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4 Critical Money "Scripts," "Should I Pay Off My Student Loans?," and More

Don't miss "The Portfolio Life Experiment"

Author

Benjamin Daniel, CFP®
July 26, 2025

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 — “The Power Broker In Your Life”

“In his work with hundreds of world-class performers, the performance psychologist [and New York Times bestselling author] Dr. Jim Loehr spent many years listening to the stories people tell themselves.

He would even have athletes wear microphones and articulate out loud everything that they said to themselves during competition.

‘And I began to realize that what really matters, in a really significant way, is the tone and the content of the voice in your head,’ he said.

‘The power broker in your life is the voice that no one ever hears. How well you revisit the tone and content of that voice in your head is what determines the quality of your life.

It is the master storyteller, and the stories we tell ourselves are our reality.’”

“‘If you listen to people, if you just sit around and listen, you’ll find there are patterns in the way they talk about themselves,’ the writer Michael Lewis said.

Some people are always the victim. Some people are always getting unlucky. Some people are always in the middle of some impossible project. Some people are always having the worst day. Some people are always feeling like that have so much to lose, and others, like they have nothing to lose.

‘There are lots of versions of this,’ Lewis says, ‘and you’ve got to be very careful about how you tell these stories because it starts to become your reality. You are, in the way you craft your narrative, crafting your character.’

You are, in the way you craft the stories you tell yourself, as Dr. Loehr said, crafting your reality.”

The stories you tell yourself become your reality.

How true…in probably every aspect of our lives.

If we’re not careful, the stories we tell ourselves can become a ceiling on our potential.

Especially with our money and careers.

So, believing things like:

“I’m not good with money.”

“I’m not a people person.”

Reflect a fixed (versus growth) mindset. Instead, what if you believed:

Imagine how much more motivated you would be to improve your money skills.

So, in the next Point, we’ll explore the first step to rewriting your money story. Because when you replace destructive inner self-talk with encouragement, and shift from a fixed mindset to a skills-based one, you can unlock real financial change.

Point #2 — 4 Critical Money “Scripts”

Now that we understand the importance of our inner voice, let’s take the first step to improving it.

Bestselling author, professor, and financial psychologist Dr. Brad Klontz coined the term “invisible money scripts” for our beliefs surrounding money.

That’s why the key is to make the subconscious conscious through awareness.

Here’s a helpful exercise to help foster awareness. How would you “fill-in-the-blank” to each of these:

  1. “Money is ______ [bad/evil, neutral, good].”

  2. “I am _____ [good/bad] with money.”

  3. “I _____[can/can’t] get better at managing money.”

  4. “To make a lot of money, you have to _____ [take advantage/serve] others.”

Our responses to questions like these reveal the hidden narratives that shape our financial decisions.

And they’re the first step towards rewriting any unhelpful stories we’ve been telling ourselves.

Point #3 — “Should I Pay Off My Student Loan Debt or Keep It Open?”

M26, no kids and no wife, I do have a girlfriend though. I am looking to purchase a home in a few years. I make roughly 80k/year (salary and bonus) at my job. My FICO score is 782. I have approximately $5,100 in student loan debt that I am fortunate enough to be able to pay off today. I have no other debt and use credit cards minimally to keep my % of credit used low, thus improving my FICO score. My interest rate on my student loans is 2.75% on the current principal, adding up to approximately $0.38/day in interest.

I know that showing a history of regular payments on your oldest accounts helps increase your FICO score, which I know is important for a house. My question is if I pay off my debt, how much will that negatively impact my FICO score over the next couple years and how much will that impact my ability to purchase a home at my current income level?

— Reddit

First, I like how this Reddit user is being savvy with his money: he knows his credit score, has no credit card debt, and is thinking about how to maintain his credit score.

One thing he’s missing is considering whether it makes sense from an opportunity cost perspective, though.

He’s fixated on how his money moves impact his FICO score.

To answer his question, yes, paying off the student loan would hurt his score…But only slightly and in the short term. Over time, reducing debt is viewed positively by lenders.

But with that low of an interest rate on his student loans (2.75%), he could take that $5.1k and earn around 4% in a CD or High-Yield Savings Account.

Keeping the cash liquid also gives him flexibility to put towards a down payment for his home purchase goal.

So, in this case, keeping the student loan and getting a return on his cash makes more financial sense.

Point #4 — “The Portfolio Life Experiment”

If you’re feeling just a little too comfortable in your current job, or are concerned about how AI is going to impact your career, Justin Welsh shares a potential new way to look at your career:

“The 40-year myth

We're taught to find our thing and stick with it. Build deep expertise and become irreplaceable.

But in following that advice, many people become prisoners of their own expertise.

The lawyer who can't leave because the money's too good. The consultant who's given the same presentation 500 times and can deliver it in her sleep. The agency owner who dreams of doing literally anything else besides servicing another client.

Sure, they built “successful” careers. But now they’re comfortably trapped.

The portfolio alternative

What if instead of one 40-year career, you planned for four 10-year adventures?

Adventure #1 (age 20-30): Learn the fundamentals of how business works. How to sell. How to deliver. Make all of your mistakes when the stakes are much lower.

Adventure #2 (age 30-40): Apply what you learned to build something completely different. Go faster because you’ve learned the patterns. Build something bigger because you've seen what works.

Adventure #3 (age 40-50): Combine everything, or pivot entirely. You've got money, connections, and credibility. The world is literally your playground at this age if you’ve played your cards right.

Adventure #4 (age 50-60): The victory lap. Build for joy, not just profit. Teach. Invest. Create. Do whatever the heck lights you up.

Four different phases, different businesses, and new opportunities to feel the rush of going from 0 to 1. Of course, the time horizons for each era aren’t going to line up exactly like this. Feel free to ignore the ages or think it has to be exactly 10 years. Maybe your first adventure lasts for 6 years, and the next one is 11 years. But you get the idea.”

Point #5 — Quotes of the Week

Point #6 — My Question of the Week

Continuing the theme from Point #2, what’s one belief around money that’s been helpful for you? What’s one that might be holding you back?

Reply to let me know! I read all responses.

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 (and stop stressing)? Here are 2 ways I can help:

  1. Financial Health Check: Get your biggest money questions answered, understand where you stand financially, and get a personalized action plan from a CFP® professional. Book a free Intro Call here (or purchase today) to see if you’re a good fit.

  2. Financial Coaching: If you’d like some accountability in getting your finances into shape, engage in financial coaching. Build the habits & systems to help you start building wealth, pay off debt, and feel confident about achieving your goals. Reply to this email and say “Coaching” to join the waitlist.

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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