In early April this year, I was in Wye River, on a mid week work retreat with my family.

The kids are on school holidays. So we took the opportunity to try on working on the road.And on the second day,

I had a moment of complete clarity…It was 8am, and I’d just got back from exploring the rock pools with my son Smith.

Elise was playing Beyonce’s new song ‘Texas Holdem’, and started humming along.

Then my Daughter Indie started singing it (the ‘wooo’ ‘heeey’ parts 🤣)And it hit me…This is what it’s all about.

The only reason we play the game of money is to win the game of life.

And winning means accumulating a very valuable asset.

Good news though, this asset can be bought cheaply.

And you can trade for it 24/7.

Better yet:It only ever appreciates, and can never be taken from you.

When you spend time and money to buy this asset, you are in effect buying happiness.

Do you want to know what it is?

A memory.

Personal finance isn’t about return on money. It’s about return on life.

This is a game you can win because… it’s personal.

For us, it’s simple...

Every financial decision we make needs to do two things:

1. Expand our time
2. Expand our choices

So that we can accumulate more memories.

If we start to see our time and choices decline, we know it’s time to ‘rebalance’.

I call that the wealth razor.

A razor is any tool that cuts away the trivial to reveal the vital.

Here's how we use it in our money life:

We track time and choices to measure progress, not just money.

And we reflect on memories to measure wealth.

Give it a try and watch your financial decisions get 10x simpler.