646: Nick Maggiulli - Proven Strategies for Every Step of Your Financial Life (The Wealth Ladder)

Summary

Summary of Episode 646: Nick Maggiulli - Proven Strategies for Every Step of Your Financial Life (The Wealth Ladder)
The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk
Release Date: July 27, 2025

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Introduction

In Episode 646 of The Learning Leader Show, host Ryan Hawk sits down with Nick Maggiulli, Chief Operating Officer and Data Scientist at Ritholtz Wealth Management, best-selling author of Just Keep Buying and The Wealth Ladder, and writer at Of Dollars and Data. Their conversation delves into Nick's insights on personal finance, the parallels between chess and life, strategies to add value in non-monetary roles, and a deep dive into the six levels of wealth.

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Lessons from Chess

Chess as a Metaphor for Life and Strategy

Nick begins by dedicating his book to his father, reflecting on the teachings from the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer. At [02:16], he shares:

"Don't move until you see it."

Nick recounts how playing chess with his father’s friends at the age of five taught him the importance of patience, strategic thinking, and adaptability. He emphasizes the significant impact these early lessons had on his cognitive development and strategic mindset.

Notable Quote:
"There's a lot of elements of chess that are similar to the wealth ladder in the book." – Nick Maggiulli [02:57]

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Balancing Work and Writing

Integrating Passion with Career

Nick balances his full-time role at Ritholtz Wealth Management with his writing endeavors. He dedicates his weekends, particularly Sundays, to writing, investing 5-10 hours each week. This disciplined approach has not only honed his writing skills but also garnered him recognition, ultimately leading to his current position as COO.

Notable Quote:
"I'm still writing for nine years and I wasn't necessarily the best writer when I started, but I just got better because I spend 10 hours a week, every single week for almost a decade now." – Nick Maggiulli [04:11]

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Adding Value in the Workplace

Measuring Impact Beyond Revenue

Ryan Hawk poses a critical question about adding value in roles where contributions aren't directly tied to revenue. Nick responds by illustrating how his initiatives save time and increase efficiency across various departments. For instance, he developed a program that saves the Chief Compliance Officer five hours monthly by streamlining data processing.

Notable Quote:
"I help with operations and thinking about efficiency and how do we scale our practice and everything and still provide the best service we can for clients." – Nick Maggiulli [06:18]

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The Wealth Ladder Framework

Understanding Wealth Through Net Worth

Nick introduces the Wealth Ladder, a framework categorizing individuals into six levels based on their net worth, each level representing a tenfold increase from the previous one:

1. Level 1: < $10,000
2. Level 2: $10,000 - $100,000
3. Level 3: $100,000 - $1 million
4. Level 4: $1 million - $10 million
5. Level 5: $10 million - $100 million
6. Level 6: > $100 million

Each level demands distinct strategies for income, spending, and investment.

Notable Quote:
"Level one is less than $10,000 in net worth... and level six is over $100 million." – Nick Maggiulli [11:02]

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Strategies Across Different Wealth Levels

Transitioning Through the Ladder

Nick explains that ascending the Wealth Ladder requires evolving strategies. For example, moving from Level 3 to Level 4 (from $100K to $1M) primarily involves disciplined saving and investing. However, progressing beyond Level 4 necessitates entrepreneurial ventures or significant equity stakes, as traditional saving and investing become less effective over time.

Notable Quote:
"Once you get to level four, the same strategy is very unlikely to get you to level five." – Nick Maggiulli [12:55]

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Money and Happiness

The Correlation Between Wealth and Well-being

Discussing the impact of money on happiness, Nick posits that while additional income can enhance happiness for those already content or in financial distress, it has diminishing returns for those who are neither poor nor already happy. He challenges the widely cited "$75,000 income threshold," clarifying that true happiness continues to increase with higher income, albeit requiring significant increments.

Notable Quote:
"If you're already happy, you'll probably be happier if you have more money." – Nick Maggiulli [26:42]

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Managing Finances in Marriage

Separate and Joint Account Method

Nick shares his and his wife’s approach to managing finances, advocating for a combination of joint and separate accounts. This method ensures shared responsibility for joint expenses while preserving financial independence, which is especially empowering for women.

Notable Quote:
"We put all our resources into our joint account, and anything above a certain threshold, we split it." – Nick Maggiulli [37:02]

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Saving and Investing Strategies

The 'Just Keep Buying' Philosophy

Nick adheres to a disciplined investment strategy focused on continuously purchasing a diverse set of income-producing assets. With 95% of his net worth allocated to such assets, he emphasizes the importance of diversification and consistency in wealth accumulation.

Notable Quote:
"The continual purchase of a diverse set of income-producing assets." – Nick Maggiulli [40:39]

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Advice for Early-Career Individuals

Pursuing Passion and Persistence

For those starting their careers and aspiring to build a legacy, Nick advises following their interests diligently. He highlights his own journey of persevering through three years without financial returns, underscoring that passion fuels sustained efforts despite early setbacks.

Notable Quote:
"Follow your interests because if you're really interested, you'll do it regardless of money outcome." – Nick Maggiulli [44:35]

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Money as an Enhancer

The Salt Analogy

Nick likens money to salt in cooking—it's not the main ingredient but enhances existing flavors. Properly managed money can amplify the quality of other life aspects, such as relationships and experiences, without being an end in itself.

Notable Quote:
"Money can work as the great enhancer because it can amplify all other parts of your life." – Nick Maggiulli [35:16]

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The Role of Ego in Wealth

Ego as the Most Expensive Asset

Addressing the psychological aspects of wealth, Nick asserts that ego often leads individuals to overspend in pursuit of maintaining appearances, which can hinder genuine wealth accumulation and financial security.

Notable Quote:
"The most expensive thing people own is their ego." – Nick Maggiulli [30:44]

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Conclusion

Nick Maggiulli’s insights offer a nuanced perspective on building and managing wealth. By understanding the distinct strategies required at each level of the Wealth Ladder, recognizing the intricate relationship between money and happiness, and balancing financial goals with personal relationships, listeners can cultivate a more effective and fulfilling approach to financial leadership.

Final Thoughts:
"Money is useful, but it's not tradable for the other types of things that are important in life." – Nick Maggiulli [29:13]

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Key Takeaways:

• Practice Over Talent: Success often hinges more on consistent effort than innate ability.
• Value Adding Beyond Revenue: In non-revenue-driven roles, contributing through efficiency and innovation is crucial.
• Wealth Ladder Framework: Understanding your financial level can guide appropriate strategies for growth.
• Balanced Financial Management: Combining joint and separate accounts can foster both collaboration and independence in marriage.
• Ego Management: Keeping egos in check is essential to sustainable wealth accumulation and personal happiness.

For a more in-depth exploration of these topics, listeners are encouraged to read Nick Maggiulli's The Wealth Ladder and follow his work at Of Dollars and Data.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• "Don't move until you see it." – Nick Maggiulli [02:16]
• "I'm still writing for nine years and I wasn't necessarily the best writer when I started, but I just got better because I spend 10 hours a week, every single week for almost a decade now." – Nick Maggiulli [04:11]
• "Level one is less than $10,000 in net worth... and level six is over $100 million." – Nick Maggiulli [11:02]
• "If you're already happy, you'll probably be happier if you have more money." – Nick Maggiulli [26:42]
• "Money can work as the great enhancer because it can amplify all other parts of your life." – Nick Maggiulli [35:16]
• "The most expensive thing people own is their ego." – Nick Maggiulli [30:44]

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This comprehensive summary encapsulates the core discussions and insights shared by Nick Maggiulli in his conversation with Ryan Hawk, providing valuable lessons on leadership, financial strategy, and personal growth.

Transcript

[Ryan Hawk]

This episode is brought to you by Insight Global. Insight Global is a staffing and professional services company dedicated to being the light to the world around them. If you want to learn more about the CEO Burt Bean and Chief Revenue Officer Sam Kaufman, check out episode 424. We had a fantastic conversation talking about my partnership with the great people at Insight Global. If you need to hire one person, hire a team of people or transform your business through talent or technical services, Insight Global's team of 30,000 people around the world have the hustle and grit to deliver. Hiring can be tough, but hiring the right person can be magic. Visit insightglobal.com learningleader today to learn more. That's insightglobal.com learningleader welcome to the learningleader show. I am your host Ryan Hawk. Thank you so much for being here. Go to learningleader.com for show notes of this and all podcast episodes. Go to learningleader.com now on to tonight's featured leader. Nick Magiulli is the Chief Operating Officer and Data Scientist at Ritholtz Wealth Management. He is a best selling author of Just Keep Buying and his latest book is called the Wealth Ladder. Nick is also the writer at of dollars and data.com, a blog focused intersection of data and personal finance. During our conversation we discussed what Nick has learned about life from playing chess. Also how to add value at work when you have a job where it's kind of hard to measure. And then Nick shares some investment strategies, why he and his wife have separate accounts and we go deep on the six ladders of wealth. Ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy my conversation with Nick Magiulli. This book was dedicated to your dad. Your father you write for teaching me the game don't move until you see it. What does that mean?

[Nick Magiulli]

That's a Bobby Fischer quote. There's a movie called Searching for Bobby Fischer. I mean the quote is not from Bobby Fischer, it's from the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer. And in there he says don't move til see it. And so my dad, I'd never seen the movie as a kid. My dad would always say that. And then we eventually watched the movie together as I got a little older and so he just taught me chess early on. I think it actually had a huge impact on my development and how I think about things and thinking about stages and how your strategy has to change over time. There's a lot of elements of chess that are similar to the wealth ladder in the book, but I didn't go into all of them in the book because they would have probably bored people to death with chess analogies. But I think there's a lot of parallels between chess and life and a lot of things like that. So that's why I kind of dedicated to him.

[Ryan Hawk]

Well, when you were 5 years old, your dad had you play chess against his friends. And I'm curious what you learned about life from those games of chess where you would dominate these adults when you were five years old.

[Nick Magiulli]

It was just interesting because it made me realize that, like, you know, I'm obviously only five and so I don't know a lot. I don't have many deep realizations of that age, but, like, I could beat them. Not because I was smarter than them, only because I had practiced something that was it. Like, there's no way I was smarter than his friends, just 0% chance I had more knowledge I knew anything about the world. You know, I'm five, six years old, but in this very specific realm, in this specific game, I could beat them. And I wasn't a chess prodigy, as I say in the book. I was just better. If you have no skill, I could beat you, basically, right? So if you basically just know how the pieces move and that's it, like, I could beat you. But I think that was the big takeaway there is you can learn something and outperform people. Even if they're better than you at every other thing, you can just still out compete them.

[Ryan Hawk]

What have you taken from that experience of this realization that I've got more repetitions than everybody else. I'm not necessarily smarter than them, but I've practiced more, I've worked harder at the craft, and that's why I'm winning. What have you taken from that key learning that has helped you in other elements of your life?

[Nick Magiulli]

The thing for me is, like, I've done all that, you know, all the standardized tests I've ever taken, IQ tests, whatever, put me, like the 90th percentile, which is good. Don't get me wrong. The 90th percentile is a massive advantage. To have that, you know, intelligence since I was younger. But I'm not at the 99th percentile, and I'm still out competing some people at the 99th percentile, right. Which is crazy. And it's only because I put in the reps, for example, in writing. Like, there's so many writers out there that are so much smarter than me, so many of them. Right. And I've still built an audience and had a lot of sales and done well in that. Only because I've just Been doing it for so much longer. I think people, just because people are very smart, they think they can go and write a book and sell a bunch of books. And it doesn't always happen that way. Right. And so that's an example where like I've been writing for nine years and I wasn't necessarily the best writer when I started, but I just got better because I spend 10 hours a week, every single week for, as I said, almost a decade now. And that helps over time. So that's kind of the big thing I've taken away from that.

[Ryan Hawk]

So you have a day job too. You're not just a writer. Writing is something you do in addition to working. Because, Nick, I push every leader I work with to write. They don't have to publish. I love it. If they do, they don't have to. But I urge them to at least have a writing practice because it's such an amazing tool for clarity. You don't fully know what you think about something until you get those words out of your head onto the page. How do you balance out your writing practice, which you've done for a long time, and it's definitely benefited you in big ways. It's created opportunities, book deals, everything. Right. It's part of the reason why we're talking, but also with the fact that you have a full time job. Like how do you balance those things?

[Nick Magiulli]

So I write basically every weekend. Historically, I usually did it on Sundays. So that was my quote, church, so to speak, was writing. And so I spend the 5, 10 hours every single weekend and doing that. And then my job, thankfully, you know, I work market hours, you know, so I'm. I'm at an investment management firm. And so, you know, we basically work 9 to 5. And so yes, there are nights where you have to work beyond that, but for the most part it's not a super high stress job. So because of that there's a lot of balance there and allows me to kind of do the writing and everything else. If I was in a different role, I think it would be tougher or I would just have to find more time on the weekends and things like that to do it.

[Ryan Hawk]

And the writing is actually what earned you the job or helped you earn the job?

[Nick Magiulli]

Yeah, well, not the job necessarily, but it got me noticed. I came in as a data scientist at Ritholtz Wealth Management and they only found out about me through my writing where I'm kind of talking about data, showing charts and all these types of things. And as I showed all that, they Liked my writing. And so we kind of talked and we realized that there could be a fit, maybe I could help them on the operation side. And so over time, I came in as a data scientist. I started doing more and more stuff, and now I'm the COO of the firm. So I help with operations and thinking about efficiency and how do we scale our practice and everything and still provide the best service we can for clients.

[Ryan Hawk]

What does a data scientist do?

[Nick Magiulli]

There's different types of data scientists. It could be as simple as, like a business analyst, where you're in Excel and you're just analyzing whatever data you have, if you're a manufacturer or you're a wealth management firm, et cetera. Or it can be as advanced as doing really deep, you know, machine learning and stuff like that. And that's even. That's even evolving as we speak with AI and everything, because now AI is kind of taking over a lot of this stuff. But it's a whole spectrum of just what I like to think about is like, business intelligence. What information can I find about our business that helps the leaders of the business make better decisions? Like, oh, should we expand into this? How do we assign leads to advisors? Right. And what's the close rate like? All these types of different things are all interrelated. But I think data can help you make better decisions as a result.

[Ryan Hawk]

So this is interesting. Okay, I want to work through this question, but I worked until I left Corporate America. My job was as a sales rep and then a manager, director and VP of sales. And so, like, it was very black and white on how I could add value to my company. Bring in the money. Right, Bring in the money. When you have a job that's not that black and white. And maybe as a data scientist, we could use that as our example. But there are plenty other jobs like that where it's not as black and white as how much money did you bring in for the firm or for the company? How do you ensure you're adding value? How do you ensure you're providing more for the place that you work than what they're giving you? Because I think that's how we continue to rise up within companies. That's how we get promoted. That's how we build a really great career, is to add more value than we take. So how do you do that in a job like a data scientist or something else like that, where it's not so black and white as how much money did you bring in for the company?

[Nick Magiulli]

Yeah, I think the thing to think about Here is like, what are the things that are actually getting accomplished that wouldn't be accomplished if you weren't there? And so I can give an example of something very simple. Like let's say the CCO at my firm has to review all this data and she would have to review it one document at a time or something. If I can write a program that imports all these PDFs or documents, puts them into some sort of readable data table, and then summarizes it for her and gives it to her. I've now saved our CCO maybe five, six hours of time. And if I'm doing that once a month, okay, that adds up. Now that's just one program I wrote for one specific task. Now do that across multiple tasks over time. You can see it's about time savings. How do I save our operations team time? How do I save our compliance team time, our advisors time, et cetera. So if I'm giving an analogy, like if you imagine a wealth management firm is a boat, right? Like the CEO is telling us where to go, the advisors in the ops team are the ones who are rowing or kind of pushing us forward, right? What is the CEO doing? I'm designing better or I'm designing things that'll give us like 10% more efficiency with every time we row or something like that. And so that's the thinking I have behind it. And so I agree it's not easy to show, but I'm going to say, okay, let's say you wanted to go onto the market and hire this person that does this part of the role and then you had to hire this person, had to hire this person. Like, these are all the things I do. And so that's kind of how I try and come up with a approximate value. And of course it's never perfect. You have to kind of try your best at this stuff. But that's how I try to show values. Like, look at how much time I'm saving all these people. If you add it all up, this is how much you'd have to pay for that, or they would have to work extra and maybe not enjoy their job as much, etc.

[Ryan Hawk]

Or just anecdotally that CCO or the others saying, oh my goodness, I didn't think this was possible. The thing Nick did that saved me this much time, that's a life changer. Like, that is a pure value added resource. You want to be that person at your place of work. Again, if it's not as black and white as like a lot of the jobs that I had. Okay, I want to get in the wealth ladder because I was looking at through the levels and then some of the questions. I think it's like a really interesting way to view wealth. Not surprising. I'm a big of dollars in data fan. You know, I told you that last time we talked and just keep buying. And by the way, since we talked, I've just kept buying and better off for it. Hopefully everyone else has too, because we're all better off if we have since the last time we talked. But wealth out of. There's six levels, and I'd love at least to start at a high level. What are these levels? What are the six levels of wealth?

[Nick Magiulli]

So this is based on net worth. And so that's just as a quick reminder, that's all of your assets. So that's everything you own, right? Your stocks, cash, house, car, etc. Minus everything you owe to others. So assets minus liabilities, right? So your liabilities would be your debt, student loan debt, your mortgage, credit card, etc. So if you take those assets minus liabilities, you get your net worth, right? And then based on your net worth, you would fall into one of the six levels. And the thing about the levels is they're all just a factor of 10. So multiply by 10 to go up a level or divide by 10 to go down. And so I'll walk through that briefly. Level one is less than $10,000 in net worth. Level two is 10,000 to $100,000. Level three is 100,000 to $1 million. Level four is 1 million to $10 million. Level five is 10 million to $100 million. And lastly, level six is over $100 million. So if you just memorize one of these levels, I just memorize like level three is 100,000 to a million dollars, which is your typical US middle class. And I can get into the data on that. If you just memorize that, you can back out the rest from there. But every single level has a different strategy. It's a different way of thinking about your income, spending, investments, et cetera. And so that's what I kind of walk through in the book. And I think because of these large 10x changes, there actually are pretty big strategy changes you might need to make if you want to keep leveling up, so to speak.

[Ryan Hawk]

Let's say you're in level three and you look like you. You may get to level four or five, right? How does the strategy change? Can you just share some examples? Because some people say, hey, just keep Investing, just keep buying, right? Maybe you throw some real estate in there. Like as you make a little bit more money, maybe you can go on better vacations. 529s are all good to go for your kids and all that. So how do things really change that much as you just progress through the levels, what strategies, change of examples as you grow your wealth.

[Nick Magiulli]

I'm glad you asked this question because you said, you know, oh, yeah, level three, you're going to get to level four, level five. Some people in level three are on their way to level four, and it's just going to take time, right? Time is a big factor here. For the record, level four is 1 million to $10 million. And the median US household age of all households in level four, which is 1 to 10 million, is 62 years old. So if you took all the people with one to $10 million, put them in a room and then you took the middle age, that person is 62 years old. So time is a big factor here. But that's not the only factor, right? So even if you're in level three, you're saving, investing. Okay, yeah, you can go and get to level four, but once you get to level four, that same strategy is very unlikely to get you to level five. And I talk about this a little bit in level four, and let me just do some math with you. Let's say you just made it to level four. You have a million dollars in wealth. Let's just assume it's all in a portfolio to make it easy, right? You have a million bucks. Let's say you're saving $100,000 a year after a tax, which is a decent amount of money. I mean, it's a lot of money actually to save well, and you're earning 5% a year, how long would it take you to get to 10 million? How long would it take you to get to level five? The answer is 28 years. That's after you've already hit this huge milestone. You made it to level four, and it's still going to take you 28 years. Like, well, Nick, you know what? I'm going to supercharge my income. I'm going to save $300,000 a year. Right? That's a lot of money to save after tax money. Okay? Even if you're saving 300k a year, you start with a million 5% a year, it still takes you 17 years to get to level 5. So once you do the math on this, the strategy that you use to get into level four is not Going to be the strategy that gets you out. So it's not just time. Yes, time does matter. But by the time you get to level four, do you want to keep grinding for that long for another, let's say 17 years while you're making probably close to a million bucks a year? And, you know, after you're spending and tax and everything, you're only saving 300k. Right. So it's like, do you want to do that for another few decades? Probably not. So the only way to get into level five is you have to probably have a different strategy and we can kind of get.

[Ryan Hawk]

What?

[Nick Magiulli]

What do you mean? What? What type of strategy? We can definitely get into that.

[Ryan Hawk]

Oh, let's get into it. I'm curious. I think a lot of people listening and we can identify from this level and wanting to grow.

[Nick Magiulli]

Yeah. So if you're trying to get to level five, besides like athletes or celebrities, entertainers who have very, very high incomes, the vast majority of people in level five, which is 10 million to 100 million or level six, are entrepreneurs. They're business owners that sold a business or have a business that's worth a lot of money. You're talking, you know, tens of millions of dollars, if not hundreds of millions of dollars. Right. And they usually sell that business and then after they liquidate, they're in level five. Right. Or the business is worth enough so that they're in level five. So as you can see, the actions you would take to get to level three and four, save, invest, have a good job, all those types of things are very different than the actions of someone who's typically in level five, which is, oh, I need to start my own business. I need to own the equity and all the income, and then I need to grow it to a point where I'm bringing in so much income or the business is worth so much that I'm technically in level five. So you can see those are very different things. Right. You can be have an amazing nine to five, making very decent in the six figures, and still just never be able to get out of level four. And this kind of brings up a bigger philosophical point, which is, do you even want to get out of level four? Do you need to? I don't think anyone needs to. I think the rational response for an American household once they get into level four is like, hey, my job isn't really making as much of an impact on my wealth as it used to. So money isn't as valuable in that sense. Right. So because of that, maybe I take my Foot off the gas and I just enjoy life more. And I don't worry as much about accumulating as much money as I can, right? I mean, if you do the math, if you're saving 100k a year and you have a million dollars, you're impacting your wealth by about 10%, right? 100,000 over a million is about 10%. By the time you get to $5 million, that's only 2%. So your wealth swing every year from your saving is only going to be 2% when it used to be 10%, right? And so as you get deeper into level four, it just, it makes less and less of an impact. I saw this tweet that was like, if your investment portfolio makes more than your job, is your job a side hustle? Which is kind of a funny joke, but it's getting at the point, at some point you're like, why am I doing all this for money when I have so much money already that's earning me money that maybe I can do something else or enjoy life more, etc. So I think a lot of people get into level four and they rationally say, hey, you know what, I don't need more money than this. I can chill out a little bit. And I think that's actually the correct approach.

[Ryan Hawk]

But we can debate the equity element. I've heard somebody say, I'm sure you've read this all over. Salary is for expenses, equity is for wealth. I think when you say that, that may turn people off because they're like, dude, I'm not starting a business. Maybe I have some RSUs or I get some options. If I'm depending on where I'm going, that's the maximum of ownership or equity that people are getting. And so some would say, that doesn't make me feel good. I mean, maybe it's not supposed to make you feel good, but like, they may not relate to that. I've started my own business and I've certainly learned all of the benefits, I guess, of doing so from doing this years ago. And it's awesome now. Super hard at the beginning, no guarantees, a lot of risk and downside and things that could have went bad. It still could, but for the person who's like, dude, I have a really good job, I don't have really any equity. Maybe they get some of those ghost stock or whatever they call it at companies and in addition to more startupy options type things. What do you say to those people?

[Nick Magiulli]

I'm saying you have two options. You either start your own Business. You can also join a startup early and get equity and then if it grows, there's a lot of people that were, you know, at Nvidia early enough or even very recently. And well, Nvidia is a kind of an exception because it got super, super big. But you get my point. You either start a business or you get early in a business and get enough equity and then it gets very large. So you either do that or you just accept, hey, I'm not going to make it to level five. And there's nothing wrong with that. I can just be content where I am. It's kind of the Jack Bogle, you know. Enough, right? Do you have enough yet? Basically. And so I think those are your options. You either accept you're going to be stuck in level four forever, which is not a bad thing. I'm just saying it's a reality, just accept it and move on or you make a big change. That's what a lot of these things are on every level. Like you have to make some decision, do I want to stay here or do I need to make a significant change in my strategy to move myself into a different level?

[Ryan Hawk]

Yeah. What about you? How do you view it? How are you approaching this? I'd love you shared the level you're currently at and where you're striving for. I think that would be awesome.

[Nick Magiulli]

Yeah, so I do talk about in the book, right? So I'm in level four. Just very recently I got into level four and so my goal is to keep working, keep doing my thing. I'm not, I have no goal to get into level five. I have no interest in starting a business. But I think at some point, you know, however many years from now, I don't know how many years, my goal would probably be to kind of, of slow things down a little bit and do more of the coast fire thing where maybe I, maybe at my firm I take a step back and say, hey, I can still do these roles but I need someone else to kind of take this more high stress role and kind of take this over for me and I take more of a research role or a content role. I have no idea. And this is not something I'm thinking about right now, but this is something like five, 10 years down the line, probably closer to 10 years if I'm being honest, where I'm like, hey, you know, I've done this, I got kids, younger kids, maybe I can start doing all that because you know, I just got married, we'll probably start having kids in the Next few years, God willing. And we go from there, basically.

[Ryan Hawk]

So you don't have giant ambitions to make a hundred million dollars or to be worth a hundred million dollars. That's you and your new wife. That's not like important to you guys?

[Nick Magiulli]

No, not at all. I actually think my life would actually possibly get worse if I went down that route.

[Ryan Hawk]

Why is that?

[Nick Magiulli]

I would have to do so much. I'd be like, you know, I work at this great firm. I love working with them. We're like a content family, do so much together. I'd be like, hey guys, sorry, you guys, I'm doing my own thing. So I got to do that first. I don't want to do. Then I got to like go and figure out this business I'm going to create that's going to make me all this money. Right. That's already stressful. Like, what am I going to do? I don't even know what it is, right. So there's all these layers of things that are very uncomfortable and things that I don't care about the upsides that much. Like I don't care about flying private or having a mega yacht or all those things. Like, I can already go to any restaurant I want. I can travel basically anywhere in the world. I can't always travel first class anywhere in the world all the time. Right. But like, I could in theory upgrade to a business class seat. So it's like there's not that many things that I want to buy with my money that I can't already buy with my money. You know, outside of real estate, that's probably the only thing. And right now I'm renting and it's great. And you know, when you look at the real estate market, doesn't really make sense to buy necessarily in a certain high cost of living areas. But my point is I don't need to do any of that stuff. So, you know, I would just happy in level four, keep doing my thing and go from there. And I didn't grow up with money, Right. I grew up, I would say, in level two. So I have no interest in getting to level five, six, et cetera. If it happens, great. But I'm not going to specifically go out of my way to try and create that.

[Ryan Hawk]

What did the conversation sound like with your fiance now? Wife. About money, about wealth, about ambition. These are important things to talk about. I'm just curious to go inside what those conversations sounded like.

[Nick Magiulli]

I think early on. First off, she didn't know before we were married. She didn't really know how much wealth I had or anything. I didn't know how much she had. And so we kind of eventually had this conversation, obviously before we got married, and we kind of looked through everything, and we're like, yeah, we're doing fine. We're very young. I've been very fortunate in a lot of reasons. And so because of that, we don't need to stress about a lot of stuff. She can get very stressed about certain things with money. I'm like, baby, don't worry about it. We can pay for it. It's not a big deal. I think that's where a lot of that tension comes from, is just you grow up with a certain lifestyle and a certain level of frugality, and she's much more frugal than I am. And so because of that, I'm trying to get her to relax a little bit more. And, yes, we can. We can spend money on this. It's not a big deal. Okay. That costs $20. We don't need to go back to the store to return it. If you don't love it, it's not the end of the world. It's only 20 bucks. It's going to cost us more in our time and energy to go out there versus just writing it off as a loss, so to speak.

[Ryan Hawk]

Yeah. Thinking about saving, and my parents are this way. They've done a really good job of being frugal and saving a ton. And my dad retired at 60. My mom stayed home with us. And so they've both been enjoying golf, a house in Florida, another one in Ohio doing their thing. And there's this stat, though I don't know the percentage, but a high percentage of people kind of like them. They end up living for 20, 30 years into retirement and die with more money than they had when they retired. Right. And so knowing that they're that way and so many others are that way, it actually makes me want to spend more money, go on better vacations, bigger ski trips or whatever, because I'm wired like that, too, and I almost have to push it out. Like, what do you think about that? That so many people end up with a ton of money when they could have maybe spent it and made parts of their life bigger and grander and potentially more enjoyable.

[Nick Magiulli]

That's the whole Bill Perkins die with zero thing. And I think that's directionally, I think that book is accurate. I don't think you should try to die with zero. I think it's very difficult. I bet Bill Perkins is going to d. Quite A few million dollars, but I think he's going to die closer to zero, which I think is the correct approach. Right.

[Ryan Hawk]

It's hard to know. You don't know when you're going to die.

[Nick Magiulli]

So it's like, of course, of course, yeah, yeah. But you're trying to die closer to zero is probably the directionally the correct approach. And I actually have a funny study about that. So Michael Kitz, he's looked at like retirement portfolios, and this is just historical analysis, right. And if you started, let's say, with a million dollars, doesn't the amount doesn't matter. But let's just say you follow like the 4% rule, pulling, you know, 4% a year, adjusting for inflation, you are more likely to end up with four times your money than less than your starting portfolio value. Right. Following that approach, you're basically equally likely, but it's slightly more likely to end up with four times your money after 30 years than below what you started at. So you started a million dollars. You're more likely 30 years later, after doing the 4% rule and everything, you're more likely to have $4 million than you are to have under a million. Which is exactly your point. The data shows it. There's people not spending enough. I think when you ask retirees, oh, why don't you spend more on all this? They'll say, I don't need to. It's not going to make me happier. It's all this. And maybe that's true for some of them, but I think some of them too could loosen up a little and say, hey, maybe I can get a nicer seat. I can get a business class seat instead of a coach seat. Just because your whole life you flew coaches and you have to fly coach later. I mean, I don't know. It's all comfort. It's what you care about. And maybe some people want to leave more to their heirs. It's up to them. I don't try to criticize how people spend their money, but I do agree with you that people are probably not spending enough at certain points in, in their lives.

[Ryan Hawk]

Well, and part of Bill Perkins stuff, he was on this podcast talking about it is I have a healthy, able body to go climb mountains and ski and do all those things. I may not later. And so the I think part of the point is, is like, spend it when you can still climb big mountains in Zion national park or go ski in big sky, do things like that, because you never know. You may not be able to do that. So why not spend it now to basically use the hard work that turns into money and then turn that money into amazing experiences with people you love. I think that's like the, that's what I'm trying to do. But it's harder for somebody who grew up and is naturally like a saver and wants to save for the future. It's like a tough balance.

[Nick Magiulli]

Yeah. I think that's also the thing that, you know, my wife and I talk about. I'm like, hey, we're only going to be able to do these things once. She was like worried about, oh, this expense of the wedding or that or this is this dress too much? I'm like, hey, we just get it. We're only doing this once. We're not doing a full wedding. Like we did a full on wedding and everything. We had a much smaller wedding. We did a full on wedding that cost like $100,000. Right. So like, we're not doing any of that. We're doing a much smaller kind of boutique wedding. So, like, we can kind of go above and beyond for things because it's still not going to cost anywhere near what a much larger wedding would cost.

[Ryan Hawk]

Yeah. I want to fast forward to later in your book about the money buying happiness. Thought goes back and forth. You talk about a lot of the research done with this. There used to be thoughts of like, you get to a certain amount and then above that it doesn't really go up much. And then somebody disputed that and you've kind of gone back and forth but at a high level. How does money impact happiness?

[Nick Magiulli]

The general takeaway after looking at all the studies on income and wealth is that if you're happy already, more money will make you happier. If you're poor, more money will likely make you happier. But if you aren't poor and you aren't happy, more money's not going to do a thing. And so I think that is the summary of all the data we've seen. For example, the figure that's thrown around is the $75,000 in income. That famous paper which basically says, hey, after $75,000, happiness doesn't keep increasing. They actually looked into it a little bit more after, like in another paper, another guy named Killingsworth came in, which is what I talk about in the book, and they realized that they weren't measuring happiness, they were measuring unhappiness. So basically unhappiness doesn't fall. It's kind of a weird double negative. Unhappiness doesn't fall above $75,000. So once you're above $75,000, you can still be unhappy, basically. But when you actually look at a true measure of happiness, like it keeps going up over time, but it usually has to have a, what's called a log step or like a multiple increase in your income or your wealth to see that. Which is why I think the wealth ladder is useful as well. A large 2x or 5x or 10x jump in wealth would actually make you happier, assuming you're already happy. Right. So that's the one takeaway here, is if you're already happy, you'll probably be happier if you have more money. But it also requires a much bigger step to keep getting more happiness.

[Ryan Hawk]

Well, and part of it too is there's trade offs to everything in life and there are sacrifices that need to be made for everything in life. In sports, if you want to win for the most part, you got to be over prepared and work insanely hard and bounce back from adversity and be resilient. And there's a cost at all that it takes time, it takes effort, it takes you away from other people in your life. And the same thing could be said for potentially earning more money. And you've heard these stories of these super rich guys that speak to like the younger generation and say, do not do what I did. Don't do it the way I did it, where I was on the road all the time, I wasn't home, it cost me family, it cost, you know, that type of thing. So it's figuring out what's the level you need to get to and what are you willing to sacrifice, what are you willing to get, what's it going to take in order to get there and is it worth it? I feel like that's what the wealth ladder is helpful for readers as well, is like what is it going to take and what are you doing it for? And sometimes I think people don't actually stop and think, what am I doing this for? What am I striving for? What am I trying to do to get all this money? To do what? It's worth it to be much more thoughtful about this.

[Nick Magiulli]

Yeah, I think the big takeaway for me as I was writing the book was realizing when you're in like the lower part of the wealth ladder, let's say level one, most of your problems are money problems, right. If you had more money, if you're in level one, less than $10,000, if you had more money, you would solve a lot of your problems. But as you go further and further up the ladder, money becomes fewer and fewer problems. Right. And so as a result of that, you realize that it's all the other parts of your life, the non financial aspects which get amplified as you move up the wealth ladder because you can't buy them. You can't write your kids a check, you can't write your wife a check and say love me. You can't buy yourself a new cardiovascular system, at least not yet. So the whole idea is money is useful, don't get me wrong. But it's a certain point. It's not tradable for the other types of things that are important in life. So where that enough level is going to vary a lot based on the cost of living and where you want to live based on, you know, obviously the society you're in. Right. I always say, I think in America, because it's a little bit more expensive, because health care is more expensive, etc. I think level four is the place to be where you don't have as many of the sacrifices and the, the crazy downsides of money on the, on the high end, but you also have enough to feel secure. I think in places like Europe you can be in level three because the social safety and is so much bigger. You don't need as much money. Right. For that type of, of thing. So it really depends where you live, what your lifestyle, what you want out of life. Right. If you want to fly private, I'm sorry, level four is not going to do it for you. Right. So you got to get to level five. So just thinking about that, I think as you figure those things out, then you can make better decisions for where you want to be.

[Ryan Hawk]

Yeah. You said to me before we were recording the most expensive thing people own is their ego. Can you go deeper on that quote?

[Nick Magiulli]

I mean it applies in to so many different aspects of life. But certain people, if you want to look a certain way and you want to like portray a certain image to the world, that can be very costly to do that. I think the biggest difference between people in level three, which is, you know, 100,000 to a million dollars in wealth, and people in level four, which is 1 million to $10 million in wealth, isn't actually that large. There's not that many big differences. Like yes, people in level four probably live in a nicer neighborhood. They probably sit in a better seat on the airplane. Right. They maybe eat slightly nicer food from the grocery store if you that for the most part their lifestyles are very much the same. Right. And you know, they Might have a slightly nicer job, but people in level three that want to look like people on level four end up spending so much money to keep up with the Joneses type thing. And that's why I say that's your ego. That's just your ego coming in there. Right. And if you didn't spend like that, it might be a little bit easier to acquire the wealth to actually get into level four, which is the irony here. And there's some data to show that, which I discuss in the book. But that's the thing I think about when I'm. I'm trying to figure out, like, how does ego matter and how does it impact what decisions you make? Like, once you're in level five and six, I think ego shows up by you staying over, concentrated in your business. And so if something were to happen to your business, you could lose all your wealth. We've seen this happen so many times where people go from billionaires to bankrupt overnight. So it's one of those things where, like, why didn't they diversify? Why didn't they do all these things that they could have done to protect some of their wealth? They didn't do it because ego, I think, is, at the end of the day, rules a lot of us, unfortunately.

[Ryan Hawk]

I've seen these stories as I've progressed in my career in the business of people who do really well, and then maybe they sell, they have a big exit, and then they get depressed. They don't have a mission anymore. They have tons of money, but it literally doesn't matter because their purpose may be gone. And they struggle and they try to start something new maybe, and it doesn't really work. And like, oh my God. And it goes really, really bad. And I'm just curious from all your study of money and wealth, if somebody came to you privately, like, Nick, dude, I thought I would be so pumped. I got acquired and now I'm completely free. I can do literally whatever I want. Never have to make another dollar. And they're depressed beyond belief. How would you help someone like that?

[Nick Magiulli]

I would probably think about framing it in terms of a game. Like they came up with a game for themselves to play, and that game was building their business. They did the game very well. Maybe early on. I'm guessing it wasn't easy. It was a very difficult game. They mastered it, they got better. They basically kind of won the game. And then after beating that game, they were basically given the freedom to, hey, choose any game you want. And there's so many games now. You can play that. It's overwhelming. You know, you get the paradox of choice. Right. Like, what do I do now? Right. And because of that, it's very easy to look at the world and say, I don't know what to do. And then you just get depressed. Instead of, would they have been happier if they just stayed in their game? Possibly. You don't know the future. At the same time, they could have stayed in that game and kept playing it. And something changes in their industry and they lose it all. And they said, oh, I wish I had just sold at the top. You know, there's so many people in the late 90s that didn't sell in the late 90s and are kicking themselves as the people that sold it at another point. And the business kept growing. Right. So I see both sides of the coin, and I think it's one of those things where it's hard to know the future and it's very easy to woulda, shoulda, coulda. You're only coming up with the reaction after the fact. Right. Because for all, you know, some people could sell their business and like, oh, you know what? I've always wanted to start a charity, a dog rescue or something. And now they go open a dog rescue and they're happier than ever. Right. And they have the resources to do that. That's an example where someone can use their money to do something else and they'd be very satisfied. But not everyone's going to have that other thing that they come across.

[Ryan Hawk]

Yeah, I just think it's. It's so much of it is purpose. Like, what is your purpose? What is the reason that you're creating for yourself to get up and get after it each day. If you're the type of person that could build a business like that and do something that grand employ people, have a. Have a big exit. I just think that it's very, very hard for them to just chill out on the beach. They could do that for a few days and they're like, wait a second, you see it a lot. And I think that's something for all of us to think about. There's another part towards the end called the great enhancer that you write about. And I love the analogy of. Of the fact that salt being added. If you're, like cooking, it's not a spice, it's a mineral. It actually works as an enhancer of the existing flavors. Salt can do that to our food, and money can do that to our lives. How can money work as the great enhancer? Much like salt does for our food.

[Nick Magiulli]

Yeah. So you explained it great. Like, the idea is you could have this amazing dish, but if you didn't salt it at all, like, it may not taste as amazing. Right. You could have done everything. Right. But that little bit of salt there really makes the difference. Right. You've. You've tasted or you had something like, oh, can. I said, oh, wow, that tastes so much better. Even though literally the same dish, all I did was add salt. If you eat salt by itself, it's not really that appetizing. I'm like, oh, my God, this is incredible. No, you would never say that. It just enhances all the other flavors. I think the same thing is true with money. Money by itself is useless, right. Without friends, family, without your health, without all these other things, it doesn't add much. Right. You could. It's like having a plate of salt and no food to eat it with. Right. So it's a great enhancer because I think it's the thing that can amplify all the other parts of your life. Right. Like, oh, I like hanging with my friends. Wouldn't it be cool to hang with my friends at a concert? Or we could rent a private venue and have a nice dinner. Like, the more money you have, the more you can kind of do these types of things that you couldn't have done if you didn't have money. And so I think it enhances all the other parts of life, but by itself, it's. It's not really that useful. Besides just pure survival, obviously. So just something to think about. And I think it was what I realized as I'm kind of looking through the ladder and kind of walking up the steps and writing about each level. I'm like, you know what? This thing is kind of like salt in that way. And I know it's a. It's a weird analogy, but I think it actually fits here.

[Ryan Hawk]

One of the blog posts you had of Dollars in Data recently talked about. This is a little bit separate from the book, but I think it still could be helpful. Talked about how you and your wife manage your money, and you talk about these different styles, the separate plus joint method. Can you walk through the different styles of how married people could manage their money together? Separately, separate and together. I thought that was really interesting pie and could help a lot of people.

[Nick Magiulli]

Yeah. So I know couples that do everything separately. They have their own accounts. They never have had a joint account. And they say, okay, you pay for this, I pay for that, or, let's pay for it together, or vice versa. I know people that kind of keep those things separate. I know people that have everything in a joint account. They put all of their money in there, all their credit cards are in there, all their money sitting in there. God forbid they ever get divorced. It's a huge mess. Dividing the assets, it's such a problem. And so I was like, like, is there a better way for this? Right. Obviously you want some sort of joint thing that's like a shared expenses, right? And so you want us to, you know, in theory share those. And then you also want each individual to kind of have some of their own money for whatever reason. I think this is especially important for women where, you know, historically women didn't even have access, have the ability to have a bank account or have property or anything. And I think that could have kept them in relationships that were maybe abusive or where they didn't feel like they had their own empower independence to kind of go and leave, right? They were like, I don't have any money. What am I supposed to do? I can't leave, right? So I think especially in today's day and age, like, everyone needs to have their own accounts, they need to have their own money. So my thinking behind it is like, you pull all your resources into your joint account, like your income, your future income, right? Everything before the marriage, in theory, is split separately in your separate accounts, etc. But once you're married, all that income goes into the same account. Any credit cards or payments come out of that account. Let's ideally hope you have a positive surplus over time. So you're saving money, right? If not, that's a different debacle. But let's just assume you're saving money. And then periodically, every few months, once a year, whatever you and your spouse decide, you take the excess over some amount. Let's say you keep $10,000 in there as like working capital for credit cards and other expenses. Anything above that, you say, hey, we're going to split it. So let's say you start the year, there's $10,000 in your account by the end of the year. Let's say there's 30,000 in the account. You say, okay, we're going to take the 20, split it. I take 10, my spouse takes 10. There you go. And then the next year you do that again and. Right. And so then that money is kind of always being, quote, split over time. And that makes it really easy for like, division of property that's not a mess at the end. And of course, I'm not saying that, you know, I'm. This is not a legal advice. Obviously a lawyer might not agree with all this, but I think it's very fair. And you can track everything. And look, all the money came in, we paid for everything equally at the very end. It's almost kind of like you're always splitting your assets. So it's, you don't have to worry as much about that. Now, of course. What about shared assets? If you go and want to buy a property, well, then both you and your spouse have to contribute money into the joint account to then pay for a down payment, closing costs, et cetera. And then, yes, you can't split that house in the same way like you would any other asset. But it's just a way of kind of over time always being fair and equitable to both you and your spouse and also allowing kind of some financial independence. So if my wife's like, you know what? I want this $5,000 handbag, I'm like, okay, go use your separate money. Like if I don't want to pay for the handbag and I don't think it's something that, that we are paying as a, as a joint thing, like you can use your separate money on whatever you want, just like I have the freedom to do that too. But if you're using the joint money, we have to kind of agree on certain things. And we have an amount. The amount doesn't really matter, but let's say it was $1,000. Like anything below a thousand bucks. You want to buy it, go ahead. No questions asked above a thousand. You want to use joint money, we have to talk about it. So there's just different methods and ways I've put out there. And so yeah, obviously I'm newly married. We've only been, we were technically doing this before we were married. We had a joint account and everything, but. But the whole point is we've been trying it. It works. I've gotten a lot of feedback on this. I've talked to a lot of different couples about this and they've generally been positive of it because it allows the independence while also giving some sort of collaboration there as well.

[Ryan Hawk]

Yeah, super useful. How about how you save slash invest? Has anything changed since? Just keep buying. I'm sure you're just, you're continuing to buy, but what is your strategy overall, personally, for saving slash investing?

[Nick Magiulli]

Yeah. So the mantra and just keep buying was the continual purchase of a diverse set of income producing assets. And I'll say that one more time. The continual purchase of a diverse Set of income producing assets. That has not changed at all. 95% of my net worth is in income producing assets. Only 5% is in non income producing assets. I'm still renting. As I said, I don't own a home. Everything's in financial securities of one sort or another or some sort of cash. But yeah, no, nothing's changed. I mean, if anything, I probably sold out of some like illiquid, less like non income producing assets. I had some art, I still own some art, but I had some other art that I sold. And so I've kind of just put that all into income producing assets. Just something with more liquidity that's also income producing. So that's probably the only real change. But it's, that's very minor in the grand scheme of things. It's like a few percentage points of my net worth. So I haven't changed anything. I don't sell, I don't sell assets. I just literally just keep buying them. I know it's a, I'm not just trying to, you know, push my book.

[Ryan Hawk]

But that's great title, dude.

[Nick Magiulli]

Outside of rebalancing, which I sometimes have to sell something, most of the time I'm just taking my new money and just putting it into the underweight asset so I never even have to sell things. When I rebalance, I'm just buying the underweight thing to kind of bring everything back into line, right, Rebalance through it. I call it an accumulation rebalance. But yeah, that's the idea is I keep doing that. I have no changes to that one day. I'm telling you that the US stocks are not going to do well over some decades, decade in the future. And I'm like, oh, Nick was wrong. I told you, it's like, dude, this is history. I know it's going to happen. I'm telling you it's going to happen. It's happened before. It's happened, you know, in the 30s, the 70s, in the 2000s. It's going to happen again. Don't say I'm an idiot when it happens. I've been saying you should follow history and it's worked since I first talked about in 2017. There will be periods where it will not, quote, work, but it will eventually come back. So that's what the history shows. And I believe in that. And yeah, I'm going to follow that going forward.

[Ryan Hawk]

How automated is that process for you?

[Nick Magiulli]

401K is all automated. So that stuff's going in and then I'm doing everything kind of quarterly Because I have a business with the books and everything. So that kind of. Those big distributions happen quarterly. And now with, obviously, my spouse and the joint money, we put everything in, and then quarterly, we send each other. You know, we basically take the joint and split out that distribution. We then invest it as. As we see fit.

[Ryan Hawk]

Really? So you do separate investments?

[Nick Magiulli]

All our investments, yeah. All of our money. We don't have a joint investment account. Everything's separate, really.

[Ryan Hawk]

Do you think you will?

[Nick Magiulli]

No, probably never. I don't. I don't think. Why we would. Because once again, this is. Once we do the distribution, like, that money is ours. It's separate assets. And if we need to buy a house, I mean, we would just sell our separate assets and put it back into the joint account. So there's no reason, I would see, for us to ever have a joint investment outside of our primary residence. Right. Like, And I don't even consider that an investment in the traditional sense. Right. It's a. More consumption. Good.

[Ryan Hawk]

You wouldn't say, like, hey, I'm saving, slash, investing for our future. What's up? You're buying $5,000 handbags. Like, wouldn't that cause some issues?

[Nick Magiulli]

No, she can do. It's her money, Right. What am I. I'm. Of course I'm.

[Ryan Hawk]

You're married, though. You know, it's different because you're married now.

[Nick Magiulli]

But it's her assets, too. If she wants to blow through all of her assets, that's fine, but then she's like, oh, I want us to buy a house. I'm like, do you have. You just blew through all your assets? Like, how are we gonna buy a house when you're doing that? Like, exactly. She wouldn't do that. Like, I wouldn't pick a wife that does that. But I'm just In hypothetical. Okay, if you want to do that, you can, but then, like, oh, you also want a house. Why did you buy all these handbags? You know what I'm saying?

[Ryan Hawk]

Like.

[Nick Magiulli]

But I'm happy to, like, have these hypotheticals with you, but I'm like, okay, like, thankfully, my wife's not like that at all. She doesn't. She doesn't buy $5,000 handbags. But, you know, if she did, you know, that's. I'm. She's allowed to, and she can. I'm just saying.

[Ryan Hawk]

Yeah, no, no, it's. It's good. That's why I like your style of writing, both your books now as well as of Dollars and Data. I highly recommend people go there. Nick, I've Asked you this before, but things change and you're a little bit older and have more years to work and to writing and now marriage. So a big life event. If you're meeting with people who are earlier in their career, like they're getting started, maybe early 20s, mid-20s. What type of life slash career advice do you give to those types who want to do what you're doing? They want to leave a positive dent in the world, like create a legacy. What do you say to them?

[Nick Magiulli]

You have to really follow your interests. And I think because when you follow your interest, you're more likely to keep going when you face obstacles, right? And I think simply, like, I started writing. I remember I said I've been writing for, it'll be nine years at the end of this year. So at the end of 2025, I started writing in 2017 and I didn't make money for three years. I didn't make a single dollar. Just putting out content just for the heck of it, you know, I wasn't trying to do it as a money making thing. I just wanted to like, hey, write cool stuff and like, see if people would like it, et cetera. And oh, they liked it. Okay, keep doing it. Eventually, you know, I started doing ad partnerships and things like that. And so I started earning money on it. But for, for three years I just did it. And that first year especially was really tough because, you know, you're putting stuff out into the world and no one's reading it, no one's responding to it. Like it's getting crickets. And people think that as a content creator, they think like, oh, if your stuff's not good, you get like, reject. Everyone's like, oh, this sucked. This piece. No, no one says that. No one talks about it. It's crickets. That's what the sound of rejection is. It is nothing. The sound is silence. Right? Once you realize that, then it's like it's much harder than like a. I wish there was like 20 people out there saying this blog post sucks. I'm like, at least they read it, right? But no one's even reading the blog post. So it just took a while. I mean, of course I had a couple lucky breaks early where like some people, like would retweet my stuff or something. But like, still, every week it was a challenge I still to go out there and try and get attention again by putting out, you know, the best thing I could. And so the hard thing is follow your interest because if you're really interested in, you'll do it regardless of money outcome, whatever. And just like I like finance, I'm going to keep writing about it because I just enjoy it and I'm not doing it just to make the money. Of course the money's nice and all, but I'm trying to help people as much as I can, coming up with new frameworks and new ways of looking at a very difficult and complex problem. And for me, it's not as difficult and complex because I love it. And I've been thinking about it for so long and spending so much time on it and so trying to distill all that as best I can into different frameworks to help people.

[Ryan Hawk]

Love it, man. Well, Nick, I appreciate it. The book is called the Wealth Ladder. Proven strategies for every step of your financial life. Again, just like of dollars and data, just keep buying. It's really, really well written, it's entertaining and also really useful. So I appreciate you writing it and sending me an early copy, man. It's been really good to catch up with you as well. Thanks so much, man.

[Nick Magiulli]

Yeah, thanks again for having me on, Ryan. Appreciate it.

[Ryan Hawk]

All right, thanks, Nick.

[Nick Magiulli]

Thanks.

[Ryan Hawk]

It is the end of the podcast club. Thank you for being a member of the end of the Podcast club. If you are, send me a Note, Ryan, @learningleader.com Let me know what you learned from this great conversation with Nick Magulia. A few takeaways from my notes. The most expensive thing people own is their ego. Thought provoking. Quote. And then why did Nick beat his dad's friends at chess when he Was just just 5 years old? It's because he simply practiced more than they did. He got more reps. He did the work. It's not that he was a chess prodigy. He just worked harder than his opponents. And he still does that to this day. It's a great reminder of it takes what it takes. Be a pro, do the work then. I love the analogy that money is like salt. It's the great enhancer. Salt isn't a spice, it's a mineral. It enhances the existing flavors. What salt can do to our food, money can do to our lives. It can amplify all other parts of life if we use it right. Once again, I want to say thank you so much for continuing to spread the message and telling a friend or two, hey, you should listen to this episode of the Learning Leader show with Nick Magiulli. I think they'll help you become a more effective leader. And because you can continue to do that and you also go to Spotify and Apple Podcasts and you subscribe to the show and you're rated, hopefully five stars, and you write a thoughtful review. By doing all of that, you are giving me the opportunity to do what I love on a daily basis. And for that, I will forever be grateful. Thank you so, so much. Talking to you can't wait.