I frequently find practical, actionable advice in Sahil Bloom’s newsletters. The last time I shared something from Sahil was August 30, 2025, the third in a series of three blogs.

Here’s something I’m still processing from 34 Short Lessons on Money. These are the first three:

Being Mega-Rich is wildly overrated. There are really only four basic levels of financial wealth: Poor, Not Poor, Rich, and Mega-Rich. Each incremental leap has significantly deteriorating benefits. Being Not Poor is dramatically better than being Poor, but being Mega-Rich may actually be worse than being Rich. This has to do with the types of problems at each level and the ability of money to solve them. All the major money-solved problems are eliminated at the Rich level, but all the major money-created problems seem to pop up at the Mega-Rich level.

There are a lot of rich people who spend all their time trying to impress even more rich people. It strikes me as one of the dumbest games you can play, but I’m willing to bet very few people realize they’re playing it.

The best uses of money are those that create one of four things in your life: Time, experiences, purpose, or health. Above a certain level, money is best viewed as a tool to create those other things, not a goal in and of itself.

“All the major money-solved problems are eliminated at the Rich level, but all the major money-created problems seem to pop up at the Mega-Rich level.”

Wow. Solomon seemed to know that:

He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity. When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes? Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep. (Ecclesiastes 5.10 – 12, ESV)

So did Jesus:

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? …And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? (Matthew 6.25 – 30, ESV)

Paul did, too:

But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.

But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. (1 Timothy 6.6 – 10, ESV)