If you want to reduce your stress, it's good to adopt the “everything is rational” mantra. Once you believe that everything is rational, you'll stop getting so frustrated and angry at things. You'll also stop being so jealous of other people's success.
There's a lot of messed up things in the world such as war, poverty, racism, corruption, and a pandemic. Some things we can try to explain, and some things we can't. Always step up and fight for what is right and speak out against what is wrong.
However, if you constantly try to fight everything wrong, you will end up stressed and miserable. Pick your battles, such as speaking out against bigotry. And let other things that bother you, go.
Unless you are a “Karen,” here are some examples that shouldn't concern you. You can't change everyone, so don't try. Because long-term, people are rationally doing what makes them happy.
Remember this great saying, “If you're not changing, you're choosing.” So make sure you are happy with where you're at.
The Kid Who Just Wants To Have Fun
Everybody knows that grades start accumulating in the 9th grade, and without good grades and SAT scores, the chances of getting into a good college, and therefore landing a desirable job goes down. Is it really so bad that Johnny High doesn't go to Yale and become a rich banker nobody? What's so bad about community college and working for $20,000/yr at a dead end job which he enjoys? Nothing at all!
Johnny High's decision to not study hard in high school is perfectly rational. He chose to have a whole lot of fun, while other kids were miserable studying and participating in extracurricular activities to boost their resumes. When he's 35 years old and still working at his job with the same salary, he'll think back at all the fun he had in high school and smile. A YOLO lifestyle ain’t so bad.
Who's to say that being a multi-millionaire banker and going to Yale is good anyway? He could end up incredibly miserable, with tremendous amounts of anxiety everyday as a banker. Instead, Johnny High chooses to live a more relaxing life, and doesn't care about money.
If he did care about money, he would have studied harder. And if Johnny starts to care about money, he may go to grad school and give himself another shot.
Related: Are There Really People Who Work 40 Hours A Week Or Less And Complain Why They Can't Get Ahead?
If You Love To Eat More Than You Should
Two years ago, my friend Shirley at 5 feet 3 inches tall, weighed 205 pounds. She was considered obese, and didn't have a boyfriend. Sure she was out of shape, and longed to have companionship. But what she loved more than anything else was pizza, strawberry frosted cupcakes, and Mountain Dew. Food was her first love and everything else came second.
Shirley's decision to eat herself into obesity is rational. Shirley is proud of her body just the way it is, and therefore continued to consume copious amounts of food. Curiously enough, some of the fittest people have the lowest self esteem because they don’t love the way they look.
A year ago, Shirley asks if I'd like to work out with her once a week. I say sure, but why the sudden desire to exercise? She mentions there’s a guy that caught her fancy at a party, and she wants him to notice her.
Six months later, Shirley is down to 150 pounds and is happily going out with her new man. Pizza and cupcakes are no longer Shirley's first priority, he is.
The Chain Smoker Who Enjoys His Lucky Strikes
Smokers know that smoking damages the lungs, instigates cancer, and shortens lifespans. Yet, smokers smoke because the pleasure from smoking outweighs the long term detriments. Smokers are willing to accept the risk of lung cancer for the buzz of nicotine.
After spending $100 on cigarettes a month for years and coughing up blood for weeks, a relative of mine decided to quit. The desire to live long enough to see his daughter give birth outweighed his desire for nicotine.
It's been 10 years since he last lit up and grandpa visits his granddaughter every Sunday.
The Consumer With Seven Credit Cards
People realize that credit card debt is the highest debt around, yet thousands still don't pay off their debt in full every month. Credit card debtors are willing to pay 17%+ interest rates because the pleasure they derive from the items they buy outweigh the burden of debt.
Eventually, the pleasure from buying an incessant amount of useless things wears off. Unfortunately, the payments still remain. Some go cold turkey and cut up their credit cards, while others find second jobs to accelerate their debt repayments.
As soon as people with credit card debt desire to achieve financial independence, they will attack their higher interest rate debt with a vengeance. They will follow the FS-DAIR methodology for paying off debt and investing. In addition, they will read as much about personal finance as possible.
The Mediocre Blogger
Consistent blogging is hard. If you want to create one of the best blogs, you'll spend hours a day trying to develop relationships with others. Here are some reflections on making money online since 2009.
You'll write tons of guests posts, publish more frequently, be absolutely self-less in promoting others, respond to all your comments and buy an iPhone so you can become a Twitter and Facebook maniac to keep in touch with your readers.
When you realize blogging is just hobby you don’t try as hard. Your full-time job is what really pays the bills and allows you to reach financial independence sooner. So you focus on getting paid and promoted at work, and downgrade blogging to a side hustle.
You don't let blogging take over your life, especially if you are the obsessive type. It's OK to step back and not publish as frequently. It's OK not to be the most popular and get all the awards.
Your main goals are to have fun, meet some new folks, learn, perhaps make a little money on the side, and find your own voice.
But for those of you who are really committed to your craft, you will continue to work on it for years, no matter what. After 10 years, I'm sure you're going to see some decent success in whatever you do.
The Defunct Politician
Corrupt politicians exist because we let them exist. We elect corrupt politicians into office and allow them to take advantage of the system for their own good. If we don't like what they do, we vote them out. For example, the people of Illinois did just that to ex-Governor Rod Blagojevich. They impeached him for wire fraud and bribery.
Over 1,700 people from the Department of Transportation now make over $170,000/year. You can be mad, or you can go online and learn how to become a DOT employee.
The majority of people voted for George W. Bush that's why he did a second term. He may not have found the WMD's, and sent thousands of troops in harms way, but at least he kept America safe from further terrorist attacks since 9/11.
Now look at Gavin Newsom, eating at French Laundry while telling millions doing a pandemic to stay at home. What a hypocrite! But the reality is, his actions were rational because he thinks he's above the law. He's grown up in a life of privilege.
Gavin will likely run for president, and if he wins, it’s because his voters don’t mind people who live by different rules.
The Miserable Employee
The miserable employee who is unwilling to leave deals with being abused and being underpaid by her boss. Everyday she comes in knowing she needs to put up with the bad office environment because she needs the health benefits and steady paycheck. The fear of the unknown is much greater than the misery her work and boss brings.
Fast forward five years later, the miserable employee continues to stay miserable at her job so she never has to take any risks and therefore never has to fail. If she were truly miserable, she would have found a new job by now.
Job security can be addicting. Maybe we might be able to equalize the playing field by quiet quitting. But eventually, we will regret staying at a job we do not enjoy.
To you minimize regret, please conduct a regret minimization exercise. The older you get, the more you will wish you would’ve taken more chances.
The Absent Minded
Have you ever forgotten to do something you told yourself to do just moments earlier?
Darn, I forgot what I was going to write…. Oh yeah, for example, if you forget to pay your bills on time, it's because bills aren't important to you. You are willing to pay late fees and potentially hurt your credit.
You forget your anniversary because you really don't care about such things. If you did, you'd have a present ready for him or her and waiting!
The next time you feel there's something you should remember but can't, tell yourself this: The reason why you can't remember is because the thing you're supposed to do is not important. If it were important, you'd remember!
Going Back To Work To Pay For College And A Nice House
You know what's hard? Intentionally having a kid. There's only a two or three day window where a woman is fertile to be able to have a baby. So if you successfully have one or more children, you must rationally take care of them! They didn't ask to be born into this world. You made it happen.
Part of the responsibility of being a parent is making enough to take care of your kids. This means saving for college and renting or owning a nice home. Because I blew up our passive income in 2023 buying a forever home, I must now suffer the consequences by getting a day job or consulting job again.
But I'm not complaining. I planned for it because everything is rational. If I wasn't willing to go back to work to make up for my income shortfall, I wouldn't have bought the nicer home. But because I will have finally fulfilled my commitment to being a stay-at-home dad for two kids, I'm treating myself to a vacation by going back to work.
A day job is so much easier than entrepreneurship and being a stay-at-home parent!
Another Rational Example: The Racist, Homophobic, Bigoted, Sexist Comedian
Shane Gills decided it was OK to a racist, bigoted, sexist, homophobe his entire career. In a widely-shared clip from “Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast,” Gillis and co-host Matt McClusker are discussing New York’s Chinatown when Gillis says, “Let the f—ing ch-nks live there.” He later recalls a restaurant being “full of f—ing Chinee [sic] in there.”
In a separate podcast, “Ep 144 – A.I. is Racist,” Gillis and McCusker make fun of Asian accents about 22 minutes and 20 seconds in, referring to the video game “Clash of Clans” as “Crash of Crans” in a mock Chinese accent.
A little more than 21 minutes into “Ep 146 – Live from Shane’s Parent’s Basement,” while talking about the Battle of Gettysburg, Gillis refers to soldiers yelling as “so gay.” About 29 minutes into the podcast, Gillis uses the word “r-tard,” and “f-ggot,” and shortly afterward he and McCusker joke about “hot Southern boys” being raped during the Civil War, comparing it to “having gay sex in jail.”
Gillis, in describing women who disguised themselves as men to fight in the war, refers to them as “flat chested f—ing bitch[es].” He issued a statement last Thursday addressing the situation, writing in part, “My intention is never to hurt anyone but I am trying to be the best comedian I can be and sometimes that requires risks.”
At the end of the day, he got hired by SNL and fired. Given everything is rational, Shane Gills is probably a financially independent man who doesn't need money and/or doesn't really care about his career. If he did care about money, he would have altered his comedy skits in 2019.
Amazingly, Shane Gillis is back as now anything goes.
Related: Dear Minorities, Use Racism As Motivation To Achieve Financial Independence
Everything Is Rational In The End
From the examples above, it sure seems like everything is rational. You won’t run out of money because you’re rational too.
We do things which seem wrong to others, but really makes perfect sense. The next time you start feeling pity for someone for missing out on financial opportunities or questioning their actions because you feel morally superior, don't.
Eventually, everything comes back to center. If not, it's because things are fine just the way they are!
Recommendations If You Want To Build Wealth
1) Invest in real estate.
If you rationally want to get wealthier, the you rationally need to invest in assets like stocks and real estate for the long run. My favorite asset class for the average person to build wealth is real estate.
Check out Fundrise and their eREITs. eREITs give investors a way to diversify their real estate exposure with lower volatility compared to stocks. Income is completely passive and there is much less concentration risk. Fundrise manages about $3 billion and has over 350,000 investors.
If you are bullish on the demographic shift towards lower-cost and less densely populated areas of the country, check out CrowdStreet. CrowdStreet focuses on individual commercial real estate opportunities in 18-hour cities. Both platforms are free to sign up and explore.
I've personally invested $954,000 in private real estate to diversify my portfolio and earn more 100% passive income. Private real estate accounts for about 30% of my annual $300,000 in passive income. Both Fundrise and CrowdStreet are long-time sponsors of FS and FS is an investor in Fundrise funds.
2) Manage your wealth carefully.
Stay on top of your finances by signing up with Empower. Empower is a free online tool I've used since 2012 to help build wealth. Before Personal Capital, I had to log into eight different systems to track 35 different accounts. Now I can just log into Personal Capital to see how my stock accounts are doing. I can easily track my net worth and spending as well.
Empower's 401(k) Fee Analyzer tool is saving me over $1,700 a year in fees. Finally, there is a fantastic Retirement Planning Calculator to help you manage your financial future.
If you care about your personal finances, join 65,000 others and sign up for my free weekly newsletter. I recap the most important news posts, so you never miss a thing. If you don’t up, thats perfectly fine too! Everything is rational in the end. Everything is Rational is a Financial Samurai original post.
Really enjoyed this article, really puts everything in perspective. Enjoying your blog glad The College Invester had you on his blog list.
Excellent post Sam,
There’s a little something for everyone to read here.
It really is all about attitude and perspective. It’s about how much work you put in.
By the way, I don’t think you have a mediocre blog at all. The most important stuff is there and that’s what matters. You’re an engaging writer and good storyteller. And you respond to a ton of comments in a meaningful way. There’s other successful bloggers out that that don’t take the time to reply as detailed as you do. Besides blogs are always going to be in constant evolution mode.
I took a lot from this though. I really do want to be a full-time blogger in the long term, but it is important to prioritize.
There’s a theme I’ve been living by in 2016 about trade-offs. Every choice in life is a trade-off. This post perfectly explains this theory. It’s all about values. Thanks for referring me to this post!
Every morning you have a choice. Allow your life to go on as things have been going, or make a change. Do you hate the chaos and uncertainty of change more than you love the progress that comes from improving your life?
So, do. Or do not. It’s your choice, take responsibility and take action or simply shut up and sit down. Not changing things is also a choice, but most people won’t admit it because of the cowardice it implies.
@ Carlyle/Trying To Be Rational – Interesting stuff. Have to admit Rob, you have very “unique” perspectives!
Pls don’t send the goons over here!
@ Bytta – I write because it’s fun, and you respond because you have something to say. You’re right in that PROGRESS is what will lack, and progress is my one word for happiness.
And therein lies the issue… if we are absolutely happy with everything we have, we wouldn’t need progress!
“What are you talking about? Who did what, and broke which law, and who suffered what damages?”
Google is your friend. Just search for Rob Bennett/Hocus or Hocomania and you’ll discover links to far more information than you’d ever care to know about “Nice Guy Rob”! He’s been at this game for several years now. This comments thread from the GetRichSlowly Blog is typical of his modus operandi;
ttp://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2009/05/13/how-to-build-wealth-ignore-wall-street-and-get-on-with-your-life/
Oh, Rob’s contention that he discovered an error in a Safe Withdrawal Study? That’s RobSpeak. He faults a retrospective study of what percentage withdrawal rates proved safe over past periods of time because it didn’t predict future withdrawal rates out to 3 decimal places like Rob claims to be able to do. But that’s but one of many peculiar beliefs Rob holds near and dear. Google is your roadmap to explore the phenomenon of Rob Bennett, should you have the time and interest.
Laws broken? Damages suffered? Nope, only in the imaginary world which resides in the mind of Mr. Bennett.
Rob says: “Nice Guy Rob would be thrilled if someone would contact him with the name of a good lawyer willing to take on the case on a contingency basis.”
What are you talking about? Who did what, and broke which law, and who suffered what damages?
Just making odd statements about needing a lawyer is unlikely to get you what you want — you need to be specific!
What’s so bad about Rob?
There’s nothing even a little bit bad about Rob. He’s the greatest! A fine individual. A sweet guy. You know the type.
The story is that there’s a fellow who got the numbers wrong in a study that he put up at his web site (www.RetireEarlyHomePage.com) and then promoted the study at a Motley Fool discussion board at which Rob posted. Rob pointed out the error to protect his fellow community members from suffering failed retirements and hundreds of community members were excited to learn the realities. The fellow who got the numbers wrong didn’t like this one tiny little bit and organized a Goon Squad to follow Nice Guy Rob everywhere he went on the internet for eight years running and to post defamations of him and try to destroy his business and all this sort of thing.
Nice Guy Rob would be thrilled if someone would contact him with the name of a good lawyer willing to take on the case on a contingency basis. Otherwise, the best thing to do is probably to insist that site owners take care of the matter by banning the Goon Squad posters.
Or so says Nice Guy Rob in any event.
Rob
.-= Rob Bennett´s last blog ..“Fixed Income Should Equal Age, BUT Adjusted Up or Down Depending on Valuations” =-.
Sorry, I’m not saying the existence of your blog is not rational. What I meant was, if everything was rational, then there was nothing to write about. We’d let things the way it was and would do nothing about it. There would be no progress or improvement.
As an INTP, I respectfully disagree that everything is rational. If I had to rely my happiness on things and people working rationally, then I would be severely depressed. At least they keep me busy.
But then again, our mind is malleable and so is our view on the premise of rationality. Evolution of Wealth implied that the quality of rationality is tampered when mixed with emotion. Well, there are many rational decisions reinforced with emotions and whether we like to admit it or not, emotion is the force that compels us to do things.
And then I see the amount of national debt, reality shows and the price of a Hermes bag and realise that my first notion is correct.
Cheers.
.-= Bytta @151 Days Off´s last blog ..Is Frugality the New Superiority? =-.
@Evolution Of Wealth
Not sure how much emotions play in a “truly rational” decision. Maybe 20%? I don’t know.
What I do know, with the case of the smoker is that why should we change him/her? He/she derives a great amount of utility from smoking, and if we add up all the positive smoking utility over the years, it may very well be GREATER than the negative utility of lung cancer, shortness of breathe or whatever other ailments that may occur.
After a certain point, it’s not our place to change anybody anymore.
.-= admin´s last blog ..The Katana: Lauching The Samurai Fund To Prove A Theory 12/28 =-.
Is the problem here then the definition of rational? If a rational decision is just the search for an optimal outcome in the moment then I agree with you about the smoker and their incentive to be popular. However, if we begin to talk about the quality of the rationality we might realize that the decision to smoke is made based on emotions. What role do you see emotions playing in a truly “rational” decision. So does it become even more important for an outside force (person?) to get involved when we see emotional choices?
.-= Evolution Of Wealth´s last blog ..Sunday Link Rodeo 14 =-.
@Aleks
You’re right about adding “the security the job gives her”. That’s the point in the example, and something hopefully most people will understand.
Good point also about “emotional based decisions” trumping rational ones. We should go with our emotions, some of the time, but not all of the time!
@Evolution Of Wealth
For the smoker in your example, isn’t the incentive not really to smoke, but to be accepted and “cool”? And since being accepted and cool is the smoker’s main priority, then smoking is a rational achievement towards happiness. Will check out your post.
@Bytta @151 Days Off
My blog’s existence is perfectly rational. I enjoy writing, interacting with the community, learning from others, and debating, hence the site existence.
This is a serious post mind you, and I’m glad it is engendering some emotion!
The miserable employee story is, however, a perfect example of how many people spend their lives, and struggle with it. Perhaps the very last phrase (“as she secretly loves her job”) could be re-written into “as she secretly loves the security the job gives her”.
I think this is a great article, because it shows how decisions take place on both a rational and an emotional level; some people simply listen more to their rational side, others listen more to their emotional side. And sometimes, emotional based decisions are identified as “wrong” decisions at a later stage in someone’s life, when people have learned to rationalize more.
Oh c’mon, the part about The Miserable Employee is a dead giveaway.
In the interest of entertaining your theory; if everything is rational, then your blog has no purpose. You should then stop writing and live in a blissful zen of perfection. How about that?
Damn, even thinking about it makes me yawn, hehe.
Get over your holiday zen spirit and write something outrageous.
Cheers.
.-= Bytta @151 Days Off´s last blog ..Is Frugality the New Superiority? =-.
Okay two things come to mind, incentives and cognitive dissonance. I wrote about cognitive dissonance here . I’m in the belief that people don’t make a ‘rational’ choice to do something. But instead react in the moment or situation because of incentives. In terms of a smoker, how did they start? It was probably not a rational choice of weighing the pros and cons and determining yes I’m going to start smoker. Instead they might have been in a group of cool people they wanted to fit in with and figured none of those bad things they heard about will happen to them because they don’t see it and they were only going to smoke once to fit in. The incentive here is to smoke so they do and maybe they do next time as well. Not because they are rationally deciding that the good outweighs the bad but because in the moment the bad is so far removed. Next thing they know they develop a habit or an addiction. Now they develop cognitive dissonance. Not until that balance is disturbed enough to force a change will a change take place. This is where people can play a role. They may directly or indirectly help to throw off the balance.
.-= Evolution Of Wealth´s last blog ..Sunday Link Rodeo 14 =-.
@Bytta @151 Days Off
Glad you enjoyed it! I snuck this post in during the holidays, so not many folks have read it. The concept is pretty sound though, as if I think everything is rational, then I don’t get annoyed or upset at irrational things anymore because everything comes back to center.
You’re the first person to ask whether a reader should take the post seriously. I purposefully wrote it in a way that’s it’s hard to tell.
$800 pair of shoes? What about a $7,000 Grace Kelly Hermes handbag! WOW!
.-= admin´s last blog ..Someone Has To Give Birth! Why Women Shouldn’t Be Penalized For Being A Mom. =-.
LOL. This post is funnier than the credit card competition one. Are we supposed to take this seriously? Really? :)
We human beings are indeed experts in rationalising our ways, otherwise how come plenty of women happily purchase $800 shoes and call them an INVESTMENT PIECE (no, they don’t pay you dividend or increase in value over time). But hey, the shoes might make them feel more confident and give them sense of self-worth hence helping them to score a pay rise or new deals or a new boyfriend.
In the long run, nothing really matters. But in a short run, it’s fun to poke at people’s (and our own) quirks and stuff. That’s what I think.
.-= Bytta @151 Days Off´s last blog ..Is Frugality the New Superiority? =-.
@Tryingto be rational
Please tell us more about Rob Bennett. I’ve seen him around other sites before, always with quite long comments. What’s so bad about Rob?
Does *this* seem rational to anyone? spending years spamming finance message boards?
@David @ MBA briefs
Ah, sounds good. Yeah, so annoying the guy sitting in the front of the class asking questions every other second! haha. Glad you are having a nice time at work! The Katana is no big deal, but I think it’ll be fun!
.-= admin´s last blog ..Playing Until My Knees Swell And Feet Bleed =-.
TDA’s were one of the reasons I grew to like the online classes. I hated sitting in a classroom and having some dolt(s) monopolize the professor’s time with stupid questions. In the TDA’s if you didn’t have a well thought out response to the week’s topics you didn’t get full credit, and you could just ignore the dolts. Problem was if you didn’t answer soon after the topic was posted all the good responses were given and you’d have to dig to come up with something original. I’m at work today and next week but that’s OK, I’ll get OT today (rare for us salary types) and I’ve got the DOA next week. I’ll be looking for the Katana.
.-= David @ MBA briefs´s last blog ..How to analyze stocks like a pro =-.
@David @ MBA briefs
Hey Dave, had no idea what TDA’s were until you wrote about it today. Regarding being a mediocre blogger, I just want to be an iconoclast, not following some mantra that I’ve got to post every day, or do this and that. In essence, to write for oneself on one’s own time, while thinking about others of course.
I’ll probably highlight this goal in the inevitable “goals for 2010” post. Hope you are having a wonderful holiday!
I get your point and agree with you. Your friend was overweight, knew she was overweight, all her friends and family probably told her she needed to lose weight, but she didn’t start dieting and exercising until she had a reason to lose the weight. Same with your relative who stopped smoking, he quit when he decided to quit. The person who says they hate their job can’t hate it that much or they would have quit already. We all have to make our own decisions regardless of what others think, say, or do.
I don’t think you fall into the ranks of mediocre bloggers as much as you post. If we write what we want, when we want, and have no editor to answer to whose to say what we do is mediocre? I started blogging because I missed the threaded discussion areas (TDA’s) from my online classes where I had to come up with relevant and current answers for class discussions. I’d spend hours scouring my business magazines and websites for the perfect answer that someone else hadn’t already used. Only now I don’t have to have three posts in seven days or risk getting a lower grade for the week.
Keep up the good work! I hope you’re enjoying your holiday.
.-= David @ MBA briefs´s last blog ..You gonna eat that? =-.
@Rob Bennett
I’m in the camp that we just CHOOSE to ignore the rationality of proper ways, instead of fail to act. If you are in the camp of overeating, you see the effects of overeating everyday, yet you choose to ignore proper eating because foods provides so much more pleasure than any repercussions.
I understand this, that’s why I overrate for years as well. I already locked down a lovely girlfriend then, had a job with a lot of client dinners to attend, and was happy with my self. But, when I started playing competitive tennis again, I needed to lose about 15lbs to give myself a chance.
You’re right on the emotional addiction aspect though. It can be blinding, but only temporarily.
@JOhn DeFlumeri Jr
Hey John, hope all is well with you! Stay warm in FL.
.-= admin´s last blog ..Someone Has To Give Birth! Why Women Shouldn’t Be Penalized For Being A Mom. =-.