How to spend money to improve your life (lessons from the ultra rich)
Money doesn’t solve all your problems. But it solves your money problems. A single liquidity event or consistent payments from a business or investments can elevate your life as long as you make the right calls on how to spend the cash. You have options. It’s a good problem to have.
But unless you invest with intention and spend with scrutiny, money won’t change your life. You’ll just buy the expensive, flash stuff you feel like you should buy, and wonder why you don’t feel any happier. But that’s not the game.
When you have the money for multiple lifetimes but the time for just one, definite moves matter. Even if you’re not (yet) ultra rich, there are changes you can make right now. Spend money to improve your life and join the new rich. Here’s how to do it.
8 places to spend your money for freedom, health and happiness
Assemble your freedom team
If you’re going to live the life of your dreams, you need people around you that can remove the friction. Dream big with this step. Think of everything you want to do and find the people who can make your life easy. Better yet, find one person. Employ a chief of staff who hires everyone else for you.
Think hiring people is extravagant? Consider this. Your effective hourly rate is astronomical. If you’re worth $1000 an hour but you do your own laundry, that’s $1000 every week you’re just throwing away. Now $50 doesn’t seem so bad. Don’t stop at laundry. For your maximum life pleasure, consider a driver, personal trainer, travel planner, security and assistants.
Have someone to clean your house, someone to source your outfits, and someone to check you in at hotels before you even arrive. Hire a chef to make every meal to the exact macros you need. Remove every part of life that doesn’t bring you joy and pay someone to make it go away. Keep going until every minute is magical.
Invest in your relationships
Few people are actually self-made, including you. Even if you did all the work yourself, everyone around you played a part in your success. Your parents raised you, your teachers shaped you, every friend gave support and guidance or showed you a good time. Now you’re earning well, repay the favour.
Paying for stuff can start small. Cover the bar tab, pay for the bill at a restaurant. Book nicer places to hang out and just sink the cost. It’s always worth it. People like being treated, and you’ll like treating them. Forget about any sense of who owes what and just have a good time.
As your earnings increase, consider how you can really spend money on the people who matter. I’m talking about college tuition, medical bills, holidays and experiences. Don’t let anyone around you worry about money. Make their costs go away and tell them you don’t expect anything back. Be someone’s angel like you know they’d be yours.
Ride your materialistic urges
It’s scientifically proven that extravagant material purchases won’t make you any happier. But you’ll want to test that theory for yourself. Try the cars, buy the gadgets, wear the suits. If any part of you wants them, scratch the itch and analyze after.
Dressing sharp could bring you the confidence to land your next big deal. Owning the best watch of everyone you know might turn out to be your jam. Your happiness might genuinely increase in proportion to the horsepower of your new wheels.
Having expensive taste is fine as long as you’ve got the money, and you won’t know unless you give it a go. Buy the things your teenage self always wanted. Buy the things you never thought you’d be able to afford. Keep those that end up adding to your life and donate those that didn’t live up to the hype.
Extend your impact
If you chased money and got it, only to be left feeling flat, it might not be your end goal. You could want purpose and impact. If that sounds right, use your money to scale yourself. Hire a content team and share what you know.
Turn your experience into videos and courses. Turn your frameworks and wisdom into social media posts, turn your ideas into books and empower other people to follow their dreams.
Hire videographers, scriptwriters, editors and producers. Have a PR or social media manager who runs your accounts on your behalf. Get a booking agent on retainer. Show up, talk openly, and see what resonates with the people. You’ll know pretty fast.
Donate generously
Philanthropy is the other way of extending your impact, and this one doesn’t have to involve going on camera. Rich people give shedloads of money away. When you have more than you need, find worthy causes.
Donate in waves, or set up a direct debit. Ask a local charity what they need and wire it over. Get in touch with all your old schools and write them each a check. It does good, it feels good. Don’t wait until you’re dead if you can afford to give right now.
You don’t have to donate to a charity or organization. Give money to strangers in need, cover the coffee order of the person behind you, and conduct random acts of kindness at every opportunity. Don’t keep score, just throw the good vibes out there and trust karma to do its thing.
Upgrade your castle
Your basecamp should be perfect, no excuses. Spend money on home improvements to remove all friction from your day-to-day. Make your main home somewhere you love to be, then repeat the process buying places around the world.
Get a new house or upgrade yours. Hire a home renovation project manager and tell them what you want. They assemble the team to organize the work, you make the key decisions and leave them to build your dreams.
Install a home gym, get a new pool, have a hot tub and sauna and every appliance you will ever need. Cinema room, landscaped gardens, film studio. Watch Cribs for inspiration of what you might want. Upgrade your castle to get more pleasure out of every day.
Expand your horizons
You didn’t earn a lot of money just to stare at the same four walls. To upgrade your life, expand your horizons. See more of the world. Get to better places in a better way. Upgrade your flight or fly private. With an ultra high net worth, you can buy a plane or start a timeshare. Skip lines, get treated well and have a more comfortable experience onboard so you turn up feeling fresh.
When you’re there, stay in better places. Ask for a higher floor, get lounge access, add all the extras. Sort price high to low on Airbnb. Get picked up from your door wherever you go and book the best version of every option. Better yet, get your assistant to book it for you.
Don’t stop at your own experience. Curate who you hang out with. Pay for your best friends to join you. Fly them out and cover the trip. See the world with your favourite people because that’s what money is for.
Elevate your experiences
Every experience can be elevated when you pay a little more. But doing more with your leisure time takes conscious spending. Without this, the shows don’t get booked, the trips don’t happen, and the fine dining is done by someone else.
Book your dream experiences but go all in. Don’t just attend the show, get front row seats and a meet and greet. Don’t just book the restaurant, get the chef’s table experience and cover your friends. Hire Taylor Swift to perform at your next party. Hire your idols to teach you what they know. Visit private islands, get a personal shopper for your next spree. Get the premium, organic version of whatever you eat.
The first class experience can be yours in everything you do. Most people put up with waiting, queuing, and doing what everyone else does, but that’s not how to get the most joy. Use your imagination to make things happen you didn’t know were possible.
How can you pay to improve your life? Conscious spending that buys you time and happiness
No matter how much money you have, one day you’ll die. That means time is your only finite resource. Use money to buy time. Use money to run experiments. Use money to upgrade your life and enjoy the fruits of your hard work.
Assemble your freedom team, invest in your relationships, and ride your materialistic urges until they stop happening. Extend your impact, donate generously, upgrade your castle, expand your horizons and see the world, then elevate your experiences by using your imagination.
Put your cash back into the economy for the good of yourself, your closest allies and the rest of the world. You’ve earned the right to do this.