The Savers Paradox: A Common Mindset That Can Ruin Your Life

This video is sponsored by ZBiotics. Enjoy nights out with a few drinks without sacrificing the next day. Use my link in the description to get free shipping and 15% off your first order. Greg stared down at his pack of Pop-Tarts. It was a little after morning announcements on a normal Tuesday in second grade. He had just eaten the first Pop-Tart and still had the second in the pack left. This was his only snack for the day, not including lunch, because parents try to be mindful around their spending, some months living paycheck to paycheck. So some days had to be It'd be single snack days. Greg knew he still had about 2 1⁄2 hours left before lunch, and he was still a little hungry. He also knew that he had about 2 1⁄2 hours between lunch and the end of the school day, and he was probably going to be hungry then as well. Staring down at the shimmering sprinkles atop the sweet frosting, Greg thought back and forth, weighing the future against the present. His current, real hunger against the vague prospect of a future hunger. With a deep, measured breath, he took the second Pop-Tart and put it in his snack container and then the container in his backpack. His stomach growled at him, but he held his ground. Throughout elementary school, this choice, saving half while wanting the whole, would begin to grow and develop into a perspective that would change everything for Greg. Around the same age, he began to regularly help his parents with chores. They agreed to pay him a little money for any extra chores he did, which Greg eagerly obliged. They couldn't pay him much, though. So, wanting to do more and make extra money, Greg soon began to also help neighbors and friends of his parents with various household tasks. He didn't have anything specific he was saving up for, but he wanted to be prepared. He wanted money for those rainy days with friends or the occasional toys he would see advertised on TV that he couldn't stop thinking about after the commercial ended. Into middle school, Greg also became increasingly diligent about his schoolwork. Beginning to understand that good grades were essential to his preparedness in life, he studied for tests and completed homework with an almost religious fervor. Unfortunately, he was not very good at school, which made this quite an uphill battle, except for in music and art classes, which he loved. Between his schoolwork and all the odd jobs he was doing for his parents, parents' friends, and neighbors, Greg began to often skip out on other activities, like playing with his toys, video games, or friends. In high school, Greg's focus redirected a bit, realizing he was never going to be a doctor, or an engineer, or any career path that needed a college degree. He just aimed for C grades, accepting Ds if needed. This was just enough to satisfy the base requirement to pass classes, while allowing him to reallocate more time toward working part-time jobs outside of school, building his resume, and saving money. Greg took whatever jobs he could get—landscaping, bussing tables, and working as a store clerk at a local pet shop. He often worked before and after school and on the weekends, racking up a decent number of hours every week. By 16, he had quite a bit of money for his age. He saved almost all of it. He drove an old used car his grandfather gave him, didn't spend money on new clothes, video games, pricey activities with friends, or the latest iPods and cell phones. In every moment of temptation, in each choice of whether to buy or do something, Greg could almost hear the future's bellowing growl of hunger. After high school, while many of his friends and peers went to college, Greg worked. He pursued sales as a retail sales associate at a high-end electronics store. Knowing that time was on his side, he sought to accumulate, save, and invest as much as he could. He always made his own sandwiches and coffee at home to avoid buying them while out. He stringently pre-budgeted his months, weeks, days, and nights. He optimized his commute and work schedule. He ensured that any time he spent on something always had a return in some form or another, Be it knowledge, ability, health. health or money. Pretty soon, he didn't have more than a couple friends. He knew this was part of the price he needed to pay for a secure future. He was just naturally outgrowing certain people and things. After all, he wasn't pursuing a balanced lifestyle. He was pursuing freedom. That is, not anything in particular, but everything in general. After all, anything could happen. By his mid-twenties, Greg had moved up to a regional sales support role at a major electronics distributor. On the side, he began to document and share his financial habits online, first through a blog and then also through videos. He shared his tips, tricks, and strategies for making, saving, and investing money. After only a year or two, he began to grow a small audience. Not long after that, he began to make money from his content. By his third year, remarkably, he was able to transition into making content about money and lifestyle his full-time job. By age 32, Greg owned two rental properties, had a large emergency fund, a very impressive investment portfolio, and a substantial online following. His parents were so incredibly proud of him. His peers, colleagues, and remaining friends were so incredibly impressed, often quietly jealous. By all ordinary measures, Greg was wealthy and successful. So much so, in fact, he could, if he wanted, technically, retire and live comfortably. At the very least, he could change courses, slow down, experiment creatively, explore new approaches to life, start new hobbies, travel a bit, or engage more socially. But he didn't. Instead, Greg continued to work, doubling down on his content and investment strategies, striking while the iron was still hot. Around this time, he also worked to optimize his diet, his calendar, his sleep, his supplement intake, his exposure to sun and blue light, his consumption of alcohol and caffeine, and so on. He turned things down if they conflicted with his regimen, even if they might otherwise be fun, enjoyable, or interesting. While Greg was trying to open a bottle to one of his longevity supplements, he felt kind of weird. He couldn't seem to open the bottle. His grip felt weak. He had been working non-stop that day, and he felt a little dehydrated. Quietly, almost unbeknownst to him, he had been feeling pretty burnt out recently. He realized it was likely just a weird episode of fatigue. Over the following couple weeks, however, similar episodes of hand weakness occurred. Just to be safe, he scheduled an appointment with his doctor. Though not obvious at first, the diagnosis eventually became clear. Carpal tunnel syndrome, a compression of a nerve in the wrist that often causes numbness, pain, and weakness in the hand. A reasonably manageable condition, but still something that Greg now needed to deal with in his life and workflow. He hadn't upgraded his office or workspace in nearly a decade, and barely had much to begin with. He still just had an old office chair from his dad, a small desk his friend gave him when he was moving, a small couch he found online, and a laptop. To help ease the strain on his wrists and hands, Greg purchased an adjustable-tented keyboard, a vertical mouse, a desktop computer, an ergonomic desk chair, a larger desk, and a wrist brace. Following a bit of difficulty and frustration at first, Greg quickly adapted. While filming the intro to one of his videos, he seemed to almost fall out of his new desk chair, his legs buckling underneath him as his weight seemed to cause the chair to tip. For a $350 chair, this really pissed him off. When he went to get up, he couldn't. His legs seemed to not respond. He grabbed at his desk to pull himself up, but his hands scrambled kind of awkwardly, unable to initially get a good grip. Quickly, he regained his composure, his body feeling back to normal, got up, and collected himself. He started back where he left off, refilming the video's intro. Around a year later, on June 3rd, 2022, Greg posted a very different video from his regular content. In the video, his tone was completely different. There was no editing other than a few cuts, and he looked numb, like a statue sculpted of someone on the verge of tears. The video's title: Just Diagnosed with ALS. In the video, in an almost eerily somber tone, Greg explained that after around a year of misdiagnosis and unexplained symptoms, it was discovered that he had young Young Onset ALS He explained that ALS is a progressive, neurodegenerative disease that affects the nerves controlling the body's muscles. He acknowledged how rare the diagnosis was for someone his age, but explained that apparently life and diseases don't always play by the rules of expectations. He said how the condition would slowly take away his ability to walk, speak, eat, and then, finally, breathe. He shared that he likely had somewhere around one to three years left to live. After this video, Greg didn't post much. About once every month or two, he shared a loose update on his condition. On November 17, 2022, he posted a video titled, The Future Can't Hurt Me Now. In the video, he sat in an electric wheelchair. Behind him were two wooden paint easels holding canvases with abstract paintings on them. They looked freshly painted. Greg looked directly into the camera and said, Hey everyone, hope everyone's doing well. I'm not sure how many more videos I'll be posting, but I wanted to get this one out. Greg paused for a moment. He cleared his throat, a modest victory in a fight against his tears. As many of you know, I've largely dedicated my life to personal finance, investing, investing for the future, for the optimization of life, of time, of freedom. I don't want to suggest that any of that is wrong, or that I did the wrong thing, or that you shouldn't be mindful and prepare for your future. Of course, there's no way I could have known how my life was going to go. I could never have known that this was going to be my future. No one can. I suppose I could have just as easily lived to 100, at least in a different version of the world. But I guess I'm realizing that treatment of uncertainty was part of my problem. My whole life, I defined freedom as living with minimal stress about the future. And yet, despite what I did, I pretty much lived exclusively with stress about the future. It eclipsed almost every present moment for me, like a storm cloud covering every sunny day. I was always worried that something bad might happen, and that I wouldn't be prepared or have enough at the end of the day. I assume there always was an ideal end of the day. I acquired money, freedom, and yet I didn't really do anything with it. I saved and preserved everything for some nebulous ideal future that never came, and it was never going to come. I'm not saying don't be thoughtful. I'm not saying live recklessly. I'm just saying, I guess, also try to be mindful that what you plan and prepare and save for actually comes around once in a while. Otherwise, it's like you build this fortress to to protect yourself, but it just becomes a lavishly decorated prison. You get praise for it, but you never really enjoy it. You stay inside, confined by the same habits and mental chains you sought to escape in the first place. But you can't escape your own chains by ensuring they're as secure as possible. And you can't infinitely concern yourself with the future and ever expect to arrive at a worthy present. Greg paused. His eyes watered a bit, but didn't break. In truth, he picked back up. I don't know how much you should trade of the present for the future or of the future for the present. I don't know what that balance is anymore. It's impossible. You'll almost certainly always get it some amount wrong. But I think one thing I'd say now, at least get it wrong in both directions. Try to truly find the balance. Live wrong on purpose sometimes. Ultimately, something bad will happen to us all in the end. We all know that's how this whole thing goes. And if you're afraid that something bad might happen, then it probably hasn't yet. So, I know for me it's clear now. Every day is the best I'll ever feel and the strongest I'll ever be. And so that's how I'm going to live. Greg briefly paused again. He looked down, then back up. I guess that's it. That's all I wanted to say. If you guys have any questions, feel free to leave them down below, and I'll try to answer what I can. I'm wishing you all the best. See you soon. Greg leaned back in his chair. He used a voice command to stop the camera from recording. He looked over at the side table next to him, picked up a bottle of water, and took a sip. Next to the water was a pre-opened pack of Pop-Tarts. Still, after all these years, they were his favorite snack. He took one out and ate it. Strawberry Frosted. The cheap sweetness tasted so good, a spike of life in his deteriorating body. He stared back down at the pack, one Pop-Tart remaining. His stomach growled. He was still a little hungry, but he knew he was probably going to be a little hungry later as well. Thank you so much for watching. 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But I find that it helps, along with thousands of others who have shared their reviews online. Plus, ZBiotics offers a 100% money-back guarantee, so if you're not satisfied, they'll refund your money, no questions asked. Just be sure to make it your first drink of the night, always drink responsibly, and you can try it for yourself. Use my link in the description to get free shipping and 15% off your first order. And of course, as always, Thank you so much for watching in general, and see you next video.