Money & Marriage | Losing Money Safely & Morning Routines

How Money Can Save a Marriage

I recently finished reading Harrison Scott Key’s new book, How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told. I want to share a short excerpt from his perspective. He says:

“Everybody likes to talk about how money can end a marriage. Nobody talks about how money can help save one.”

I’ve had clients go through the heartbreak of divorce, and I can’t help but wonder if I should have encouraged them earlier to seek out a skilled counselor. After all, a divorce can cost 40, 50, or even 60 percent of what you’ve worked to build. However expensive therapy may seem, trust me—it’s far cheaper than divorce.

That’s just one of many ways money can be used for truly impactful purposes. I’ve seen families where money becomes the enemy—fueling negativity, comparison, resentment, secrecy, or power struggles. But we must also acknowledge the other side: money can be a powerful force for good. It can help businesses thrive, enable meaningful change, and create possibilities you never imagined, depending on how you choose to spend, gift, or transfer it across generations.

I want to highlight these opportunities we all have—big or small—to be purposeful about how we use money and the outcomes we seek. I’m reminded of the principle: we manage our money; our money does not manage us.

The Risk Reward of Losing Money Safely: The U.S. debt situation is nothing new. This is a real-time look at the situation: US Debt Clock. Here are the highlights:

$36+ Trillion of debt
Federal debt to GDP is now ~123%

The solvency of the U.S. Treasury now relies on liquidity.

To pay our debts, the Treasury is reliant on low rates and continued liquidity (or: more money in the system) from the Fed. Explicit taxation to improve the fiscal position of our government is far less digestible than inflating the problem away. Silently stealing the value of the dollar from those that hold dollars is effectively what’s done.

For example, if you store $100,000 in a safe for the next 10 years, what’s it going to be worth in terms of goods and services? Our best guess is that ‘safe’ $100k loses value.

While it may feel safe, if it buys you 30% less goods and services, your $100k turns into $70k, that’s a 30% drawdown in real terms. How about 20 years? That’s a reasonable timeframe for many investors … at just 3.5% inflation (barely half of money supply growth), you’re down half.

Too many people fail to realize that what matters is the value of your dollars relative to the goods and services you’ll need to buy. Real returns should be the focus, not nominal.

Risk assets benefit from liquidity. Even if they are only going up nominally, they are still going up. Many avoid the risk of stocks in favor of holding bonds that cannot protect purchasing power and are incredibly tax-inefficient.

Morning Routines: The idea that smartphones affect our serotonin, dopamine, and neurotransmitters won’t be news to anyone at this point. Morning cell phone use—or, rather, grabbing your phone immediately upon waking—might have more effects than we realize.

Nearly 90 percent of Americans start their day by reaching for their smartphones within 10 minutes of waking. Unfortunately, a growing mountain of research indicates that starting our days with our phones in hand is damaging our health. (Source: Reviews.org study)

What ill effects could our morning routine be having?

Starting the day staring at a bright screen can cause eye strain, headaches, and even long-term issues with your visual health.
Starting your day with news, notifications, and social media causes stress levels to rise rapidly and stay elevated throughout the day.
Procrastination and smartphone use are a match made in productivity hell; that first look at the phone frequently causes users to delay tackling projects and routines that are otherwise important.
Checking work emails, messages, and schedules first thing in the morning contributes to overall difficulty with detachment from work leading to more complaints of an imbalance between work and private life.
Exposing yourself to the blue light of the screen short circuits the natural progression of your brain waves from delta waves (fully asleep) to beta waves (fully awake), largely skipping important theta and alpha waves.

We can do better. We were made for more. What does your morning routine look like?

*The views expressed represent the opinions of Compass Ion Advisors, LLC, as of the date noted and are subject to change. These views are not intended as a forecast, a guarantee of future results, investment recommendation, or an offer to buy or sell any securities. The information provided is of a general nature and should not be construed as investment advice or to provide any investment, tax, financial, or legal advice or service to any person. The information contained has been compiled from sources deemed reliable, yet accuracy is not guaranteed.

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