The Art of Spending Money

One broad theme explored through many varied stories avoids the stretched-article book. The Art of Spending Money packs about 140 stories into 210 pages and goes in 47 directions, all under the theme of the psychology of spending. Housel built it this way so it would not be one point repeated for 300 pages.

He contrasts it with The Psychology of Money, about 21 essays with a loose common thread, and calls the new book a more integrated frame. He still insists on a single theme: "there needs to be a common theme within there otherwise it's just a hodgepodge of random ideas."

How I Write▶ 1:05:21

Stories about people keep a money book readable and closer to the truth. Housel says money-only writing bores even finance nerds, and opening with what the Dow did this morning would end an author in a day. Stories are how a finance author survives, and they let readers put their own lives into the scene in a way a data dump cannot.

He prefers stories about one person over groups, because readers who feel they are reading it in the mirror stay hooked. His example: the Vanderbilts held about $300 billion in today's money and lost nearly all of it within 60 years, which lands harder than "wealthy families go broke."

How I Write

The book's title came from idle time, not desk time. The title The Art of Spending Money came to Housel while he was zoning out on a treadmill, just as The Psychology of Money came on a walk down a New York street in 2017.

He says creativity cannot be scheduled, so he protects idle time for walks, showers and dog walks. "I structure unstructuredness."

How I Write▶ 24:10