“Truth: We Are Very Bad At Anticipating What We Want” | Jonathan Clements - E82

The Best Interest - Complex Personal Finance Made Easy

Jesse begins today’s episode with a short monologue on the highs and lows of money. Can money buy happiness? Or are they uncorrelated? Either way, money can certainly buy flexibility and optionality. Jesse collects insights from Thom Yorke, Matthew Killingsworth, Danny Kahneman, and Angus Deaton.

Today’s guest is Jonathan Clements, the founder and editor of Humble Dollar, the author of My Money Journey and How to Think About Money. Clements spent nearly 20 years at the Wall Street Journal as their lead personal finance columnist. He shares why we need financial goals that fulfill us, why he plans to continue working, and how we can plan financially for retirement, but why that shouldn’t be the end goal of our financial journey.

If you’re interested in long-term financial planning that will set yourself up for success, then this is the episode for you!

Key Takeaways:

• How to strike the balance between spending and saving.

• Why you can never know what you’ll really want in the future.

• We need personal fulfillment goals, not just financial goals.

• Jonathan’s retirement plan is ICE over FIRE.

• How to invest not only for retirement, but also for your heirs’ inheritance.

Key Timestamps:

(01:54) Jesse’s monologue: Can money buy happiness?

(09:15) Introduction to Jonathan Clements

(10:30) My Money Journey

(12:40) Switching from saver to spender

(15:50) We can’t predict the future

(21:43) 8 traits successful people have in common

(24:25) ICE: I’ll Continue Earning

(28:46) Annuities and Social Security

(36:29) Setting the next generation up for success

(44:40) Close

Key Topics Discussed:

The Best Interest, Jesse Cramer, Rochester New York financial planning, immediate fixed annuities, lifetime income annuities, equity and indexed annuities, Roth IRA, Social Security, retirement wealth planning

Mentions:

Website: https://humbledollar.com/

Jesse’s Radiohead article: https://humbledollar.com/2024/05/happy-conclusion/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanclements/

How to Think About Money: https://amzn.to/3yHtlth

My Money Journey: How 30 people found financial freedom - and you can too: https://amzn.to/3Kw91NO

More of The Best Interest:

Check out the Best Interest Blog at bestinterest.blog

Contact me at [e-mail]

The Best Interest Podcast is a personal podcast meant for educational and entertainment. It should not be taken as financial advice, and is not prescriptive of your financial situation.