Swart Donkey

Meritocracy and conspicuous consumption are dirty dancing partners. Value is personal, and price is a blunt tool for exchange. Price is a wa...

Conspicuous Consumption is a stupidity tax. As is hoarding. The image of Scrooge McDuck is not one of someone who is good with money.  Peopl...

Time is the foundation of property rights. If you know that whatever you are going to do is going to get etch-a-sketched, then you rightly w...

Sustainability is the key to compounding. Although what you do matters, what you are doing now matters less if you can’t carry on doing it. ...

If you tie your identity and incentives to your job and pay, the stress and shocks of money will drive your anxiety.  Hunter-Gatherers may h...

Nothing, is a powerful disciplinarian. A floor to how low you can go. Saying “spend less than you earn” seems ridiculous without the danger...

Spend less than you earn. Easier said than done.  Unless you have outside sources of support, the only way to create space is to “live with...

Part of how we are weighed and measured is how much income we make. The assumption being that salary (the price of our labour) is a useful d...

Building wealth requires a plan . Before that, if you are trapped, you need an escape plan. If you are in a situation where you don’t have t...

My oldest brother is very dangerous over short distances. Like Gimli in the Lord of the Rings. My middle brother is more like Legolas, prefe...

We do not all have the same skills and knowledge. We do not all have the same barriers to entry. We have different opportunities. We have di...

It feels good to receive acknowledgement and recognition. To be seen and respected. To move onto the next stage of detachment and a really d...

If you are time rich, rather than money rich, you need to learn to create boundaries. It's very similar to the rich-rich when people sta...

Most people I know plan their finances in a bubble. Bryan Caplan points out that “normal people say what other people do, but do what other ...

Bob Dylan sings about fat men and thin men looking for dignity. Searching high, searching low. Have you seen dignity? It is one of my bigges...

First, find shelter. It is impossible to build if you don’t survive each day. Warmth, sustenance, and protection from the elements aren’t ne...

I grew up in the Methodist Church which emphasised, among other things, two key values – avoiding conspicuous consumption, and self-reliance...

Lots of people are paid substantial incomes but are not financially independent. You can make £100,000 a year a still be as addicted to in...

How will you feel in the morning? How will you feel on Monday? I like to buy Democratic Goods. Those where the price is low enough that ev...

How do we wean ourselves off structural income dependence? Even most of the wealthy live hand-to-mouth in a fragile way. We don’t look at ...