‘Psychology of Money’ author Morgan Housel follows the same morbid success measure as Warren Buffett—a “reverse obituary”
Material success can be measured in many ways: cars, luxury goods, followers. But behavioral finance expert Morgan Housel has an unusual practice for doing just that: reverse obituaries.
“It’s a bit depressing, but it’s about writing what you want your obituary to say, and then trying to live your life accordingly,” Hussle said. Fortune says In discussing his latest book “The art of spending money.”
He is not the first to adopt the approach to living a fulfilling life. These sentiments echo legendary Berkshire Hathaway investor Warren Buffett, who says he derived many of his life philosophies from his right-hand man, Charlie Munger, who died in 2023.
“Early on, write the obituary you want, and then act accordingly,” Buffett wrote in a previous letter to shareholders in 2022..
Now, it’s one of Housel’s ways of measuring legacy, too: If it’s not important enough to take to the grave, it doesn’t matter at all.
“If I were to write what I wanted to say in my obituary, I would hope it would say: ‘Morgan was a good husband, a good father, a loving friend, who helped his community, and helped those in need.’“” He said.
Housel’s new book classifies spending as an art, not a science
Housel is known for his bestsellers psychology of money, Which explains how people’s past beliefs, behaviors and emotions affect finances. Now, he reveals the psychology behind spending.
Housel stresses that spending is not a science, but rather an art that should not have a “one-size-fits-all” approach. How you spend also makes a big difference: If the majority of your expenses are material items, you haven’t learned life’s most important lessons yet, says Housel.
Housel says that when he was in his 20s, his ambition for the material world was at its highest, as he longed for things like a new Ferrari or a mansion. Later in life, he realized that family and community took precedence over anything he had wanted to spend money on in his past.
“When you do this exercise [writing your obituary]You’ll immediately realize what you won’t care about: your salary, the size of your house, how many times you bought a new car, and where you went on vacation. “It doesn’t matter at all,” Hussle added.
Other successful founders have focused on long-term legacy rather than short-term spending.
Jeff Bezos famously used a similar approach to decide to leave his cushy finance job and found Amazon, for example.
“I wanted to envision myself at 80 and say, ‘Okay, now I look at my life. I want to reduce the number of regrets I have,'” Bezos previously explained.
“Fifty or 60 years from now, I won’t say, ‘I wish I had earned more and spent more.’ There’s a very good chance we’ll look back and say, ‘I wish I had been more helpful and more loving to the people in my life that I really cared about,’” Hussle said.
2025-10-12 10:35:00
