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The Art of Spending Money

On using money rather than accumulating it, and why no formula fits everyone

Published in October 2025. The gap it sets out to fill is between the volume of advice about building wealth and the near absence of advice about what to do with it. Spending is not a science, on the author's argument, because it runs through individuality, status, envy and regret, so what delights one person looks absurd to the next. Three threads recur. Money as a tool against money as a yardstick, the way a fixation on more crowds out whatever else was making you happy, and independence as the thing most worth buying.

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Does it: documented as part of their own routine. Recommends: explicitly advises other people to do it. Discusses: covered it substantively without clear personal adoption; this can include criticism or disagreement.

  • Morgan HouselRecommends

    Writer · The Psychology of Money

    Wrote it because there is plenty of advice on building wealth and almost none on using it. Not a science, he insists. The art of it covers individuality, greed, jealousy, status and regret, and no formula fits everyone. The thread through it is money as a tool to live better rather than a yardstick for measuring yourself against other people.

    Source: Collaborative Fund: My New Book, The Art of Spending Money

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Book entry · notes paraphrased from cited sources, quoted excerpts copied from the transcript they link to. Not medical advice. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by anyone listed. How this works.