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What’s Your Rush to be Rich? Live Well Instead (In 6 Easy Steps)

  • personal995
  • Aug 27
  • 11 min read


The Allure...

Big houses.

Fast cars.

Status.

VIP booths.

Luxury brands everywhere.


It’s all dangled in front of us every single day.

And it’s hard to resist, isn’t it?


The Trap...

We’re living through the “Everything Boom.”

It's confusing our understanding of foundational economical principles.


Social media has poured jet fuel on our obsession with wealth, status, and luxury.

And not just having it… Having it now.


We've forgotten to make decisions and set goals via our values.


It’s a dangerous treadmill.

One that’s very hard to get off once you’re on it.


How It Works...

First, the rush to be “rich” now pulls you into high-stress, high-demand careers.(Entrepreneurship counts too, it’s also a career.)


Then comes the pressure to keep up with the social-media “Joneses.”

The lifestyle creep.

The image.

The need to look the part.


Add in clever marketing, powered by psychology and behavioural economics, and suddenly you’re stuck in a cycle of spending and consuming.

Debt piles up.

And that debt becomes the chain.


It locks you to the very job you thought would buy you freedom.

Promotions, deadlines, late nights.

The grind goes on.


The Anchor...

This isn’t just about today.

Debt doesn’t disappear when you get tired. It lingers.

20 years. 30 years. Sometimes longer.

A series of bad decisions can weigh on your future self like a heavy anchor.


Jordan Belfort, the infamous Wolf of Wall Street, knew this better than anyone.

He weaponized it.

He pressured his employees to buy suits, watches, cars, and homes… all on credit.

Because he knew, debt makes people obedient.

It keeps them on the grind. Working for him.


The Addiction...

It’s not just money. It’s biology.

The dopamine hits. The adrenaline rush. The buzz of new, shiny, status-filled things.


It feels good. Until it doesn’t.

And even when you know better… The pull is still there.


The Way Out...

But there is a way out.


You can opt out of the treadmill. You can step away from the game.


A life that is lower stress. A life that feels better. A life that’s deeply rewarding. A life that’s anti-fragile.


Not deprived. Just… richer.


Let’s run through the math, the mindset, and the strategy.




What’s in this article?





The Case for Slowing Down



Step 1. Slow Yourself Down


It is very difficult to think clearly when you are travelling at a million miles an hour, and all consumed in 'doing'.


You need space to think. Space to understand yourself. Space to make plans aligned with your own values. And ultimately space to truly saviour life.


Most people think in extremes. Either trying to grind away at full speed, or at the finish line - retired and free.


But there’s an in-between that’s both more sustainable and more rewarding: slowing down, planning wisely and playing the long game.


You don’t need 60+ hours of work to cover your needs. Try scaling back. What would your life look like if you worked 3 to 4 days per week instead?


Note: Before you leave this article thinking there is no way I can live on 3 to 4 days pay per week. Keep reading and think deeply about this concept. It's worth it.


By slowing down and scaling back, you gain more of the scarce resource that money can’t buy - time. 


Time for your kids while they’re young. Time to pursue health, creativity, and adventure. Time to smell those roses. Time to actually live.




“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste much of it.” Seneca



The Power of Redefining “Rich”



Step 2. Review Your Perception of Living Well


The power to which we are influenced by those around us, whether physically or digitally, is a clear red flag once you truly understand it.


To learn more read: Behave by Robert Sapolsky or Influence by Robert Cialdini.


Once you understand this, change your perception.


You don't necessarily have to spend thousands travelling the world to think more broadly. First, simply try driving around different suburbs or towns within a four hour radius of where you currently live. See how different other's lives are? There are as many different ways to live a life as there are people on this planet.


Did you know: Warren Buffett (net worth over $146 billion) still lives in the same house he bought in Omaha, Nebraska in 1958 for $31,500.


Look more broadly. Step out of your currently bubble. Change your perception. Review your values and goals, and explore all the options of how you could potentially live, cheaper, slower and create more time.


Note: This doesn't mean you need to completely forsake being financially rich. We will get to that in a step further below.


Most people define “rich” as luxury cars, big houses, and status symbols. But chasing them before your means allows it means debt, stress, and a lack of freedom.


What if “rich” instead meant:


  • Freedom of schedule – not being chained to a desk.

  • Deep relationships – time with your partner, kids, friends.

  • Health and vitality – energy to enjoy your days.

  • Experiences – travel, learning, small joys.

  • Learnings - time to read, listen and observe the world.


This kind of richness is not only cheaper. It’s more durable. And you'll feel it more deeply.


Useful Member's Links: Values & Goals


“That man is richest whose pleasures are cheapest.” Henry David Thoreau



Arbitrage: Buy Time With Strategic Thinking



Step 3. Strategically Analyse Your Life.


Arbitrage isn’t just about money. It’s about positioning. About using strategic thinking to create freedoms by looking for mis-priced anomalies.


These anomalies can be found in many forms:


  • Geography: A software engineer earning a US salary but living in Lisbon or Chiang Mai where costs are a fraction of San Francisco. Same income, drastically more freedom. Do you have a situation where you could take advantage of geo-arbitrage?


  • Regional vs. Inner City: A family able to remote work moving from the heart of the city to a regional town. With remote work, they keep city incomes but cut housing costs by half. How could you position your career for remote working?


  • Career Positioning: Shifting into an industry or location where your skillset is rare or missing. A nurse, teacher, or tradesperson in a regional area may enjoy higher pay relative to living costs than in a crowded city. Where is your skillset in high demand relative to living costs?


  • Housing Strategy: Renting in your younger years while compounding savings. Later, buying with a large deposit or even cash. Less debt, less pressure, more freedom. Experiment with our Buying vs Renting Calculator.


  • Owner-Building or Renovating: Creating your own value rather than paying a premium for someone else’s finished product. Sweat equity is another form of arbitrage. Do you have, or can learn, a skillset that becomes a fun, rewarding hobby and also saves on one of life's biggest expenses?


  • Time Arbitrage: Negotiating flexible, remote work arrangements or move closer to your place of work. Reclaiming hours from commuting and reinvesting them into family, health, or side projects. Can you simply remove your commute, saving time and cost?


  • Pivot: Step down in responsibility and hours while still earning enough to fund your lifestyle. Use the freed-up time to build new skills, side projects, or alternate income streams that make one or more of these arbitrage moves possible. A smaller pay check now can buy you far greater freedom later.


The key is to spot where the crowd isn’t looking, where the value is hidden, where the trade-offs are mis-priced, or where you have a unique advantage.

.

Every anomaly you take advantage of buys you back time, freedom, and resilience.





“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” Peter Drucker



Compounding: Make Time to Work For You



Step 4. Put Time on Your Side


The math of compounding is simple but powerful. The longer something has to grow, the more exponential the results become.


For example: $10,000 at 7%.


  • 10 years → $20k

  • 20 years → $40k

  • 30 years → $76k

  • 40 years → $150k


Result: The last decade grows more than the first two combined.


This is obvious with money. If you start investing early, even modestly and allow decades of compounding to work quietly in the background. So knowing this you can position your life and finances to leverage the power of compounding. Then you don’t need to sacrifice your life in the short term as time does most of the heavy lifting for you.


Then look across other aspects of your life where you can utilise compounding It's not just financial. It applies to everything that matters.


  • Knowledge: The more you read, think, and learn early on, the sharper your insights and opportunities become later. Knowledge compounds.

  • Relationships: A marriage, a friendship, or time with your children grows stronger (or weaker) with the deposits you make early. If you wait until later to invest, the window may already have closed.

  • Health: Strong habits in your 20s and 30s compound into vitality in your 50s and beyond. Delay too long, and the decline is much harder to reverse.



Did you know: Warren Buffett made 99% of his wealth after his 50th birthday. Not because of a sudden breakthrough, but because of compounding.


There’s a catch, though: time is uncertain.


You don’t know how many decades you’ll realistically get to compound.


Which means you also need to compound the present. 


Hedge your bets by investing your time, energy, and attention now in what matters most. Whilst also preparing for the future with you long-term compounding plans.


Utilising compounding effectively for the short and long term then means not just building wealth, but also:


  • More time with your kids now - while they’re still young, and then they may also want to spend their futures with you.

  • More effort in your marriage today - to put time into building understanding and the foundations for a loving relationship that last and avoids the all to common slow decay that ends in regret.

  • More focus on what energises you - while you’re still fit and able, and allows you to compound longer into the future..


Take the bird in the hand now and also compound the two in the bush.


Start early. Use time as leverage. Compound in every area of life - money, knowledge, relationships, and health.



Useful Member's Links: Mental Models & Tools



“The first rule of compounding is to never interrupt it unnecessarily.” Charlie Munger



Longevity: Redefine Work & Retirement



Step 5. Rethink the Endgame


What if you didn’t retire at 65? Even if you could.


Instead, what if you work to position yourself to be adding value, earning an income, taking mini-retirements, spending time with friends and family and doing meaningful work you were passionate about well into your later years?


The idea that work must stop at a fixed age is a recent invention, and a potentially harmful one. If you build your life around work that energises you, teaching, advising, creating, mentoring, there’s no reason it can’t continue well into your 70s and 80s.


Further reading: You may enjoy books like The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest by Dan Buettner for more on this. Particularly the section on 'reason for being'. People who retire early without meaningful purpose often experience faster physical and cognitive decline. Staying mentally and socially active not only adds years to your career, but also to your health and quality of life.


When there’s no hard stop at 65, your life planning and financial picture can change completely. You can look at your life as a more holistic blend with more time for compounding of all types over longer periods. Instead trying to sprint and do everything at once whilst you have a young family to save for decades without income. That shift removes enormous pressure from your 30s, 40s, and 50s. And more time to live now.


Rethink retirement. Instead of working towards an escape, design work you’d never want to escape from.


Longevity arbitrage looks like this:

  • Moving into part-time or advisory roles in your 60s instead of stopping altogether.

  • Turning experience into mentoring, consulting, or creative projects.

  • Choosing work that provides curiosity, purpose, and connection, not just a salary.


Humans aren’t built for idleness. We thrive on purpose. And when purpose pays, even modestly, it transforms retirement planning from a fixed finish line into a flexible, resilient, and far more joyful approach to life.





Ancora imparo.” (“I am still learning.”) Michelangelo (at 87 years of age)



Judgement: Your Most Underrated Advantage



Step 6. Turn Time into Judgement


You've compounded your balanced life with knowledge, experience, time, relationships, health and financial wealth. Over that time, you've positioned yourself in a field where you have unique knowledge and have combined your strengths to add a multiple of value, whilst doing that you have built judgement.


Even though your energy declines with age, judgement grows. You see patterns, cycles, and mistakes others miss.


While younger people trade time for money, you can increasingly trade judgement for money, a far more efficient exchange. Advisory roles, mentoring, consulting, investing or creative projects let you leverage decades of insight while still doing work that energises you.


Further reading: Benjamin Franklin (The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin) to see how deliberate practice, reflection, and early habit formation compound into decades of wisdom. Charlie Munger (Poor Charlie’s Almanack) to understand how a latticework of knowledge and long-term perspective turns judgement into one of life’s most powerful advantages.


When you position your experience, not as something that fades, but as something that sharpens into wisdom, your opportunities expand. You’re no longer bound by doing more, but by knowing better.


Judgement arbitrage looks like this:

  • Moving into roles where advice, not hours, is the currency.

  • Turning years of hard-won lessons into mentoring, consulting, or creative projects.

  • Using perspective to avoid costly mistakes or ripe opportunities that others can’t yet see.


Energy declines. But wisdom compounds. And when you position your later years to lean on judgement, not just effort, you create an advantage few others will ever have.




“Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Discharge your duties faithfully and well. Step by step you get ahead, but not necessarily in fast spurts. But you build discipline by preparing for fast spurts.... Slug it out one inch at a time, day by day. At the end of the day–if you live long enough–most people get what they deserve.” Charlie Munger (who lived to be one month short of 100 years old)



To Summarise: Live Well In 6 Easy Steps



Instead of racing to retire, slow down and live now.


Don't be overwhelmed. Take your time, and hopefully this will create more of it for you:

  • Work 3–4 days a week when kids are young.

  • Use arbitrage strategies to stretch your freedom.

  • Live simply and redefine what “rich” means.

  • Let compounding do the heavy lifting over decades.

  • Position yourself to work meaningfully into your later years.

  • Leverage the one asset that grows with age: judgement.


Retirement isn’t the prize at the end of the tunnel. The prize is being able to live richly today while compounding freedom for tomorrow.



“Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.” Henry David Thoreau



Member's Related Links & Readings: 




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All the best. Take care of yourself and each other.




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