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Hi there,

Last week, I learned that before Regan popularized “trickle-down economics”, it was known as the Horse and Sparrow theory: “If you feed the horse enough oats, some will pass through to the road for the sparrows.” In other words, sparrows benefit when horses are overfed since eventually, they’ll shit some undigested oats.

Stumbling across this reminds me of when I learned that the phrase “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” was originally a joke because it’s absurd and physically impossible. Overtime, the phrase got co-opted into a rallying cry for American individualism.

These turns of phrase are more than just clever language — they’re invisible forces shaping how we think the world works. Which influences our behavior and in some cases, our identity. When we blindly accept and repeat these platitudes, we risk adopting ideas that don’t quite hold up. Understanding the context behind these phrases goes beyond trivia; it’s a reminder to examine the stories we tell ourselves and each other about money, success, struggle, and fairness — and to ask whether they’re serving us or just feeding the horse.

How have stories about success, self-reliance, or how the world works shaped your path? Are there beliefs you once held tightly, only to later discover their cracks? I'd love to hear what’s been shifting for you. Don’t be shy; hit reply!

1.💸 Are We in a Vibecession? And What Does It Mean for Your Business? (Paco for Square)​
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​2. 🤑 Shayne Coplan’s Big Bet Is Paying Off (Intelligencer) He upended political polling by creating the billion-dollar betting platform Polymarket. But is it legal?
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​3. 🙅🏽‍♀️ Influencers Taught Us How to Overconsume. Can They Also Help Us Break the Habit? (Slate) No matter how good their intentions, creators are still able to make money off of telling people to spend less.
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​4. 🤓 A bookkeeping thing - Why You Should Stop Doing Your Own Taxes (Especially if You're Self-Employed) (HYG Original) ​
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​5. 🛑 Is wealth inequality leading to a class war? (Vox) Part of the reason you might be hearing phrases like “wealth inequality” or “class warfare” more often these days is because the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the few has been on full display.
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​6. ☀️ Insurers Are Deserting Homeowners as Climate Shocks Worsen (New York Times) Without insurance, you can’t get a mortgage; without a mortgage, most Americans can’t buy a home. Communities that are deemed too dangerous to insure face the risk of falling property values, which means less tax revenue for schools, police and other basic services. As insurers pull back, they can destabilize the communities left behind, making their decisions a predictor of the disruption to come.
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​7. 🤯 Buy, Borrow, Die: How to be a billionaire and pay no taxes (The Atlantic) The tax economist Daniel Reck, who has spent his career documenting the various ways the rich evade taxation, told me that Buy, Borrow, Die is “the most important tax-avoidance strategy today.” The result is a two-tiered tax system: one for the many, who earn their income through wages and pay taxes, and another for the few, who accumulate wealth through paper assets and largely do not pay taxes.
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​8. 🏠 What Do We Buy Into When We Buy a Home? Homeownership, long a cherished American ideal, has become the subject of black comedies, midlife-crisis novels, and unintentionally dystopic reality TV. (The New Yorker) The Mitchell-Lama program, a nineteen-fifties urban-housing initiative, allowed New Yorkers to purchase “limited equity” co-ops, low-cost apartments that they technically owned but couldn’t resell or pass down. If you moved or “went to a better place,” your apartment would go to the next person on the waiting list. You were merely a steward. Mitchell-Lama got some surprise P.R. recently thanks to the actor Timothée Chalamet, who, during his press tour for “A Complete Unknown,” talked about growing up in Manhattan Plaza, a Mitchell-Lama in Hell’s Kitchen that was intended for artists. (Larry David and Alicia Keys also lived there.) The city stopped building new Mitchell-Lamas in the late seventies, but you can still apply for a spot in existing ones. Last year, Clayton Apartments, in Harlem, listed available studios for sale for just over twelve thousand dollars. You can see why, when New Yorkers say they won the lottery, they mean the housing lottery.

This Week's Featured Story: A 49-Year-Old Public Health Professional Who Finally Got Loan Forgiveness but Faces Tense Money Conversations at Home

👤 Who: Female, 49, Public Health

📍 Location: Durham, NC

😔 How I Feel About My Finances Right Now: I feel like I’m just now understanding how scary financial insecurity can be. My parents were more financially stable than I am, and while I’ve worked hard, I wish I had planned better in my 20s and 30s.

💰 Income: $90,000

🏦 Savings & Investments: $5K (savings), $350K (retirement), $8K (investments)

💳 Debt: $17,500 (credit card)

🎯 Financial Goals: Paying down the rest of my credit card debt and sticking to a budget.

💎 Financial Windfalls: I imagine I’ll receive some inheritance, but I have no idea how much.

👥 Who Relies on My Income: My kids, but I don’t anticipate needing to support my parent. However, we may need to help my in-laws, though we aren’t financially in a position to plan for that yet.

😩 Financial FOMO: I’m usually not jealous, but I do get annoyed when friends in different economic brackets are oblivious to the fact that I don’t have as much disposable income as they do.

✅ Financial Habit I’m Proud Of: Paying off almost half of my credit card debt and getting on a budget.

🔄 Financial Habit I Want to Change: I went into credit card debt for things I didn’t need. I’m working on changing that.

💡 Best Financial Advice: “Never put anything on a credit card that you can’t pay off.” (Thanks, Dad.)

🚫 Worst Financial Advice: “Move your debt onto a low-interest card.” It just made the debt grow.

😔 Money Regrets: I wish I had learned earlier how to save and invest—even small amounts.

💸 Most Frivolous Purchase: So many! Anything I buy and never use, like clothes that just sit in my closet.

🗣️ Talking About Money: Financial discussions with my spouse are very tense—we don’t see eye to eye on financial decisions. I like talking to friends to learn how they manage money in partnerships.

💰 Money & Relationships: I haven’t told my spouse that I’m independently seeing a financial planner.

🚀 Biggest Financial Moment: I took out loans for my master’s degree, planning to use Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). The program was brand new at the time and confusing. I accidentally paid on the wrong plan for almost three years, overpaying for two full years. Thankfully, after a long battle (and COVID loan pauses), my loans were finally forgiven in 2022. If not for PSLF—flawed as it is—I’d be in a much worse financial position today.

If you'd like to share your story with us, submit it here!

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​@thepacodeleon​

The Nerdletter is put together by my Editorial Assistant, Cole Kalin, of Ladies Talking About Money. Please consider several ways you can contribute to this important mission – an inclusive conversation about money, finances, and capitalism for Creatives. 🌟 Leave a review for the Weird Finance Podcast​ 👯‍♀️ Share this issue with friends​ 🤓 Tell us what you think of The Nerdletter​

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