Read Time: 4-minutes
Happy Saturday,
Here is this week’s edition of 6-Point Saturday — financial insights to help you make smarter money decisions.
Table of Contents*
*Clickable in the online version.
Point #1 — How to Stop ‘Making B’s’ with Your Money
“In 2008, Matthew McConaughey got a call from his film production office. He reached to pick up the phone, but his hand paused midreach when he saw the caller ID.
He didn’t want to answer it. He let the call go to voicemail then called his lawyer.”
“‘I’m shutting down the production company immediately,’ he said. ‘Shut down j.k. livin Records as well.’
It was too much. ‘I had five things on my proverbial desk to tend to daily: family, foundation, acting, a production company, and a music label,’ McConaughey writes in Greenlights.
‘I felt like I was making B’s in all five. By shutting down the production company and the music label, I eliminated two of my five commitments with plans to make A’s in the other three.”
He began to focus entirely on his family, his foundation, and his acting career. “Simplify, focus, conserve to liberate,” he writes.
McConaughey realized he had too many priorities, and it caused him to do everything “halfway.”
This same trap catches people with their money:
Optimizing credit card points while carrying high-interest debt
Learning about rental properties before getting your employer match
Looking into whole life insurance when term insurance is more appropriate
Considering alternative investments (commodities, derivatives, & cryptocurrencies) before settling on an overall asset allocation
Focusing on the wrong things at the wrong time is costly. Even focusing on the “right things” at the wrong time is suboptimal.
So, how do you decide what actually deserves your time?
Let’s look at how a popular time management framework can apply to your finances.
Point #2 — The 4 Money Categories that Change Everything
That framework is the “Eisenhower Matrix,” named after the 34th president of the United States, who said:
"I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent."
The method categorizes tasks into 4 quadrants based on importance and urgency:
Urgent and important
Important, but not urgent
Urgent but not important
Not important and not urgent
The approach serves as a guide to prioritizing tasks that bring the most value. So, let’s look at how this can apply to your finances:
1. Urgent & Important = Prioritize Immediately
No Starter Stability Fund (Emergency Fund) of a few thousand dollars. This is an immediate vulnerability
High-interest debt (credit cards, etc.)
Creating a Spending Plan
Missing employer retirement plan match (leaving free money on the table)
2. Important & Not Urgent = Schedule
Building a full Stability Fund of 3 to 6 months of fixed expenses
Retirement account contributions above your employer's match
Investing outside of employer plans (Roth IRA, taxable account)
Optimizing insurance coverage
Fundamental estate planning: will, healthcare proxy, designating beneficiaries
Increasing income potential
Short-term savings goals: home down payment, vacation, etc.
3. Urgent, but Not Important = Minimize
Switching credit cards for minor rewards optimizations (before your fundamentals are solid)
Constantly checking investment performance
Worrying about securing a low-interest rate on a home mortgage before you’re more financially ready to buy
Chasing investment trends
4. Not Important & Not Urgent = Eliminate
Keeping up with your peers’ spending
Individual stock picking for a large part of your portfolio
Whole life insurance when term insurance is more appropriate
Complex financial products you don’t understand
Excessively consuming financial news and creating anxiety, FOMO, etc.
Start by asking: which quadrant am I spending most of my time in? How can you shift more of your time into quadrants 1 & 2?
Point #3 — “My spending feels like whack-a-mole.”
Let’s see how the quadrants play out with a real-life example:
31 and financially stable but my spending feels like whack-a-mole. Would appreciate feedback on how I am prioritizing so I can meet some goals.
Personal info
31 years old. Resident of New York state. I've been employed full-time for one year, was a student prior.
Financial situation
Yearly salary $140k. I budget regularly with YNAB (You Need A Budget). No savings. Monthly rent $2900. Student loans $74k, monthly payments will be ~$500 starting November, going to do PSLF [Public Service Loan Forgiveness]. Credit card debt $7k, paying ~$700 monthly, mostly on balance transfer cards w/o interest at the moment. Health insurance costs ~$700 monthly. Credit score 750.
Goals
6 months: Buy my fiancée a nicer ring. Start back up retirement contributions (no company match unfortunately). (EDIT because I forgot this initially) start up a practice of donating 10% of my income after taxes to charity.
1 year: Marry my fiancée, family assistance TBD. Establish an emergency savings account. Pay off my credit cards. Go on a couple trips without taking on more credit card debt.
2 years: Establish a savings account. Start investing.
5 years: Have a kid or two. Wind down current employment to half-time, replace income with freelance work.
10 years: Pay off student loans. Own a house.
40 years: Retire, travel, enjoy where I live.
Problems I’m having
I paused my retirement contributions a few months ago so I could have more space during a move, and I’m flip-flopping on if I should continue to give myself a pass or not while I pay down debt. Will I regret it?
The money I would save for a ring, wedding, travel, emergency fund, etc. keeps getting sucked up by rando medical bills and household necessities. Any advice about how I could improve my saving hygiene?
I get so stressed about my debt sometimes. I was brought up in a home that is kind of weird about money, and I don’t really know if I’m in a healthy spot or not. What do you think–is my anxiety justified, or can I chill and keep up what I’m doing?
The good news? This Reddit poster has a solid income of $140k.
Areas for improvement? There are some priority shifts that could change everything.
Notice the pattern here:
No Starter Stability Fund (Emergency Fund), but wants to upgrade fiancée’s ring
No savings account established, but wants to go on multiple trips without taking on more credit card debt
Credit card debt, but wants to donate to charity
Can you sense the lack of urgency here on the fundamentals?
It’s not that there are a ton of unimportant tasks listed here. But at a $140,000 income, this poster has multiple items in quadrant 1 (“Important & Urgent”):
Start a Stability Fund. Take your Spending Plan seriously (the poster went on in the comments to say: “I budget but am not strict with it. Definitely something that I could work on.”). Aggressively pay off the credit card debt. Establish a savings account for short-term goals.
Once the foundation is solid, the biggest moments in life—getting married, being generous—are that much more satisfying.
Focused priorities. A more secure, satisfying life.
Point #4 — Understanding PSLF: Public Service Loan Forgiveness
What did the Reddit poster above mean by saying they’re “going to do PSLF,” which stands for Public Service Loan Forgiveness?
It can be a great option (if you qualify), so here’s what it means:
If you work full-time for a qualifying government or 501(c)(3) nonprofit employer for 10 years, making 120 qualifying monthly payments under an income-driven repayment plan, the rest of your federal student loans are forgiven. Tax-free. Your loans must be Direct loans.
A “Qualifying employer” means a government or nonprofit organization. Think teachers, social workers, public defenders, or nurses at nonprofit hospitals. Jobs that serve the public good but don’t usually pay a high salary.
Under income-driven repayment, your monthly payment is based on your income and family size, not your loan balance.
Bottom line: PSLF makes sense if you qualify and you’re genuinely committed to public service work long-term.
Point #5 — Quotes of the Week
Continuing the “Prioritizing” theme, which of these is your favorite?
Sometimes what you don’t do is just as important as what you do.
— #Greg McKeown (#@GregoryMcKeown)
1:00 PM • Aug 25, 2025
Have a sense of urgency and commitment—what you do you must do well, with all of your energy, not with a mind shooting off in a hundred direction.
— #Robert Greene (#@RobertGreene)
8:08 PM • Dec 22, 2017
If you look at how most people operate, urgency is reactive: they coast when things seem fine, then scramble when circumstances demand it.
But the people who consistently win don't let circumstances dictate their tempo.
They set their own pace, as if there's always a fire under them.
Even when there isn't.
Our job is to make things clear. To find what is important and discard the rest.
— #Ryan Holiday (#@RyanHoliday)
12:57 PM • Sep 1, 2025
Point #6 — My Question of the Week
What’s 1 important money habit you’re proud you prioritized before it ever became urgent? (e.g., increasing your income potential, starting a small investing habit, etc.)
What's a quadrant 2 (“Important, but not urgent”) task you could complete this week?
Reply to let me know! I read every response.
Thanks for reading — I hope you found a helpful idea or two.
I’ll see you next Saturday with more.
Have a great weekend,
Benjamin Daniel, CFP®
Founder, Money Wisdom
P.S. Want to take control of your money, stop stressing about your expenses, & feel confident about your financial future? There are 2 ways I can help you:
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Disclaimer:
This material is not investment or tax advice. No responsibility for loss occasioned to any person or corporate body acting or refraining to act as a result of reading this material can be accepted by the publisher.
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