Author: J.D. Roth

Hey there, money nerds. Kim and I made it back from Shasta Lake — and in plenty of time to browse the interwebs for some cool stories about money. Here are three of the best I found today.

Slow down! The journey to financial independence is not a race. [Budgets Are Sexy] — “No matter if it takes me 5, 10, or 20 years to achieve financial independence, I will eventually cross the finish line. The biggest difference in which path I take is determined by how much I enjoy the journey in the meantime. I realized that there’s no rush for me. I wanted to slow down and enjoy the ride.”

Stock-market speculation is as old as the hills. [A Wealth of Common Sense] — “In some ways, it seems crazy that we would see such speculation during the most severe economic crash of our lifetimes. In other ways, this actually makes sense…Things are constantly changing in the world but human nature remains the constant.” [Related: Why so many people are getting into the stock market right now.]

“I’m married to a selfish husband.” [One Frugal Girl] — “How do you feel about spending and saving and how does that compare to your partner’s views? Do you need a lot of money to feel safe and secure? Do you suffer from a scarcity mindset? How does your partner feel and how does that differ from you? How can you talk about those emotions without calling your partner names? Calling your partner a selfish husband isn’t going to help. They will immediately become defensive.”

Finally, here’s a six-minute video of the real-estate listing for a beautiful $800,000 home in Fresh Meadows, New York — except it’s not as beautiful as you might think at first. Holy cats!

Wow! (Here’s the Redfin listing, if you’re curious.)

Okay. That’s it for Tuesday. I’ll be back tomorrow with more good stuff. See you then.

Hello hello, Apexians. I’m writing to you from the windy waves of Shasta Lake in northern California. Kim and I have been here for a couple of days, basking in the sun and the water with her brother and nephews. We’ll be here for another 24 hours before heading home.

But while we’re at the dock refueling, I have just enough time to write up this Monday installment of Apex Money. Here are a few of my favorite recent money stories. I think you’ll like them too.

Why are credit card interest rates so high? [A Wealth of Common Sense] — “There have been some slight dips over time but credit card borrowing rates remain firmly entrenched at double-digit levels. And while interest rates have been falling around the globe in recent years, credit card borrowing rates have risen. There are a number of reasons people point to for the stickiness of credit card rates…”

Peers’ income and financial distress: Evidence from lottery winners and neighboring bankruptcies. [Federal Reserve] — “We examine whether relative income differences among peers can generate financial distress. Using lottery winnings as plausibly exogenous variations in the relative income of peers, we find that the dollar magnitude of a lottery win of one neighbor increases subsequent borrowing and bankruptcies among other neighbors.”

The joys of compounding. [The Rational Walk] — “Gautam Baid’s new book, The Joys of Compounding, is destined to become a must-read investment classic. Baid does an excellent job of taking several steps back from financial analysis and relating how his life story shaped who he is as an investor, how seeking a broad-based education and the ‘worldly wisdom’ that comes from it formed his intellectual foundation, and only then describing how this has translated into financial independence through intelligent investing.”

Your relationship with self-worth and money is complicated. [Financial Best Life] — “Your relationship with money should be about your financial goals and feeling good about your choices. If you have what you need, love your job, and have found happiness, then what other people think should not matter. The reality is that it can be hard to maintain that mindset and other people can affect our emotions.”

Normally I’d include some sort of fun video, but not today. Sorry. Our cell service out here on the lake is so poor that I don’t want to risk not getting you your links by taking too much time to find fun stuff on YouTube. (And the same might be true for Tuesday’s links!)

I’ll be back tomorrow with more great stuff! See you then.

It’s Friday, Apexians! It’s the weekend! But before you head out, let’s take a look at few great money stories we’ve liked recently.

Ten ways to save money on a tight budget. [Millennial Money Man] — “If you’re looking for ways to save money on a tight budget, the first thing you need to know is that there’s no magic pill that will immediately change your financial life. Learning how to save money is a series of conscious decisions no matter how much money you make. It’s a combination of reducing your expenses, eliminating your debt, increasing your income, and changing the way you think about money.”

Building a dream. [The Retirement Manifesto] — “We’ve just celebrated our second anniversary of retirement, and we’ve learned what motivates us in retirement. As our focus on Purpose becomes more clear, it’s become evident that building a dream to support these passions will provide benefits for years to come. To fully achieve our dream retirement, it’s time to take some action. It’s time for us to build a dream.”

What’s your magic number? [The Rational Walk] — “If you ask most Americans how much they need in order to achieve financial independence, the response will almost always be given in terms of the level of wealth that they aspire to accumulate. However, thinking about the problem in this manner has a number of deficiencies…When aiming to achieve a goal, it is important to focus on what the goal actually is, and that goal is not being able to look at a net worth figure but to fund expenses and to be relieved of having to trade precious time for income.”

For today’s video (from the Wonders of the World channel on YouTube), here’s the five-minute story of Dan Price, who built himself a dugout home in Joseph, Oregon for $75. He lives a life of extreme frugality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A59-eDPoxhU

I find this story fascinating (although the video’s use of stock video footage is very jarring). Joseph is a remote farming/ranching town in northeastern Oregon. I’ve spent some time there. (In fact, I just spent Memorial Day weekend in Joseph!) This gives me a feel for where Price lives — and how he lives.

If you’d like to learn more about Price, here’s his website and here’s his YouTube channel.

Okay, that’s it for this week. Jim will be back on Monday with more of the best from the world of personal finance. Enjoy your weekend!

Howdy howdy, money nerds. It’s Thursday, and we have some cool stories about money to share with you. Today’s email is pandemic-themed (although not heavily so). Let’s dive in.

During the pandemic, a small town in Washington has been printing its own currency. [The Hustle] — “Fournier’s central idea is pulled straight from Tenino’s own history. During the Great Depression, the city printed sets of wooden dollars using that exact same 1890 newspaper printer. Within a year, the wooden currency had helped bring the economy back from the dead.” [This isn’t as wild as it might seem. The U.S. didn’t have a standardized currency until just after the Civil War. Instead, there were lots of local currencies like this.]

Gardening is associated with greater happiness of urban residents. [Princeton University] — “As civic leaders and urban planners work to make cities more sustainable and livable by investing in outdoor spaces and recreational activities such as biking and walking, Princeton researchers have identified the benefit of an activity largely overlooked by policymakers — home gardening.”

“What I learned from trying all 81 MasterClasses.” [SF Gate] — “I found that the classes are worth the time, but the real question for most people is the price. Even though I’ve revisited more writing courses since the end of my quest, I don’t think there are enough to keep my attention for more than another month.”

How is the economy recovering? Watch the dentists. [The New York Times, so possible paywall] — “Dentist offices tend to be stable businesses that stick around for decades, unlike restaurants that open and close frequently…If you need your teeth cleaned or a cavity filled, the dentist is the only option. This makes them, in the eyes of some economists, the perfect barometer for gauging the country’s recovery from the shock of the pandemic.”

My girlfriend is a dental hygienist, so I’ve been able to watch second-hand how her dentist’s practice is struggling to cope with the coronavirus. It hasn’t been easy. And you know what makes it worse? Asshole clients who want to get all political because the office has basically become a hazmat zone. It’s not really a choice. And besides, this is one of the most at-risk professions out there. Even if you’re a virus denier, don’t be a dick when you go to the dentist this summer. It’s tough enough for the employees already.

Okay, that’s it for today. I’ll be back tomorrow to see you into the weekend. Take care!

Welcome to Wednesday, Apexians. Glad to have you hear. As always, we’ve collected some great recent articles about personal finance that we hope you will find as interesting as we do. Let’s get right to them.

Let’s lead with our video today. I know we just shared something from The Financial Diet on Monday, but let’s go back to that YouTube channel again. It’s a consistent source of high-quality video content about personal finance. In this case, here’s Chelsea Fagan with a 27-minute video about the six secrets she learned working for rich people.

“I am extremely invested in the concept of financial transparency,” Fagan says. “There’s basically nothing about the finances of my business or my life that I wouldn’t feel comfortable sharing — or don’t already share on Twitter — because I realize that one of the most insidious things about wealth is how keeping it secret can make you less accountable to the community that you live in.”

Trading sportsbooks for brokerages, bored bettors wager on stocks. [The New York Times, so possible paywall] — “The last time Americans showed any serious appetite for stock-market speculation was the tech-stock frenzy of the late 1990s. Since then, investors have embraced safer options, like set-it-and-forget-it index funds based on the premise that trying to beat the market is a waste of time. That started to change in earnest last year.”

The importance of having backup plans. [Financial Panther] — “I’ve now been self-employed for a little over a year and things are going pretty well. But of course, I’m not so naive to think that nothing can go wrong. Like any risk-averse lawyer, when I made the leap to self-employment, I did so knowing that I had a lot of backup plans in case.”

Implementing and refining the “Spend Safely in Retirement Strategy”. [Oblivious Investor] — “A couple of years ago, we discussed a paper [that] looked at an assortment of retirement spending strategies and evaluated them based on several different criteria. The authors then put forth a strategy that they referred to as the ‘Spend Safely in Retirement Strategy,’ which generally does a good job of satisfying the various (often competing) criteria…But the basic, two-step plan described above (and in the original report) leaves an assortment of open questions. And when it comes time to actually implement the strategy in a real-world situation, you must come up with answers to those questions.”

That’s it for today, my friends. I’ll be back tomorrow with even more info about how to master your money — and your life. See you then.

Why, hello, money nerds! It is I, J.D., your humble host. And your late host.

Jim and I generally aim to have each installment of Apex Money posted by 8 a.m. Pacific (5 a.m. Eastern) every weekday. And honestly, we both like to work in advance, which means being a week ahead. But due to lack of sleep Sunday night, I completely spaced curating links yesterday. Oops.

But it’s still Tuesday, so this installment counts as “on time”, right? Well, unless you get these by email, of course, in which case you wont see this until Wednesday haha. Anyhow, here are your links for today!

How much is enough? The levels of financial autonomy. [CityFrugal] — “The problem of not having enough money, at least for me, is a problem of perspective. I fixate on what I don’t have enough money to do – namely, quit paid work altogether and join the ranks of the financially independent – and ignore the freedoms I already have.”

How to make extra money in a small town. [Financial Best Life] — “A small town might not offer all of the same opportunities (or as many), as a big city, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find a lucrative side hustle or start a successful small business. Let’s take a look at some of the challenges and opportunities associated with working in a small town and some creative ways you can start making money. ”

How to rent a vacation home during the pandemic. [Consumer Reports] — “The country may be reopening, but the risk of COVID-19 remains. Until a vaccine is developed, this is a reality Americans will ‘have to contend with every time they step outside,’ says Amesh Adalja, M.D…This new reality extends to vacation plans. Over the new few months, many Americans will weigh whether a trip makes sense. ” [Related: A rural vacation destination worries it may be swallowed by the pandemic.]

And to wrap things up, here’s a video I’ve had open in my browser for a couple of weeks. It’s short. And simple. And you may have seen it before (it has more than 4,000,000 views on YouTube). It’s a 1974 interview with science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke in which he makes the bold claim that by the year 2001, computers will fit on a desk and be able to do all sorts of stuff.

What do you think? Was Clarke correct? 🙂

Okay, that’s it for Tuesday. I’ll be back tomorrow — and I’ll be on time — with more great stories about personal finance.

Welcome to Monday, money nerds. You’re at Apex Money, and these are some of our favorite recent financial stories from around the web.

Comparing median incomes and home values across the United States. [Accidental Fire] — “So, if I were moving to another part of the country, were still working, and wanted to buy a house and settle down, what would I look for? Well, I’d want an area with higher median household incomes, but lower median home values. In short, a place where I would tend to earn more but where homes are cheaper. ”

How to find a money mentor. [One Frugal Girl] — “It doesn’t matter if you are financially savvy or have absolutely no idea how to manage your money. We all need a way to bounce ideas around with someone who is willing to listen. A money mentor allows us to talk about money matters and financial decisions without judgment or worry.”

“Worldschooling: How our children are educated as we travel.” [Physician on Fire] — “It’s been nearly six months since I retired from medicine and started slow traveling internationally with my family. I expected there would be a lot of questions. I was half right. I have been asked a lot of questions, just not on the topic I expected. [People] want to know how we’re educating our children when we travel for months at a time.”

I haven’t mentioned Financial Diet in a while, but I love this YouTube channel. It’s money advice from women, for women (and everybody else). In this episode, one woman talks about tracking her spending for a decade — since she was thirteen.

As somebody who has tracked his spending on and off for almost thirty years, I love this video. Maybe you will too.

That’s it for Monday, my friends. I’ll be back tomorrow with some more great stories from the world of personal finance.

Well, Apexians, I lost my first readers yesterday for standing up about something. Honestly, this is why I’ve never stood up for something before. I’ve been too timid. Or maybe a better word is “cowardly”.

But here’s the thing. I dislike covering the political aspects of personal finance because I believe money ideas are important for everyone, and I don’t want to cloud things by getting into political arguments. Doing so doesn’t help anyone improve their bottom line. That said, racial equality isn’t a political issue — it’s a moral one.

If this notion offends you, by all means unsubscribe.

Trust me, there’s no danger that Apex Money will become all about politics all the time. (And there’s no danger that Get Rich Slowly will either.) And if it makes our conservative readers feel any better, I’m also losing liberal readers because they don’t think my actions are enough. Go figure. I just can’t win.

But you don’t come to Apex Money to hear me pontificate. You come for the links. And while I’m not completely back to money links today, I do have a few. Let’s get to them!

We’ve just experienced the best 50-day market rally ever. [LPL Research] — “The 39.6% gain in 50 days was the greatest 50-day rally ever, besting the previous best in October 1982. What’s important to note here is that many of these rallies took place coming off major market lows, and delivered quite strong returns going out 6 to 12 months.”

Folks: When the market drops, you do not panic and sell. You buy, if you can. End of story.

How airlines use rewards cards to drive growth. [Privacy Blog] — “For decades, airlines have leaned on rewards cards for their steady revenue stream—particularly during industry contractions. In fact, the billions in revenue generated by U.S. airline rewards cards and loyalty programs can, at times, outpace overall sales growth.”

People are emerging from coronavirus isolation with carloads of stuff to donate. [CNN] — “Thrift stores around the country are getting a deluge of donations from people who’ve had months to think about the things they don’t need while sheltering at home during the coronavirus pandemic.”

“My white privilege.” [The Non-Consumer Advocate] — “I’m a liberal middle-class white woman raised in a family that abhors racism, and I end each blog post since November 4th, 2016 with a dig against Donald Trump. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t benefit from white privilege. This hard truth is a difficult pill to swallow.”

To wrap things up, our video feature is a Google Talk from financial coach Shawn Rochester, author of The Black Tax: The Cost of Being Black in America. In this 75-minute presentation, he examines the various costs that contribute to the wealth gap between blacks and whites.

This talk is long but it’s very interesting.

Okay. That’s it. Let’s all hope the weekend is nice, quiet, and peaceful and filled with sunshine, rainbows, and unicorns. And maybe a few Taylor Swift videos. Jim will be back on Monday to take you through another week. Until then, stay well.

Good morning, Apexians. Like many of you, I am so so weary. What a day. What a week. What a year. It has been damn near impossible to get any work done for the past three months. (Thus the woeful state of Get Rich Slowly lately.)

Now the chaos has spilled over into the personal-finance community, a community that has always felt like a family to me, a community near and dear to my heart. It all makes me want to go crawl in bed for a few days…or years.

But I won’t. Instead, here are some stories I read yesterday. None of these are about money because I didn’t actually read any money articles yesterday. Instead, I was reading about race in the United States.

First off, most of my loyal readers know that I’m a life-long fan of the Portland Timbers soccer club. One of our players — Jeremy Ebobisse — was born in Paris but now makes the U.S. home. And oh yeah, he’s black. It’s been a challenge for him to move from France (which is not without its own issues) to the United States, where race is such a deeply-ingrained problem. He recently published an essay sharing his thoughts and feelings. It’s our first story today.

This isn’t meant for your comfort. [Jeremy Ebobisse on Medium] – “I hope I’m wrong and that we, as a nation, are ready to confront the legacy of slavery and racial discrimination in hopes of understanding where we are today…But there exists a cynic in me, a cynic that protects me from getting my hopes up, a cynic that reminds me that this will blow over in most minds and we will still be isolated in our fight for human and civil rights”

“It’s the end of the world and I can’t get anything done. [AskMetafilter] — “I and a lot of other people I know are having difficulty with accomplishing much during this time…We text each other about how we can’t focus, we’re glued to the news/social media, we can’t stop crying, we’re lonely and worried. No one’s getting enough sleep. My car insurance is overdue, but it hardly stands out in the swamp of ‘stuff I should be doing, should have done 2 months ago really’ and I wind up hyper-focusing on a craft project. I don’t need to be a star right now, but I want to maintain enough productivity to avoid work problems, and stay on top of my life basics.”

A sociologist examines the “what fragility” that prevents white Americans from confronting racism. [The New Yorker] — “DiAngelo addresses her book mostly to white people, and she reserves her harshest criticism for white liberals like herself…Not only do these people fail to see their complicity, but they take a self-serving approach to ongoing anti-racism efforts: ‘To the degree that white progressives think we have arrived, we will put our energy into making sure that others see us as having arrived.'”

What everyone should know about Reconstruction. [The Conversation] — “Most students get limited information and context about what African Americans have experienced since our ancestors arrived here four centuries ago. Without independent study, most adults aren’t up to speed either. For instance, what do you know about Reconstruction?”

To wrap things up, here’s a six-minute video in which black parents share how they teach their children to deal with the police.

For a long, long time I bristled at the term “white privilege”. I found it offensive. I thought it was some sort of made-up construct. But you know what? My parents never had to teach me how to deal with the police. And if I had kids, I wouldn’t have to teach them either. That’s white privilege.

I’ll be back tomorrow to finish the week. Friday’s edition of Apex Money may or may not be money-centric. We’ll see.

Welcome to Wednesday, money nerds. As always, we have more money stories for you. And because the country is still convulsed in chaos, our stories are centered on that chaos.

A candid conversation about race in America. [Michelle is Money Hungry] — “Why is it that my full equality as a United States citizen is perceived as a threat to your equality? It makes no sense.”

How big is the racial wealth gap? [Of Dollars and Data] — “Race relations have once again taken center stage in the United States. Though there is a lot of focus on the social inequalities occurring in the U.S., we should also take a deeper look at the economic inequalities as well. Because it is my belief that many of the social issues experienced by people of color throughout America would be greatly mitigated if they had more economic power.”

The world needs more love and empathy. [Tawcan] — “Why do some people think they are better than someone else because of their skin colour? Why do some people think they can get differential treatment because of their skin colour? We are all humans. Yes we all have differences. But why can’t we respect each other and understand that we all have our differences? Can’t we set aside the differences and work together for the greater good of humankind?”

Unpacking the power of privileged neighborhoods. [CityLab] — “Research has shown that where children grow up affects how they fare academically, economically, and physically; it also predicts how they interact with the criminal justice system. This study confirms that neighborhoods do matter, but gives a new, surprising answer to questions like ‘for whom?’ and ‘how much?'”

Finally, here’s Dave Ramsey and his crew spending an hour talking about racism. I’m not here to defend Ramsey — there are things about him I like, and things I don’t — but I think it’s good that he devoted an hour of his show to this topic.

There are some uncomfortable, forced moments here…but there are also some gems in this conversation. There really are.

I’ll be back tomorrow with more money news. It may or may not be focused exclusively on this subject. I don’t know.