The Simple Path to Wealth

Your roadmap to a rich, free life — in just five minutes per week.

March 17, 2026

Happy St. Patrick's Day! These uncertain times may have you reaching for the nearest Guinness, but The Simple Path means riding out the wild moments of uncertainty on your way to making some serious green.

Earlier this month, JL and Morgan Housel got together for a live webinar to chat about life and money, particularly how to make and spend it gracefully. If you missed it, don't fret! There's a recording here:

THE SIMPLE NUMBERS

Here's a non-exhaustive list of economic downturns and market crashes that have battered the United States since the nation was coming into being in the 1770s:

The Crisis of 1772, the Financial Crisis of 1791–92, the Panic of 1796–1797, the Panic of 1819, the Panic of 1825, the Panic of 1837, the Panic of 1847, the Panic of 1857, the Panic of 1866, Black Friday, the Panic of 1873, the Panic of 1884, the Panic of 1893, the Panic of 1896, the Panic of 1901, the Panic of 1907, the Wall Street crash of 1929, the Recession of 1937–1938, the Kennedy Slide of 1962, the Bear Market of 1970, the 1973–1974 stock market crash, the early 1980s recession, Black Monday, the early 1990s recession, the Dot-Com Bubble, the economic effects of the September 11 attacks, the 2008 financial crisis, the 2010 flash crash, the August 2011 stock markets fall, the 2020 stock market crash, the 2022 stock market decline, and the 2025 tariff crash.

This time could always be different, but history says that you get The Big Ugly and then the market goes up.

SIMPLE PATH OF THE DAY

A slice of timeless wisdom from The Simple Path to Wealth:

"Crashes, pullbacks, and corrections are all absolutely normal. None of them are the end of the world, and none are even the end of the market’s relentless rise. They are all, each and every one, expected parts of the process."

Snow-covered mountains under a blue sky — The world often looks like a bunch of volcanos in danger of eruption.

ASK JL

Q: The idea of freedom and independence has to resonate, particularly with people entering the workforce today. There's so much risk out there—war in the Middle East, AI replacing jobs, and more. Could you say more about the emotional state we bring to money, and the importance of thinking of it as a path to freedom rather than a path to stuff? —Madeline M., this month's webinar!

The first thing I'd say is there have always been risks out there. There are certainly risks out there today, but this moment in time is not particularly unique. The kinds of risks that we're facing are different, but there have always been risks. And one of the questions I get periodically is: What motivated my views about money? Morgan talked about people who grew up in the depression. I'm not quite that old, but one of the things that is not hard to understand is my own psychology.

When I was young, my dad was a pretty successful self-employed guy and we had a pretty comfortable life. But he was a cigarette smoker. And the problem with cigarettes is they kill you slowly and they debilitate you along the way. So as the disease progressed and my father's health declined, his ability to earn declined. And because he was not a saver and investor, that's all we had. And so when that went away, we went from being very comfortable to being very uncomfortable. And there were not the kinds of safety nets around at that point.

And that is clearly what drove my instinct to make sure as soon as I could that I wasn't solely dependent on my ability to earn to pay the bills. So one of the things I push back a lot on is people who say, well, this all sounds great, but it just feels like deprivation. I don't get to spend my money. I have to save it and invest it, and that just feels awful. To me, it never felt like deprivation. It felt like I was buying the single most important thing I could think of with my money, which was security and freedom.

—JL

Got a money question keeping you up at night? Reply to this email and we'll get it over to JL.

WHAT WE'RE READING

📚 There's a lot of talk about an "oil shock" right now, but how do higher fuel prices impact stock market returns? Ben Carlson explored that this month at A Wealth of Common Sense.

📚 The New York Times has a story on how the U.S. depends less on oil than ever, and another on how China will be more resilient than during previous oil spikes.

📚 From JL's blog: Yes, you can rent with kids!

THE BIG QUESTION

What's your strategy for finding peace in volatile times, economically and geopolitically?

Reply to this email and we'll feature some of your responses in upcoming issues!

Last time, we asked whether you have an HSA, and whether your contributions are invested in low-cost index funds or it's all been more of an afterthought. Here are a few of your answers...

From 2015 to 2023, we took advantage of high-deductible plans coupled with an HSA. Over that time we invested about $50k. But we had a few big health expenditures, and then into our forties we decided a more comprehensive plan was worth forgoing the tax shelter. So we enrolled in something with a lower deductible and lower out-of-pocket costs.

But even after applying nearly $26k out of our HSA over the years toward procedures and visits, it's now worth $85k and growing. So we absolutely came out ahead by stashing it into index funds when we were healthy. Now we've got a tidy sum down the road that won't count as taxable income after we retire. That'll make it easier to balance MAGI with ACA subsidies and health care costs. We lucked out! —Adam W.

We've used an HSA for 5 years and pay all medical bills out-of-pocket. We have started to save receipts over the past year. Invested via my Fidelity account through work and it is growing nicely. To date, around 14% gains. What a great asset to my retirement plan. —Brian B.

Raindrops on window overlooking new york city skyline. — An HSA for a rainy day.

I didn’t get my first HSA until about 10 years ago. At first, I just treated it like an FSA and only put in what I thought I needed for medical expenses that year and didn't invest any of it. After a few years I realized the huge investment and tax-savings potential, so I started maxing it out and investing in index funds. In a lucky coincidence, I timed my first investment of the lump sum I'd been saving over the previous years right when the market bottomed out in 2020.

Since then, I've been maxing out contributions, investing 100% in the S&P index. We have a large family (five kids) which brings a lot of medical bills, but luckily the discipline of not withdrawing from this account over the past six years has resulted in a nice chunk of money that now earns more than we put into it. I also love that not only are my contributions protected from income taxes, but from FICA taxes as well. —Steve M.

I got an HSA when I got my job out of college and my parents kicked me off their health plan. I honestly picked it because it had the cheapest premiums. The tax advantages were an afterthought, though every article I read seemed to encourage it as well.

Flash forward 6 months later, and I had hit the minimum threshold for investing, I picked one low cost growth index fund from the options my company gave me. Since my premiums were so low, I always contributed the annual max to my HSA, I didn't even think about it. I considered it my health care premiums, just being paid to future me :) —Jackie R.

Thank you for this newsletter. This is the first year that I am eligible to contribute to an HSA, and I enrolled at the start of the year. However, as the new year got busy, it slipped my mind to log in and choose investments for my HSA funds. Unfortunately, the account requires a $1,000 cash balance before I can invest. Because I’m set to max out the account this year, I should be invested by April. Anyway, I logged in today and completed that task, thanks to this newsletter. —Scott M.

The HSA has been our family’s favorite “loophole” for fifteen or more years. We’ve used the account the way you outlined in your article:

Fully fund every year.
Pay medical expenses from everyday funds, leaving the HSA untouched.
Carefully archive medical expenses. We actually keep a spreadsheet as well, listing each family member’s expenses for each year.

Recently, I’ve had a new thought: What if we remove the HSA from our net-worth/portfolio calculations and treat it like a long-term care/end-of-life tail-risk fund? —Ken L.

I maxed out our HSA contributions when our employer switched to a high deductible plan back in 2018. At the time the motivation was to reduce our taxable income, and we invested most of it in low-cost index funds. I figured best case, the money grows and we get it back when we’re 65.

Well, at 42 years old I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Trust me when I say if it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone. I had no risk factors and no family history. My medical bills are through the roof now, and in addition to the premium, I hit the $10,000 max out-of-pocket every year. I’m so glad we saved for all those years. It’s frustrating that the max you can contribute is less than what insurance is allowed to charge out of pocket ($4,400 contributions this year compared to the $10,000 I owe) but it’s a huge help it grew all those years before cancer. —Elisabeth B.