Consuming or Reinvesting

“No decision” can be “the decision”. Building wealth is capital allocation. Getting money a job. If  everything there is, is spent, there is nothing to put to work. If you are going to build capital, you first need to build buffers that control for the waves that knock you off course. To do that, instead of “nothing left” being the enforcer of discipline, you need to internalise self-discipline so extra is allowed to exist. Not extra in the sense of a Scrooge McDuck pool of hoarded coins. Extra in the sense of reinvestment. Extra in the sense of circle of life rain-cycles, where energy is neither consumed nor destroyed, but just changes shape and form. It is the story of the Ant and the Grasshopper and Aesop's Fables. The Ant works hard during the Summer and builds up a lot of reserves. And when it gets to Winter where there is nothing to eat, Ant has extra. Grasshopper plays during the Summer, when it is beautiful, and there is plenty, and there is enough to eat. But then when it gets to Winter doesn't have enough. If you are going to build capital and buffers... the money is there, but it is not there. Which is quite abstract. The money is working at a job. It is not there to be spent.

Consuming vs Reinvesting