Hey Reader,

Crafting a meaningful money story requires trade-offs.

And once you get clear on what actually matters to you, some of your spending decisions might look pretty strange to other people.

Here's a recent example from our life...

💲 Money Minute

Hanna drove her car for 19 years. From age 16 to 34.

It was a 2006 Saturn Vue that she was still driving in 2025.

The heated seats had stopped working. So had the moonroof. The paint was faded, there were holes in the seats, and almost everything was manual.

But it still got us from point A to point B.

So we kept driving it.

After a series of electrical problems, it finally died in our driveway at 271,000 miles.

Meanwhile, over the last few years, we've spent $6,993.51 on wallpaper.

Yes, wallpaper.

I pulled the number from YNAB, right down to the penny.

Some of you are thinking that's an absurd amount of money to spend on wallpaper. And you probably would've upgraded cars long before we did.

That's fine.

We like wallpaper. You might like cars.

We also both work from home, which gives us flexibility that someone who drives every day doesn't have. Your circumstances matter.

But that's not really the point.

The point is that we're willing to spend very little in some areas of our life so we have room to spend a lot more in others.

I want you to be willing to spend less on the things that don't matter much to you so you can spend big on the things that do.

Within what you can afford, of course. Calling something a priority doesn't magically put more money in your bank account.

That's why trade-offs matter.

If you want more money for something you love, what are you actually willing to spend less on?

It's easy to say travel matters to you.

It's harder to say no to something you could technically afford because you'd rather put that money toward the trip.

You don't have to optimize every penny in your budget to make progress.

But you do have to make intentional choices.

So this week, find your version of the old Saturn.

What's something you honestly don't care much about that you're spending money on anyway?

Cut it back.

Then take that money and put it toward your version of the wallpaper—something you're genuinely pumped to spend money on.

Until next week,
Nick