of ones personal finances.

The skill of spending though is arguably one of the most important as it can have a huge impact on your attitude, goals, and experiences.

Give the above a try, and let me know what cool stuff you get into this year. - Cade

Cade’s Finds

How To Make $1,000,000 - Short podcast by Shaan Puri on his 5 step system to make a million dollars. My favorite being the courage to start. He also includes three ways he would get started again at the end of the video.

The Crystal Ball Test - Two minute video recapping a study done where 118 traders were shown the front page of the WSJ on a Wednesday, and given the opportunity to place a trade the Tuesday before. Did they look like geniuses or idiots? I’ll let you guess.

Best Memes

Boss I’m being productive I swear…

The S&P is living in the shadows right now.

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Nothing in this email is intended to serve as financial advice. Do your own research. Thanks for reading, if you have any questions, comments, suggestions, etc. about the email don’t hesitate to send me a reply.