Author: J.D. Roth

What up, money nerds? This is Wednesday, this is Apex Money, and I am your host, J.D. Roth. Today — as every weekday — I have a handful of cool stories about personal finance (and related topics) to share with you. I’m particularly fond of the first one.

Digging up personal info on a politician based on a seemingly-innocent Instagram photo. [Mango PDF Zone] — “Your boarding pass for a flight can sometimes be used to get your passport number. Don’t post your boarding pass or baggage receipt online, keep it as secret as your passport.” This is a l-o-n-g article that’s difficult to explain…but damn it’s interesting. Bottom line? Don’t post photos of your boarding pass when you’re traveling.

Finding the track. [Haystack] — “This year will force me to be even more alert, move alive, more aware of the signals around me. By paying close attention, there’s a possibility to find the track again. It won’t just reappear, like someone flipping the switch back. Rather, I believe it is a new track, and it has to be forged from scratch.”

The billionaire who wanted to die broke is now officially broke. [Forbes] — “Charles ‘Chuck’ Feeney, 89, who cofounded airport retailer Duty Free Shoppers with Robert Miller in 1960, amassed billions while living a life of monklike frugality. As a philanthropist, he pioneered the idea of Giving While Living — spending most of your fortune on big, hands – on charity bets instead of funding a foundation upon death.”

To close things out today, we’re featuring audio instead of video. Here’s the latest episode from Sarah Li Cain’s excellent podcast, Beyond the Dollar. It’s all about your financial legacy. And if things work like I hope they will, I’ll simply be able to paste her HTML code and the podcast will embed below. 😉

How’s that for a bunch of food stuff? It’s great, isn’t it? And we’ll be back tomorrow with more of the same! See you then.

Today is Tuesday. Here at Apex, we’re ready to dive into some money links!

How financial apps get you to spend more and question less. [Kristin Wong at Wired] — “Robinhood, the investing app, uses a gamified interface to make investing seem easier than it is, encouraging its users to trade frequently, which most personal finance experts do not recommend for long-term investing. Without properly understanding the risk, many consumers have been steered into costly investing decisions.”

Why creatives thrive in early retirement. [Minafi] — “An identity bridge is a project, hobby, interest, skill, or something else that enables you to continue having a similar sense of self during retirement. It’s about not feeling a sense of loss for a job – or at least the parts of your job that were beneficial. People who don’t have hobbies need this the most.”

“My favorite lessons from The Algebra of Happiness.” [Four Pillar Freedom] — “This isn’t a book that cites controlled studies and experiments dealing with happiness. It’s simply Galloway sharing advice based on what he has personally experienced. This could be a turn-off for some people, but I viewed the experience of reading this book as similar to sitting down with someone who has been through a lot in life, faced hardships, endured failure, and is simply dishing out some advice based on what they’ve seen works.”

Why it might be a bad idea to buy a home during the pandemic. [MSN] — “Mortgage applications are up 22% compared to last year, showing that demand is immense. But if you’re keen on submitting your own application, you might want to reconsider. The US is facing a housing shortage that only ratchets home prices up, according to a new Redfin analysis. Meanwhile, a new LendEDU survey found that those who decided to become pandemic homeowners are already expressing buyer’s remorse.”

Finally, I was moved by this short video clip in which a troop of monkeys mourns the “death” of a camera “spy monkey”. That sentence doesn’t really make sense out of context. Here. Watch the video.

I’m telling you: Animals have greater intelligence and richer emotional lives than most people credit.

Okay, that’s plenty for today. I’ll be back tomorrow with more of the best from the world of personal finance. See you then.

Good morning, my friends. I hope you’re doing well. And I hope that you’re ready for another week of outstanding money links here at Apex Money. To kick things off this Monday, we’re going to take a look at some stories from traditional media outlets. You know, newspapers and magazines! (Remember those?)

Four questions to help demystify your relationship with money. [New York Times, so possible paywall] — “That’s where these questions can move people to think about their money as more than just a way to buy what they want. It gets people to think about how they want to be involved in their family, their community and the world.”

Cut your work hours in half by using an “A/B schedule”. [Fast Company] — “As a coach who works with a lot of business owners and solopreneurs, I’ve seen my clients do everything from marketing to idea generation to logistical firefighting. Often, they’re doing all these things on the same day, if not the same hour. That makes about as much sense as actually balancing, wearing, and placing a stack of hats on your head at the same time. So I tell my clients, they need to put on one hat–one role–at a time, and adopt an A/B schedule.”

Financial rules of thumb to consider breaking. [Kiplinger’s] — “Financial rules of thumb circle around the internet like flotsam caught in an eddy. We scrutinized five particularly persistent ones to see how they hold up. Our conclusion: Most have merit as a starting point for setting a financial goal. But depending on your personal circumstances, you may benefit from bending the rules.”

To wrap things up, let’s look at several mass media outlets at once! Last week, I discovered News Radius, a site that collates news headlines from five different major outlets, then displays them side by side. It’s interesting. Here’s a screenshot:

The site also has an election-focused page where you can compare tweets from both Joe Biden and Donald Trump. I’m not a big fan of the news media, but I find this project interesting.

Okay, that’s plenty for today. I’ll be back tomorrow with more great links. See you then.

Yikes.

Here I thought my mention yesterday of the Oregon wildfires would be a “one and done” thing. After all, the winds were shifting and surely the fires would begin to fade, right? Wrong.

Now my brother’s family has been evacuated from the town where they live (population 9235)…and my family’s box factory is in the danger zone. Kim and I are still safe, but who knows what’s going to happen? Scary stuff, man.

To get my mind off of things, let’s look at some interesting stories from around the web, shall we?

The eight secrets to a (fairly) fulfilled life. [The Guardian] — “You needn’t berate yourself for failing to do it all, since doing it all is structurally impossible. The only viable solution is to make a shift: from a life spent trying not to neglect anything, to one spent proactively and consciously choosing what to neglect, in favour of what matters most.”

“I am so over productivity porn!” [Bitches Get Riches] — “Nobody is going to punish you for failing to start a container garden during quarantine or not training to run a marathon. I fucking promise you. You know yourself better than anyone else does. Do what makes you feel healthy, happy, and secure. And ignore the goddamn productivity porn.”

Why do people stay poor? [Of Dollars and Data] — “The fact is that money begets money. In investing we all know this to be true, but these empirical studies suggest that this is also true in the labor market. Without financial resources people find it incredibly difficult to get the skills and training to get ahead. I know this all too well as a first-generation college student who was fortunate enough to have their tuition paid for by a need-based scholarship.”

Let’s end things today with a money-related music video! Here’s “Broke” by Teddy Swims. I’ve never heard of him before, and I’ve never heard the song until now. But it’s funny!

Okay, don’t mind me. I’m headed back to get updates on the wildfire situation. Last I heard, they’re actually pulling firefighters off one of wildfires. Meanwhile, the largest fire in the area is zero percent contained.

Yikes.

Well well, this week is a mess at Apex Money isn’t it? I apologize. Real Life has reared its ugly head. Here outside of Portland, Oregon, we have some highly unusual wildfires raging. So, I spent my yesterday making emergency preparations in case of natural disaster.

Fortunately, all is well so far. Kim and I are safe. My mom had been evacuated from her assisted-living facility. My brother and his family have voluntarily evacuated…and their home will apparently be okay. Winds are shifting, which will sharply reduce the advance of the fires toward populated areas.

But enough about me! Let’s talk about money. Here are some great recent links from around the web…

Stop comparing yourself to others. [One Frugal Girl] — “I’ve compared myself to others my whole life…Now, in my early forties I have a better understanding of myself and those around me. I know that life is not a race. If it were I would be heading away from the crowd of runners. We don’t all need the same things out of life. We don’t have to covet the same goals either.”

Stop comparing yourself to your past self. [Tawcan] — “Stop comparing yourself to the past self. If you keep doing that, you will never move forward in your life. Get over the past mistakes, learn from them, and make decisions based on what you know today. If you make more mistakes, rinse and repeat!”

Don’t worry about where you should be. Stay in your lane. [Humble Dollar] — “Perhaps one of the first micro-actions we can all take is removing ‘should’ from our vocabulary. It’s such a limiting construct. Playing to someone else’s scoreboard is easy, which is why a lot of people do it. The harder thing—playing our own game—begins when we turn our focus and energy toward what we’re capable of and how we can improve ourselves. Sound simple? Yes, it is—but it isn’t easy.”

Okay, that’s it for today. I’ll be back tomorrow with more good stuff! (And because I’ve been negligent about posting this week, I’ll probably be back on the weekend for an update too.)

Why, hello!

As you may (or may not) have noticed, Jim and I took a brief holiday. But we’re back! And we come bearing fresh, juicy personal-finance stories from assorted corners of the web.

First up, it’s a profile of “the witch of Wall Street”, Hetty Green. (We could simply post this link today, and it would be enough.)

The fascinating (and forgotten) story of America’s first female tycoon. [Avenue] — “She eschewed living in grand style in a mansion on Fifth Avenue’s Millionaire’s Row (though she owned property there), and instead chose to lodge in inexpensive rooming houses across the river in Hoboken, New Jersey, or in Brooklyn, often under assumed names. Hetty famously made her rounds of New York banks using public transportation, and once stepped off a public coach lugging a parcel containing $200,000 in negotiable bonds.”

Self-directed, project-based learning. [Seth Godin] — “From the age of five, many kids are capable of self-directed, project-based learning if we’re willing to turn off the TV and accept that the process won’t immediately lead to sought-after standardized test results. We can create a pattern of teaching people to be curious because curiosity is an engine for learning…” [I found this especially interesting because I recently decided to learn Japanese…for no particular reason other than curiosity.]

What to do with “extra” money. [Surviving and Thriving] — “Some things you can’t control – for example, the pandemic taking your job or cutting your hours way back. Or maybe the fact that your adult offspring had to move back home because their jobs vanished/shrank. But while you can’t change certain things, you can change the way you react to them. Taking any ‘extra’ money and putting it toward a goal is one of the things you can change.”

Let’s end things today with a video (as we often do). Generally speaking, I hate vertical video. It’s awful. And, in fact, I hate the fact that the video I’m about to share with you is shot in vertical mode because that means we’re missing so much visual information we might otherwise have. But this one is so good that I’m willing to forgive its verticality.

Here’s a five-minute video of a man hand-crafting a teapot from scratch. I love it. (True story: We own a teapot that’s nearly identical to this. What if this man made our teapot?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6u54KNhpOTc

Okay, that’s all for today. I’ll be back tomorrow with more links and videos and fun.

Ah, it’s Friday. The end of another week. Time to ease into the weekend and enjoy what’s left of summer. Before we do, though, let’s take a look at some of cool stories about money (and related topics) that we’ve enjoyed recently.

This tiny house community feels like living in a small village. [Contemporist] — “Living in a tiny house community is the dream for some people, and Jesse Russell, owner and creator of Hiatus Homes, has designed a purpose-built village with 22 tiny homes, located in Bend, Oregon…The tiny house village has paths that connect the homes, with them arranged in a way that they face inward to the shared community spaces that include ponds, fire pits, planters, and a bocce court.” [Here’s a video tour. I want to live here!]

Nine symptoms of an unhealthy relationship with money. [Physician on Fire] — “The good news is, no matter how unhealthy your relationship with money is, you can always take steps to improve it. However, to make that happen, you need to identify the habits which are causing you to overspend or preventing you from spending even on your basic comforts and necessities.”

Okay, Boomers, let’s talk about socialism. [Hedgeye] — “Most Boomers think they earned it all on their own merits: See, capitalism works! Most Millennials suspect that it has more to do with how Boomers benefited from their particular age location in history.”

The problem with high expectations. [A Wealth of Common Sense] — “Even uber-successful people experience jealousy and make relative comparisons about career accomplishments. Getting exactly what you want in life can often be a letdown because it’s so difficult to be content with what you have. Once the positive feelings wear off, you eventually need a bigger hit of dopamine to get the same emotional response.”

Let’s end the week with something fun!

Here’s a segment from Penn and Teller’s Fool Us in which French performer Léa Kyle fools the hosts with her magical “quick change” act. As one commenter says: “If you slow it down to 0.25x, you can actually see that I have no idea how she does any of it.” Neither do Penn and Teller.

Here at Apex, we’re going to perform our own quick change act. Or maybe it’s a slow change act. I’ll be disappearing for a week while Jim steps in to take his turn with the links starting on Monday. Until then, have a great weekend!

Today, my friends, can you believe it? Today, my buddy Jim and I have gathered together some fine, fine stories about personal finance and related topics. What will we think of next?

How to make your high cost of living city more affordable. [CityFrugal] — “When you bump into something costly in a city, ask yourself why that is. Are you consuming what is plentiful and living in harmony with your city? Or are you trying to consume something that’s relatively scarce, pitting your desire against your city’s endowment of resources? Once you start seeing this distinction, you won’t be able to stop seeing it. I notice it everywhere.”

Is financial independence for everyone? [Millennial Revolution] — “In our situation, FIRE was life changing and I don’t regret quitting my job for a second. But are we the norm or the exception? Is it because you need a spouse in retirement to avoid loneliness? Or are some personalities simply not suited to early retirement?”

What you must do before you can design your ideal life. [The Fioneers] — “Over the last few years, I’ve sought out the resources to help me build a holistically fulfilling life. Each book, framework, experience, and resource taught me something that I’ve incorporated into my life.”

Make better decisions by freeing yourself from the need for perfection. [Educator FI] — “It is impossible to make perfect decisions. Trying to do so will ultimately cost you more in the long run. Instead, strive to make solid decisions…You’ll give yourself the chance to seize more opportunities. You’ll avoid staying in and taking catastrophic failures out of stubbornness.”

And to round things off: Have you seen the trailer for the upcoming Netflix film, Enola Holmes? Wow. This thing hits so many of my nerd buttons.

Everything about this looks charming.

That’s it for Thursday. I’ll be back tomorrow with one last batch of links before we head into the weekend.

Welcome to Wednesday, Apexians. We’ve got some great stuff for you today.

Your to-do list is too long. [Harvard Business Review] — “The one-thing list reflects a strategic and intentional choice about what you will do next and continue to focus on until it’s done. It might feel silly, but writing that one thing down on its own list is the key. It makes it a commitment that you are far more likely to follow through on.” I love this!

Why efficiency is dangerous and how slowing down makes life better. [Psyche] — “When making decisions, instead of asking ourselves which option will give us the best results, we should be asking which option will give us good-enough results under the widest range of future states of the world.”

Surround yourself with inspiration. [Modest Millionaires] — “The more you surround yourself with inspiration, the more opportunity you find to make progress with your goals and stay accountable. Inspiration can come in many forms. Essentially it represents examples highlighting how others have accomplished goals you want to achieve or surrounding yourself with people, who, in your eyes, behave in inspiring ways.”

How to learn everything: The Masterclass diaries. [Longreads] — What have you done during the global pandemic? Professor Irina Dumitrescu binged Masterclass courses. Here’s what she learned.

Related: masterWiki –> “We stole MasterClass’ content and turned it into wikiHow articles.”

To finish up today, here’s a one-minute clip in which Jerry Seinfeld explains to David Letterman how our present selves always seem to be sabotaging our future selves.

I do this ALL OF THE TIME. One of my greatest challenges in life is learning how today’s J.D. can be kind to tomorrow’s J.D…

Speaking of tomorrow’s J.D…he’ll be back on Thursday with more great stories about personal finance. Future You should join him! 😉

Good morning, money nerds! Another day, another edition of Apex Money. Let’s look at the stories we’ve gathered for you today…

Money talks. Wealth whispers. [/r/fatFIRE on Reddit] — “Something I’ve learned in my career in finance is that my most pleasant clients…are NEVER flashy with their money. Growing up I was tricked into thinking wealth meant opulence and showy luxury items, now I know it’s very much the opposite. ” In my own life, I’ve known many millionaires who practice “stealth wealth” but I’ve also met some truly wealthy people who happily use their money to buy things they love…even when those things are expensive. (And a lot of times, the wealthy use their money in a way that’s more in line with the Japanese iki aesthetic than western opulence.)

What if we could live for a million years? [Scientific American] — “Recently, scientists discovered bacteria that had been buried beneath the ocean floor for more than a hundred million years and was still alive. What would change if we could live for even just a million years? Two thoughts immediately come to mind.”

How to get money to stick to your fingers. [The Escape Artist] — “The way to become a person who automatically gets richer is to change how you think about your identity and to embed that in your habits. No one said that this was going to be easy…We didn’t get turned into consumers over night so it stands to reason that we won’t be able to reverse consumerism overnight. It takes time and reps.”

Lastly, here’s some excellent advice from Joshua Becker on how to declutter books. This five-minute video was very helpful to me. Let’s face it: I’m a biblioholic. Despite having purged 80% of the books in my life over the past decade, I still have too many! Anyhow. This video was helpful.

And that’s it for Tuesday. Come back tomorrow for more, won’t you?