Or was it, don’t pet sweaty stuff?
No, it’s definitely don’t sweat the petty stuff. But maybe don’t pet sweaty stuff either…
Ramit Sethi, the author of I Will Teach You to be Rich, talks about a woman reaching out to him and complaining about how her husband buys $3 iced tea everyday. It utterly it drives her crazy. She tells him that they can make the iced tea at home but her husband insists on going out to buy it on his way to work every week, five days a week.
When Ramit asks her how much their household income is… well it’s was a few hundred thousand dollars a year.
So in the big picture, that $3 iced tea every day doesn’t matter on a financial level.
It was a personal issue for the woman. To her, it meant more than $3, it was an attack on how she views the act of buying over making at home. To her, it was a waste based on her way of thinking and likely the way she was raised. Another words, it was what she was taught.
To the husband, it could have been about the convenience, the taste, or the routine – whatever the reason, to him it wasn’t about the money either.
Ramit continues his story about how we get held up on the $3 question when we should be thinking about the $30,000 question. The things that really matter. The things that move the needle. The things that brings you joy.
Now, backtracking here. To the woman in the story, the $3 iced tea doesn’t really represent $3 either. To her, that iced tea represents a way of life. Her identity of how the way things should be.
She really needs to dig deep and have a talk with her husband on the root of why it bothers her so much. And on his side, he should explain what it means to him. I hope they’ve sorted it out.
The question is important for all of us to ask ourselves and talk to our partners.
What really matters to you?
What can you do now that will make a real difference to you in the future?