👋 ASB Partners Nuggets 9.19.25

This is a short weekly email that covers a few things I’ve found interesting during the week.

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Interesting Links/Reads

Many links are sourced from Marginal Revolution (bold and italics are my own to highlight what I found particularly interesting)

1. On the Fence About a Spending Decision? Try the 0.01% Rule Nick Maggiulli, author of a new personal-finance book, proposes a way to calculate the amount of money you can spend worry-free

It is called “the 0.01% rule.” It states that if you are torn about making a purchase, you don’t need to stress about it if the amount of money at stake is 0.01% or less of your net worth. Someone with $500,000 in wealth could spend $50 worry-free, according to the rule.

The rule was created by author and blogger Nick Maggiulli as a way to approximate what qualifies as a trivial amount of money to someone. He described the concept in his recent book, “The Wealth Ladder,” and discussions of it have popped up on personal-finance podcasts and online forums this summer.

The 0.01% rule isn’t part of a long-term plan, but rather a yardstick to pull out in moments of indecision. Some self-described tightwads said it helped them loosen up.

“It’s a sanity check on your spend,” said Maggiulli, who is also chief operating officer of Ritholtz Wealth Management.

It derives from the relatively cautious assumption that someone’s assets will have a long-term real rate of return of a bit under 4% a year, or about 0.01% a day. Spending that portion of your net worth one day wouldn’t take away from your existing wealth. (Maggiulli said that when calculating net worth, more conservative spenders might omit illiquid assets such as a house.)

The goal of the rule is to help people spend less mental energy on relatively small financial decisions. Indeed, Rick said that the frequency of day-to-day transactions makes them loom large in people’s minds, when they might be better off paying more attention to, say, how much they put into a child’s college savings account.

“I think about that once every two years,” Rick said. “I think about DoorDash delivery fees much more.”

2. A Week That Shook the Old Order Most Western leaders are flailing while foreign foes capitalize on their opportunity.

A line widely but wrongly attributed to Lenin states that there are decades when nothing happens and weeks when decades happen. Last week was one of those weeks.

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Podcast/Videos

Show notes from Peter Attia Podcast “The Drive”

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I hope you enjoyed it.

Adam