Meet with PWL Capital: https://pages.pwlcapital.com/en-ca/contact-us?utm_source=content&utm_medium=youtube&utm_campaign=rationalreminder_yt Avoid Online Scams https://pwlcapital.com/stay-safe-online/ Ben Felix or any PWL employee will never reach out to you on social media platforms or WhatsApp to give financial advice. These are scammers trying to commit fraud. In this episode, we welcome back William Bernstein to discuss the final book of his longtime friend Jonathan Clements, Money and Me. Bill reflects on Jonathan’s ideas about spending, happiness, retirement, investing, inheritance, and the psychology of financial decision-making, while sharing personal stories that bring those ideas to life. We explore why material purchases often lose their appeal quickly, why autonomy can be one of the best things money can buy, and how worrying about money can be a greater problem than spending it. Bill also discusses the four horsemen of financial disaster—inflation, deflation, confiscation, and destruction—why diversification matters, and why investors should be skeptical of assumptions about future returns and market forecasts. The conversation also examines what it means to “win the game” financially, why retirement should be thought of as a verb rather than a destination, and the three foundations of well-being: connection, competence, and autonomy. Bill shares Jonathan’s approach to teaching children about money, the concept of “Omega” as a way to think about spending versus saving, and why the people around us can have an enormous influence on our expectations and consumption. References https://zbib.org/c306ba46cdc7402a87303b247ef443c7 Timestamps: 0:00:00 "In This Episode" 0:00:27 Intro 0:06:02 Why success often “contains the seeds of its own destruction” 0:07:39 The constraints our ability to help future generations faces 0:10:24 Why we spend as we do 0:14:17 The main psychological traps that lead us to make spending decisions we later regret 0:16:31 How we can pressure-test large purchases against what is optimal for our future self 0:17:35 How much the happiness we get from a purchase actually scales with its price 0:20:40 The four horsemen of the economic apocalypse 0:23:56 Justifying optimism for a globally diversified portfolio with a long time horizon 0:25:55 What investors can learn from Clements' "Investment sin" 0:27:12 What it means to have "won the game" financially 0:31:16 Explaining the gap between what the math permits and what even a rational investor actually does 0:36:21 What Clements means when he says “Retire is a Verb” 0:37:20 The three factors crucial to happiness, retired or not 0:39:54 Some assumptions investors should NOT make 0:42:38 The three-pronged strategy to get more out of your money 0:43:46 Decisions we can make that will improve our happiness 0:46:34 The two kinds of happiness 0:49:00 How we can pursue eudaimonic happiness at each stage of life 0:52:01 The thinking behind giving money away now, rather than bequeathing it 0:53:14 The potential, unintended consequences of giving money away now rather than bequeathing it 0:56:13 Why people hold onto money that they could safely spend 0:58:22 How others influence spending, often without even realizing it 1:01:38 Why rising markets so often lead us to take on more risk, right when we should be cautious 1:02:27 Bill's other favourite memories of Jonathan Clements 1:03:38 Disclaimer Links From Today’s Episode: Rational Reminder on iTunes — https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-rational-reminder-podcast/id1426530582. Rational Reminder on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/rationalreminder/ Rational Reminder on YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/channel/ Benjamin Felix — https://pwlcapital.com/our-team/ Benjamin on X — https://x.com/benjaminfelix Benjamin on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminwfelix/