Hi friend,
Quick question before we get into it: when was the last time you actually looked inside your 401(k)?
Not the balance. I know you peek at the balance. I mean actually looked at what you own. Because something is about to move into your retirement account, and most people are not going to notice until a headline scares them into doing something dumb.
Let me make sure you are not one of them. And then let me give you something better to think about than rockets.
The SpaceX Situation
Here is the news. SpaceX is heading toward the stock market at a jaw-dropping valuation of around 1.77 trillion dollars. Trillion. And here is the spicy part: the company is currently losing money. So the market is valuing a money-loser higher than almost every profitable company in America, on the bet that someday it will be enormous.
Maybe it will. That is not really my point today.
My point is this: even if you would never buy SpaceX yourself, you are probably about to own a slice of it anyway. The S&P 500 held the line and said no, you have to be profitable to join our club. But the NASDAQ 100 and Total Stock Market funds rolled out the welcome mat and fast-tracked it in. So if your retirement money sits in a total market fund or a NASDAQ fund, and a huge chunk of America's does, SpaceX is about to show up in your portfolio like an uninvited guest at the cookout, helping itself to your potato salad.
Now before you spiral, here is the calming part nobody puts in the scary videos.
SpaceX is only floating about 3 to 4 percent of the company at first. The rest stays locked up with insiders. And index funds weigh things by what is actually available to trade, not the giant headline number. So your initial exposure is a sliver, not a slab. It will grow over the years as insiders sell, but you are not waking up tomorrow with your retirement riding on rocket launches.
So take a breath. You are fine.
The Bigger Lesson
And here is the bigger lesson, because this is really not about Elon at all.
This is about the fact that exciting, shiny investments are almost never as good a deal for regular people as they feel. IPOs are a perfect example. Yes, the average IPO pops on day one. But you and I never get that pop. It goes to the insiders who bought before the doors opened. By the time we can click buy, we are buying from them at the higher price. We are not early. We are the exit.
And long term? Historically, 64 percent of IPOs underperform the plain old S&P 500 in their first year. Almost two out of three. The boring index quietly beats the exciting newcomer most of the time. I spent over twenty years inside big financial institutions, and if I learned one thing, it is that the most expensive mistakes are not made in spreadsheets. They are made in moments of excitement.
So what do you actually do about SpaceX? Honestly, almost nothing. Do not panic-sell your funds because a flashy company moved in. Do not panic-buy on day one because of FOMO. Just keep doing the boring, beautiful thing: Always Be Buying. Contribute on schedule, through the hype and the dips, for years. That is how wealth actually gets built. Not by catching the rocket. By never getting off the train.
Living Rich Now
Okay. That is the headline handled. Now let me zoom out, because here is where I really want your attention this week.
The whole point of this newsletter is in its name. Live Rich, Retire Rich. And I worry that conversations about investing always lean so hard into the "retire rich" part that we forget the "live rich now" part entirely. So let me sprinkle in a few things that have nothing to do with SpaceX and everything to do with building a life that feels good today while you quietly build the future.
Here is a handful of moves I want you to consider this month:
Automate the boring stuff so your brain is free for the good stuff. If your retirement contributions and your savings transfers are not automatic, that is the first fix. Money that requires willpower every month will lose to a busy life every time. Set it, forget it, and stop spending mental energy on decisions you can make once.
Audit one subscription you forgot about. Almost everyone is paying for something they stopped using. Find one. Cancel it. Then redirect that exact amount into your investing account. It is a small number, but the habit of turning leaks into deposits is worth more than the dollars.
Spend intentionally on what you actually love, and ruthlessly cut what you do not. Living rich now is not about spending nothing. It is about spending on purpose. If travel lights you up, fund travel. If it is dinners with people you love, fund that. The goal is not deprivation. It is alignment. Cut the random stuff so you can fully enjoy the meaningful stuff without guilt.
Give your money a couple of jobs beyond retirement. A retirement account is one bucket. But a rich life also needs a fun fund, a freedom fund, and ideally a little money working in more than one place. We talked a few weeks ago about why one income stream and one investment is fragile. The same applies here. Spread it out a little.
Check your "future self" date once a year, not once a week. Looking at your investments daily will make you anxious and tempt you into exactly the kind of reactive moves that cost people money. Pick one day a year to review the whole picture, make adjustments, and then close the app. Your portfolio does not need you hovering. It needs you consistent.
Here is the truth I keep coming back to with my clients.
You are not building wealth so you can sit on a giant pile of money at seventy and finally exhale. You are building wealth so that you get to feel safe, free, and fully expressed the whole way there. The retiring rich part and the living rich part are not enemies. They are partners. Done well, each one funds the other.
So no, you do not need to do anything about SpaceX this week. Let the rocket do whatever rockets do. What I want you to do instead is smaller and far more powerful: automate one thing, cancel one thing, fund one thing you love, and then go live your actual life while your money quietly handles its business in the background.
That is the whole game. Steady hands on the long-term stuff. Open hands for the life you are living right now.
You can have both. In fact, you are supposed to.
Talk soon,
Najma Zanelli
Explore Offerings
Founder, NAZ Global Consultancy
Follow me on IG: @najma_zanelli
Email: [email protected]
P.S. If you want help building a plan that lets you enjoy your money today without sabotaging your future, that is exactly what we do together in one-on-one coaching. Reply with the word BOTH and I will send you the details. I read every reply myself.
