Exploring the goalposts, priorities, and curiosity

Welcome to the Intentional Dollar weekly newsletter — great work taking this small step to move your money forward. I’m Logan, a Certified Financial Planner™, and I’m excited you’re here!

What’s inside?

• One tool to experiment with

• Two quotes from others

• Three questions to dig deeper

• Four lines of poetry for the point

_{One tool to experiment with:}

The Goalposts:

How often do you look back and take inventory of how far you’ve come?

Take a look, many of the things you have today were goals and desires from your past. It’s easy to overlook these milestones because we are guilty of moving the goalposts along the way.

Moving the goalposts is a fallacy where someone change the rules of the game — during the course of play. It’s typically seen in debate where one side alters the conditions to avoid defeat. If I move the goalposts out of the stadium, you can’t score, meaning you can’t win — a technical draw.

Today, we are leaning on the idea of moving the goalposts as a financial framework. Like having the goal of hitting a $1,000,000 net worth, only to hit it and move the goal to $2,000,000.

We fall victim to this trap because we run on hedonic treadmills and play relative, finite games. Our lifestyles become more expensive, general prices rise from inflation, we mistakenly believe that the aggregation of numbers in accounts will tangibly make our lives better, and we feel good knowing we are ahead of others.

Our time slowly slips away as we run experiment after experiment with a faulty hypothesis: x dollars leads to happiness and fulfillment. 

When the long-term results are in, and the verdict is different than our initial hypothesis, we simply (and wrongly) adjust the dollar amount and run the experiment again.

This said, there is no problem with setting financial goals. Financial goals are healthy. However, a problem arises when financial goals are ends themselves. When financial goals are ends themselves, we’ll simply push the goalposts, change the rules, and create a new game.

• You want to make $100,000/year — why?

• You want to have a $1,000,000 net worth — why?

If you’re not clear on your why, you’ll push the posts out once you hit your target.

The money game becomes an unsatisfying chip stacking contest filled with finite micro-games along the way: do I have more income than this person? Micro-win. Do I have a more expensive car than that person? Micro-win. When money is the end rather than the means, you live a relative life.

Relative living is looking around to others and seeing how you stack up.

Absolute living is resolute focus on your life and intentionally using money as a resource to facilitate your passions.

This fallacy can extend beyond money; take a look at the arc of your life and see if you’ve been moving the goalposts.

_{Two quotes on priorities:}

We invest our time and money into the things we prioritize. If we don’t have clear financial priorities, our dollars will drift aimlessly.

_{Three questions on curiosity:}

1. What if I interviewed myself on money habits and beliefs?

2. What if I ask more questions instead of seek more answers?

3. What if I developed a daily routine of asking myself and others a question?

Which question stuck with you? Questions like these are spotlights for the mind. Reply to this email and let me know which one shined light on a previously dark cave.

_{Four lines of poetry for the point:}

Contact Me:

Content ideas, questions? Reply to this email or reach out to me at [email protected]