13 million dollars is a lot. But is it enough to retire on? For pre-epiphany Ryan Begelman, the answer is no. Ryan's story offers a candid look at the challenges of managing sudden wealth and the importance of aligning spending with personal values.
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Ryan's journey from overspending to halving his monthly expenses demonstrates the critical importance of financial planning, even for high earners. His story highlights the dangers of lifestyle inflation and the value of diversification. The transition from keeping wealth in cash to recognizing the importance of market investments offers a crucial lesson in long-term financial management.
Ryan's financial journey began with a significant windfall from his exit from Bisnow in 2016. He recalls, "I put initially $46,500 into business and, you know, the business generated $64 million in distributions over seven and a half years." This included:
Despite this success, Ryan admits, "I didn't have any idea what I was spending. The only thing I tracked was my net worth." This lack of tracking led to:
Ryan's spending habits included luxuries like "$3000 a night at BlackBerry Farm in Tennessee" and having "a chef come over and cook dinner for you and your friends." He reflects, "I was sort of like playing, and I was just giving myself like a little bit of like, oh, I wouldn't do that. I'm not going to do that five times. But like, I could try a couple of times."
One of Ryan's biggest financial mistakes was keeping most of his wealth in cash. He explains, "I was just severely over invested in cash i.e. underinvested in the market because I thought I'm going to start another company." This decision led to:
Ryan realized the impact of this decision: "I woke up one day and I was like, shit, I have all this. The market's gone up a lot, like I'd be worth twice as much now if I had just been in the market." He now understands, "I simply bought the Vanguard ETF like, you know, the S&P 500. There'd be less pressure to make money pre epiphany."
Ryan's path to financial security took an unexpected turn when he discovered life coaching. He invested heavily in this new pursuit:
This career change provided a sense of financial stability. Ryan shares, "That was the first time I actually felt financially secure in my whole life. It was in late 2020, early 21, because the combination of having this nest egg of assets that I started to finally invest and having this coaching income."
He describes the impact of coaching: "It became this really beautiful, virtuous cycle where the more I coach like, it sort of forces me to become a better, more virtuous version of myself."
Ryan's financial epiphany led to a dramatic reduction in his spending habits:
He now views money differently: "I didn't really respect money. That's interesting. I think the way I like to think about it now is that money is sort of like its own entity, like almost like a person or it's like an energy."
This shift in mindset has changed his approach to spending. Ryan explains, "I literally just went into a store last week and was buying a thing for my dog, and I got to the register and it was like $29. And I was like, yeah, sorry, I told the guy at the cash register. I'm like, apologies, I'm going to go put this back. And, you know, I could obviously afford that, but I'm trying to learn the discipline of being more [respectful]. The way I think about it now is I didn't really respect money. "
"I was burnt out and this is where I wish I had had help from a group like Hampton and a coach and other people who could have given me some help because I under trusted experts and others, which is something I kind of learned a bit from my dad."
"Stoicism, mindfulness are great for gaining perspective, for being able to step back, zoom out and like, witness your own thoughts and emotions and be more sort of equanimous. But they're not great for actually getting closer to knowing elements of yourself, knowing about the parts of you that are anxious or sad or angry or disappointed or mourning something, or tired in my case."
"You have to show up and be really unfuckwithable and triggerable when you're holding space for someone who's going through something and trying to explore their own thoughts or feelings about something, you can't be like interjecting your own perspective all the time and being easily triggered or wanting to fix them."