Ep 40 | The Biggest Waste of Time in Personal Finance
If you’re making six figures but still feel like you’re spinning your wheels, you’re not alone. Too many high achievers obsess over the wrong financial details: tracking every coffee, juggling ten checking accounts, or chasing credit card points, while ignoring the big levers that actually move the needle.
In this episode, Priya Malani breaks down why ambitious 30-somethings get stuck in the weeds and how to shift your focus to the questions that truly change your financial trajectory. You’ll hear a real client story, insights from Ramit Sethi’s “$3 vs. $30,000 questions,” and Natalie Taylor’s framework for “impact-weighted work.” By the end, you’ll have a clear path to simplify your money, reduce stress, and start making progress that actually matters.
Tune Into This Episode to Hear:
Why activity ≠ progress when it comes to your money
The difference between $3 questions (skip Starbucks?) and $30,000 questions (negotiate your comp?)
How “impact-weighted work” can help you stop overanalyzing and start moving forward
A simple framework to consolidate accounts, automate, and focus on big levers like income, savings, investing, and protection
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Transcription
Stop focusing on the wrong things.
Complexity isn't control and activity isn't progress.
Who the fuck am I to tell you what to do with your money? My name is Priya Malani, currently managing millions of hardworking dollars. Enough foreplay. Let's talk.
Welcome to the F Word — Smart Money.
If you're in your 30s making great money but still don't feel like you're actually getting ahead, let me guess. You've been told to cut out the lattes? Or maybe you've built a color-coded spreadsheet tracking every single transaction.
Or you've opened ten checking accounts and five credit cards because somewhere in the back of your mind you thought more accounts means more control.
I see it all the time — high achievers pulling in six figures or more, and yet they're stuck in the weeds with things that, let's be honest, don't actually move the needle in their financial lives.
Today I want to break down why this happens — why you're stuck — and how to shift your focus to things that actually drive growth and financial freedom.
I'm going to share a real client story with you, pull in Ramit Sethi’s idea of the $3 versus $30,000 question, and introduce you to Natalie Taylor's concept of “impact-weighted work,” an absolutely game-changing way to think about your financial decisions.
And then we're going to wrap with what it looks like to work with an advisor who keeps you focused on what matters — without overwhelming you with a 100-page plan, most of which is compliance disclosures.
So let's start with my client. This one’s making fantastic income, saving a good chunk. Outwardly, she’s crushing it — but she came to us with ten checking accounts and five credit cards.
Each account had a purpose. One was for groceries, one was for travel, one was for big purchases, one was for rainy days, one was for really, really rainy days. You get the idea.
On top of that, she had spreadsheets tracking every single category of spending — right down to her coffee runs. On paper, it looked like discipline. But in reality, she was a mess.
It was chaos disguised as control.
She and her husband were spending hours every week moving money around, reconciling accounts, and still second-guessing every decision. The kicker? They felt anxious about money. They were still wondering: Are we doing this right?
That's the trap that so many successful 30-somethings fall into — confusing activity with progress. You can be busy with your money without actually being strategic.
So why do we do these things? How do we get this wrong? Why do smart, ambitious people do this?
Two reasons.
First, it's human nature. Small questions like, “Should I cut out Starbucks?” “Should I use this card or that card?” They’re tangible. You can answer them quickly, and they give you that hit of productivity.
Second, it’s cultural. The personal finance industry has sort of trained us to sweat the small stuff: skip the lattes, clip coupons, track every dollar.
And if you’re ambitious, you overachieve at this — you track harder, you optimize more.
But here’s the truth: small optimizations rarely change your financial trajectory.
You don’t build long-term wealth by moving money between ten checking accounts. You don’t create freedom by skipping your morning coffee. You do it by focusing on the bigger levers.
That brings me to Ramit Sethi’s $3 versus $30,000 questions.
Ramit Sethi, author of I Will Teach You to Be Rich — highly recommend — makes this point brilliantly.
He says there are $3 questions and $30,000 questions.
A $3 question is: Should I cancel Spotify? Should I move this charge to my Amex instead of my Visa? Should I stop ordering lunch at the office on Fridays?
These are $3 questions because even if you answer them perfectly, they’ll never meaningfully change your financial life.
A $30,000 question is: How can I negotiate my compensation package? What’s the right investment strategy for my goals? How should I structure my money so it actually funds the lifestyle I want? Do I have the right insurance and legal documents in place to protect myself?
Those are the questions that change your trajectory. They require clarity, strategy, and sometimes uncomfortable conversations — but they’re worth it.
So the next time you find yourself agonizing over a micro-decision, pause and ask:
Is this a $3 question or a $30,000 question?
If it’s a $3 question, make a quick decision and move on. Reinvest your energy into your bigger financial picture.
Are you actually changing your trajectory with the decisions you’re making?
Okay, I mentioned Natalie Taylor — one of my favorite financial gurus of all time. She talks about a concept called impact-weighted work. So let’s talk about how you actually make progress without drowning in the details.
Natalie Taylor was a financial advisor who worked at LearnVest and Monarch Money. She coined the term impact-weighted work.
It’s the idea that from a financial advisor’s perspective, you don’t need to bog the client down in giving every single data point about their personal financial life or build them a 100-page plan to actually create real change for them.
In fact, what you need to do is figure out: what are the fewest number of decisions that create the biggest impact for the client right now?
So if your financial advisor is stuck in the weeds with you — the truth is, perfectionism keeps people stuck.
You don’t need a forensic-level budget to know you’re overspending. You don’t need to map out 40 years’ worth of investment returns to know you should start investing today.
Impact-weighted work — impact-weighted decisions — say: focus on those decisions that matter right now, given the information that you have. Then move forward.
That’s how you build real momentum. And that’s a valuable mindset for both advisors and investors to remember.
Don’t get stuck in the weeds. Don’t get stuck in nuanced conversations that prevent you from seeing the forest for the trees.
Okay, so back to our client with ten checking accounts.
Here’s what happened when we applied this concept to their financial life.
Step 1: Consolidation. Ten accounts became two — one for their joint household expenses and an individual one for each of them so that they could maintain a bit of autonomy when it comes to buying gifts for each other or those one-off expenses that drive your partner crazy. Do that from your separate checking account. That’s it. Each account had a clear job. No mental gymnastics required.
Step 2: Automation. On payday, money flows automatically into the checking account, savings account, and investment accounts. No more manual transfers. No more second-guessing.
Step 3: Right-sizing your cash. Instead of hoarding money in ten accounts, we defined their emergency reserve, kept that in savings, and then invested the rest for their larger financial goals.
Step 4: Focus on the big levers. We turned our attention to comp negotiations, workplace benefits, insurance, and the basics of estate planning — the stuff that actually protects and grows your wealth.
Next up, credit card cleanup. We cut it down to two primary cards. Points should become a bonus, not your strategy.
The result? They have a simpler system, they’re investing more, and they have a lot less stress. The anxiety faded because the system was actually doing the work for them in the background. That’s what real progress looks like.
All right, here’s the framework so you can apply it to your own financial life.
First up, define your big levers.
For most people in their 30s, that means:
What’s going on with your income? Are you negotiating or growing your compensation?
Savings rate — are you consistently paying yourself first? (I promise there will be money left over.)
Investments — are they aligned with your goals? More importantly, have you automated them?
Protection — do you have the basics covered? Insurance, legal docs, and liquidity so you don’t end up in credit card debt.
Then build a simple system. Minimal bank accounts: one for your emergency fund, one or two for short-term goals, and a checking account — maybe two if you’re in a relationship.
Finally, a taxable brokerage account plus your retirement accounts. And then just make sure automatic transfers are set up on payday.
Okay, what to stop and what to start.
Stop:
Multiplying accounts for the illusion of control.
Obsessing over credit card points.
Tracking every expense just to punish yourself.
Signing up for every bank account bonus offer.
Believing you need every detail before you’re ready to act on your next-level decisions.
Start:
Asking bigger questions.
Paying yourself first and automatically.
Consolidating your accounts to simplify your financial picture.
Finally — and you’ve heard this one at work — measure what matters: your savings rate, your investing consistency, and your progress toward your real goals (which means you have to set them first).
I’ll just touch on this: why you may need help. Because you could do all of this on your own — but the question is, will you?
Will you consistently focus on the big levers, or will you get sucked back into debating lattes versus coffee from home?
That’s where the right advisor comes in.
A good advisor isn’t there to drown you in jargon or hand you a binder of paperwork you’ll never look at. A good advisor keeps you focused on the $30,000 questions. They simplify the path and give you just enough detail so that you can make more confident decisions.
Then they hold you accountable and help you follow through.
Shameless plug: at Stash Wealth, that’s exactly what we do. But whether it’s with us or someone else, you deserve an advisor who leads with trust, education, and clarity — not someone who overwhelms you and leads with fear, making you feel like you can’t do this without them.
So here’s your takeaway for today:
Stop focusing on the wrong things. Complexity isn’t control, and activity isn’t progress.
Shift your focus to the big levers: income, savings rate, investing, protection. Simplify the rest.
If you want accountability, clarity, and a partner to keep you focused on what actually matters, work with an advisor who gets you — who understands your life stage, your goals, and the fact that you don’t need another spreadsheet. You need a system.
I’m Priya Malani, and this is The F Word.
And in case you missed it, we recently won the Wealth Management Industry Award for Best Investor Podcast of the Year — which would not have happened without all of you tuning in, sharing our episodes, and pushing this conversation forward.
I truly cannot thank you enough.
If this episode resonated with you, share it with a friend who’s still juggling five credit cards and wondering why they feel stuck.
All right — see you next time.
Thanks for listening to The F Word with Priya Malani.
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Stash Wealth is a registered investment advisor. Content presented is for informational and educational purposes only and is not intended to make an offer or solicitation for any specific security, product, service, or strategy.
Consult with a qualified investment advisor — that’s us — before implementing any strategy. Investing involves risk, including the loss of principal. Past performance does not guarantee future results.
There — we said it.
THE STUFF OUR LAWYERS WANT US TO SAY: Stash Wealth is a Registered Investment Advisor. Content presented is for informational and educational purposes only and is not intended to make an offer or solicitation for any specific securities product, service, or strategy. Consult with a qualified investment adviser (that's us) before implementing any strategy. Investing involves risk, including the loss of principal. Past performance does not guarantee future results. There…we said it.
