Author: J.D. Roth

Why hello, money nerds! Welcome to another day of Apex Money.

As you read this, I in a recording studio for the very first time in my life. No, I’m not laying down music tracks — nobody wants that — but I’m recording my five-hour “intro to FIRE” course for Audible. Very excited to see this come to fruition.

While I’m hard at work, here are some great recent money stories I think you might enjoy.

“We’re doing well but my wife constantly feels like we’re headed toward financial ruin. Help!” [/r/relationshipadvice on Reddit] — “My wife and I have been running a successful online business from home for five years. We bring in over six figures, live far below our means, all of our money goes into savings and investments, no debt…I’m proud of how well we’ve managed money, but she has an insane amount of anxiety around it. She constantly feels like it’s all going to be taken away in the blink of an eye.”

Inside the weird, get-rich-quick world of dropshipping. [Wired UK] — “When an order is received, the dropshipper purchases the item through AliExpress, and has it shipped directly to the buyer, pocketing their mark-up minus marketing spend. At no point does a dropshipper hold stock: they are simply the middleman in a globalised supply chain.” This article is l-o-n-g but interesting.

Berkshire Hathaway 2019 Annual Report [Berkshire Hathaway PDF] — I don’t read any other annual reports, but I always look forward to the Berkshire Hathaway document every year. Warren Buffett always sprinkles little nuggets of wisdom among the financial details of the companies he owns. This year, Buffett’s topics include the importance of retained earnings and the future of his company (since he and his business partner are statistically approaching the ends of their lives). Interesting stuff. [Addendum: Jonathan at My Money Blog posted an overview of the 2020 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, which was held virtually this year (as all things are right now).]

To wrap things up today, here’s the Wall Street Journal video review for the new iPhone SE. Everyone loves Joanna Stern’s video reviews, and it’s easy to see why. She loves tech, but she doesn’t take it (or herself) too seriously. This is fun.

Okay, that’s a wrap. I’ll be back tomorrow morning with more great money stories. See you then.

Hello, Apexians, and welcome to Monday! Are you ready for another round of great money stories from around the web? Great. I’m here to satisfy.

But, as we sometimes do here, I’m going to lead not with our money stuff but with the bonus video. Why? Because it’s great. It’s truly outstanding. Here are 100+ Juilliard students and alumni gathering in a mass Zoom recording to perform Ravel’s “Bolero”.

There are some big names here — and some folks you’ve never heard of. But it’s all wonderful. And such a product of our times.

Okay, okay. Let’s move on to the money stuff…

“My retirement plan is you.” [The New York Times, so possible paywall] — “A growing number of millennials who are supporting their parents financially and, in some cases, giving them a place to live. Known as the reverse-boomerang effect, the phenomenon of parents moving in with their adult children, often for financial reasons, is on the rise.”

The more you know a stock, the worse your performance gets. [Klement on Investing] — “By watching their stocks more closely, they are more likely to react to short-term noise. As they try to anticipate the next correction, the returns of their stocks become smaller and smaller.”

Are rich people as happy as they think they are? [The Evidence-Based Investor] — “There’s a lot we can learn from this. For the upper middle class, pursuing more money or higher status things won’t make their lives any better. If they’re happy now, then having a Ferrari, a swimming pool and a mansion won’t make any difference.”

That’s it for Monday. I’ll be back tomorrow with more stories to help you master your money — and your life.

Yawn! Good morning, Apexians, and welcome to Friday. Hope you’ve got some fun stuff planned for your weekend? Me? I’ll be working. In a couple of hours, we’re scheduled to receive a dumb-truck full of gravel. My rough calculations show that I’ll be hauling about 100 wheelbarrow loads from the top of our driveway 200 feet to its destination in the backyard. All while I have a sore arm. Yeah, it’s going to be a long weekend.

Before we go our respective ways, though, here are a few fun money stories from around the web. Enjoy!

The food expiration dates you should actually follow. [The New York Times, so possible paywall] — “Here’s the first thing you should know: Expiration dates are not expiration dates. Food product dating, as the U.S. Department of Agriculture calls it, is completely voluntary for all products (with the exception of baby food, more on that later). Not only that, but it has nothing to do with safety. It acts solely as the manufacturer’s best guess as to when its product will no longer be at peak quality, whatever that means.” [I am saving this one to send to people who freak out about three-day past-day mustard.]

How the George Foreman grill changed history. [Men’s Health] — “The boxer reportedly wasn’t interested but after playing around with his own recipes finally agreed to some unique terms for a celebrity spokesman: He wanted a back-end cut on sales. Salton would cover the up-front costs and Foreman would take 45 percent of all profits, period. Dreimann agreed.”

How to build your own Nintendo Switch at home. [imgur, of all places] — “The key to a project like this is extreme patience. This took about a month and then some to bid on parts, find inexpensive sellers, and wait for ground shipping from China. In the end it was still worth it to me. This was a fun project to keep me busy during the quarantine while not breaking the bank.”

When your fictional pandemic becomes reality. [TOR] — “Sometimes, you’re haunted by your own stories. I wrote ‘So Much Cooking’ in 2015: in it, a food blogger describes cooking in quarantine during a pandemic, feeding an ever-increasing number of children she’s sheltering at her house with an ever-decreasing supply of food.” This is kind of amazing.

Lastly: here’s a two-year-old YouTube clip in which Gary Cook does the “to be or not to be” soliloquy from Hamlet…in the style of a vlogger who’s uploading his breakdown to the internet. I think it’s a clever idea done well. (One hilarious thing to note: At the time I write this, this video has 19,968 views, 3100 likes, and one dislike. One. I find that funny.)

That’s it for now. See you again soon!

Good morning, Apexians. We’re back with more of the best money stories from around the web.

First up, yet another look at the so-called education premium. Study after study shows the same thing: the more you learn, the more you earn. It’s not even a contest.

Average net worth by age and education level. [Of Dollars and Data] — “The good news is that, while comparing yourself to others in this way can be useful for helping you to stay on track, net worth is not the be-all and end-all of personal finance. Because the most important metric in personal finance is whether your money is allowing you to live the life that you truly want.” The education premium is real — and it’s spectacular.

Americans are drinking more alcohol during the coronavirus crisis. [Vox] — “The coronavirus pandemic has lessened the stigma of drinking alone, and of drinking, period. Americans are buying more alcohol, and it’s not just to stock up for the next few weeks or months.” For the first month of this, my alcohol consumption was down. (Actually, it’s been down all year.) But for the past week? Uh…yeah, I’ve been drinking a lot.

Do people become more selfless as they age? [The Conversation] — “Older adults do not just act like they are nicer people, which might easily be driven by selfish motives such as making it more likely that they will be remembered fondly once they are gone. Rather, the fact that their reward areas are so much more responsive to experiencing people in need being helped suggests that they are actually, on average, kinder and genuinely more interested in the welfare of others than everyone else.”

City climate dopplegangers. [City Projections] — “Find your city’s climate doppleganger: Search for a city and find cities around the world with similar climates (try searching by country and selecting the nearest city if your city is not found).”

Last of all is today’s video — and for once, it’s actually about money! Here’s the full-length (nearly 2-1/2 hour) 2004 documentary from Alain de Botton: Status Anxiety. It’s all about keeping up with the Joneses.

That’s it for Thursday. I’ll be back tomorrow to see you into the weekend…

It’s Hump Day, money nerds. But does that even matter anymore? Haven’t we all sort of lost track of what the day is? WI know we have in our house! A couple of times each week, we have to pause to think things through. And as for the actual date? Hahahahahaha. With no appointments and plans, the date no longer matters.

But you know what does matter? Smart personal finance. Smart personal finance never goes out of style. To that end, here are a few great money stories you might enjoy.

Coronavirus reminds us what functioning communities look like. [Quartz] — “Somewhere between work, kids, house, family, and friends, the idea of caring for those who lived in close proximity and yet were largely strangers to us became an abstract notion, a virtuous and distant hope but not a pressing priority. Coronavirus changed all that.”

How to design an anti-fragile career. [RadReads] — “In nearly every conversation, some recurring themes have emerged…[People are] optimistic. Not blind optimism that ‘everything will be ok’ – because there’s too much uncertainty to know that with 100% confidence. But a pragmatic and humble confidence thar results in the belief of their own resilience.”

The financial implications of owning a cat. [ESI Money] — “The best way I can describe Zeus is a dog in a cat’s body. He is friendly, loving, sweet, and so very cute. Since we knew he was awesome, it eliminated the possibility that if we got a cat we’d end up with a dud. I saw my chance to have one last, amazing cat in my lifetime.”

The woman who lives 200,000 years in the past. [Outside magazine] — “Lynx (who doesn’t share her legal name) is not your typical back-to-the-lander. The lithe, blonde former teen punk, who grew up in the ‘concrete and dismal gray’ environs of London, has become an unlikely torchbearer of humanity’s wild heritage. Her overarching aim is not to simply survive out here in nature but ‘to live as wild people lived’ and to show others how to do so as well.”

Last of all, here’s a fun video. It’s a Buddhist monk rocking out to Queen. I love it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqfT6zwJWUE

Well, I do not love the vertical video. Vertical video is such a curse but I’m afraid there’s no stopping it now. Too many people just don’t care. 🙁

Okay, enough of me complaining. I’ll be back tomorrow with more great money stories from around the web.

Today is Tuesday, money nerds, and this is Apex Money — your home for the best money stories from around the web. We’ve got some good stuff for you today (as always) but I think my favorite link is the last one…even thought it has nothing to do with personal finance.

Let’s do the money stuff first, shall we?

Ask Reddit: What screams “pretending to be upper class”? [/r/AskReddit] — Interesting discussion on Reddit about the difference in behavior between people who are rich and people who want to be rich. Rich people do and wear what they want, and have no need to have others think they’re rich. People pretending to be rich put on displays. They talk about money, display logos, and so on. This matches my experience.

Why intentional friction is a game-changer. [Break the Twitch] — “here are many ways you can create intentional friction (or reduce unintentional friction) to make small but impactful changes in your life. I’ve personally found great success in implementing this in my own life, and I’d encourage you to give it a try.”

99-year-old British vet raises £17 million for health service by walking laps. [BBC News] — “A 99-year-old war veteran has walked 100 laps of his garden to raise £17m and counting for the NHS. Captain Tom Moore originally aimed to raise just £1,000 for NHS Charities Together by completing laps of his garden before his 100th birthday. But he has smashed his target after nearly 800,000 people made donations to his fundraising page.”

Why this crisis is going to make wealth inequality even worse. [A Wealth of Common Sense] — “Some people will see their finances completely destroyed by this crisis and have to start from scratch. The economic machine and stock market will recover from this recession. People’s personal recessions won’t necessarily follow the same recovery timeline.” [Related reading: This is a no-fault recession at The Belle Curve]

Our non-financial link today isn’t a video. It’s better. It’s a massive list of videos.

For a long time, I’ve been wanting to pursue a variety of “chronological history” projects. For instance, I want to make time to read one biography of each U.S. President — in order. And I’ve considered making a list of historical films, then watching those in order.

Well, somebody else has taken care of that last one for me. Here’s a *HUGE* list of historical films in chronological order from Patrick Louis Coolney, Ph.D. I’d almost argue that this list is too exhaustive. It’s overwhelming. But then I realized that, for my own purposes, I could simply use this as a starting point. I can draw from this to create a smaller, curated list of films that I can watch over the next few years. Nerdy, eh? (Does that surprise you?)

Okay, that’s all for Tuesday. I’ll see you tomorrow, my friends.

Happy Monday, Apexians. I hope you had a good weekend. As for me, I spent much of my time working in the yard with my girlfriend. We moved into this house three years ago, and since then most of our attention has been focused on home remodeling projects. Now it’s time to tame the jungle outside our back door!

But I also found time to pull together links to some great money stories from around the web. Let’s take a look!

What to do if you’ve lost your job due to coronavirus. [Frugalwoods] — “Today’s focus is the benefits available to folks in the United States that’ve arisen in response to the coronavirus pandemic. If this doesn’t apply to you, it’s likely you know someone who would benefit from this information–please share this post with them. I’m not re-inventing the wheel today; rather, my goal is to provide you with all of this information in one place.”

How to care for home appliances and systems on a budget. [Yes, I Am Cheap] — “Imagine you’ve saved up and are now a proud owner of some high-quality home appliances. That’s great news, but you also need to remember that your expenses aren’t over. Those devices will need maintenance and they might break down no matter how well you take care of them. The same goes for any home system, like plumbing or electrical.”

Extreme frugality: Gardening edition. [Surviving and Thriving] — “Getting free seeds is only one way that we practice extreme frugality in the garden, though. A reader named Laure asked for an article about low-cost gardening. This one’s for you, ma’am.”

What to do when your options shrink. [CityFrugal] — “Our range of possibilities has narrowed, for at least the next few months. Good. Hard times aren’t for lamenting the options you’ve lost but rather to embrace the opportunities you still have. It’s time to get creative.”

To wrap things up for today, here’s a video I really enjoyed. It’s twelve minutes of villagers from rural Pakistan trying coffee drinks for the very first time. So real! So fun!

Okay, that’s it for today. I gotta go have my second cup of coffee. I’ll see you again tomorrow. Until then, take care.

It’s Thursday, Thursday, Thursday, money nerds, and I’m back for more of the best personal-finance stories from around the web. Let’s dive right in.

On the importance of understanding your “bare-bones” budget. [Cash for Tacos] — “A bare-bones budget is a budget that consists solely of your financial obligations (debt repayments) and essential living expenses. All of the wants (like streaming services and going out to eat) that typically bulk up our spending are eliminated. With the wants eliminated, you will be able to see exactly how much your basic needs cost.”

Magazines are toast. [The Lefsetz Letter] — “I’m a magazine freak, I have more subscriptions than anybody I know. But not only do magazines keep biting the dust, like National Geographic Traveler, they’re reducing frequency. Sound & Vision…who knows how often it comes out anymore. Ski, same deal. They all keep reducing the number of issues you get per year. Entertainment Weekly is now monthly, I kid you not.” As a guy who used to subscribe to many magazines (and still loves them), I found this article interesting.

How much home can you buy for $500,000? [How Much?] — “Half a million dollars can get you over 3,000 square feet of home real estate in the United States, based on the national median price per square feet. That sounds like a big number, but when you consider that the 2018 median size of a new home in America is 2,386 square feet (which is 1,000 square feet larger than 50 years ago), it’s no surprise that mortgage debt has hit a record high.”

Surprising facts about everyday household objects. [Smithsonian Magazine] — “It might surprise us to know that, for our ancestors, many of the objects we take for granted, like napkins, forks and mattresses, were also once marvels of comfort and technology—available to only the few.” Forks were evil! Chopsticks came first! Keys were big! Plates were bread! Fun stuf…

And to wrap things up, here’s a three-minute video in which a variety of people (of all ages) answer the question, “What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?” I really, really like this.

The best advice that I’ve ever received? You are the boss of you. That is, nobody cares more about your life than you do. If you want to fix something that’s wrong in your world, it’s up to you to fix it. Don’t wait for anyone else to solve your problems for you. (“Treat people the way you want to be treated” is good too!)

That’s it for Thursday, Apexians. I’ll be back tomorrow to wrap up this week of money news.

It’s Wednesday, Apexians! Hump day! The middle of the week. And you know what everybody is talking about? The same thing they’ve been talking about for a month now: the coronavirus. Hey, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. In today’s installment of Apex Money, we’ll look at some coronavirus-related money news.

“I tested positive for the coronavirus.” [Afford Anything] — “I’m 36, a non-smoker, in shape, fit and healthy, with no chronic conditions. No asthma, no diabetes, no cancer, no high blood pressure, no history of any type of organ disease. I’m the poster child, the ideal candidate, of someone who would only experience a ‘mild or moderate’ case. My experience of coronavirus was sheer brutal hell. It was the most intense prolonged physical agony I’ve ever felt. Here’s what coronavirus feels like.”

Why did it take the stock market so long to react to the coronavirus? [Morningstar] — “Could the economic damage from the coronavirus have been predicted? Sure. Some investors did just that. Unfortunately for those attempting to profit from information, though, every year researchers predict dozens of events that never occur, or that do happen but have trivial investment consequences (for example, the Ebola virus hitting American shores). The better question is, should investors have recognized that, after many false alarms, the bear was indeed at the door?”

No, you didn’t just lose half of your retirement savings. [Mr. Money Mustache] — “Once you really get the big picture above, you can see that we are going to come through this better in every way…The end result will be a better, more resilient and richer world than ever. Yes, that will also eventually mean more money in your retirement account, but more importantly it means better and happier living conditions for every living thing on Earth.” There are many reasons I love my friend, Pete. His relentless optimism is one of them.

Finally, for those of you trapped at home and forced to do video calls, here’s a way to make them a little more fun. DC Comics has released a set of virtual backgrounds for you to import into your favorite conferencing app. Now you can talk with co-workers, friends, and family from the Batcave. Or the Fortress of Solitude. Or Atlantis. NERD! Dial in from the DC Universe with these virtual backgrounds. [DC Comics]

Oh wait. One more thing. Here’s a fun, short video in which a father performs a virus-related prank on his three daughters for April Fool’s Day.

Nicely done, sir. Nicely done.

Okay, enough goofing around. I’ll be back tomorrow with more of the best from the world of personal finance. See you then.

Good morning, money nerds, and welcome to another day Apex Money. Let’s dive right in.

The wealthiest person in every state. [Visual Capitalist] — “While all of the names above are considered extraordinarily wealthy in their home states, there is still a magnitude of difference involved. The low end of the list ($0.3 billion) would need to multiply their fortune by 390 times to get up to the $117.1 billion Bezos level.”

“How I’m minimizing my wardrobe.” [Recovering Women Wealth] — “I really began this process by thinking about what types of clothing I like. This way, rather than just throwing away random things, I can be thoughtful about what types of items will work in my wardrobe. For some time, I’ve been thinking that if I had to choose between black or brown shoes, I’d choose brown. I’d also choose a brown purse and a brown belt. That made this process so much easier knowing what my foundational color is.”

Shocking headlines of the 2008 financial crisis (and why they’re important now). [Clipping Chains] — “Many people fear that risking the ride on an endless downturn can ruin them. With this logic, it must be better to get out while you can. What if there’s a world where the market goes to $0 and literally all is lost? Let me offer you some ‘comfort’ on that notion: In that world your money has no value.”

Today’s non-money item is not a video. No, it’s the statistical “which character” personality test. Say what? Here’s how the creator describes it:

Here is an attempt at a slightly more scientific, but still silly, “Which Character Are You?” test. This test was created by getting volunteers to rate the perceived personality of a variety of characters (currently 510). A user’s self ratings are compared against these profiles and the closest match is found.

Turns out my top match is Jake Sisko from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine at 87%. But my #2 match? Arthur Weasley from the Harry Potter series. I don’t know how to feel about this…

See you tomorrow, everyone!