Heigh-ho, money nerds. J.D. here with another week of Apex Money. I apologize for missing yesterday’s installment. I was hard at work in Real Life preparing for a variety of upcoming events. But I’m here today. And boy, do I have some great stuff!
I believe all three of these articles are fantastic and well worth your time:
“My advice to young people (or, The lies I tell myself).” [Jason Liu] — “You’ll notice that I use the word ‘choosing”‘frequently. I genuinely believe that we are always making choices and that we have the ability to choose. Choosing can be terrifying because it means we are accountable for our decisions, and there are infinite options before us. It is also frightening because once we have made a decision, we must live with it, it is the death of optionality. But I believe that choosing is the only way to live authentically.”
To make sure grandmas like his don’t get conned, he scams the scammers. [NPR] — “Kitboga, also called Kit, is a millennial with a knack for improvisation. He’s among the most popular of so-called scam baiters, a term used to describe those who aim to waste scammers’ time otherwise spent ripping off innocent victims. It’s a lucrative gig for some of the biggest creators in the genre who, like Kit, have quit their jobs to scam bait full-time, often broadcasting their humorous schemes on YouTube and Twitch. As internet scams spike, with victims losing more money than ever, scam baiters like Kitboga are trying to get more than just laughs.”
Anatomy of a credit-card rewards program. [Bits about Money] — “The heaviest credit card spenders — and this fact is both uncontroversial and flies in the face of what many personal finance columnists believe — are wealthy and sophisticated. They use credit cards primarily as payment instruments. Issuers compete aggressively for their business, which is quite lucrative. This is not because they pay much in interest, because while they have higher headline APRs they only rarely revolve balances. It is because ‘clipping the ticket’ via interchange on a high volume of transactions is an excellent business to be in.”
And, of course, we’re going to close out the day with a video completely unrelated to money. This one is a three-minute clip about a bulldog who is obsessed with bowls.
Animals are so funny — just like humans.
Okay, that’s it for today. I’ll be back tomorrow with more fun stuff for you. See you then.