I spoke to a couple who were fighting about renovating the bathroom. She wanted it, he didn& #39;t

They made $150,000/year

When I asked what they wanted with their money, he said, "I don& #39;t know." I pushed. "Maybe travel...buy a house...send kids to college"

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Most of us have never thought deeply about what we actually want to do with our money

When asked, we resort to cliches: Travel...house...send kids to college.

This couple doesn& #39;t even have kids!

In his vision, he literally skipped over 20 years to "send kids to college"

When I probed, they both revealed they grew up with middle-class families whose invisible script with money was simple:

SAVE

That& #39;s it. That was the total extent of "what you do with money."

Back then, you could save, buy a house on 1 income, and live a nice life. But today...

1. It& #39;s difficult to live on 1 income and buy a house in their area
2. They make way, way more than their parents did in their early 30s
3. Following the same scripts their parents did -- for a different time, income level, and world -- would be a mistake

When I talk to people about money, I almost always find they think they have a math problem -- but it& #39;s untrue

This is hard to accept. It& #39;s easy to dream of a simple solution if it involves cell C2 in your spreadsheet

Much harder to change your entire psychological worldview

I pointed out they could live a much richer life than they& #39;d ever imagined...if they want to

But their middle-class upbringing has surrounded them with a script of "save...that& #39;s what we do"

I hope they change, because I consider it a tragedy to live smaller than you have to