Ep 52What Most People Don't Realize About Money (Featuring Rabbi Joey Haber)
How many people does a random kid in Omaha know?
Rabbi Joey Haber
What Most People Don't Realize About Money (Featuring Rabbi Joey Haber)
with Rabbi Joey Haber
Affluence to some degree is a fraud because you know one piece of the story. You don't know the whole story.
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Quotes
“When you look at a house, all you know about them is their house. You know nothing about what's happening inside of the house. (a father teaching his son on a bar mitzvah trip)”
“Don't think that everyone there is wealthy besides me.”
“Do you realize that we just called someone who's making $150,000 as if he's in the low end?”
“Nothing stays this way forever. So don't think that just because you can't afford it now, it means you're never going to be able to afford it.”
“Memories are created in easy times, but legacies are created in difficult ones.”
Takeaways
- 1 Frum life costs a lot by its nature: housing near shuls, kosher food, tuition, Shabbos clothes, many simchas. The starting number is high, which creates pressure.
- 2 Haber's 15 parts of a happy life include health, family, a spouse you like, good children, respect, low stress and no jealousy. A big house tells you at most one of them.
- 3 Money adds to happiness up to "comfortable." Past that, the returns shrink and the pressure grows.
- 4 Most of the community is "struggling on a good income," not the wealthy 5-10%. You notice the 150 big houses, not the 3,000 normal ones - you're not alone.
- 5 Housing, food and tuition costs are mostly driven by the market; one person rarely moves them.
- 6 Mixed-income neighborhoods add pressure but also connections that help young people get started.
- 7 Life is a wheel. Money situations change - don't get too high or too low, and teach kids the same.
- 8 Don't judge how wealthy people spend; you don't know their giving or their reasons. Focus on your own choices.
- 9 If you're wealthy, ask what Hashem wants you to do with it. If you're struggling, ask how to grow - kids learn emunah from watching you.
- 10 Success is a chain of small miracles. A reluctant chavrusa led to Haber's first shiur and his career.