This article appears as part of Casey Weade's Weekend Reading for Retirees series. Every Friday, Casey highlights four hand-picked articles on trending retirement topics and delivers them straight to your email inbox. Get on the list here.

Here, author Morgan Housel delves into the psychological aspect of money by compiling a list of ways in which it can impact your actions and overall life satisfaction. Some of the most noteworthy points include:

📌 Your family background and past experiences heavily influence your spending preferences – Both frugality and the urge to spend can psychology be tied to how you grew up.

📌 Rather than using money to build a life, your life is built around money – Some believe that money exists to be spent, regardless of any pleasure it brings. This is called being in money’s captivity.

📌 A Lifetime of good savings habits can’t be transitioned to a spending phase – Decades of penny pinching can become ingrained into your personality. If your goal is to no longer have to focus on money, learning to release that mindset is key.

📌 You don’t know what kind of spending will make you happy because you haven’t tried enough new and strange forms of spending – The most expensive items aren’t guaranteed to bring you the most happiness. Whether it’s travel, clothing, fine dining or experiences with family, how money brings you happiness is personal to you.

📌 The social hierarchy of spending is positioning yourself against peers – Financial success is only relative to those around you. If you’re continually on the status chase to one-up others, you’ll find yourself caught in a vicious cycle.

Money as a means: Your relationship with money impacts more areas of your life than you might realize. A Job Optional life isn’t spent obsessing over money, but rather, utilizing your hard-earned dollars as a tool to elevate the meaning you experience in life.