The Point of Money
My friend and former colleague Chris Hill has a new podcast out called Money Unplugged. He had me on as a guest recently, so I hope you’ll give that a listen.
He ends each episode with what he calls his speed round, and I thought my (abridged) answers to those questions might interest this audience as well.
One thing about money you wish you knew earlier?
I think it took me longer than it should have to realize that the point of money is not to have it, but to do stuff with it.
If you went back in time and talked to friends and relatives, a lot of them might tell you that I was cheap. And maybe I was. What was going on in my head was that I thought money was really valuable and the stuff you could do with it less so, so there was a really high psychological barrier to me doing anything with my money.
Over time, I realized that allocating capital is a privilege and that you can use money to do things that are worth way more than the money. And that’s cool.
What's a purchase you've made that brings you happiness?
I don’t know that this is a purchase per se, but last winter we had a very skittish stray kitten show up at our house (we live in the woods) and start staring through our windows. But whenever anyone went outside to help it, it would tear off.
We left it some food and it seemed fine enough, but then a polar vortex was about to roll in and we were pretty convinced that if left outside the kitten probably wouldn’t make it. So my daughter went outside on our deck and sat very still in the cold for hours until the kitten finally approached her – and even sat on her lap. That allowed us to catch it and take it to the shelter.
But the shelter was full.
So we took the poor thing to the vet, and she had all kinds of issues associated with having lived by herself out in the woods for who knows how long. That left us with a decision to make, and we probably didn’t make the logical one.
We paid for her to be treated even though there was a good chance the treatments wouldn’t work, and that was obnoxiously expensive. But they did work and now Ginger is our cat.
And that makes me happy.
A purchase you regret that you still think about?
When my kids were little something that was advertised to them on Nick Jr. or whatever was a board game called Pie Face Showdown. The premise is that you and your opponent both rest your chin on a chin rest and opposite the chin rest is an arm that you fill with whipped cream. Then you bang on a button Hungry Hungry Hippos-style until you’ve outbanged your opponent and trigger their arm to pie them in the face.
And this was all my kids wanted for Christmas that year.
So I thought I was winning when I got it for them. And they were delighted to open it. But when we went to play, it turned out that what was appealing to them was hitting other people with pie and not getting pied themselves. So all sorts of bickering broke out when one or the other moved their face, blocked the pie, etc.
It was in the garbage before the night was over.
What's the last thing you splurged on for yourself? (not for your wife, friends or family members)
A John Deere Gator. It’s changed my life.
What's a charitable cause you like to support?
I like supporting youth sports here in Columbia and my wife and I have this idea – that we’re sort of saving up for – of creating a public native wildflower preserve, but honestly, I should do more charitable giving than I currently do.
I tend to want to understand things pretty well before I allocate capital to them, and that slows me down. Maybe that’s not the right way to think about charitable causes, but it’s how I’m wired, and I need to spend more time identifying organizations and causes to support.
Do you have a favorite movie or TV show about money?
Was The Royal Tenenbaums about money? I think everything is at least a little bit about money. Anyway, that’s my favorite movie. But also Glengarry Glen Ross because there is nothing more money than “coffee is for closers.”
Have a great weekend.
– Tim
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