As your income goes up, it should be easier to enjoy your money. Right?
And you should worry less. Right?
Yet somehow, high-earners struggle to do both — it’s as if money has a stranglehold on your mind space.
Especially when you don’t think examine your relationship with money.
This week on The Examined Life Podcast, we’re joined by Adam Katz, my wealth advisor at Corient.
We ask the question:
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My top 3 takeaways
Here are the rules:
Figure out what you are optimizing for
There are countless ways to optimize your earnings — backdoor IRAs, complex estate planning and tax-loss harvesting... The list goes on. But over-optimization creates complexity. And complexity reduces freedom.
You should separate wellness and work
When people ask how you’re doing, do you default to work? Our response is Pavlovian — we’ve been conditioned to conflate how work is going with our overall wellness. This drives us to just keep going.
→ Watch the clip
Too much information is crippling
Your parents checked stock prices 40 times a year by picking up the newspaper. You can check them 40 times a day. (Or per hour!) Like tracking hourly glucose levels, more financial data isn’t better.
My favorite quote: Is financial wealth detracting from your real wealth?
Touché! And also, what is real wealth?
Why this episode matters to me
I like rules. Not too many, but just enough to keep me headed in the right direction — without the over-optimization.
My money rules are anchored by my risk appetite, my deep conviction in myself and the alignment that I have with Lisa.
These rules work for us — they’re aggressive and luxurious, while also being prudent and long-term.
But I always wondered if I had blind spots.
Which is why I’m glad to have a trusted advisor check my work.
BTW — what are your money rules?
If you want to dig deeper
Adam and I previously talked about playing the long game, and I went deep on the scarcity mindset and why rich people (still worry about money).
Love letters from our fans
"Khe goes DEEP into meaningful subjects"
Hope you enjoy the episode,
Khe