What does your rich life look like?

Some of you may have heard of the financial psychology author, podcaster, and Netflix series host Ramit Sethi. I will happily admit that I have actually followed Ramit for many years, after I stumbled across his first book ‘I Will Teach You To Be Rich’.

Despite the infomercial sounding title, he really does have some good advice! And one of the things I appreciate most about his philosophy is his fresh take on ‘budgeting’ - which he refers to instead as a ‘conscious spending plan’.

While many other financial advisors focus on our ‘latte factor’ and reducing our spending, Ramit takes the approach of being really intentional about using money as a means to build our own version of a ‘rich life’. Which doesn’t have to mean having hundreds of thousands of dollars in income. It simply means being aware of what personally gives us pleasure. And then giving ourselves permission to prioritize that in how we allocate our spending (which also relates to how we allocate our time).

For example, I love that one of the things Ramit prioritizes is books and personal development. He rarely questions these types of expenses for himself, as he knows he will always get something of value from them, even if it’s just one new idea. I also love books and personal and professional development, so these are definitely on my list of priority spending. As is travel. And, in fact, even lattes! (Tea lattes, that is.) Because these are all things that help me feel like me. So it is worth it to me to spend money on these things.

And, importantly, it means that I don’t prioritize spending money on certain other things, as much as those things might bring joy to others. Because there is no right or wrong - just an opportunity to become more aware of what makes each of us feel uniquely like ourselves.

So when it comes to your own self-care, what does a rich life look like to you? If you aren’t already prioritizing the things that help you feel like you, can you experiment with allocating even a small amount of money to let yourself consciously do this?