Author: J.D. Roth

It’s Friday, my friends, and I’m here to take you into the holiday weekend with a handful of articles about personal finance (and related subjects). Take a gander at what I’ve gathered together fror you…

Why are airline ticket prices so high right now? [The Week] — “Domestic air travel won’t be cheap this summer — prices for tickets jumped 18.6 percent in April alone, due to everything from higher fuel costs to demand for seats. On top of that, schedules are being reduced as carriers work to address their staff shortages. Here’s everything you need to know.” Kim and I want to fly to Colorado to see her mother this summer. We keep balking at ticket prices…and prices just keep going higher.

The unstoppable bots behind the videogame console shortage. [The Verge] — “MoreMore than a year on, it’s still hard to buy a new PlayStation or Xbox without some help. Flippers have become notorious for snatching up the fresh restocks offered online with the help of ultra-fast buying bots, forcing everyone else to buy units off the secondary market for egregious, 100-dollar markups. But after delving into the console reselling underworld, I was shocked to learn that resellers aren’t the primary problem.”

The mind-blowing exploits of Australia’s craftiest conwoman. [Truly Adventurous] — “One Melbourne jewelry store owner, who felt a friendly connection with the businesswoman who’d dropped $600 at her shop, agreed to go for coffee at a Moonee Ponds milk bar. It turned out to be an expensive mistake, costing her $76,780 after Jody stole her ID and drained her bank account. ”

Lastly, here’s an essay from Penny Red at Substack: “All the Best Things About Europe with None of the Genocide.” It’s a detailed look at the Eurovision Song Contest and what makes it great.

As an American, I’m only vaguely aware of Eurovision. I don’t know how it works. I’ve never seen a performance. I don’t know who any of the past winners have been. All the same, I was entertained by this article, and it prompted me to watch several Eurovision videos, videos like these:

Donatan & Cleo (from Poland) — We Are Slavic (so hilarious)

Citi Zēni (from Latvia) — Eat Your Salad (so hilarious)

Lordi (from Finland) — Hard Rock Hallelujah (2006 winner — so hilarious)

Subwoolfer (from Norway) — Give That Wolf a Banana (so hilarious)

Jamala (from Ukraine) — 1944 (2016 winner — not hilarious)

Anyhow, now I’m wondering how an American like me can watch along with the Eurovision Song Contest. Maybe on one of the UK streaming platforms? I’ll have to find out. Looks entertaining.

Good morning, sleepyheads. Welcome to another day of personal finance here at Apex Money. Let’s take a look at the stories I’ve gathered for you.

We’re going to start with a video featuring comments from Warren Buffett at the most recent Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting. Here’s one of my financial heroes explaining why he won’t buy Bitcoin…ever: “If you offered me all of the bitcoin in the world for $25, I wouldn’t take it.”

(I found this video via the excellent Millennial Revolution blog, by the way.)

“I lost $50,000 on paper (and I’m doing just fine).” [We Want Guac] — “Having lost $50k on paper doesn’t affect my life; it shouldn’t affect the lives of my fellow 20-something investors, either. Whether the stock market goes gangbusters this year or continues into the red, I’ll be doing the same thing either way: sticking to the plan.”

Politics and personal financial planning. [Oblivious Investor] — “If you do or don’t like the person in the White House, and you begin to let that feeling make you think that you can predict what the stock market is going to do over the next month (or 48 months), you’re in for a rude awakening. No one person has that much control over the stock market.”

Reputation rankings for the 100 “most visible” companies in the United States. [Axios] — “The two-step process starts fresh each year by surveying the public’s top-of-mind awareness of companies that either excel or falter in society. These 100 ‘most visible companies’ are then ranked by a second group of Americans across the seven key dimensions of reputation to arrive at the ranking.” Interesting list. At the top is Trader Joe’s, a company I love. Two companies I am growing to hate — Amazon and Google — are higher on the list than I would have expected. (Note that my dislike of Amazon and Google isn’t based on politics; it’s based on the shitty quality of their products.)

And our final story today has nothing to do with money. All the same, it’s interesting and insightful.

Pop stars on life after the spotlight moves on. [The Guardian] — “Armed with a batch of potentially indelicate questions – because who likes to discuss failure? – I began to reach out to musicians from various genres and eras, those who hadn’t died young, but were still here, still working, to ask them what it was like in the margins.”

And that’s all he wrote. I’ll be back tomorrow to take you in to the long weekend…

Welcome to Wednesday, my friends. Here in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, it has finally turned to what I call “pre-summer”. It’s nice.

As you probably know, the western half of Oregon (and Washington) gets a lot of rain. It’s not heavy rain like the southeastern U.S.; instead, it’s sort of a constant grey mist that sets in around October 15th and lasts until around May 15th. This year, the rain left precisely on schedule and now we have pleasant, sunny days. (The one difference this year? We didn’t really have a transitional spring period. April was the wettest on record, so we didn’t get any scattered sun breaks as we usually do.)

Anyhow, you’re not here for the meteorological conditions in my neck of the woods. You’re here for money news! Let’s get to it.

Should you buy refurbished electronics? [Consumer Reports] — “If you’re looking to save money, refurbished electronics can be a great option…The trick is making sure the product is genuinely refurbished, not simply cleaned up, repackaged, and repriced. And that requires asking some questions before you settle on a deal.” [I’ve purchased refurbished electronics with mixed success. Most of the time, I get a bargain. But a couple of times I’ve got burned — including on a major computer purchase directly from Apple. Still, I’ll do it again in the future.]

Should people get rid of their lawns? [BBC Future] — “The lawn’s long-standing, deep-seated cultural aesthetic is the product of the pastoral ideal of the British nobility in the 17th Century, which has since been exported worldwide. Since then, its influence has been compounded by rapid suburbanisation, which has allowed the middle classes to own a lawn too, as well as the power of advertising, which has reinforced the lawn as symbol of domestic contentment, and the interests of big business.”

Knowing when to stop. [American Scientist] — “Suppose you decide to marry, and to select your life partner you will interview at most 100 candidate spouses. The interviews are arranged in random order, and you have no information about candidates you haven’t yet spoken to. After each interview you must either marry that person or forever lose the chance to do so. If you have not married after interviewing candidate 99, you must marry candidate 100. Your objective, of course, is to marry the absolute best candidate of the lot. But how?” This article is longish and sometimes math-y, but it’s very very interesting.

Lastly, here’s a fun little four-minute skit from Adam Sandler on Saturday Night Live. In this clip, Sandler plays travel guide Joe Romano, who wants customers to know: “If you’re sad now, you might still feel sad there…You’re still going to be you on vacation.”

“We can take you on a wine tour of Tuscany. We cannot change why you drink…If you don’t like how you look back home, it’s not going to get any better on a gondola.”

See you tomorrow!

Today is Tuesday, my friends, and this is another edition of Apex Money. Every weekday, Jim and I do our best to collect interesting and educational stories about personal finance (and more). Here are some recent faves…

How to do a bit better by doing a bit less. [The Science of Wellbeing] — “It’s not hard to find self-help books and business gurus telling you that in order to be happy and successful you need to be fully committed to your goals and give 100% every waking second of the day. But I’m more interested in the people who recommend a more moderate approach…even extolling the virtues of sometimes (shock! horror!) doing nothing.”

Why do we want problems to be somebody’s fault? [Raptitude] — “It’s not that there’s no such thing as fault, or that solutions never require holding a particular party to account. Only that there’s something about the human mind that wants a given problem to be someone’s fault, simply because it would be easier if it were.” Related (and also from Raptitude): Cynicism is boring.

The law of reversed effort: The harder you try, the harder you fail. [Big Think] — “There are many moments in life when trying harder makes things worse. When you have a mosquito bite, a broken bone, or a nosebleed, you leave it be. Picking, prodding, and probing only exacerbate the problem. So, too, with a lot of life’s major moments.”

Examining the role of luck in personal finance. [The Prudent Plastic Surgeon] — “We all hate luck. We don’t want to give it any credit. In fact, most of us will go out of our way to convince ourselves that we are not lucky. Instead we are deserving. In my mind, both are true. For some reason, and trust me this happens to me all the time, we feel that attributing any of our success to luck or randomness diminishes from our accomplishments or current reality. But does it? Not really.”

And that’s it for today. Time for me to take the dog for a walk. See you tomorrow, everyone!

Hey hey, Apexians, welcome to Monday. We’re back with more great personal-finance stories from around the web. You ready for this?

Why this computer scientist says all cryptocurrency should ‘die in a fire’. [Current Affairs] — “So the stock market and the bond market are a positive-sum game. There are more winners than losers. Cryptocurrency starts with zero-sum. So it starts with a world where there can be no more winning than losing. We have systems like this. It’s called the horse track. It’s called the casino. Cryptocurrency investing is really provably gambling in an economic sense. And then there’s designs where those power bills have to get paid somewhere. So instead of zero-sum, it becomes deeply negative-sum.”

The world’s a mess, so these folks have stopped saving for tomorrow. [The New York Times, so possible paywall] — “In a tumultuous time, many adults under 35 have stopped playing it safe. Instead of banking as much of their pay as they used to, they’re saving less, spending more and pursuing passion projects or risky careers…A recent study by Fidelity Investments found that 45 percent of people aged 18 to 35 ‘don’t see a point in saving until things return to normal.'”

That NYT piece is largely sensationalist alarmism of the sort I dislike. But it’s interesting. I like my buddy Douglas’ response to it better…

“How can I save when I fear there might not be a future?” [Douglas Tsoi] — “I think personal finance, like deciding to have children, is about hope. It’s accepting the despair and embracing it with field of love. It’s about humility. It’s understanding that the future is unknowable, even while our brains/egos are wired for pessimism. As Mark Twain said: ‘I have had a lot of troubles in life, and some of them even happened.'”

Lastly, just for fun, here are the results of the 13th annual Trader Joe’s customer choice awards. Kim and I don’t shop at TJ’s regularly; we only head there for certain items. (I love their truffle potato chips and their salsa autentica.) Part of me wonders what would happen if I chose to make TJ’s my only grocery store for three months. Could I do it? Would I like it?

In any event, this is the company’s official list of their customers’ favorite products. Last weekend, on a lark, I went through my local store and bought as many of these as I could find. I’m going to work my way through them. So far, I’m scratching my head at bamba (what the hell is this stuff and why can’t I stop eating it?), and I’m not sure why people love the mini ice cream cones so much. Haven’t they tried the triple ginger snaps? They’re amazing!

And that’s all I have for you today. See you again tomorrow, friends…

Welcome to Friday, my friends. You’ve made it to the end of another week. Before you check out for some much-deserved down-time, however, let’s look at a few final links…

How to convince yourself to continue investing during a falling market. [Wallet Hacks] — “The pandemic juiced up a lot of stocks. Now that pandemic restrictions are lifting or have been lifted, now that life is moving back towards normalcy, a lot of those stocks have fallen from their highs. Some of stocks have fallen very far from their highs. But that assumes that highs mean anything.”

How to insulate yourself from advertisements. [Bitches Get Riches] — “Perfection isn’t the goal here. You will always see some advertisements. That’s just life. Instead, think of this as a tiered approach. Ideally, advertisers will have no idea that you even exist. But once they do, every scrap of information about yourself is a meal to them. Luckily, there are many ways to starve them. Here are the four main kinds of data that advertisers collect on you, and how to thwart each one.”

The cheapest way to own a car. [The White Coat Investor] — “I grew up believing in the conventional wisdom that the cheapest way to own a car is to ‘buy used and drive it until the wheels fall off’. But as I started digging into this topic a lot more in preparation for replacing both our cars (they went bad at the same time), I found that this isn’t strictly true. Let me explain.”

Our final link today isn’t really about personal finance, but it’s fun. It’s an article about the psychology of Apple packaging.

As a guy who is firmly entrenched in the Apple ecosystem (and has been for nearly thirty years), I’ve always been amazed at just how perfectly Apple packages everything. I really see the difference when buying similar products from other companies. There’s just no comparison. Apple packaging (and the “unboxing” experience) are a world apart. This is by design. It’s part of the Apple experience. And it’s the reason so many people — including myself — don’t throw away Apple packaging. (True story: I have two shelves in my basement devoted to my Apple boxes. sigh)

Okay, that’s it for this week. It’s been good to be back in the thick of things. Jim will return to share stories with you on Monday, and I’ll be back the following week…just like normal.

Hey hey, Apexians. I’ve had a ton of fun diving back into the world of personal finance after nearly three months spent out of the loop. It’s especially interesting to watch as the financial world begins to teeter under the weight of all the bullshit that’s been piled onto it: cryptocurrency! meme stocks! institutional investors inflating the housing market!

Anyhow, here are today’s stories…

Individual differences in susceptibility to financial bullshit. [Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance] — “Consumers particularly vulnerable to financial bullshit were more likely to be young, male, have a higher income, and be overconfident with regards to their own financial knowledge. This finding is in line with prior research that found age to be positively related to people’s ability to distinguish profound and pseudo-profound communication in general.”

Car buyers balk at monthly fees for add-on features. [Axios] — “The entire auto industry is headed toward subscription features amid the shift to software-controlled electric and automated vehicles that can be regularly updated like a smartphone. In many cases, premium features are included for an initial trial period, but then car owners have to pay a monthly fee to keep them.” I hate the subscription economy. It’s pure bullshit.

How to invest with a looming recession. [Oblivious Investor] — “How should we invest if a recession is looming? About the same way we invest the rest of the time. It doesn’t usually make sense to make portfolio changes based on economic news, though changes within the fixed-income part of the portfolio can make sense, as the fixed-income option with the highest interest rate for a given level of risk can change over time.”

How to figure out if you can actually afford that new home. [The New York Times, so possible paywall] — “High inflation often translates to high anxiety, which is why many Americans are striving to lock in the cost of one of their most basic, most human needs: a home. But with housing prices already at lofty levels and mortgage rates spiraling, many buyers may be tempted to jump in before they’re ready — or because they fear the situation will only get worse.”

The rich and the wealthy. [Collaborative Fund] — “I’m always interested in the difference between getting rich and staying rich. They are completely different things, and many of those skilled at the former fail at the latter. Part of this topic is knowing the difference between rich and wealthy.”

That’s it for Thursday. Tomorrow, I’ll have more money stories to help you try to separate the good from the bullshit…

No long preamble today, and no frivolous video. All I have for you this Wednesday is five juicy links…

The trouble with the FIRE movement. [The Rational Walk] — “I broadly agree with the goals of the FIRE movement when it comes to Financial Independence. But I do think that the community has certain blind spots when it comes to Retire Early. Hopefully this article does a better job of explaining where I think the FIRE movement falls short and potentially help some people think about what their early retirement goals are really all about.”

We really don’t know what drives inflation. [Klement on Investing] — “Even over 147 years and incorporating the distortions from international relationships between 17 large economies around the globe there is no stable relationship between money supply and inflation, nor between inflation and long-term interest rates.”

A stranger on an airplane gave her $100 years ago and changed her life. Now she’s trying to find the mystery woman. [CNN Travel] — “Zugay says she was a nearly 12-year-old refugee fleeing the former Yugoslavia with her older sister when a stranger handed them the envelope on a flight to the United States in 1999. The woman made them promise not to open it until they got off the plane. The girls were later shocked to discover dangly earrings and a $100 bill inside.”

What life was like in early cities. [Aeon] — “While past kings, priests and other leaders are part of the story, it is clear that in the past, as today, generative processes – the actions and interactions of people in cities – were the driving forces in the expansion and success of cities.” This article is a bit heady, but I found it fascinating.

Travel is best with young children. [Derek Sivers] — “‘Once you have a baby, you can’t travel.’ I’ve heard this so many times, although only from people who haven’t done it. But I took my baby to nine countries before he was one year old. Then another ten countries by the time he was eight. So I can tell you from experience that it’s not only easy but great.”

There you go. Fresh, ripe links full of delicious information. I hope you enjoyed those articles as much as I did. I’ll be back with more great stuff tomorrow. Won’t you join me?

Welcome to Tuesday, Apexians. No long preamble today. Today, let’s get right to the stories we’ve curated for you.

Let’s start with our daily video. I had lunch with my friend Winston recently, and our conversation turned to the profound shift that I seem to be experiencing in my beliefs, values, and desires. The past six months have been…interesting for me.

Anyhow, Winston suggested that I watch this 2017 TedX talk from design professor Bill Burnett. It’s his advice on how to design the life you want. (And it’s sensible stuff, not the glib advice you hear from the lifestyle design gurus.)

Now let’s look at our links for today…

Over 60 million Americans have taxes so simple the IRS could do them automatically. [Vox] — “For many people, the IRS has all the information it needs to calculate their taxes, send taxpayers a filled-out return, and have them sign it and send it right back to the IRS if everything looks in order. This isn’t a purely hypothetical proposal. Countries like Denmark, Belgium, Estonia, Chile, and Spain already offer such ‘pre-populated returns’ to their citizens.”

Where lawns are outlawed. [The New York Times, so possible paywall] — “Under a state law passed last year that is the first of its kind in the nation, patches of grass like this, found along streets and at housing developments and commercial sites in and around Las Vegas, must be removed in favor of more desert-friendly landscaping. The offense? They are ‘nonfunctional’, serving only an aesthetic purpose. Seldom, if ever, walked on and kept alive by sprinklers, they are wasting a resource, water, that has become increasingly precious.”

Hose-flipping algorithms are coming to your neighborhood. [MIT Technology Review] — “There are already signs big investors are restricting supply, further exacerbating housing crises and setting a template that any big iBuyer could follow…For ordinary people, so long as Wall Street cash is flowing into housing, Zillow’s failure is not the end of tech-led disruption but a fumbled beginning.” This is an important and scary issue that not enough people are taking seriously. Institutional investors are driving up the costs of homes in the U.S.

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

Good morning, friends. It is I, J.D., and it’s my first foray into link curation in many weeks. My varied family crises have settled for the moment, so I’m able to resume work. I’ll start by sharing some of the money stories I’ve enjoyed recently.

Let’s dive in!

The reluctant explorer. [This American Life] — On a long drive yesterday, my girlfriend and I listened to this episode of the This American Life podcast. It’s a fascinating look at the new world of NFTs and cryptocurrency and the blockchain, but told in a human way that makes these things a little easier to understand. Entertaining and educational. (This link is to both the audio file and a transcript.)

The many worlds of enough. [More to That] — “This is the Many Worlds of Enough. It’s the perpetual branching of identity that results from progress, as progress provides you with the confidence and ability to actualize greater things (resulting in further progress). The cyclical nature of this process is what makes it so difficult to stop, and is what prevents us from ever settling on what Enough means.”

Intuit to refund $141 million to low-income TurboTax users. [The New York Times, so possible paywall] — “For years, the maker of the TurboTax software claimed that people could file their tax returns online for free. Millions of customers signed up, only to pay hidden fees later in the process. That was the finding of a multistate investigation led by Attorney General Letitia James of New York.”

Lastly, here’s something fun that feels like it might have been written just for me. (Or, if I’d thought of it, written by me.) By now, most of you know I’m a huge Taylor Swift fan. She’s probably my all-time favorite musician. (Only my youthful love of U2 can compete with my current appreciation of Taylor.)

Well, last week at Women’s Personal Finance, Emilie Cleaver published a fun filler piece highlighting 30 things that “Red (Taylor’s Version)” taught us about money.

Speaking of Taylor Swift, last week she released a new re-recorded song. (She’s re-recording her back catalog for Reasons.) Here’s the beautiful “This Love (Taylor’s Version)”:

And that’s all I have for my first day back on the job. I’ll be back tomorrow with more great links to help you master your money…and your life.