The Morgan Housel Podcast
The Morgan Housel Podcast offers timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness. Hosted by Morgan Housel, it explores the psychology of money and investing through engaging stories and insights.
Episodes
Gas Prices, Stock Bubbles, Grad Advice -- And Teaching Personal Finance In School
Plus, thoughts on the scarcity mindset with money.
Luck, Wealth, Kids, Kindness -- And A New Format: Questions From You.
The luckier you are the nicer you should be, plus three questions from you.
New Podcast Format -- And I Need Your Help
This podcast is going through some changes. As part of the new format, I'll be answering your questions on future episodes. Have a question? Send it to pod@longtermwords.com.
Long-Term Money
Generational progress, wealth, and spoiled kids.
A Few Things I'm Pretty Sure About
We're back! A list a few big things I've been thinking about lately.
Out Now: The Art of Spending Money (First Full Chapter Here)
This is a full-chapter preview of my new book, The Art of Spending Money, out today. Click here to buy the book.
Two Big Stories That Help Explain Today's World
We became aware of each other at the same time we grew apart financially, and the psychology of when news went from local to national to global.
Playing Your Own Game
From the archives: one of my favorite topics -- the importance of playing your own game. Thanks to my friends at Public.comAll investing involves the risk of loss, including loss of principal. Brokerage services for US-listed, registered securities, options and bonds in a self-directed account are offered by Public Investing, Inc., member FINRA & SIPC. Public Investing offers a High-Yield Cash
Big Ideas From The Art of Spending Money
Pre-order my new book The Art of Spending Money here. ***Thanks to my friends at Public.comAll investing involves the risk of loss, including loss of principal. Brokerage services for US-listed, registered securities, options and bonds in a self-directed account are offered by Public Investing, Inc., member FINRA & SIPC. Public Investing offers a High-Yield Cash Account where funds from this a
Investing: The Greatest Show on Earth
Thanks to my friends at Public.comAll investing involves the risk of loss, including loss of principal. Brokerage services for US-listed, registered securities, options and bonds in a self-directed account are offered by Public Investing, Inc., member FINRA & SIPC. Public Investing offers a High-Yield Cash Account where funds from this account are automatically deposited into partner banks whe
What AI Might Do To The Future of Work
Thanks to my friends at Public.com and their podcast The Rundown -- click here for more.
Very Bad Advice (And a Word on My New Book)
Thanks to my friends at Public.com and their podcast The Rundown -- click here for more.
How I Think About Debt
Thanks to my friends at Ramp -- the best expense accounting system I've seen. For more check out ramp.com/morgan.
A Few Important Questions For You (And Some Thoughts About Buffett)
Thanks to my friends at Ramp -- the best expense accounting system I've seen. For more check out ramp.com/morgan.
Let Me Convince You To Save Money
Thanks to my friends at Ramp -- the best expense accounting system I've seen. For more check out ramp.com/morgan.
How We Used to Live (Levittown, Progress, and Expectations)
Thanks to my friends at Ramp -- the best expense accounting system I've seen. For more check out ramp.com/morgan.
Tariffs, Trust, Risk, and Regret
Thanks to my friends at Ramp -- the best expense accounting system I've seen. For more check out ramp.com/morgan.
My Thoughts on Tariffs, Economic History, and the Market Decline
Thanks to my friends at Eight Sleep. Check out eightsleep.com/morganhousel for more.
Reasonable vs. Rational
The most impactful idea to me personally in my book: My theory is that most investment models maximize for risk-adjusted returns, but in the real world every investor wants to maximize for sleeping well at night and being proud of themselves in a complicated world.Thanks to my friends at Eight Sleep. Check out eightsleep.com/morganhousel for more.
Fees vs. Fines: The Cost of Admission in Investing
One of my favorite psychology studies showed that if you know a reward is coming, but you don't know exactly when, you are susceptible to losing your mind. Isn't it so similar in investing? Thanks to my friends at Ramp -- the best expense accounting system I've seen. For more check out ramp.com/morgan.
Beautiful vs. Practical Advice
I heard a phrase recently: “Magazine architect.”It’s a derisive term architects use for their colleagues who design buildings that look beautiful, grace magazine covers, and win awards, but lack functionality for the tenants.The same is so true for financial professionals. If you are looking for practical advice, beware hiring an artist whose goal is to be praised should be, too.Thanks to my frien
The Psychology of Why Prediction Can Be So Hard
A few ideas on why prediction is so hard, and the weird things than happen in our head when we want certain outcome to be true. Thanks to my friends at Eight Sleep. Check out eightsleep.com/morganhousel for more.
The Art and Science of Investing
Technology is a science. It’s semiconductors and code and batteries.But Steve Jobs talked about how the iPad was playful and begged you to pick it up as much as he’d talk about its processor. The iPhone is a technological marvel, but Jobs spent a lot of time talking about how it felt in your hand, and the experience of opening the box.Job’s insight, and the most important factor in Apple’s success
Counterintuitive Competitive Advantages
A few things you might consider disadvantages that actually, in hindsight, could end up as something you're grateful for. Thanks to my friends at Eight Sleep. Check out eightsleep.com/morganhousel for more.
Pure Independence
A simple formula for a pretty nice life is independence plus purpose.Purpose is different for everyone. Sometimes it’s family, sometimes it’s community, religion, work, whatever.But independence is more universal. Our desire to be independent, why we want it, what prevents us from achieving it, and why some people sabotage their ability to have it, is such a common story across cultures and genera
A Few Things I'm Pretty Sure About
A collection of things I've been thinking about lately that I hope you find valuable regardless of your profession. Thanks to my friends at Eight Sleep. Check out eightsleep.com/morganhousel for more.
Tails, You Win
A story about how tails drive everything, and why the vast majority of your success in investing and in life will come from just a few of the things you do. Thanks to my friends at Ramp -- the best expense accounting system I've seen. For more check out ramp.com/morgan.
All The Different Ways Your Life Could Have Turned Out
Everyone knows one version of the world -- the one that's actually happened. But that's just one of infinitive possibilities that could have occurred. I asked ChatGPT to write different versions of how my life could have ended up, and was stunned by the results. I'd be you'd have the same experience. Thanks to my friends at 10 East -- check out 10east.co.
Minimum Levels of Stress
Most people – and definitely society as a whole – seem to have a minimum level of stress. They will never be fully at ease because after solving every problem the gaze of their anxiety shifts to the next problem, no matter how trivial it is relative to previous ones.Thanks to my friends at Ramp -- the best expense accounting system I've seen. For more check out ramp.com/morgan.
What I Learned In 2024: A Tale of Tails
A look at the big story dominating this year: tails drive everything, and everything from businesses to careers either work extraordinarily well, or not at all. With thanks to my friends at Nitrogen: check out nitrogenwealth.com.
The Most Important Financial Skill: Getting The Goalpost to Stop Moving
A look at why so many Americans think the best was better than it was: People in the past may have been poorer than we are now, but they probably did a better job keeping their expectations in check. Thanks to my friends at nitrogenwealth.com.
Experts From a World That No Longer Exists
The world evolves faster than people's beliefs do. This episode looks at the need to change your mind, and why it's so difficult to do so. Thanks to my friends at 10 East -- check out 10east.co.
Universal Laws of the World
A few laws from random sciences that almost certainly apply to your own -- regardless of what you do for a living. Thanks to my friends at Nitrogen -- check out nitrogenwealth.com
Why Pessimism Sounds So Smart
If you're a student of history, you know that most things have gotten better for most people over time. But read the news and what do you hear? Pessimism, pessimism, pessimism. There are several reasons why. Special thanks to my friends at Readwise -- check out Readwise.IO/morgan.
Rare and Powerful Skills
A few easy-to-overlook skills that are so vital in today's world. Brought to you my friends at Readwise -- visit Readwise.io/morgan.
My Favorite Book: An Astounding Look at How Fast the World Can Change
This episode digs into one of my favorite books of all time: The Big Change by Frederick Lewis Allen. Written in 1952, it's a remarkable look at how quickly the world can change, with so many profound insights that I find relevant today. Special thanks to my friends at Readwise.io/morgan for making this happen.
This Was Never Easy: A Brief History of Nostalgia
There's a Russian saying that I love: "The past is more unpredictable than the future." It explains so much about nostalgia, and the twisted ways we all view the economic past.This episode is brought to you by my friends at 10 East – an investment platform for sophisticated investors to access private markets. To learn more visit 10east.co.
Everything In Life Is Cyclical
A lot of mistakes in life come when you think risk is something caused by external forces, when in fact the weight of your own success is enough to pull you down without any outside help.This episode is brought to you by my friends at 10 East – an investment platform for sophisticated investors to access private markets. To learn more visit 10east.co.
Do It Your Own Way
The ultimate success metric is whether you get what you want out of life. But that’s harder than it sounds because it’s easy to try to copy someone who wants something you don’t.This episode is brought to you by my friends at 10 East – an investment platform for sophisticated investors to access private markets. To learn more visit 10east.co.
A Few Little Ideas And Short Stories
Some of the most interesting stuff I've come across lately.
Cumulative vs. Cyclical Knowledge
In some fields our knowledge is seamlessly passed down across generations. In others, it’s fleeting. To paraphrase investor Jim Grant: Knowledge in some fields is cumulative. In other fields it’s cyclical (at best).
Different Kinds of BS
Jeff Bezos once said there are different kinds of smart. Distinguishing the various flavors is important because if you think smarts comes in just one form, you’ll miss dozens of other nuanced varieties.BS is the same. It comes in countless forms, some harder to spot than others. False modesty, projecting, double standards, hypocrisy, tugging at heartstrings – these aren’t lies; they’re subtle for
I Have A Few Questions
A few important money and life topics to make you ponder.
Quiet Compounding
"Nature is not in a hurry, yet everything is accomplished,” said Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu.Giant sequoias, advanced organisms, towering mountains – it builds the most jaw-dropping features of the universe. And it does so silently, where growth is almost never visible right now but staggering over long periods of time.It’s quiet compounding, and it’s a wonder to see.I like the idea of quietl
History's Seductive Beliefs
My deepest forecasting belief is that you can better understand the future if you focus on the behaviors that never change instead of the events that might.And those behaviors have a common denominator: They follow the path of least resistance of people trying to simplify a complex world into a few stories that make sense and make them feel good about themselves.Simple stories, feel-good stories.
Lazy Work, Good Work
The most productive work you can do often looks like the laziest -- but it can be hard to accept that because of how the workplace has changed over the last 100 years.
The Long Run Is Just A Collection of Short Runs
Every great idea can be taken too far. Take the notion that investors should ignore the short run.It's important to recognize that the long run is just a collection of short runs, and capturing long-term growth means managing the short run effectively enough to ensure you can stick around for a long time.
The Best Financial Advice I Know (What I Want My Kids To Learn)
I wrote letters to both of my kids the day before they were born. Here's what I wanted them to know about money. And even if you don't have, or want, kids, I think you'll find this helpful.
Realistic Personal Finance Hacks
Hacks are hard because shortcuts rarely exist. Prizes take time and effort.The personal finance industry – filled with advice that sounds and feels good without moving the needle – needs to recognize this.These aren’t fun hacks, but no one said this was easy.
Lucky vs. Repeatable
Luck plays such a big role in the world. But few people want to talk about it. If I say you got lucky, I look jealous. If I tell myself that I got lucky, I feel diminished.Maybe a better way to frame luck is by asking: what isn’t repeatable?And maybe better yet: The way to get luckier is to find what’s repeatable.
No One Is Crazy
The fun part of behavioral finance is learning about how flawed other people can be. The hard part is trying to figure out how flawed you are, and what stories make sense to you but would seem crazy to others.
Smart Things Smart People Have Said
A few of the best and most insightful things I've read lately.
Accountable to Darwin vs. Accountable to Newton
Woodrow Wilson was the only president with a Ph.D. in political science.He came to office having thought more about how a government functions than most before him or since.One of his complaints was that too many people in government held the belief that it was a Big Machine: that once you set up a series of rules you could take your hands off the wheel and let the government run on its own foreve
The Dumber Side of Smart People
Mae West said, “Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.” That might be true for some things – health, happiness, golden retrievers, maybe.But in so many cases the thing that helps you can be taken to a dangerous level. And since it’s a “good thing,” not an obvious threat, its danger creeps into your life unnoticed.Take intelligence. How could someone possibly be too intelligent? How do you get
How to Engage With History
This episode discusses my take on what you should pay attention to when reading history. There’s a quote I love from writer Kelly Hayes who says, “Everything feels unprecedented when you haven’t engaged with history.”It’s so true. History’s cast of characters changes but it’s the same movie over and over again.To me, the point of paying attention to history is not the specific details of certain e
Compounding Optimism
Let me share a little theory I have about optimism, and why progress is so easy to underestimate.I’ll explain it in four parts.
A Few Thoughts on Spending Money
Behavioral finance is now well documented. But most of the attention goes to how people invest. But the study of how you spend money might be far more interesting -- and practical. How you spend money can reveal an existential struggle of what you find valuable in life, who you want to spend time with, why you chose your career, and the kind of attention you want from other people.There is a scien
Information That Would Get Your Attention
There’s obviously a hierarchy of information. It ranges from life-changing good to life-changing disastrous.That got me thinking: What would be the most interesting and useful information anyone could get their hands on?Years ago I asked that question to Yale economist Robert Shiller. “The exact role of luck in successful outcomes,” he answered.I loved that answer, because nobody will ever have th
Active vs. Passive Learning
There are two big ways to learn: Active learning: Someone tells you what to learn, how to learn it, on a set schedule, on pre-selected standardized topics.Passive learning: You let your mind wander with no intended destination. You read and learn broadly, talk to people from various backgrounds, and stumble haphazardly across topics you had never considered but spark your curiosity, often because
Respect Each Others’ Delusions
One sentence that knocked me off my feet when I read Will and Ariel Durant’s The Lessons of History was: "Learn enough from history to bear reality patiently, and respect one another’s delusions."I love that so much.The key here is accepting that everyone is deluded in their own unique way. You, me, all of us.When you realize that you – the good, noble, well-meaning, even-tempered, fact-
The 10 Most Important Financial Skills
My wife recently bought me an old book. It's called The Mathematical Theory of Investment. It was written in 1913 and it's as dry and boring as it sounds (but the old weathered cover looks awesome on a bookshelf). I flipped through it and thought, "Does any of this matter?" These formulas, these charts, this data?Well, yes. But not nearly as much as the soft, behavioral side of
Expiring vs. Permanent Skills
Expiring skills tend to get more attention. They’re more likely to be the cool new thing, and a key driver of an industry’s short-term performance. They’re what employers value and employees flaunt.Permanent skills are different. They’ve been around a long time, which makes them look stale and basic. They can be hard to define and quantify, which gives the impression of fortune-cookie wisdom vs. a
My New Book, Same As Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes
My new book, Same as Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes, is out today. Books are hard, a multi-year slog from start to finish. But I’m excited for you to read this. I think it’s the best writing I’ve ever done. And it was fun to write! My hope is that you enjoy reading it half as much as I enjoyed writing it. My first book, The Psychology of Money, was really about how you, the individual behave.
Justifying Optimism
All optimistic beliefs can be dangerous because they’re so comforting, so easy to accept without asking further questions. Hope often masquerades as optimism when you think things will improve only because the alternative is too scary to contemplate. Every optimist needs to justify exactly why they're optimistic. In this episode, I offer my own three reasons.
Little Flaws
Daniel Kahneman says, "The long-term success of a relationship depends far more on avoiding the negative than on seeking the positive."It's like that in so many areas of life. Most people know what they're good at, or at least they think they do. Flaws, though, tend to be nuanced, and we're often blind to them. This episode shares dozens of little flaws I often think about
A Few Laws of Getting Rich
Measuring wealth is easy. You just count it up. Measuring some of the downsides of wealth is so much harder and more nuanced. They can be so nuanced and hard to measure that many people won’t even believe they exist. A downside to wealth? How could that possibly be? Let me propose that the absurdity of talking about the downside of wealth is part of why wealth doesn’t tend to make people as happy
Death, Taxes, and a Few Other Things
My new book, Same As Ever, comes out in a month. It's about things that never change -- what's always happened in the world, and will keep repeating again and again?This episode shares five examples.
Respect and Admiration
Just after my son was born I wrote a few things I thought he’d find helpful as an adult. One of them was:"You might think you want an expensive car, a fancy watch, and a huge house. But I’m telling you, you don’t. What you want is respect and admiration from other people, and you think having expensive stuff will bring it. It almost never does – especially from the people you want to respect
Trying Too Hard
A truth that applies to almost every field is that it’s possible to try too hard, and when doing so you can get worse results than those who knew less, cared less, and put in less effort than you did.There are mistakes that only an expert can make. Errors – often catastrophic – that novices aren’t smart enough to make because they lack the information and experience needed to try to exploit an opp
Intelligence vs. Smarts
This episode is about the difference between intelligence and smarts, and why one is valued more than the other despite being less useful in the world. The core here is realizing that people are not spreadsheets. They are emotional, hormonal, misinformed, status-seeking, insecure creatures trying their best to make it through the day. So if you have to choose between understanding how the world sh
Fluke -- A Story About How Fragile The World Can Be
This is a short personal story about a fluke event 16 years ago that changed everything in my life. You probably have a similar story, and there is so much to learn about how everything can change from an event you never saw coming.
A Few Ideas That Changed My Life
You spend years trying to learn tons of new stuff, but then look back and realize that just a few big ideas truly changed how you think and influenced most of what you believe.Let me share a couple that had a big impact on me.
The Spectrum of Wealth
Chris Rock joked that Bill Gates would jump out the window if he woke up with Oprah’s money. Like most comedy, it’s funny because it contains a nugget of truth.There is no objective level of wealth -- everything is just relative to something, or someone, else. That means a billionaire can feel poorer than someone with infinitely less money.This episode tries to create a spectrum of wealth based on
Low Expectations
The knee-jerk way to set expectations is to anchor to what everyone else has right now. But imagine the tragedy of there being unbelievable progress throughout your life and you enjoy none of it because you expected all of it. This episode is all about expectations, and how the key to happiness in so many things in life is to aim low.
A Few Short Stories
Sometimes the best you can do when learning about any topic is to memorize a few short stories -- quick, direct, and to the point, that you're likely to remember forever. This episode shares 15 short stories that have stuck with me, and helped me contextualize so many things in life, work, and investing. One other note: I have a new book coming out this November. It's called Same as Ever
The Power of Staying Put
There are so many times in life where what you do is less important than how long you've been doing it for. It's true in careers. It's true in relationships. It's true in sports. And it's true with money. This episode is about compounding -- and how staying put, uninterrupted, is often the most overlooked skill.
A Few Things I'm Pretty Sure About
If you can explain something important in just a few words, it's a double win: You've probably found something that's obviously true, without needing further explanation or detail. And it's probably something you'll remember for a long time, easy to recall without having to memorize dozens of details. This podcast is a smattering of ideas that have been important and impac
Little Ways The World Works
This episode has little to do with money. But in some ways it has everything to do with money. That's the riddle I want to unpack. I want to share a bunch of examples of what one field can teach us about another. What can we learn from biology that teaches us something about money?What can we learn from physics that teaches us something about business? If you find something that is true in mo
Your Money and Your Family
One of the most complicated topics in money: How it impacts your family. Your spouse. Your kids. How do you avoid spoiling kids? How do you and your spouse learn to agree about the best way to spend? There are no easy answers -- but I try my best here, including sharing the letters I wrote to my kids when they were born.
The Highest Form of Wealth
The highest form of wealth is the ability to wake up every morning and say, “I can do whatever I want today.”People want to become wealthier to make them happier. Happiness is a complicated subject because everyone’s different. But if there’s a common denominator in happiness -- a universal fuel of joy -- it’s that people want to control their lives. The ability to do what you want, when you want
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