Author: J.D. Roth

Happy Monday to you fine folks. J.D. here to start another week of great stories about money (and more). Let’s get right to it!

The shortcut is probably the long way. [Raptitude] — “It’s like a gold mine, this secret of actually doing things the recommended way. I highly recommend it. Why didn’t anyone tell me about this?” Great piece. I fall into the same trap as David does. I’m trying not to take shortcuts as I learn art.

The spare change donated at store checkout adds up to millions for charities. [NPR] — “Data suggests that despite being bombarded by such requests, [customers] are giving more each year at cash registers, self-checkouts and online. And it has resulted in a huge boost for charities on the receiving end.” [Personally, I never donate at checkout. Never. Why not? Because I don’t know how the money is actually used and because I don’t want to help megacorporations get tax write-offs.]

Why are (most) sofas so bad? [Dwell] — “I was on the phone, asking for a theoretical quote to reupholster a five-year-old or so midrange sofa, which cost more than $1,000 when new. That task, the upholsterer told me, would run me several times more than the couch was originally worth, and, owing to its construction, it was now worth nowhere near its sale price. The upholsterer proceeded to lecture me, in a helpful, passionate, and sometimes kindly manner, about how sofas made in the past 15 years or so are absolute garbage…”

I have lots of thoughts on that last article.

More and more, Kim and I are shelling out the bucks for QUALITY when we buy stuff. We’re remodeling a bathroom right now, for instance, and we’re paying 3x for our vanity than we would if we just bought the cheapest option. And why are we doing this? Because so many products are shit nowadays.

Same principle applies to clothes and home furnishings and kitchenware, etc. I’m sick of buying something cheap, then having it break nine months down the line so that I just have to buy it again. It’s the Vimes Boots Theory in action. We can afford to pay for quality, so we do it.

Okay, that’s it for today. I’ll see you money nerds again tomorrow.

It’s Friday, folks, but before you head into the weekend, we’re here with another installment of Apex Money. Let’s dive in.

How to raise a rich kid. [rich & REGULAR] — “Kids already understand what’s happening around them and they’re capable of more. But when we don’t tell them the truth or answer the questions they have, they freak out. They look for answers elsewhere and they find stuff that is wrong, biased, and scary.”

What if you invested at the peak before the financial crisis of 2008? [A Wealth of Common Sense] — “The historical 9-10% annual return in the stock market isn’t simply made up of the good stuff. Those results include some pretty gnarly periods of volatility. And one of the main reasons we get to experience bull markets like the one we are living through today is because there is always the chance of a crash like we experienced in 2008.”

Sports gambling is a gateway drug. [Business Insider] — “While more and more Americans are getting used to wagering on games from their phone, sports betting is just the start. The next step is to get people to gamble on everything.”

How to land a job if you’re over 50. [Fast Company] — “With age comes experience, which businesses desperately need as they look to cut staff while maintaining efficiency. Here’s how older candidates can showcase their skills and demonstrate their advantages to stand out in the saturated job market.”

Lastly, here’s a video that has nothing to do with money.

As part of my recent quest to learn to draw and paint, I’ve alsy been deliberately developing different handwriting. I’m teaching myself to write an entirely new alphabet. It’s challenging. And fun. And sort of pointless, I guess, except that my handwriting has become much neater.

Well, yesterday as I was watching art videos (I watch a ton of art videos nowadays), I came across this eight-minute segment from JetPens about how to get the neatest handwriting of your life.

I’ve watched this video once now, but I plan to watch it a couple of more times so that I can incorporate its ideas into my “new handwriting” project.

As a sidenote, I should point out that both Tanja (of Our Next Life) and I are big fans of JetPens. It’s just a nerdy online store where you can buy cool pens and paper and related supplies. Tanja and I are both obsessed with this sort of stuff, and we often text each other with our latest finds.

Okay, that’s it for this week. I’ll see you ten days. Jim will be back with you next week.

Good morning, money nerds. Let’s dive right into today’s batch of links.

Our first story today is spectacular. It’s a strong antidote to the deterministic ideas that have begun to cloud a lot of modern personal-finance writing (and videos). I liked this enough that, at last, I’ve added Money with Katie to my regular reads. Should have done that before.

The importance of seeking evidence to the contrary. [Money with Katie] — “Doomerism works online because it can be fun. There’s a miserable solidarity cultivated in that humorous, hopeless soil. The problem is, many of the people digging their hands in the dirt have had their backs turned to untended greener pastures for so long that they don’t even notice they’re there anymore.”

How much cash should you have in your investment portfolio? [Oblivious Investor] — “There’s nothing magical about cash. Whatever we can achieve by shifting a chunk of the portfolio from bonds into cash, we can probably achieve by just slightly bumping up the overall fixed-income allocation instead.” [Thoughtful answer to a question I had myself recently.]

A simple habit for smarter book reading. [Scott H. Young] — “Reading rebuttals can often bolster your appreciation of the original idea because you come to know which parts are conceded by even its most strident critics. When even your opponents admit that you’re right about something, it’s a strong sign that at least that part of your idea is correct. More importantly, reading thoughtful rebuttals outsources the expertise and extensive thinking required to find the flaws in big ideas to someone qualified to find them.” This is a great idea and something I already do with film. Never thought about doing it with books though.

Lastly, here’s a little something fun that has zero to do with personal finance. It’s Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” performed by…Klingons.

Ah, that’s some funny stuffy, isn’t it?

Okay, that’s it for today. I’ll see you all tomorrow.

Welcome to Wednesday, Apexians. It’s one of those days where I’m devoting our entire installment to just one piece. Because I think it’s important.

For years, I’ve been grousing about the enshittification of the internet. (I didn’t use that word, of course, until Cory Doctorow coined it last year. It’s perfect. (More here.)

I was always a vocal detractor of Twitter. I loathe TikTok, which I think embodies everything that’s wrong with modern culture. It’s a net negative for our society — and a huge one — not a net positive.

Anyhow, Ted Gioia (the honest broker) recently published a pair of articles that I think ought to be required reading for anyone who thinks seriously about modern life. Today’s installment of Apex is devoted exclusively to them.

The rise of dopamine culture. [The Honest Broker] — “The tech platforms aren’t like the Medici in Florence, or those other rich patrons of the arts. They don’t want to find the next Michelangelo or Mozart. They want to create a world of junkies — because they will be the dealers. Addiction is the goal. They don’t say it openly, but they don’t need to. Just look at what they do. Everything is designed to lock users into an addictive cycle.”

In both articles, Gioia shares this graphic, which I think is both clever and apt.

His second piece is a follow-up to the first.

In praise of ritual. [The Honest Broker] — “I want to focus on the many positive ways people create a healthy, integrated life that minimizes scrolling and swiping and mindless digital distractions. Many of you have found joy and solace—and an escape from app dependence—in artmaking or nature walks or other real world activities. There are countless ways of being-in-the-world with contentment and mindfulness. Today I want to discuss just one bedrock of real world life that is often neglected—or frequently even mocked: Ritual.”

In that second piece, Gioia writes, “I find it revealing and disturbing that readers who work on the front lines (in education, therapy, or tech itself) expressed the highest degree of alarm. They know better than anybody where we’re heading, and want to find an escape path.”

A couple of weeks ago, I found myself browsing a couple of subreddits for university professors. The posts there echo Gioia. They’re scary.

I know this probably comes across very much as “old man bitching about young people”, but that’s not what I intend it to be. It’s not only young people. It’s all people — or at least all people who actively use modern devices and the internet. We’re all falling victim to this. Even me. Especially me.

So, that’s Apex for today. It’s probably also my personal blog for today haha. This topic is important enough to me that I want to spread it to as large an audience as possible.

I’ll be back tomorrow with our regularly-scheduled programming.

Today is Tuesday, my friends. You know what that means: Drawing class! Okay, you didn’t actually know that Tuesday means drawing class but it does. For the past week, I’ve been practicing nothing but faces. They’re challenging haha.

While I practice getting my proportions correct, you folks can enjoy these recent stories that caught my eye.

New dating app matches people only if they have good credit scores. 🤣 [Fast Company] — “Love might be blind, but it’s not fiscally irresponsible. At least not if a new dating app has its way. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Score, a new app (and website) for the financially minded, hopes to attract people with “good to excellent” credit who know the importance of monitoring their finances. No one with a credit score of less than 675 is allowed to join.” On a related note, turns out several of my financially independent friends use FIRE dating. Who knew? [Nerd trivia: This is the first time I have ever hyperlinked an emoji.]

Deepfake scammer walks off with $25 million in AI heist. [Ars Technica] — “This incident marks the first of its kind in Hong Kong involving a large sum and the use of deepfake technology to simulate a multi-person video conference where all participants (except the victim) were fabricated images of real individuals. The scammers were able to convincingly replicate the appearances and voices of targeted individuals using publicly available video and audio footage.” Craaaaaa-zy!

Do anything. [Aaron Francis] — “Know that it’s okay to change course once you’ve started. It’s okay to start something and then realize something might be better for you. That’s the beauty of action; it opens paths you wouldn’t have seen earlier.” [Fantastic advice, but one of those annoying sites where every sentence is its own paragraph. Why do people do this? It’s awful to read.]

Reversible and irreversible decisions. [Farnam Street] — “Sometimes you can handle the uncertainty or outcomes. Like trying a new restaurant after reading a review or hearing about it from someone at work. Other times, you want to remove as much uncertainty as possible. You wouldn’t decide to marry someone after one amazing date, buy a car without test driving it, or put all your money into a stock you overheard someone talking about in line at the grocery store.” [Pretty sure this is one of Jim’s favorite concepts.]

I don’t really have a “bonus” video for you today. Instead, I’ll share one of my recent favorite art videos. You’ll probably think it’s a bit lame, but I like it. It’s 20 minutes of a pro artist describing how and why he uses cross-hatching as he demonstrates in real time.

I continue to make progress on my art journey. I don’t practice as much as I ought — maybe three two-hour sessions per week instead of daily 60-minute sessions — and it’s partly because I don’t know what to practice. To that end, I’m building a library of “art exercises” on YouTube (and via photocopied art books). This crosshatching exercise is one of my faves because it’s a cool effect and it’s more difficult than it looks. (Like, that “energy field” crosshatching with the brush pen seems like it should be easy but I cannot get my results to look convincing.)

Okay, that’s it for today. See you all tomorrow!

Well, hello. It’s me, J.D., and I’m here with another week of fun stories about money (and more). I was supposed to be here last week, of course, but Real Life got the best of me. And I’m okay with that!

One of my recent projects has been to turn a corner of our “library” downstairs into an art studio. I got that finished yesterday. In the process, I found some notes from the end of January 2021 — notes about how the internet was making me crazy. I’m pleased to say that today, three years later, I’ve managed to find a (mostly) healthy relationship with the web. That mostly means I spend far less time online now than at any other point in the past thirty years.

How to spend money to maximize happiness. [Barking Up the Wrong Tree] — Strangely, this article doesn’t offer a good pull-quote (meaning the thesis is never clearly stated). That said, it’s a nice summary of the research into how money affects happiness.

The joy of not wanting things. [Becoming Minimalist] — “Imagine being freed of the desire to keep up with the ever-changing trends, gadgets, and fashions that surround us constantly. That freedom would allow us to spend our money more intentionally. It would allow us to spend our resources on those things we truly value. Imagine the joy we would feel knowing our money is not being wasted on things that don’t matter.” [Mindful spending always brings joy.]

Why you should plan to get less done. [Range Widely] — “I was falling prey to the planning fallacy on a daily basis, and that it was making the to-do lists entirely useless, and leaving me frustrated at the end of each day. The solution, fortunately, was pretty simple: put way less stuff on each day’s list. Now I put one single thing atop the day’s list that, if accomplished, will mean the workday was a clear step in the right direction.”

Failing to lose. [Novel Investor] — “Purposely losing money in the stock market seems like it should be an easy task. It turns out it takes some luck to lose money in the market. The same goes for making it.” [I love this notion: Deliberately try to lose money in the stock market. It serves to illustrate a couple of important investing principles.]

Lastly, I really like today’s video. It’s a cover of Noah Kahan’s “Call Your Mom” from Marianne Beaulieu. I think it’s beautiful. (Skip to 1:59 if you don’t want to listen to her preamble.)

Before stumbling on this video, I had never heard of Marianne Beaulieu or Noah Kahan or “Call Your Mom”. For the past few days, I’ve had Kahan’s album “Stick Season” playing on repeat. It has a melancholy vibe that I dig.

Okay, that’s it for today. I’ll be back tomorrow to share more!

Hello, Apexians. J.D. here. Alas, I have fallen down on the job.

Last Thursday, I flew to Phoenix to hang out with some of my money buddies at Culdesac Tempe. (Mr. Money Mustache’s post about the project.)

I packed at the last minute, as I often do. This isn’t usually a problem. I travel often, and I have a routine. But for some reason, I couldn’t get my shit together last Thursday, so I forgot a couple of things — including my laptop.

Translation: I wasn’t able to spend my free time gathering cool stuff to share with you here at Apex. Instead, I spent my freetime riding electric bikes all over Phoenix, chatting with friends, and catching the premier of the new Dune movie. (My review: I loved the first one, and this one is okay, but it didn’t live up to the crazy hype it’s getting.)

My days are packed this week, so I don’t have time to catch up now either. Instead, Apex will take this week off and I’ll pick up normal curation duties next Monday.

I apologize for depriving you of a week’s worth of cool links. I’ll make up for it next week!

At this point, I’m mostly retired. I officially stopped blogging about money nearly a year ago. I do update my personal blog from time to time, but not on any regular schedule. The only “work” I do on a regular basis is this: sharing interesting stories at Apex Money.

I’ve been wondering recently how much time I spend on this site. It’s not much, I know, but it’s not nothing either. So, this week I timed my Apex hours to quantify the work I’m doing. The result? I spent exactly three hours working on Apex this week. Not bad for a retirement hobby.

Let’s take a look at what those three hours of reading/watching yielded for you today:

How to stop catastrophizing. [Vox] — “Catastrophizing is a common thought pattern where you assume the worst possible scenario…Climbing out of the spiral that is catastrophic thinking requires both in-the-moment grounding techniques and big-picture reframing. Focusing on the reality of a situation — and not the story you’re telling yourself — can help blunt the anxiety of catastrophizing, experts say. Here are more therapist-approved tactics to help you avoid catastrophic thinking.” [I feel as if the entirety of U.S. society has become one extended exercise in catastrophic thinking. It’s so dumb.]

The most overrated concepts in personal finance. [Of Dollars and Data] — “In the world of personal finance, we are constantly bombarded with messages about the ‘one thing’ that could significantly improve our financial lives. Whether it be a particular kind of investment, a novel mindset, or the latest money-saving technique, there’s no shortage of ideas on how to get ahead. Unfortunately, while many of these ideas are great in theory, they tend to not measure up in practice.”

Our complicated relationship with Stuff. [The Root of All] — “Material objects allow us to explore not just space but also time, even fueling nostalgia for a past we’ve never experienced through collections of vintage cameras, records or typewriters. Moreover, certain possessions mark life’s milestones, such as your first car, home, or stroller. Whether right or wrong, these items have become modern rites of passage. In essence, our belongings make the abstract tangible, serving as anchors to our past lives or stepping stones toward our future aspirations.”

Our final “bonus video” of the week isn’t a single clip. No, it’s an entire YouTube channel! Here’s the home of Ron Calverley, a typical (?) older Canadian gentleman.

Why is this channel remarkable? Because for the past several years, every day Ron has documented his progress building model ships. Here, from five years ago, is the first day of Ron’s model-building series.

It wasn’t until episode 31 of this series that Ron acquired the model ship he intended to build!

It took Ron over a year to build his ship. Here, in episode 474, he gives a tour of the completed project.

And here’s a recent installment (part 1894!) in which Ron continues to build models.

There’s something tremendously comforting about Ron and his videos. It feels like hanging out with my father (who died thirty years ago) or his brother.

Anyhow, I’ve subscribed to this channel now, and I’m perfectly happy to play this in the background while I do other things. It’s homey.

That’s all I have for you this week. Jim will return on Monday, and I’ll see you in ten days. Adios!

Today is Thursday, my friends, and this is Apex Money. As it always is. And as we always do, Jim and I have gathered some stories to share with you, stories about money (and more). Here they are:

The six spheres of life. [The Honest Broker] — “I set out the laws I want to live by. It doesn’t mean I always succeed—in fact, I frequently fall short. But, when that happens, I need to be the sheriff of my six spheres. I’m the only person who can fix things, and return to the right course.” [I think this is a great article. I enjoy learning how others construct their world views.]

How to afford a house these days. [Mr. Money Mustache] — “The solution to this is the same as most other problems: to stop thinking in the way our culture likes to train us (as a victim of outside forces beyond our control) and go back to thinking like a Mustachian. Houses are just like any other manufactured product, and as such they come at a wide variety of prices, subject to supply and demand. And just because you happen to live in a certain place (even if you were born and raised there), doesn’t mean you’ll automatically be able to afford to buy a house there.”

Is F.I.R.E. really a movement? [rich & REGULAR] — “FIRE may not be a political movement, but it is a political statement. It shows a strong desire for autonomy and a willingness to take matters into our own hands. It’s a lifestyle choice that defies the norm by opting out of the typical template of a lifetime of work, retirement, and reliance on a depleted Social Security system. There are plenty of people in our community who plan to work as long as possible, their freedom comes from their ability to show up knowing it’s a choice and not a mandate.” [I think this is a great article too, and I especially like how it frames FIRE as deliberate rejection of societal norms.]

Lastly, here’s a short (three-minute) video from 1930 (ostensibly — looks a bit later to me) in which a man born in 1967 describes what it was like to work during the 1880s.

Unlike most videos I post here, this has some personal-finance chatter in it, especially about wages. Also, the fellow talks about “retiring under the old-age pension scheme”. If he means Social Security, then that places this video after 1935. That seems more likely than 1930. (See? Remember how yesterday I talked about the way I notice errors in movies and TV? This is a prime example of that. The claimed date of 1930 just doesn’t work for a number of reasons. But 1936ish? Yes, that works.)

Okay, that’s it for today. See you all tomorrow!

Welcome to Wednesday, Apexians. Today’s stories are especially interesting, and I encourage you to read each of them. (They’re all short.) Take a gander, eh?

The acceleration of addictiveness. [Paul Graham] — “Unless the rate at which social antibodies evolve can increase to match the accelerating rate at which technological progress throws off new addictions, we’ll be increasingly unable to rely on customs to protect us…Most people I know have problems with Internet addiction. We’re all trying to figure out our own customs for getting free of it. That’s why I don’t have an iPhone, for example; the last thing I want is for the Internet to follow me out into the world.” [A 14-year-old essay that seems even more relevant today than it did in 2010.]

“How I used the 4% rule over the past 29 years.” [The Retire Early Home Page, via Rob Berger] — “I’ve had confidence over the years in the long-term stock market return data and just maintained my asset allocation through thick and thin. I don’t time the market. Stocks go up and down, but the money you lose to financial advisor fees, commissions, trading costs, and taxes is gone forever.” [From (one of?) the first-ever early retirement site on the interwebs. Still rockin’ the old-school 1994 aesthetic. I love it.]

“I cancelled Amazon Prime, and you probably can too.” [Big Technology, also via Rob Berger] — “Last June, on a whim, I canceled Amazon Prime…I planned to return to Prime soon after canceling, but then never did. At first, I figured I’d wait to pay its $139 annual fee until I had something to buy or watch. But within a few months, I realized I didn’t need it.” [As I’ve mentioned before, I hate what the internet has become. Modern Google and modern Amazon are the two worst offenders. I’m mostly out of the Google ecosystem now, and leaving Amazon is my next project.]

So, here’s a “fun fact” about me: I notice many of the little details that are off in movies and TV shows. And these things bug the hell out of me. I notice when the level of somebody’s drink jumps around from full to empty to full again. I notice when the time on the clock is inconsistent, or when the “summer” leaves are all falling colorfully to the ground.

But I didn’t know until today that this quirk of mine is actually a job in the film industry. Apparently, I’d make a good script supervisor.

The script supervisor is the person responsible for catching continuity errors, for thinking like the J.D.s of the world.

Maybe I’ll move to Hollywood to hire out my services.

For now, though, I’ll be back tomorrow with another installment of Apex Money.