Author: J.D. Roth

Welcome to Friday, money nerds. My name is J.D., and I’m here to take you into the weekend with some quick thoughts about mastering your money — and your life. I really like today’s features. I hope you do too.

A few good stories. [Collaborative Fund] — Let’s lead today with an awesome bit of writing from Morgan Housel at Collaborative fund. Housel is famous for awesome bits of writing, but this one contains (as it says on the tin) a few good stories. They’re each short, and they’re each powerful — especially the last one.

To control your life, control what you pay attention to. [Harvard Business Review] — “Your attention determines the experiences you have, and the experiences you have determine the life you live. Or said another way: you must control your attention to control your life.”

Learning to live. [Of Dollars and Data] — “Many times in life you’ll have the opportunity to assume negative intent in others. Don’t do it. You’ll often be wrong and even when you are right, assuming negativity all the time is no way to go through life. Most people don’t want to wrong you. Keep this in mind before rushing to judgment.”

What are some of the best things to make at home? [Ask MetaFilter] — “So I made homemade bread. It was awesome. I’m making homemade Castile soap this weekend. Very excited. What other stuff should I be making at home?” A treasure trove of fun DIY projects.

Let’s close out the week with a non-financial video. It’s a video that I really, really like.

I’ve been a fan of Star Wars since I saw the first film in theaters in 1977. I was eight years old. But honestly, I’ve always had this sense that the franchise failed to live up to its potential. It focused on the dumbest parts of the universe instead of the most interesting.

Well, imagine my joy when Disney recently released the show Andor, a spy-thriller set in the Star Wars universe but possessing NONE of the problematic elements. No Jedi. No Force. No lightsabers. No bizarre “the entire galaxy revolves around a handful of people” plotlines.

Instead, Andor is a twelve-part series that can be enjoyed by anyone regardless how much they know about the established Star Wars mythos. It’s actual quality storytelling.

Anyhow, YouTuber Thomas Flight just published a video exploring why Andor feels so real. It’s an insightful look at one of the elements that helps set this show apart from its peers. And I think it’s something that other CGI-heavy media franchises could learn from.

That’s all I have for you this week! Jim will be back on Monday with more of the same. I’ll see you in ten days. Until then, have fun!

Hey hey, Apexians. Can you believe it’s December?!? Well, it is. Ho ho ho and all that. As the holiday season ramps up, we continue business as usual around here, sharing some of our favorite personal-finance stories from around the web. Stories like these…

The six most important financial decisions you’ll ever make. [ESI Money] — “Decisions, decisions. There are loads of financial decisions we make throughout our lifetimes. Some are big (as we’ll discuss here) and some (most probably) are small (like choosing between the high-priced or store brand peanut butter).” Nice discussion of the Big Things that affect your life (especially your financial life).

“How I’ve saved thousands of dollars on clothes for my kids.” [Frugalwoods] — “This system also enables me to hand-up clothes to friends whose kids need a specific item in a particular size. And yes, they do joke about going shopping in my basement and yes, I deserve it. BUT, I love being able to pull out a complete wardrobe for each kid for every season for an absolute fraction of the cost of buying new.”

Quantifying your dreams to make them happen. [Modest Millionaires] — “Once you have an idea of the potential range of costs for something you desire, spotting a good deal is so much easier. You have data to compare the value you’ll get for the price you pay. So decision making is facilitated thanks to the process of quantifying your goals.”

I’m a big fan of end-of-year “best” lists and similar rituals. The period between Thanksgiving and New Year is always fun because there are so many retrospectives on offer. And here’s one of my faves: Vanity Fair’s annual interview with Billie Eilish.

I don’t listen to much of Eilish’s music (although I like what I’ve heard), but I’ve enjoyed watching each of these interviews over the past six years. It’s neat to watch her growth from age 15 to 20.

Apparently, she’ll continue to do these interviews every year, but starting in 2023 they’ll only be released sporadically. That makes sense. Anyhow, you might enjoy this too.

That’s it for Thursday. Come back tomorrow and I’ll share more some more interesting links to take you into the weekend.

Howdy, moneylings. It is I, your humble host, J.D. Roth. I’m here today to highlight some of the best personal-finance stories from around the web. Stories like these…

The Investor’s Manifesto [Safal Niveshak] — “This is for you. This is from someone like you. It is an Investor’s Manifesto. It is something you can reflect back on if you ever felt stuck in your investing life. If you believe in it, follow it, and stand for it, your investing life will be good.”

Why stories of fraud shouldn’t lead to excessive pessimism. [The Rational Walk] — “Just because the news cycle does not highlight exemplars does not mean they do not exist, and we should bear this in mind before getting too pessimistic about the state of the world when we read about morally bankrupt characters like Sam Bankman-Fried.”

Frontline work when everyone is angry. [Harvard Business Review] — “I’ve studied incivility — defined as rudeness, disrespect, or insensitive behavior — in workplaces for more than 20 years…My research has found that reports of incivility are indeed on the rise.”

Your budget, one envelope at a time. [MetaFilter] — “Need some new budgeting ideas? Enjoy something tactile? Try cash stuffing! Cash stuffing, based on the relatively older cash envelope system, has seen a recent resurgence on TikTok and YouTube especially amongst younger people documenting their progress online.”

Lastly, here’s my favorite video of the past week. It’s a 13-minute clip from 60 Minutes that highlights the smartest dog in the world. (It’s actually a fascinating look at dog intelligence generally, but it highlights one exceptionally smart pup.)

That’s all I have for you today. The Plutus folks will drop in tomorrow, then I’ll return on Thursday with more great stuff. See you then!

Howdy, money nerds. J.D. here and I’m back from central California, where I spent an extended Thanksgiving break with my girlfriend’s family. Fun times and good food, but now it’s time to get back to work.

To kick off this week’s Apex Money, here’s something non-financial.

I’m a big fan of artist and blogger Austin Kleon. I particularly like this installment from Thanksgiving 2021 in which he teaches readers how to create a ‘zine. I like Kleon’s free-flowing, spontaneous style. It’s dynamic. It’s energetic. It’s raw. It’s real.

Anyhow, I’ve been contemplating learning how to draw, and Kleon is a big inspiration as I consider that path.

Enough with the art, though. Let’s look at some stories about personal finance! Here are the articles I have for you today.

Cumulative vs. cyclical knowledge. [Collaborative Fund] — “I can imagine a world in 50 years where things like cancer and heart disease are either non-existent or effectively controlled. I cannot ever imagine a world where economic volatility is tamed and people stop making financial decisions they eventually regret – no matter how much history of past mistakes we have to study.”

The present defines the past. [Of Dollars and Data] — “Whatever you’re thinking right now, you have to realize that you’re being biased by current events. The present is redefining your past. Sometimes this is necessary so that you don’t make the same mistakes again in the future. However, sometimes, the present can teach you the wrong lessons.”

The money value of time. [Young Money] — “The Time Value of Money states that delaying your spending will increase the value of your portfolio over time. And if we had unlimited time on this earth, then the story would stop here. Defer all spending as long as possible to have as much money as possible at some indefinite time in the future. But we don’t have unlimited time. To get the full picture of the relationship between money and time, you need to flip the equation around.”

That’s it for this Monday. I’ll be back tomorrow with more. See you then!

It’s Friday, my friends. You’ve reached the end of another week. But before you head off for friends and family and fun, here are few last money stories for your edification…

When the founder of Amazon encourages you to stop buying, maybe you should listen. [Becoming Minimalist] — “When the wise thing to do is delay purchases, companies and marketers are going to be working harder to compel you to spend. This crescendo will reach a fever pitch over the next two months. So how do we keep from falling into their trap?”

The other answer. [Humble Dollar] — “There are usually two answers to every personal-finance question: There’s what the calculator says—and then there’s how you feel about it. What does that mean in practice? Let’s look at an example.”

Rich friends, poor friends. [Monevator] — “Surrounding yourself with rich friends is a well-known strategy for making more money…There’s plenty of scientific research to back up this folksy-sounding advice.”

Seven things rich people never do. [Darius Foroux] — “It’s attractive to talk about all the things rich people do and how you can build wealth. A large part of my work focuses on the right actions we should undertake to get wealthy. But what I don’t always share is how I figured out the right actions. Most of the time it’s a matter of looking at the wrong options and doing the opposite.”

To close things out, here’s a six-minute video from the TED-Ed channel on YouTube. It’s all about why you procrastinate even when it makes you feel bad.

“Procrastination is a result of our bodies trying to protect us.” !?!??!?! I imagine the voice of Mr. Spock: “Fascinating.”

My body tries to protect me a lot.

Okay, that’s all for this week. Jim will be back with more on Monday. And I’ll be back after Thanksgiving. See you then!

Good morning, Apexians. J.D. here, and I’m three days late. That’s right: I forgot to share links with you on Monday and Tuesday. Totally my fault. But I’m here today and I’ll be here tomorrow. So, let’s look at what I’ve found for you!

The five levels of wealth. [Physician on Fire] — “Instead of a distinct monetary amount, it’s nice to think of [wealth] in terms of real-life situations we can relate to. This takes into account the cost of living and really what your lifestyle is like. Using these ideas as a framework, I’ll explain my version of the different levels of wealth.”

Why you should (almost) always make the first offer. [Lifehacker — remember that site?] — “The irrational power of the Anchoring Effect is why making the first offer (sometimes called “dropping the anchor”) is a powerful tool in a negotiation. But that doesn’t mean it always works—you need to know how to use it in order to get the full benefit of the effect. Here are some things to consider when planning to drop an anchor into a negotiation.” [Actually, I’ve always heard that you should not make the first offer, so this is news to me.]

Questions to ask yourself before you buy anything. [No Sidebar] — “It’s one thing to declutter your stuff and make new space, but resisting the consumer itch is another beast entirely. Everywhere we go we’re bombarded with marketing, and it’s cleverer and more subtle than ever…So how do you rewire your desire, exactly? You can start by asking yourself seven simple questions every time you’re considering buying something new.”

To close things out today, here’s a lovely (non-financial) video of a father teaching his daughter the song “Moon River” from baby to seven years old. It’s a sweet montage.

But wait! There’s more! Here’s the same girl playing “Moon River” on her own (serenading the family dog). And here she is playing John Lennon’s “Imagine” to a cat.

That’s it for today. I’ll be back with you tomorrow. See you then.

Hey hey, money nerds. As promised, I’m back with a bonus Saturday installment this week because I forgot to publish links on Thursday. I can’t deprive you of your weekly quota! Here’s what I have for you today.

The secrets of stealth wealth. [Financial Imagineer] — “Stealth wealth is the opposite of conspicuous consumption, it’s about finding true wealth and quality of life which financial freedom helps to unlock. It’s all about having the ability to do what you want, when and where you want with whomever you like to. It’s all about having to focus less on money and having more time, freedom, and peace. Once you understand this, your world will change for the better.”

Secrets of a professional negotiator. [The Retirement Manifesto] — “For the final nine years of my career, I was paid to negotiate. It feels strange saying this, but the fact is that I was a professional negotiator. I negotiated for a living. It’s time to share my secrets: The secrets of a professional negotiator.”

How to detach yourself from your financial wins and losses. [The Root of All] — “The way to train yourself to detach from the emotional pull of wins and losses is to put all your energy into your response. While we can’t know whether an event is good or bad, we do know the quality of our response. It is always possible to respond virtuously in any situation. It’s always possible to do good.”

And that’s all I have for you this week. Jim will return on Monday to share more personal-finance goodness with you. See you then!

Heigh-ho, everybody. J.D. here with another day of Apex Money. I didn’t get yesterday’s edition out — sorry about that — so I’ll have a bonus Saturday installment for you tomorrow. But today? Well, I like the batch of articles I’ve collected for today. They’re all centered around a theme: happiness.

The fallacy of ‘preparing for life’.” [Accidental Fire] — “Every year is still 365 days, but damn if they don’t seem to be getting shorter and shorter. Nobody seems to be able to find the time for anything, their dreams, their passions, or their kids soccer game…Don’t suffer in a job you hate just to financially prepare for a future thing called retirement. Life is now. There is no preparing for life, there’s only life.” Preach!

The eight splendid truths of happiness. [Gretchen Rubin] — “In my study of happiness, I’ve labored to identify its fundamental principles. Because I get a tremendous kick out of the numbered lists that pop up throughout Buddhism (the Triple Refuge, the Noble Eightfold Path, the Four Noble Truths, the eight auspicious symbols), I decided to dub these fundamental principles as my Eight Splendid Truths.”

Will more money make you happier? Probably not. [Becoming Minimalist] — “Regardless of how much money contributes to happiness (and the jury is apparently still out on that), the one thing we do know is this: Prioritizing the pursuit of money NEVER contributes to overall happiness and life satisfaction. In fact, those who prioritize money over the pursuit of more value-based goals end life with less satisfaction and fulfillment.”

The best idea humans ever had. [Raptitude] — “If you look at what ancient humans say about how to live, it’s always some version of this full-time devotion to good…They don’t say, ‘Have a good time, but do enough difficult stuff to be able to consider yourself a good person,’ as modernity seems to prescribe, but rather, ‘Train yourself in each moment to always do the morally best thing, with love and without hesitation. Make this your purpose in life and sacrifice everything else for it.'”

What does success look like? (And how does it feel?) [One Frugal Girl] — “What if success focused on our emotional well-being, social connections, and job-related enjoyment? What if we weighed time, money, relationships, and health? Do you have time freedom? Do you have the flexibility to focus on your passions or share your time with people you love? Do you have time for the people and things that matter most to you?”

Good stuff, right? Well, I’ll be back tomorrow with more good stuff. See you then.

Today is Tuesday, money nerds. I’m J.D. Roth and this is Apex Money.

Generally speaking, Jim and I don’t like to promote our own stuff here at Apex. This is a place to promote the work of other people. Today, I’m going to link to two pieces in which I play a big role. They’re not from any of my sites, but they both feature interviews with me. But I think they both contain good info, so I’m going to do it.

First up is an interview I did with Jess from The Fioneers:

Money doesn’t magically fix our problems. [The Fioneers] — “Today, that’s exactly how I see money: a tool. No, that’s not quite right. I see money as fuel. That’s a better analogy. A tool is durable and reusable. Money is not. Money is consumable. It’s a fuel source to help you fund the life you want. If you burn this fuel making detours to stops that don’t matter (buying things you don’t want or need, for instance), then you’re compromising your ability to reach the destination you have in mind.”

Second is an interview about writing that I did with Jacob from The Root of All. It’s at the end of his longer piece about spending in the time of COVID.

Spending in the time of COVID. [The Root of All] — “The most important to become a good writer is simple: Write. Write all of the fucking time. I talk to a lot of people who say they want to become writers, but they don’t ever write. They just talk about it. If you want to be a writer, you have to write. More than that, you have to share your writing with other people, and you can’t be precious about it.”

Okay, enough about me. Let’s close things out today with a couple of other interesting money articles from other sources:

How our perceptions of time and money change as we age. [Retire Before Dad] — “Our perceptions of the value of time and money shift as we age. In early adulthood, time is abundant, while money is scarcer. We want more money and are willing to sacrifice our time to get it. By middle age, a thriving career helps us earn more, but job and family obligations consume our time. Life is expensive, and working middle-aged people never seem to have enough time or money. Approaching retirement, we’re more willing to spend money to save time.”

“The best stuff won’t make you happier. I know because I tried it.” [Vox] — “It isn’t just a display of wealth; it’s your morality: that you are indeed the Informed Consumer, able to not only afford the best but to know what ‘the best’ even is. It’s a marketing strategy that is not new, of course, but that seems to work particularly well at the present moment.”

That’s it for today! Tomorrow, the folks from the Plutus Foundation will drop by with their weekly round-up. I’ll be back on Thursday with more great stuff. See you then.

Hey, everyone. It’s J.D. again. Thanks to Jim for carrying all of the Apex Money duties during the past month while I was preoccupied.

You see, my mother died on October 3. This wasn’t unexpected — her health had been declining for a long, long time — but October has been difficult nevertheless.

I spent all of last week doing nothing: walking the dog, staring into space, browsing Reddit for hours at a time. I feel listless and apathetic. I have so much to do but no will to do it. The best way to get back in the swing of things, though, is simply to take action. So that’s what I’m doing. Let’s see what sorts of goodies I’ve found for you today…

The people making millions off Listerine royalties [The Hustle] — “Most types of intellectual protections (trademarks, copyrights, patents) have a built-in expiration date: Patents automatically expire after 20 years, at which point a company can no longer charge a royalty. Listerine’s formula, however, was a trade secret — and a trade secret, the court ruled, can have a perpetual royalty contract.” This is a fascinating story, and one of my favorite pieces of the year.

Does shopping at a warehouse club really save anything? [Chief Mom Officer] — “This week I’m going to do a bit of an old school series on warehouse clubs. Today I’m going to share with you the research I did to look critically and closely at a typical BJ’s shopping trip and see what, if anything, we saved over other options in town. On Wednesday I’ll go through a bunch of warehouse club shopping tips. And on Friday I’ll talk about how to figure out what kind of shopping options work best for your family.”

The power of a “what if we didn’t own this?” bag. [Rich in What Matters] — “Many things enter our home that don’t actually serve a purpose in our lives. We don’t use them, love them, or need them. The purpose of material possessions is to be used for some good. If we’re holding onto things that have no value, we are keeping them from fulfilling their true purpose in someone else’s life.”

Lastly, here’s a YouTube rant from the GiantGrantGames channel that I really, really liked: “YouTube ads are getting insane, and I hate it.” This video explores the growing problem with YouTube ads and suggests some solutions.

As somebody who’s prepping to dive (back) into video, I found this fascinating. I was a Google early adopter. I told everyone I could about how awesome the company was. No more. Google long ago discarded their “don’t be evil” motto and embraced the Dark Side. I hate it.

I’ve slowly been shedding everything Google from my life…even gmail! Doing so is difficult, though, and makes it tougher for content creators to earn a living. My aim is to have zero percent of Get Rich Slowly’s content on Google platforms, but I still need to puzzle out how to make this happen. Will people really go to Vimeo to watch videos instead of using YouTube? I don’t know.