Author: J.D. Roth

Good morning, money nerds, and welcome to Monday. It’s J.D. here — a few hours late, I know — with our latest collections of cool stories about money (and more). Take a look!

The ADHD taxman cometh. [Slate] — “Spend enough time in ADHD forums or even just a few minutes scrolling #ADHD TikTok and you’ll see the term ‘ADHD tax’ pop up with some regularity. It’s a made-up term for a very real problem: the extra costs incurred as a consequence of executive dysfunction.” [As a guy with an ADHD diagnosis (and medication for it), this article hits home. Even on ADHD meds, my executive function is…minimal.]

Budgeting is officially a flex. [The Cut] — “Unlike conventional budgeting, which is traditionally associated with spreadsheets, anxious math, and hushed lectures from your parents, the ‘loud’ version is out and proud — you’re comfortable telling the world what you’re willing to spend and what you aren’t.” [“Loud budgeting” is a new name for an old concept: mindful spending. We money bloggers have been writing about this for twenty years! It’s cool to see it catching on with the youngs…]

The cost of raising a child. [Retire by 40] — “Will kids ruin your plan to FIRE? (Financial Independence Retire Early) Kids can be expensive, but don’t let that stop you. They might change your plan a bit, but FIRE won’t be out of reach. You just have to adapt your plan to include them.”

Our last story today has nothing whatsoever to do with money. It’s just for fun. Here’s a 16-minute video of a paleontologist answering dinosaur questions from Twitter. It’s fun!

That’s all for this Monday. See you folks again tomorrow…

We’ve made it to Friday, fellow money nerds. And as I have all week, I have a handful of stories to share with you about money (and more).

First up, here’s a detailed review of Apple’s new Vision Pro augmented-reality headset, which releases today. Like a lot of Apple fanboys, I’m fascinated by this product. But as a personal-finance dude, there’s no way I’m touching the $3500 price tag. After all, my primary use case for the device would be the same as my iPad: watching movies. Anyhow, we start today with a thorough (and balanced) Vision Pro review.

Apple Vision Pro review: magic, until it’s not. [The Verge] “It sounds amazing, and sometimes it is. But the Vision Pro also represents a series of really big tradeoffs — tradeoffs that are impossible to ignore. Some of those tradeoffs are very tangible: getting all this tech in a headset means there’s a lot of weight on your face, so Apple chose to use an external battery pack connected by a cable. But there are other, more philosophical tradeoffs as well.” [See also: video review from Marques Brownlee]

Questions to ask before moving in with your partner. [The New York Times gift article] — “Talking about money openly makes you better at talking about money. You’ll get to know each other’s abstract beliefs about money and how you want to translate them into concrete actions. Your shared vision as a couple will take on more dimension, and as you get comfortable with each other’s money habits and hangups, you’ll also be more readily able to ask and offer help to other loved ones in your lives.”

How to talk about money as a married couple. [Thomas Kopelman] — “If you ask your parents or someone of the prior generation, they’ll likely tell you that your finances should all be joint and your property becomes your partner’s and vice versa. There is merit to this option, but it may not be right for everyone. I’m going to discuss three separate methods of handling marital financing.”

Finally, in a week full of great videos, here’s an 11-minute segment from Phil Edwards on YouTube in which he explains the Stanley water-bottle craze. How did we get here?

In a way, I can relate to this. Not because of Stanley water bottles. Because of watercolor paints. And not because of artificial manufactured scarcity but actual scarcity.

You see, during the few months that I’ve been painting, I’ve learned that not all paints are the same. Some are better than others. Some are much better than others. In November, I discovered paints from A. Gallo. These paints are handmade in Italy and use a honey-based binder and pigments from across Europe (Icelandic volcanoes!).

A. Gallo is a small company that can only produce so much product. At the end of each month, the open their online store to sell whatever they’ve managed to produce. Their stock sells out in hours. Like I say, it’s similar to the Stanley water bottle craze, but not artificially created.

Can you believe it, money nerds? We’ve already completed one month of 2024. We’re on to month two! That’s right: Another month of money stories here at Apex Money. Take a look at day one…

The two ways of doing. [Raptitude] — “I don’t think anyone sustains a gym regimen, or anything similar, if they’re motivated only by the future rewards. Everybody who keeps at it past January resolution season finds something about the toil itself to embrace…It might be the reassuring sense of self-discipline. It might be that they like who they are when they’re doing it. But it’s got to be something, because embracing the reward while resenting the price just isn’t a viable way to go about something for long. You’re always in inner conflict.”

How to declutter items you thought you couldn’t. [Becoming Minimalist] — “There are some people who can get rid of everything in one weekend, but that personality-type tends to be pretty rare. For most of us, the journey takes a bit longer. There are some things that are easy to remove, others tend to be difficult — for any number of reasons…Just because something is hard to part with, doesn’t mean we should keep it.” [I don’t share a lot of minimalism pieces here because they’re too “same-y”. I like this one, though, because it touches on some things I’ve been thinking about lately myself: curation, keeping the best, etc.]

The joys of getting organized. [Zen Habits] — “This isn’t about keeping things empty, or having things organized all the time. The nature of things is entropy — every day, you’ll get new emails, tasks, messages, etc. Things will pile up. Don’t create an ideal where you have everything sorted and you have to keep it that way. It’ll just create more stress. This is about the joy of getting organized, not being organized all the time.”

To wrap things up today, here’s another great video. Like I’ve been saying, I’ve watched a bunch of great stuff lately, but I think this is the video that’s personally been most useful. It’s a nine-minute look at how to turn your smartphone into a dumbphone.

For those unfamiliar with the concept, a dumbphone (such as the Light Phone) is deliberately designed to not do fancy internet tricks. No social media, no web browsing, etc. Nothing but phoning and texting and mapping — and perhaps a few other utilities.

I’ve actually taken the leap and modded my phone so it’s very much like the one in the video. I love it. Maybe some of you will too.

Welcome to Wednesday, my peoples. J.D. here with another day of interesting stories about money (and more).

Why one millennial game up on overemployment. [Business Insider] — “Balancing his work while avoiding suspicion wasn’t easy, among the reasons William ultimately decided to leave both jobs. But despite these challenges, he said his overemployment experience was well worth it for the financial benefits. It was so worth it, he said, that he’s considering a return to one of the jobs he left.”

Why do so many people hate their jobs? [The Escape Artist] — “If you are doing a job that doesn’t feed your soul, it is vital that you don’t fritter the money away on fleeting dopamine hits (see above). If you are doing a job for the money (most of us), then it’s vital that you create a surplus and put that money to work in your compounding machine. This buys you options in the future.”

Little luxuries: The affordable treats driving consumer spending. [BBC Worklife] — “This desire for these ‘affordable luxuries’ is common in difficult economic times. Some economists refer to the phenomenon as the “lipstick index”: a small economic bump led by budget-conscious consumers seeking out relatively affordable splurges, like small cosmetics and perfumes.”

And look! It’s the third day this week that I have an excellent YouTube video to share with you. As always, it’s nothing to do with money. (Well, actually it is, but not in any useful way.) It’s a 25-minute deep dive trying to discover what’s going on inside a crater in Madagascar.

Stick with it. There’s an answer to this riddle, even though it takes a while. And that answer is very much money-related.

Okay, that’s it for Wednesday. I’ll be back tomorrow with more.

Hello, Apexians, and welcome to Tuesday. Let’s call this one two-fer Tuesday because that’s what I have for you: two stories. But I am not kidding when I say I think both stories are fantastic.

First up is the only installment (so far) of Cate Hall’s Useful Fictions newsletter: “How to be more agentic.“. This piece is all about how to get more of what you want.

Radical agency is about finding real edges: things you are willing to do that others aren’t, often because they’re annoying or unpleasant. These don’t always surface in awareness to the point one is actually choosing — often they live in a cloud of aversion that strategically obscures the tradeoff.

It would be difficult for me to overstate how valuable I think this article is. It contains some fundamental truths about how to get the most out your life and the world around you. The story is short. I urge you to read it.

Yesterday I promised that I had an entire week of great video features. It’s true. I watched some neat stuff last week, and I’m eager to share it with you.

Today’s video feature might be my favorite. It’s an hour-long audio cassette from 1980. It chronicles the cross-country “hobo” journey of young artists James Gurney (Dinotopia) and Thomas Kinkade (like you don’t know who he is) as they “ride the rails” on freight trains.

I tell you, this thing is a delight. It’s so fun. It’s a peek into the past, a glimpse of a period when this country was undergoing some marked transitions.

I also want to encourage you to check out all of the fun stuff James Gurney does. He’s best known for his Dinotopia books, but the dude is a polymath adventurer artist. His YouTube channel is great (I like this video of him painting an airliner while waiting in the terminal), and his blog, Gurney Journey, which he’s been keeping almost daily for seventeen years is even better. (Here’s his blog post about riding the rails with Thomas Kinkade.)

I promise you there are hours of entertainment if you follow those links. As I’m at the start of my own artistic journey, I’m grateful for folks like Gurney who are so open and generous with their knowledge. I’ve never read Dinotopia before, but you can bet I’m going to buy it next time I’m in a bookstore. I want to support him. Dude is a sparkling gem.

Why, hello. It’s good to see you here. I’m J.D., of course, and you are you, and this is Apex Money. All week, I’ll share some of my favorite stories about money (and more). Plus, for once, I’ve managed to find five awesome videos to share with you. Not kidding: These are all great. Ready? Let’s dive in!

The knowledge economy is over. Welcome to the allocation economy. [Chain of Thought] — “What happens when that very skill—knowing and utilizing the right knowledge at the right time—becomes something that computers can do faster and sometimes just as well as we can?…It means a transition from a knowledge economy to an allocation economy. You won’t be judged on how much you know, but instead on how well you can allocate and manage the resources to get work done.”

30 dying people explain what really matters [The Guardian] — “Anything that doesn’t make my heart sing is less important to me these days. I don’t sweat the small stuff any more. Life is too short for cleaning. The laundry pile will wait. And if I want to eat a piece of cake, I damn well do.”

How to train your budgeting brain. [Refinery29] — “At its simplest, budgeting is about being aware of what’s coming in and going out so you can make informed decisions about your money. This is what I call the budgeting brain. Activating the budgeting brain requires four stages of engagement — think of the acronym LOAD: Look, Organize, Assess, Decide.”

Lastly, here’s a bonus video that has absolutely zero to do with money.

If you know me, you know that I love movies (I’ll probably watch 50 in the month of January) and I love music (if I’m not watching a movie, I’m listening to music). Well today’s video is a mash-up of Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” and Electric Light Orchestra’s “Mr. Blue Sky” synchronized to clips from over 100 movies. I think it’s awesome.

SO FUN!

Okay, I have four more great videos coming to you this week. Plus, lots of great stories about money (and more). Come back tomorrow for the next installment…

It’s Friday, people, although it sure doesn’t seem like it over here. As I mentioned, our corner of the Pacific Northwest is one of those parts of the U.S. that’s been locked down by winter weather recently. Although we’ve had two days of rain and things are thawing, there’s plenty that’s still locked down. It’s like we got a second winter vacation this year…

Yesterday was my girlfriend’s first day back at work since last Thursday, for instance. I have several items on order from various vendors, but they’ve been stuck at local UPS and FedEx depots since Saturday. And the last time the mail carrier came by was last Friday. Et cetera. Et cetera. Et cetera.

But while I’m cooped up here in the house, I’ve had time to read some interest articles about money. Enjoy!

Americans are actually pretty happy with their finances. [Axios] — “More than half of Americans say that if they lost their job tomorrow they’d be OK; that they could find an equivalent or better job quickly; and that ‘my employers need me more than I need them.'”

You don’t need everything you want. [Vox] — “The American economy remains one of abundance. Said abundance isn’t equally distributed, of course, and lots of people really are struggling. But as angry as consumers say they are about the economy, they’re not, on aggregate, changing their spending habits. For many people in the country, life is pretty good. And yet, they often don’t feel that way. No matter how much we’ve attained, we always want more.”

What happens when a school bans smartphones? A complete transformation. [The Guardian] — “As the close of the school year neared last June, talk turned to final assignments (the English class was finishing Moby-Dick) and end-of-year fun (there was a trip planned to a local lake). It was, in most ways, a typical teenage afternoon – except that no one was on their phones. Buxton was wrapping up the first year of a simple yet novel experiment: banning cellphones on campus. Or, rather, smartphones.”

How to make sure pocket money teaches your kids financial skills. [The Conversation] — “A useful starting point is working out what the pocket money will be used for. Is it simply to give your child a bit of autonomy over spending (for example, buying an ice block from the canteen)? Is it to try to save for something special? Or is it to be used for all entertainment, clothes and on-trend desires like fancy water bottles?”

That’s it for now. I’ll see you in ten days. Jim will be with you on Monday. Take care!

Hey hey hey. Today is Thursday, money nerds. My name is J.D. and this is Apex Money. As always, I’ve rounded up some interesting stories to share with you. Take a look.

Americans are better off than you think. [A Wealth of Common Sense] — “I’m not trying to say things are perfect in today’s economy. There are problems and there will always be problems. But things aren’t as bad as many people make them out to be. We’ve seen real progress in this country over the decades, even though that progress hasn’t always been equal or fair. So many people today have nostalgia for simpler times that never actually existed. The good old days are right now.”

How to stop impulse shopping. [No Sidebar] — “Impulse shopping involves buying stuff on a whim. It can be as innocent as picking up a few extra goodies on an errand run or as serious as making a major purchase without thinking it through. Impulse shopping to any extent can lead to serious financial stress. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to be more intentional with the things that you buy.”

Six signs a home-seller is hiding something. [Lifehacker] — “Most of these problems are just bad luck and part of the home-owning experience, but sometimes the sellers knew there were problems in the house and decided not to disclose them. This is unethical and downright evil, but if you’re not careful it could happen to you.” [When we bought our last house, the sellers did some of this shit. Unethical and shady af. Makes my blood boil to think about it.]

That’s all I have for you today. It’s a slow week around here, mostly because I’m still wrestling with the fallout from our recent winter storm here in Oregon. Busy in real life always means less busy on the web.

What’s up, Apexians? J.D. here with another abbreviated week of money stories. I won’t bore you with the details, but inclement weather here at home has prevented me from reading (or posting) stuff on the internet until now.

But this afternoon, I’m warm and dry and have an internet connection, so let’s take a look at the stuff I’ve been reading.

How to avoid becoming miserably rich. [A Teachable Moment] — “Accolades and pleasing strangers were influential to me a few years ago. Like drinking seawater, this desire can never be satisfied. Aging makes you think about things differently. The transitory nature of life clarifies what’s important. Enjoying the moment and cultivating established relationships with colleagues, friends, and family maneuver to the top of the pecking order.” [I related strongly to this piece.]

“Why I plan to collect Social Security as early as possible.” [Go Curry Cracker] — “I plan to collect Social Security as early as possible because, even though I plan to live a very long time, I can’t bequeath a Social Security income stream and the long-term ROI of delay is not an obvious win over just dumping early SS income into an index fund.”

How often should you check your finances? [Wallet Hacks] — “How often should you be checking your bank account? Emma Chamberlain says she never looks at it. At first glance, that sounds crazy. How would you not know where your money is? Or how much you have? That’s when I realized that I don’t check my bank account all that often either.”

Okay, that’s all for today. Time for me to go shovel the sidewalk!

Welcome, my friends, to the first Friday of 2024. I hope you had a good week. I’m here to make it even better by sending you into the weekend with some great stories about money — and more! Take a look.

How will you measure your life? [Harvard Business Review] — “Don’t worry about the level of individual prominence you have achieved; worry about the individuals you have helped become better people. This is my final recommendation: Think about the metric by which your life will be judged, and make a resolution to live every day so that in the end, your life will be judged a success.”

The long shadow of checks. [Bits about Money] — “And thus we come to an important fact about the U.S. payments ecosystem: every way of moving money between banks was designed in relation to the capabilities necessary to facilitate nationwide clearing of paper checks. The most common method of interbank payments in the U.S. wears this history in its name: ACH stands for Automated Clearing House.'” [Long but fascinating.]

The Munger Operating System: How to live a life that really works. [Farnam Street] — “Another thing I think should be avoided is extremely intense ideology…I have what I call an iron prescription that helps me keep sane when I naturally drift toward preferring one ideology over another. And that is I say ‘I’m not entitled to have an opinion on this subject unless I can state the arguments against my position better than the people do who are supporting it. I think that only when I reach that stage am I qualified to speak.'”

Lastly, here’s a a 23-minute video that really opened my eyes to the hidden power of my iPhone.

I knew it was possible to automate common actions, but I thought it was overly complicated. It’s not. Watching this video (and learning how to use the iPhone “focus” modes) has been enlightening. Did you know you can map actions to double-tapping the back of your phone? To triple-tapping it? To triple-clicking the side button?

Mixing all of these things together — alternate inputs, focus modes, shortcuts, automations — can let you do some really cool stuff. Now I have my phone set up to automatically play Taylor Swift whenever it connects to my car stereo! Life is good. 😉