Author: J.D. Roth

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.

Today is Tuesday, money nerds, and I’m pleased to say that the world is still here. It hasn’t fallen apart. Not yet, anyhow. That means I get to share some great money stories from around the web.

A letter to the class of 2020. [The Belle Curve] — “If I could give one piece of advice to my 18-year-old self, I would tell her to choose optimism over pessimism…Everyone will face challenges in life. Bad things will happen to all of you. Family members will die, romantic relationships will end, jobs will be lost, and illness or injury may plague you. But it is how you choose to react to adversity that defines you. You don’t always have a choice about what happens to you, but you can choose how you will react to it.”

Why so many Americans don’t talk about money. [The Atlantic] — “One common explanation for the particular sway money taboos hold over Americans is, as Zaloom put it, the widely held belief that ‘your value as a human being is somehow made material in your pay and in your accounts.’ If people were to publicly reveal their income, Zaloom said, they’d be ‘exposing how they’re valued by their employer and how their contribution is valued even more broadly, by the community.'”

How you can help close racial wealth gaps. [Smart Money Mamas] — “The racial wealth gap we see in our country today is part of the foundation of our nation. It started when we built an economic powerhouse of a country on the back of slave labor. And then, when we finally abolished slavery (mostly for economic reasons), we transferred essentially zero wealth to those who created that economic prosperity…All the way up until today, when significant racial income gaps remain.”

Many Americans are getting more money from unemployment than they were from their jobs. [FiveThirtyEight] — “The question is whether this will be a problem as the economy starts to reopen. In addition to the inequality inherent in possibly replacing some workers’ wages at a higher rate, it might not make financial sense for workers to search for other jobs or even return to their original jobs if they’re making substantially more money by staying home.”

To finish the day, here’s Julien Saunders speaking at the inaugural EconoMe conference last March. In this nine-minute talk, Saunders explains why our natural inclination to avoid conflict prevents us from experiencing life-changing breakthroughs.

This is a tough topic for me. I loathe conflict. Hate it, hate it, hate it. “Roths don’t like confrontation,” I often say. And right now, our world seems filled with conflict. I don’t like it. 🙁

Okay, that’s it for Tuesday. I’ll be back tomorrow with more great money stories! See you then!

Good morning, Apexians, and welcome back. I’m not much in the mood for pithy chit-chat. There’s just too much heavy stuff going on in our country right now.

I’m 51 years old. In those 51+ years, 2020 is probably the “weightiest” year I’ve experienced…and we’re only five months in! On a personal level, this year has been awesome. But it feels like that as a society, things are falling apart…

Anyhow, let’s look at some money links, shall we?

“I don’t feel like buying stuff anymore.” [Buzzfeed News] — “In many ways, the pandemic has functioned as a great clarifier, making it impossible to ignore the dilapidated state of so many American systems. It’s highlighted whose work is actually essential, which leaders actually care about people who aren’t like them, and whose lives are considered expendable…And a whole lot of things we thought of as needs have revealed themselves to be pretty deeply unnecessary.”

Why is the stock market doing well lately? [Oblivious Investor] — “The value of the stock market at any given time is essentially the market’s consensus as to the present value of the expected future earnings of publicly traded companies. That is, the stock market is concerned with the profitability of publicly traded companies. Nothing more or less than that.”

The pros and cons of rebalancing your portfolio. [Morningstar] — “Rebalancing is not an unmitigated good. On the bright side, under normal conditions (meaning that the portfolio holdings are imperfectly correlated), the practice does improve returns, albeit by not dramatically. Less happily, rebalancing means the ongoing habit of trading the portfolio’s best-returning asset for its worst.”

What happens to unpaid debt when a person dies? [CNBC] — “It’s not unusual for a person to pass away and leave behind some unpaid debt. For the heirs — typically the surviving spouse or children — the question often is what, exactly, happens to those obligations. The answer: It depends on both the type of debt and the laws of the state.”

Last of all, here’s a fifteen-minute video from Ben Felix in which he explores retirement income and the four-percent rule for “safe” withdrawal rates. I’m new to Felix’s stuff, but I like it. A lot.

Okay, that’s it to start the week. I’ll be back again tomorrow…and maybe I won’t feel so dark and gloomy.

It’s freaky Friday, friends! You know what that means. Time for another batch of awesome money links as we head into the weekend.

How to have “the talk” with your parents about aging and money. [Smart Money Mamas podcast] — “Remember when your parents had the birds and the bees conversation with you? Well, now it’s your turn to sit down with your parents for ‘the talk’. Talking about aging and money with our parents can be scary – but it is so necessary in order to avoid harder situations in the future.”

Consumer Reports reviews food delivery services. [Consumer Reports] — “Just how good is the service you receive when you use a food delivery app? CR decided to evaluate consumers’ experiences with four major players in this market—DoorDash, Grubhub, Postmates, and Uber Eats—to see just how well they performed. We also reached out to all four companies with specific questions about their services and about the issues we identified.”

The revenge of the latte factor. [Monevator] — “It was always obvious you can take frugality and compound interest to extremes. I once called it Buffett’s Folly, in honour of Warren Buffett’s house of the same name. Even as he bought his property in 1957, Buffett calculated the $31,500 home cost him at least a million dollars…But Buffett still lives in exactly the same house, 63 years later.”

Bike sales surge as Americans seek to avoid mass transit and get exercise. [The Philadelphia Inquirer] — “Bike shops across the nation are seeing a spike in demand. With gyms closed, some consumers switched to bikes for exercise and stress relief…As America slowly reopens, commuters are turning to bicycles to stay away from crowds in subways and buses. More than 80% of Americans see cycling as safer than taking public transportation.” Wow

And now for something completely different…

I’m a long-time videogame player. I came of age in the late 1970s, so cut my teeth on the Atari 2600 and the Apple II. From there, I’ve played all sorts of games. Having said that, my gaming tastes are currently stuck in the late 1990s. I don’t play a lot of modern action games. But that might change.

The next version of Unreal Engine — a tool for game designers — was revealed recently and the worlds it can create are mind boggling. I mean, take a look at this demo.

Truly stunning stuff. And it just might make me start playing more modern games.

Speaking of which, this week I fell into the pit that is Animal Crossing: New Horizons on the Nintendo Switch. So fun! And such a timesink. I’m not even a week in yet, so I’m really just getting my island set up. Can’t wait to buy turnips and play the Stalk Market starting on Sunday.

Okay, that’s all for today. See you on the flip side…

Good morning, money nerds. Today is Thursday and this is Apex Money.

Okay, today we’re going to lead with our bonus video. This has nothing to do with money. Instead, it’s a 26-minute video of a guy solving a complex (almost impossible!) Sudoku puzzle. Sound boring? It’s not. In fact, if you’re like me you’ll end up watching the whole damn thing.

Almost half a million views on YouTube in the ten days it’s been online — 24,000 upvotes and only 131 downvotes. That’s how good this video is.

With that out of the way, let’s move on to our regularly-scheduled money stories.

Could the coronavirus lead to larger homes and office spaces? [HousingWire] — “The idea that a distributed work environment can be as or more productive than a traditional office environment does not have universal buy-in. For most CEOs, the jury still is out on how productive workers are when they work from home.”

The simplest way to make up for portfolio losses. [A Wealth of Common Sense] — “This is more about optics than anything but psychological tricks can be helpful during down markets because behavior is the first thing to go during stressful markets. Sometimes you have to fool yourself into staying the course because the temptation to sell is so great when prices are all over the place.”

It’s time to get on the bidet train, America. [Mother Jones] — “Americans have a toilet paper addiction. And it’s not just causing mass anxiety — it’s taking a toll on the planet. But, I have some good news: There is a better way to avoid fights in the supermarket and environmental devastation. America, it’s time to embrace the bidet.”

True story: I first used a bidet in Argentina in 2012. Well, I tried to use it. I couldn’t figure it out. Then, over the next few years, I used bidets in France and Italy and began to see their virtues. When we bought our current home in 2017, one of the first things we did was install a bidet on our toilet. It was cheap and easy. We love it. It doesn’t completely eliminate the need for toilet paper, but it certainly reduces it. Plus, I come away feeling much, much cleaner!

That’s it for today, my friends. I’ll be back tomorrow to help you close out your week. See you then.

Welcome to Wednesday, money nerds. Come on in. We’re glad to have you here at Apex Money. Here are a few of the best personal-finances articles we’ve read recently. We hope you enjoy them like we do!

Life is not a buffet. [Emily Guy Birken] — “We spend a great deal of our time wishing to have the things that other people have…But even if you could trade places with the object of your envy, or swap out the missing ingredient from their life to yours, that life wouldn’t be yours and the missing item wouldn’t be yours.”

The now or later fallacy. [Physician on Fire] — “I am a firm believer in balance. Please, don’t save so much now that you cannot enjoy today. I also don’t encourage you to live it up so much right now that you cannot save for tomorrow. Learn to find the balance in moderation. You might realize that despite the saying, you can in fact have your cake and eat it, too, when it comes to living today and saving enough for tomorrow.”

Does delaying Social Security deliver an 8% return? [Morningstar] – “In order to know the actual ‘return’ you receive from a decision to delay Social Security, however, you’d have to know how long you’ll live. If you delay your benefit and live a long time (or your spouse does, if you’re the higher earner), your enhanced benefit is magnified and your ‘return’ from that decision to delay is higher. If, on the other hand, you delay filing and die shortly thereafter, your ‘return’ from delaying is negative; you would have been better off starting benefits earlier.”

“Would I be the asshole if I didn’t give up my honeymoon villa to my grandparents?” [/r/AmItheAsshole on Reddit] — If you’ve never read the “Am I the asshole?” subreddit, here’s how it works: People post situations they’re in that are causing (or have caused) division and strife in their lives. Some of their real-life friends and family think they’re jerks; others don’t. They ask internet strangers to weigh in on the situation. This particular question (and the answers) highlight many things ranging from wealth to class to generational differences to cultural differences. Entertaining and enlightening!

Our final piece for today captures three things that I’m a sucker for: (1) happy crowds, (2) performers moved by audience reaction, and (3) famous artists who bring their kids on stage. No wonder I love this. Here’s Dave Grohl bringing his daughter Violet on stage to perform an acoustic cover of an Adele song.

So much fun. So much fun. Can’t wait until live music is a thing again!

See you tomorrow, friends!