The GLP-fication of the World
What our obsession with shortcuts reveals about money, mindset, and the long game
Finance That Feels explores the psychology and mindset behind our financial decisions—asking why we are the way we are with money—and offers tools to help you align your money with your biggest dreams and deepest values. For more regular updates, follow @emiliedayanhill on Instagram.
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A Magic Bullet
Two things I learned in the past week are:
everyone* is on a GLP-1, and
GLP-1s are already outdated.
*By “everyone,” I mean way more people than I realized until recently. The official number is that 1 in 8 adults in the U.S. is on a GLP-1–type drug—double the rate from a year ago.
Those who are willing to talk about it out loud say the same thing: it’s a miracle.
I turned to my best friend—the one who is always ahead of trends and knows what’s up. She’s been on one form or another for about four years and, when I asked, responded, “I definitely agree… it’s a miracle drug.” She added, “More people in your life than you know are likely already taking these drugs.”
She has since moved on from GLP-1s, tried GLP-1 plus, and is eagerly anticipating GLP-3, known as retatrutide. For many, the original GLP-1 is already fading in the rearview mirror.
Really Personal Relationships
I’ve always thought there are parallels between our relationships with money and our bodies. They are both:
Unique to each person
Long-term endeavors
Mindset- and behavior-oriented
It doesn’t matter whether someone is endowed with fortunes from birth or scraps their way into wealth over a lifetime: being good with money—by which I mean living in a clear, confident relationship with it rather than reacting to it—is the result of consistent behaviors over a long period of time. Behavior flows from mindset.
GLP drugs have broken my analogy!
As far as I know—and as a professional high-net-worth money manager, I would know—there is no magic bullet for money. Get-rich schemes abound, as always, but there is no miracle drug that will overnight guarantee financial success.
Most people don’t like the tried-and-true way to wealth: spend less than you earn, invest the balance, and stay invested—come hell or high water—for a very long time. The journey will be unique to your life and your financial situation. Whatever Joe Schmoe on the internet says will make you rich overnight is probably not the right strategy for you.
Building wealth takes time. Maintaining wealth is a lifelong endeavor. Financial wellness is the sum of mindset and behavior. That’s why I talk about those two so much.
Chasing Rainbows
I’ve heard that the most miraculous part of GLP drugs is how they change one’s mindset. The mental chatter and urges simply go away.
Evidence suggests that most GLP users regain the lost weight if and when they stop taking the drug—and the chatter resumes. It’s increasingly accepted that GLP drugs will be lifetime drugs. Once you’re on, there’s no going back. My friend, and others I’ve spoken with, are at peace with that outcome.
If anything, this reality underscores for me just how important mindset and behavior are in the absence of a miracle drug.
Our bodies and minds did not evolve for the abundance of food in the 21st-century Western world. Both default to survival instincts: consume as much as possible now in anticipation of the next famine. Our psychology operates the same way with money.
We chase the reward, and once we catch it, we often don’t know what to do with it. We make short-sighted decisions that feel good in the moment—impulsive spending, instant gratification, a very real dopamine hit—instead of investing for a future version of ourselves that feels abstract and far less thrilling.
To a certain extent, our mammalian brains enjoy the hunt. The chase. The dopamine. I think this is why some people take far more financial risk than is appropriate—or don’t even realize how much risk they’ve taken on. It’s more fun than the boring, proven way to grow and maintain wealth (unique to you, long-term, mindset- and behavior-oriented).
Once you catch the rainbow, you go looking for the next one. We are not particularly good at being satisfied.
The Stigma
Another parallel between money and our bodies? The stigma.
We speak about both—especially GLP drugs—in hushed tones. When I asked my friend about this, she made a point that stuck with me:
“There will still be stigmas, but there are also stigmas around obesity. So you kind of can’t win there. Just do what’s best for your health.”
I am not on a GLP drug, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t envious of the ease with which GLP users seem to operate around food. Just being honest. (FoMO is another human-brain thing.)
I am genuinely happy for people who have experienced life-changing benefits from these drugs. As I live in relationship with my own body, I remind myself of what I’ve written here: it all comes back to doing what’s right for your unique situation. It’s long-term. And miracle drug or not, the mind is still at the center.
The Invitation
So, there is no magic bullet for financial wellness. The path is unglamorous and deeply personal: spend less than you earn, invest the balance, and stay invested for a very long time. But before you can decide how to move forward, you have to know exactly where you’re starting from.
That’s why I’m inviting you to join me for the Dollar Detox, February 8–15.
Think of it as a reset—not a diet, not a punishment, and definitely not a miracle cure. Just a clear-eyed look at your financial reality, free from judgment, designed to quiet the mental chatter and help you build a more intentional relationship with your money.
Sign up here and I will email daily prompts + guidance throughout the week.
The Dollar Detox is designed to build a strong foundation for a healthy money mindset and behavior. I hope you’ll join me.
P.S. (and E.D. trigger warning)
My family has a history of eating disorders. It is a life-threatening disease, and I personally know how scary and traumatic it is when a loved one is battling E.D. The prevalence of GLPs and the rapid weight loss I’ve seen around me makes me really scared for the individuals suffering from E.D. I am obviously not a doctor, I have no data, nothing, but I appreciate what my friend said when we discussed GLPs, and I wanted to leave it here for you:
“Like any drug, it can be abused and should be used under the care of a physician, or at least very responsibly. You should have someone in your life who won’t let weight loss get to a dangerous place, replacing one problem with another.”
Continue the Conversation:
What does “doing it the long way” with money look like in your own life right now?
Where do you notice impatience or mental chatter showing up around your finances?
Recommended reading, etc:
If GLP-1 Drugs Are Good For Everything, Should We All Be on Them?
The Hard Truth of Weight-Loss Drugs: You Probably Need Them Forever
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DISCLAIMER
The opinions of Emilie Hill are solely her personal opinions and not necessarily the opinions of her employer. Social content provided by Emilie is for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy any security.