The Simple Mental Model That Changed My Financial Life

Focus on the big-money decisions

When it comes to spending money, I’ve made so many mistakes. When I think about the amount of money I’ve wasted in the past, I feel bad in my stomach.

I didn’t have the best mental model for my financial life back then.

As someone who practices Stoicism and Mindfulness, I don’t get attached to those feelings. But still, it does hurt a little bit.

For instance, I think I bought a new winter jacket almost every year until four or five years ago when I finally decided to spend a grand on a high-quality jacket.

I spent probably twice as much in the ten prior years. But now that I have a great (and warm) winter parka, I don’t even think about getting a new one. So I’m not spending any more money. I’m also not spending time and energy on finding new jackets.

I call this way of looking at the world, or mental model, “Save time and money by spending well.”

In most languages, there’s a saying that captures that philosophy. In The Netherlands, we say, “Buying cheap is expensive.” But this is not only true for buying things.

In this article, I will share 3 personal examples of my life where I applied this mental model and how it changed my life financially.

Writing books

When I wrote my first book in 2015, I didn’t do a great job with the presentation and positioning.

I called the book Massive Life Success, and I created a silly cover on Canva in 30 minutes. Here it is:

It doesn’t even look a little bit like my current books. I didn’t have a logo nor did I have a style. The overall feel of the book was amateurish.

A few weeks after I published it, I started feeling bad about the book. I liked the content and advice, but it just didn’t look professional. So I took a lot of time and energy to study the book business.