Rennie Gabriel

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to interview Perry Marshall for Episode 132 of my Wealth On Any Income Podcast. If you have not checked out any of those episodes, it is worth your time. The interviews are short, generally 15-20 minutes, and provide insights, information and inspiration for your business or your money. Perry sent out a valuable email the other day that I am repeating here with almost no editing: —————————————- Years ago one of my customer service people called with a question. It was an issue that should have never ended up in my lap. It had bounced... Continue Reading

This is the seventh and final of a series of emails that deal with our relationship with money. (You can read the other ones here). Most of this is based on the work of Morgan Housel, the author of The Psychology of Money. 7. Social aspiration spending: Trickle-down consumption patterns from one socioeconomic group to the next. Economist Joseph Stiglitz once wrote: “Trickle-down economics may be a chimera but trickle-down behaviorism is very real.” There is no such thing as an objective level of wealth. Everything is relative to something else. People look around and say, “What’s that... Continue Reading

This is the sixth and final of a series of emails that deal with our relationship with money. (You can read the other ones here). Most of this is based on the work of Morgan Housel, the author of The Psychology of Money. 6. Are you asking $3 questions when $30,000 questions are all that matter? There’s a saying: Save a little bit of money each month and at the end of the year you’ll be surprised at how little you still have. Author Ramit Sethi says too many people ask $3 questions (can I afford this latte?) when all that matters to financial success are $30,000 questions (what college should... Continue Reading

This is the fifth in a series of articles that deal with our relationship with money.  (You can read the other ones here). Most of this is based on the work of Morgan Housel, the author of The Psychology of Money. 5. The joy of spending can diminish as income rises because there’s less struggle, sacrifice, and sweat represented in purchases. In his 1903 book The Quest for the Simple Life, William Dawson writes: The thing that is least perceived about wealth is that all pleasure in money ends at the point where economy becomes unnecessary. The man who can buy anything he covets, without any... Continue Reading

This is the fourth in a series of articles that deal with our relationship with money.  (You can read the other ones here). Most of this is based on the work of Morgan Housel, the author of The Psychology of Money. 4. You have an emotional attachment to large purchases, particularly a house. It would be nice if my wife and could make unemotional financial decisions. We currently live in a desirable neighborhood where builders buy the houses for the land value, tear them down, and build huge homes. I’m saying they’ll buy an 1800 square foot ranch-style house for $1.5 million, tear it down... Continue Reading

This is the third in a series of articles that deal with our relationship with money.  (You can read the other ones here). Most of this is based on the work of Morgan Housel, the author of The Psychology of Money. 3. Frugality Inertia: A lifetime of good savings habits can’t be transitioned to a spending phase. Morgan says that what many people really want from money is the ability to stop thinking about it. They want to have enough money so that they can stop thinking about it and focus on other stuff. He goes on to say, “But that ultimate goal can break down when your relationship with... Continue Reading

This is the second in a series of articles that deal with our relationship with money. (You can read the first one here). Most of this is based on the work of Morgan Housel, the author of The Psychology of Money. 2. Entrapped by spending: Rather than using money to build a life, your life is built around money. About a year ago my wife and I visited the Biltmore house in Asheville, NC. The house is about 135,000 square feet, has 40 master bedrooms, and requires a full-time staff of about 400 people. While George Vanderbilt built the home, he did not live there full time. The cost of the house... Continue Reading

This is the first in a series of emails and posts that deal with our relationship to money. Most of this is based on the work of Morgan Housel, the author of The Psychology of Money. I’ve read that Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric was asked what he was thinking after suffering a massive heart attack where death was likely. He replied that he didn’t spend enough money. Sounds odd for someone worth $720 million, right? He explained it by saying when he was young he didn’t have two nickels to rub together and he was cheap personally. If he bought wine, it was cheap. After the... Continue Reading

My son and I share information from both being active and interested in finance and money. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Certified Financial Planner® (CFP®) My background is as a Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) and Certified Financial Planner® (CFP®). Both my son and I both read the book The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. And while speaking with my son we got on the topic of the feelings I have attached to my bank balances. Even though as a child I grew up in the only white family in a neighborhood of black families, I was not conscious of being working-class poor.... Continue Reading

Many of you know my primary income is from rental real estate, both commercial and residential. And I love to use Zelle because we often pay vendors and have checks lost in the mail never to be heard from again. If you use Zelle, whether it is to rent property, sell an item, or buy event tickets from someone on Facebook or some other social media platform, you need to watch out for scammers. This also applies to Venmo, Pay Pal, and the Cash App. Here is a warning article from one of my apartment newsletters: IRVINE, Calif. — Esther Jung was trying to sublet her UC Irvine-adjacent apartment when... Continue Reading