#152: On Philosophy and Riches

Whenever I succumb to social pressure to treat time as less valuable than income, that's when I turn to stoicism. In this special episode of the podcast, I'm sharing one of my favorite letters from Seneca, "On Philosophy and Riches." This is a must-listen for anyone obsessed with increasing wealth or material possessions. My favorite portion begins with, "I might close my letter at this point." If you want to learn more of Seneca's teachings, I've compiled his letters into a collection called the Tao of Seneca http://audible.com/TimsBooks. Enjoy! Show notes and links for this episode can be found at www.fourhourworkweek.com/podcast http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/podcast. This podcast is brought to you by Wealthfront https://wealthfront.com/tim. Wealthfront is a massively disruptive (in a good way) set-it-and-forget-it investing service, led by technologists from places like Apple. It has exploded in popularity in the last two years and now has more than $2.5B under management. Why? Because you can get services previously limited to the ultra-wealthy and only pay pennies on the dollar for them, and it's all through smarter software instead of retail locations and bloated sales teams. Check out wealthfront.com/tim http://wealthfront.com/tim, take their risk assessment quiz, which only takes 2-5 minutes, and they'll show you—for free–exactly the portfolio they'd put you in. If you want to just take their advice and do it yourself, you can. Well worth a few minutes to explore: wealthfront.com/tim http://wealthfront.com/tim. This podcast is also brought to you by 99Designs http://99designs.com/tim, the world's largest marketplace of graphic designers. I have used them for years to create some amazing designs. When your business needs a logo, website design, business card, or anything you can imagine, check out 99Designs. I used them to rapid prototype the cover http://99designs.com/tim for The 4-Hour Body, and I've also had them help with display advertising and illustrations. If you want a more personalized approach, I recommend their 1-on-1 service http://99designs.com/tim. You get original designs from designers around the world. The best part? You provide your feedback, and then you end up with a product that you're happy with or your money back. Click this link http://www.99designs.com/tim and get a free $99 upgrade. Give it a test run.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  At this altitude, I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start to shake. Can I ask you a personal question?

• 0:08Speaker 01

  No, we're just seeing appropriate time.

• 0:12Speaker 00

  I'm a cybernetic organism, living tissue over metal endoskeleton.

• 0:23Tim Ferriss?

  This episode is brought to you by Wealthfront, and this is a very unique sponsor. Wealthfront is a massively disruptive, in a good way, set it and forget it investing service, led by technologists from places like Apple and world famous investors. It has exploded in popularity in the last two years, and they now have more than $2.5 billion under management. In fact, some of my very good friends, investors in Silicon Valley, have millions of their own money in Wealthfront. So the question is, why? Why is it so popular? Why is it unique? Because you can get services previously reserved for the ultra wealthy, but only pay pennies on the dollar for them. And this is because they use smarter software instead of retail locations, bloated sales teams, etc. And I'll come back to that in a second. I suggest you check out wealthfront.com/tim.

• 1:08Tim Ferriss?

  Take the risk assessment quiz, which only takes two to five minutes, and they'll show you for free exactly the portfolio they'd put you in. And if you just want to take their advice, run with it, do it yourself, you can do that. Or, as I would, you can set it and forget it. And here's why. The value of Wealthfront is in the automation of habits and strategies that investors should be using on a regular basis but normally aren't. Great investing is a marathon, not a sprint, and little things that you may or may not be familiar with, like automatic tax loss harvesting, rebalancing your portfolio across more than 10 asset classes, and dividend reinvestment add up to very large amounts of money over longer periods of time. Wealthfront, as I mentioned, since it's using software instead of retail locations, etc.,

• 1:50Tim Ferriss?

  can offer all of this at low costs that were previously completely impossible. Right off the bat, you never pay commissions or account fees. For everything, they charge 0.25% per year on assets above the first 15,000, which is managed for free if you use my link, wealthfront.com/tim. That is less than $5 a month to invest $830,000. ...account, for instance. Now, normally, when I have a sponsor on this show, it's because I use them and recommend them. In this case, it's a little different. I don't use Wealthfront yet because I'm not allowed to. Here's the deal. They wanted to sponsor this podcast, but because of SEC regulations, companies that invest your money are not allowed to use client testimonials. So I couldn't be a user and have them on the podcast.

• 2:32Tim Ferriss?

  But I've been so impressed by Wealthfront that I've invested a significant amount of my own money, at least for me, in the team and the company itself. So I am an investor and hope to soon use it as a client. Now, back to the recommendation. As a Tim Ferriss Show listener, you'll get $15,000 managed for free if you decide to open an account. But just start with seeing the portfolio that they would suggest for you. Take two minutes, fill out their questionnaire at wealthfront.com/tim. It's fast, it's free. There's no downside that I can think of. Just take a look, see what portfolio they would create for you, and you can use that information however you want. Wealthfront.com/tim. This episode is brought to you by 99designs.

• 3:14Tim Ferriss?

  99designs is a great partner for creating and growing your business. It's a one-stop shop for all of your graphic design needs, whether that's a logo, website, business card, or anything else. I use 99designs to get book cover prototypes for The Four Hour Body, which went on to become a number one New York Times bestseller. I also use them for banner ads, illustrations, and other things. With 99designs, designers around the world compete to create the best design for you. You give feedback and then pick your favorite. You end up happy, or you get your money back. It's very simple. You can check out a few of my own designs and those of yours, meaning Tim Ferriss Show listeners, at 99designs.com/tim. And right now, my listeners, you guys, will get a free $99 upgrade on your first design.

• 3:59Tim Ferriss?

  That's 99designs.com/tim. Check it out.

• 4:06Tim Ferriss?

  Hello ladies and germs, this is Tim Ferriss and welcome to another episode of The Tim Ferriss Show. This is a special edition where I'm going to share an excerpt from my favorite book of all time. And in fact, it is a collection of letters, roughly 2,000 years old, that I reread at least once a quarter from Seneca the Younger. These are the moral letters to Lucilius that I've compiled into the Tao of Seneca. And this particular example is a letter 17 on philosophy and riches. And Seneca takes a little while with his preamble to get warmed up. But my favorite portion begins with, "I might close my letter at this point." So you can use that as a bookmark. "I might close my letter at this point."

• 4:47Tim Ferriss?

  And I was talking to a friend of mine about Seneca. He's a huge fan also. And he said what I agree with, and that is, I went back through my notes and started to compile a list of the ideas that had the biggest impact on me, letter by letter. But going through, I realized that what makes Seneca so unique is the common threads that flow through different letters. So it's very hard to just take one letter, although they are valuable. So I encourage you to check out all of these letters. And you can find them at audible.com/timsbooks. It's a three-volume set of all of these letters. Because I wanted to listen to them in audio and could not find it. And that's how it got created.

• 5:29Tim Ferriss?

  So please enjoy On Philosophy and Riches by Seneca. And I hope you find it as valuable as I have.

• 5:38Speaker 01

  Letter 17, On Philosophy and Riches. Cast away everything of that sort if you are wise. Nay, rather that you may be wise. Strive toward a sound mind at top speed and with your whole strength. If any bond holds you back, untie it or sever it. But, you say, my estate delays me. I wish to make such disposition of it that it may suffice for me when I have nothing to do, lest either poverty be a burden to me, or I myself a burden to others.

• 6:16Speaker 01

  You do not seem, when you say this, to know the strength and power of that good which you are considering. You do indeed grasp the all-important thing, the great benefit which philosophy confers, but you do not yet discern accurately its various functions, nor do you yet know how great is the help we receive from philosophy in everything, everywhere. How, to use Cicero's language, it not only succurs us in the greatest matters, but also descends to the smallest. Take my advice: call wisdom into consultation. She will advise you not to sit forever at your ledger. Doubtless your object, what you wish to attain by such postponement of your studies,

• 7:00Speaker 01

  is that poverty may not have to be feared by you. But what if it is something to be desired? Riches have shut off many a man from the attainment of wisdom. Poverty is unburdened and free from care. When the trumpet sounds, the poor man knows that he is not being attacked. When there is a cry of "fire", he only seeks a way of escape and does not ask what he can save. If the poor man must go to sea, the harbor does not resound, nor do the wharves bustle with the retinue of one individual. No throng of slaves surrounds the poor man, slaves for whose mouths the master must covet the fertile crops of regions beyond the sea.

• 7:43Speaker 01

  It is easy to fill a few stomachs, when they are well-trained and crave nothing else but to be filled. Hunger costs but little; squeamishness costs much. Poverty is contented with fulfilling pressing needs. Why then should you reject philosophy as a comrade? Even the rich man copies her ways when he is in his senses. If you wish to have leisure for your mind, either be a poor man, or resemble a poor man. Study cannot be helpful unless you take pains to live simply, and living simply is voluntary poverty. Away then, with all excuses like,

• 8:25Speaker 01

  "I have not yet enough; when I have gained the desired amount, then I shall devote myself wholly to philosophy." And yet, this ideal which you are putting off and placing second to other interests, should be secured first of all. You should begin with it. You retort. I wish to acquire something to live on. Yes, but learn while you are acquiring it. For if anything forbids you to live nobly, nothing forbids you to die nobly. There is no reason why poverty should call us away from philosophy, no nor even actual want. For when hastening after wisdom, we must endure even hunger.

• 9:08Speaker 01

  Men have endured hunger when their towns were besieged, and what other reward for their endurance did they obtain than that that they did not fall under the conqueror's power? How much greater is the promise of the prize of everlasting liberty, and the assurance that we need fear neither God nor man? Even though we starve, we must reach that goal. Armies have endured all manner of want, have lived on roots, and have resisted hunger by means of food too revolting to mention. All this they have suffered to gain a kingdom, and, what is more marvelous, to gain a kingdom that will be another's. Will any man hesitate to endure poverty in order that he may free his mind from madness?

• 9:53Speaker 01

  Therefore, one should not seek to lay up riches first. One may attain to philosophy, however, even without money for the journey. It is indeed so. After you have come to possess all other things, should you then wish to possess wisdom also? Is philosophy to be the last requisite in life a sort of supplement? Nay, your plan should be this: be a philosopher now, whether you have anything or not. For if you have anything, how do you know that you have not too much already? But if you have nothing, seek understanding first before anything else. But, you say, I shall lack the necessities of life.

• 10:37Speaker 01

  In the first place, you cannot lack them, because nature demands but little, and the wise man suits his needs to nature. But if the utmost pinch of need arrives, he will quickly take leave of life and cease being a trouble to himself. If, however, his means of existence are meager and scanty, he will make the best of them without being anxious or worried about anything more than the bare necessities. He will do justice to his belly and his shoulders. With free and happy spirit, he will laugh at the bustling of rich men and the flurried ways of those who are hastening after wealth, and say, "Why of your own accord postpone your real life to the distant future?

• 11:20Speaker 01

  Shall you wait for some interest to fall due, or for some income on your merchandise, or for a place in the will of some wealthy old man, when you can be rich here and now? Wisdom offers wealth in ready money, and pays it over to those in whose eye she has made wealth superfluous." These remarks refer to other men. "You are nearer the rich class. Change the age in which you live, and you have too much. But in every age, what is enough remains the same."

• 11:55Speaker 01

  I might close my letter at this point if I had not got you into bad habits. One cannot greet Parthian royalty without bringing a gift, and in your case I cannot say farewell without paying a price. But what of it? I shall borrow from Epicurus. "The acquisition of riches has been for many men not an end, but a change of troubles." I do not wonder, for the fault is not in the wealth, but in the mind itself. That which had made poverty a burden to us has made riches also a burden. Just as it matters little whether you lay a sick man on a wooden or on a golden bed,

• 12:38Speaker 01

  for whithersoever he be moved, he will carry his malady with him, so one need not care whether the diseased mind is bestowed upon riches or upon poverty. His malady goes with the man. Farewell.

• 13:00Tim Ferriss?

  Hey guys, this is Tim again. Just a few more things before you take off. Number one, this is Five Bullet Friday. Do you want to get a short email from me? Would you enjoy getting a short email from me every Friday? That provides a little morsel of fun before the weekend. And Five Bullet Friday is a very short email where I share the coolest things I've found or that I've been pondering over the week. That could include favorite new albums that I've discovered. It could include gizmos and gadgets and all sorts of weird shit that I've somehow dug up in the world of the esoteric, as I do. It could include favorite articles that I've read and that I've shared with my close friends, for instance. And it's very short.

• 13:43Tim Ferriss?

  It's just a little tiny bite of goodness before you head off for the weekend. So if you want to receive that, check it out. Just go to fourhourworkweek.com. That's fourhourworkweek.com, all spelled out, and just drop in your email and you will get the very next one. And if you sign up, I hope you enjoy it.

• 14:04Tim Ferriss?

  This episode is brought to you by 99designs. 99designs is a great partner for creating and growing your business. It's a one-stop shop for all of your graphic design needs, whether that's a logo, website, business card, or anything else. I use 99designs to get book cover prototypes for The Four Hour Body, which went on to become a number one New York Times bestseller. I also use them for banner ads, illustrations, and other things. With 99designs, designers around the world compete to create the best design for you. You give feedback and then pick your favorite. You end up happy or you get your money back. It's very simple. You can check out a few of my own designs and those of yours, meaning Tim Ferriss Show listeners, at 99designs.com/tim.

• 14:47Tim Ferriss?

  And right now, my listeners, you guys, will get a free $99 upgrade on your first design. That's 99designs.com/tim. Check it out.

• 15:01Tim Ferriss?

  This episode is brought to you by Wealthfront, and this is a very unique sponsor. Wealthfront is a massively disruptive, in a good way, set it and forget it investing service led by technologists from places like Apple and world famous investors. It has exploded in popularity in the last two years, and they now have more than $2.5 billion under management. In fact, some of my very good friends, investors in Silicon Valley, have millions of their own money in Wealthfront. So the question is, why? Why is it so popular? Why is it unique? Because you can get services previously reserved for the ultra wealthy, but only pay pennies on the dollar for them. And this is because they use smarter software instead of retail locations, bloated sales teams, etc. And I'll come back to that in a second. I suggest you check out wealthfront.com/tim.

• 15:46Tim Ferriss?

  Take the risk assessment quiz, which only takes two to five minutes, and they'll show you for free exactly the portfolio they put you in. And if you just want to take their advice, run with it, do it yourself, you can do that. Or, as I would, you can set it and forget it. And here's why. The value of Wealthfront is in the automation of habits and strategies that investors should be using on a regular basis, but normally aren't. Great investing is a marathon, not a sprint, and little things that you may or may not be familiar with, like automatic tax loss harvesting, rebalancing your portfolio across more than 10 asset classes, and dividend reinvestment add up to very large amounts of money over longer periods of time. Wealthfront, as I mentioned, since it's using software instead of retail locations, etc.,

• 16:28Tim Ferriss?

  can offer all of this at low costs that were previously completely impossible. Right off the bat, you never pay commissions or account fees. For everything, they charge 0.25% per year on assets above the first $15,000, which is managed for free if you use my link, wealthfront.com/tim. That is less than $5 a month to invest a $30,000 account, for instance. Now, normally, when I have a sponsor on this show, it's because I use them and recommend them. In this case, it's a little different. I don't use Wealthfront yet, because I'm not allowed to. Here's the deal. They wanted to sponsor this podcast, but because of SEC regulations, companies that invest your money are not allowed to use client testimonials, so I couldn't be a user and... And have them on the podcast.

• 17:10Tim Ferriss?

  But I've been so impressed by Wealthfront that I've invested a significant amount of my own money, at least for me, in the team and the company itself. So I am an investor and hope to soon use it as a client. Now, back to the recommendation. As a Tim Ferriss Show listener, you'll get $15,000 managed for free if you decide to open an account. But just start with seeing the portfolio that they would suggest for you. Take two minutes, fill out their questionnaire at wealthfront.com/tim. It's fast, it's free. There's no downside that I can think of. Just take a look, see what portfolio they would create for you, and you can use that information however you want. Wealthfront.com/tim. And until next time, thank you for listening.