My Controversial Opinions About Money

Tuesbetter Newsletter #115

It’s time for another Tuesbetter Newsletter!

🌌The Star Wars Section🌌

Listen, I don’t know if you’re into Star Wars but if you are you should absolutely be watching ANDOR. In my Star Wars-educated opinion, it’s the best thing since Empire Strikes Back. It’s a prequel series leading up to Rogue One. Weird thing is I wasn’t even that into Rogue One (unpopular opinion) but ANDOR RULEZ!!!!

It’s all the political intrigue involved in the formation of the “rebels” and it doesn’t even have any Jedi in it! (so far). Warning, the first few episodes are a bit slow. Stick with it!!! Usually when I see someone say they didn’t like it, the truth comes out, and they only watched the first one or two episodes. Don’t be like them! At least get to the first heist. Or…. don’t.

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Here’s My Controversial Opinions About Money

(that will also be an upcoming video)

1) We should do Universal Basic Income

Just give everyone a set amount of money every month, no strings attached. I don’t care if some people don’t use it in the MOST productive way. Just do it! And keep other entitlements around. Don’t use it as an excuse to get rid of welfare, or whatever.

The way I see it, capitalism is a game of monopoly. But some people don’t even get to have pieces on the board. A basic income at least puts them on the board.

I made a video about this literally right before the pandemic. I went to New York and interviewed some people. Then when I came back I got sick for 3 weeks. I’m still not sure it wasn’t COVID. But that’s unrelated.

There have been lots of experiments. Many tend to show improvements in people’s lives, but maybe a slight reduction in labor. I’m fine with that. I’m of the opinion that we all work harder than we need to anyway. And many jobs are completely unnecessary, like mine.

2) Billionaires shouldn’t exist

I don’t know what the exact rule should be, but there should be a cutoff point. Fight me.

3) Progressive Sales Tax seems like a good idea

Perhaps as a way to get rid of income tax or significantly reduce it, we could do progressive sales tax.

Basically, we would categorize different purchases as low, mid, and high level or something. Basic necessities would be taxed very little. Some less necessary items would be taxed higher, and luxury items would be taxed up the whaaazoooo!

People with a lot of money purchase more stuff and more high-end stuff, so they would be taxed more.

This would be a tax on consumption rather than earning. Seems better to disincentivize over-consumption, no?

4) Deals are overrated

Maybe this one isn’t that controversial but I pretty much ignore sales and coupons and discounts and just focus on what I want right now. Generally, I believe chasing deals leads to buying stuff I wouldn’t have in the first place.

5) College is worth it

I made a video about this, too.

Really, investing in yourself in anyway you can is worth it. Even if it leads to debt. It depends, of course. You may make a bad investment. But I believe giving yourself experience and learning HOW to work and WHAT you want to work on (or don’t want to) is invaluable.

6) Hustle ain’t all bad

Yes there’s a lot of bad stuff you can say about hustle culture, and many do these days. But it was my ridiculous hustle that made my career so I don’t know. There’s a happy medium to find. Or in my case, go nuts for a while but be mindful and scale it back when you need to.

7) Maybe quitting that daily latte CAN help

The popular opinion these days seems to be that little frugal decisions aren’t really going to make a difference, or even worse, they distract from the real systemic problems that are causing people to struggle with money.

I absolutely agree that we shouldn’t point the finger too hard at individuals, and little purchases here and there probably only make a small dent.

But in lieu of major economic reforms, what can ya do?

Drawing from my own experience, I came to a point in my life where I finally decided I’m done being broke. I’m going to do everything I can to turn it around. EVERYTHING!

I started finding ways big and small to save money. I found out my bank was charging me a 5 dollar a month hidden fee. I switched banks. I made sure to only use ATMs that didn’t have a fee. I made coffee at home. I brought my own lunch to work.

All of these things DID add up to a small savings. But more importantly, they solidified the mindset of SAVING in my brain hole. The attitude of saving money was never shut off. It allowed me to avoid big purchases and make better BIGGER decisions.

Anyhoo, that’s my current list. I hope it helped, or lit a fire in your belly to argue with me, or give more controversial opinions.

Wink (ding),

Craig