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Author: J.D. Roth

How the other half lives.

How the other half lives.

Yawn. Good morning, sleepy-heads! I know it’s early, but I’m here once again to share some interesting articles about mastering your money — and your life! Are you ready?

Secrets of the MIT poker course. [Mental Floss] — “Poker, I realize, is a skill in the way language is a skill. It’s a set of rules under a structure of infinite nuance and variance. Professionals separate themselves from the pack with an ingrained understanding of these nuances — smart decisions, made instinctively. I couldn’t expect to learn a language in two weeks, and poker would be no different.”

Inside the wild world of government auctions. [The Hustle] — “Once an item falls out of use, organizations running the gamut from state colleges to law enforcement to the Environmental Protection Agency auction it off to the public. And sometimes, an extraordinary item ends up in the hands of someone like [you].” Wanna buy a lighthouse? A helicopter? An ambulance? Government auctions might be your best bet!

Drivers of high-cost cars are less likely to yield to pedestrians. [Journal of Transport & Health] — “Two naturalistic experiments examined if upper-class individuals behaved more unethically while driving. They found that upper-class individuals (as indicated by vehicle status – make, age, and appearance) were more likely to violate California state law and cut drivers off at a 4-way intersection. In a separate study they also found that upper-class individuals were more likely to violate California state law and cut pedestrians off at a marked intersection.”

Jacob Riis, the photographer who showed “how the other half lives”. [My Modern Met] — “In 1890, Riis compiled his photographs into a book, How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York. Featuring never-before-seen photos supplemented by blunt and unsettling descriptions, the treatise opened New Yorkers’ eyes to the harsh realities of their city’s slums. Since its publication, the book has been consistently credited as a key catalyst for social reform.”

Jacob Riis on how the other half lives

Reading this (and looking at the photos), I was reminded of Betty Smith’s excellent novel, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Smith’s story covers events between 1900 and 1918 while Riis’ photos are from the 1880s. Despite the time difference, they’re depicting the same sort of life in the same location. I think it’d be interesting to see a version of Smith’s book illustrated with Riis’ photos.

That’s it for this Thursday! I’ll be back tomorrow to usher you into the weekend…

A retirement calculator worth your time.

Welcome to Wednesday, Apexians. If you’re looking for the best stories about money, you’ve come to the right place. Every day, Jim and I dig deep on the internet to find the most interesting and useful stuff to share with you. Here’s what we have today.

Disruption starts with unhappy customers, not technology. [Harvard Business Review] — “In the common scenario that executives think technology is trying to disrupt their business, they try to find a way to develop that technology internally or buy it from others. Major auto companies like GM and Ford are a good example: they have spent billions to buy and then build electric and autonomous driving technologies…What these companies seem to have missed is that the most common and pervasive pattern of disruption is driven by customers.”

The common pricing mistakes that destroy luxury brands. [Jing Daily] — “Pricing mistakes are common in luxury and are one of the biggest culprits behind value destruction. One common mistake — surprisingly — is pricing a brand too low. This happens because managers aren’t fully aware of the Added Luxury Value they create.”

A retirement calculator worth your time. [The Retirement Manifesto] – “NewRetirement is a retirement calculator that’s worth your time. If you prefer to have an expert walk your retirement planning journey with you, they offer the flexibility to only pay for what you need. NewRetirement offers the entire gamut, and it’s a package that can help you achieve a great retirement.”

To wrap things up this Wednesday, here’s a video that has nothing to do with money. It’s a look at P!nk, the border collie from Pickerington, Ohio who has won the Westminster Dog Show 16-inch agility class three years in a row.

I love my pup. She’s intelligent, alert, and very food-motivated. This makes her easy to train. But I don’t think there’s any way I could get her to run an agility course like P!nk does. Who knows, though? Maybe I should try.

That’s it for today, my friends. I’ll back tomorrow with more great stuff. See you then.

Stalking fraudsters on the internet.

It’s Tuesday, money nerds, and this is Apex Money. Every day, Jim and I bring you the best in money stories from around the interwebs. Our goal is to entertain and educate.

Today, we’re going to lead with our daily video instead of end with it. It’s our feature story. In this twenty-minute talk, Nina Kollars explains how she innocently ordered discount coffee pods from eBay…but ended up an unsuspecting participant in triangulation fraud.

This story is both fascinating and frustrating. And it’s entertaining, especially for money nerds like you and me. Kollars writes:

“This talk chronicles the obnoxious amounts of obsessive research and tracking that became my new hobby — stalking Nespresso fraudsters and my decidedly non-technical attempts at developing a generic search profile and reporting the fraudsters to anyone who would listen…Ultimately I just ended up with a LOT of coffee; a lingering sense that I had committed several crimes; and no faith left in humanity.”

Personal savings: A look at how Americans are saving. [Deloitte] — “While the personal savings rate has been trending upward, average savings—calculated using the Consumer Expenditure Survey—has been on a broad declining trend since 2010–2012 for consumers across income levels and for key working-age groups.”

Practical strategies for spending less on transportation. [The Fioneers] — “Any way you look at it, there are ways to reduce your reliance on personal vehicles. Reducing the number of cars is the most effective way to cut your transportation expenses. But I understand that these are no small changes. If moving or switching jobs is too much to commit to right now, you can also look at reducing the cost of owning a car.”

Expert advice on what to keep in a “go bag”. [Why Is This Interesting?] — “The notoriously tough Green Beret training pipeline and real-life deployments put them in some unfriendly places, and we asked them to write about what average people should be thinking about when it comes to disaster preparation…Here’s a list of very pragmatic things to do and think about, from two guys that know.”

Have a story that you think we should share with your fellow Apexians? Send it in!

Two ways to play the game of life.

Good morning, money nerds! It’s Monday, and that means new money stories fresh from the word mines. Here’s what Jim and I have found for you recently.

To start, let’s talk about current events. We don’t delve into the mainstream news cycle often here at Apex Money (and for a variety of good reasons), but today we’re going to make an exception. The Coronavirus has begun to infect U.S. communities. (Here in Oregon, the first cases appeared in a school just a few miles from me!) Our first story today is all about the facts regarding COVID-19.

The WHO sent 25 international experts to China. Here are their findings on the coronavirus. [/r/China_Flu/ on Reddit] — “The WHO has sent a team of international experts to China to investigate the situation, including Clifford Lane, Clinical Director at the US National Institutes of Health. Here is the press conference on Youtube and the final report of the commission as PDF after they visited Beijing, Wuhan, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Chengdu. Here are some interesting facts about Covid that I have not yet read in the media.”

Two ways to play the game of life. [Farnam Street] — “How you play the game of life will define the learning you pursue. Finite players need training. Infinite players need education. Why? According to Carse, ‘to be prepared against surprise is to be trained. To be prepared for surprise is to be educated.’ If you play life as a finite game, you train for the rules. If life is instead an infinite game, you focus on being educated to adapt to unknowns.” This is a new concept to me, and I love it.

“I used to love cars. Here’s what drove me away. [Wired] — “How did I evolve from a person who looked for every excuse to get behind the wheel to a person who mostly avoids driving? What happened? Over two decades, I can point to six experiences that corroded my love affair with cars.”

Seven benefits to living in a smaller home. [Modern Simplicity] — “We left our big McMansion behind in Texas last year to move to small-town Oklahoma and downsize into a much smaller house. We’ve found there are many benefits to living in a smaller home. Today, I want to share a few of those with you.”

Our final item today is also about living in a smaller home. Here’s a four-minute video tour of a 200-square-foot house in the heart of Tokyo. This Japanese couple could only afford to buy a small plot of land on which to build. They decided to make the most of it.

That’s it for today, money nerds. We’ll be back tomorrow with more great stories from around the web.

The biggest wastes of time we regret as we get older.

Why, hello there little Apexians. How are my favorite money nerds today? To finish the week, Jim and I have once again collected some of our favorite money stories to share with you. Enjoy!

Don’t quit your job before asking yourself these questions. [Harvard Business Review] — “Is it time to quit my job? This is a question we’ve all asked ourselves at one point or another. Most people wait until they feel they must leave their job or organization, and that puts them at a disadvantage. They might end up choosing an ‘exit job’ rather than the right next career step. Don’t let this happen to you.”

Why did the U.S. give up on mass transit? [Citylab] — “One hundred years ago, the United States had a public transportation system that was the envy of the world. Today, outside a few major urban centers, it is barely on life support…While a decline in transit use in the face of fierce competition from the private automobile throughout the 20th century was inevitable, near-total collapse was not.”

The biggest wastes of time we regret as we get older. [Kristin Wong at Lifehacker] — “We spend a lot of energy looking for shortcuts to save time, and sure, those shortcuts add up. But when I look back, my biggest time regrets aren’t spending too much time on Twitter or mismanaging my daily tasks. Those are bad habits, but there are bigger, more systematic time wasters that have really gotten in the way.”

This last news item has nothing to do with money but it has a lot to do with wasting time. And if you’re old like I am, it might be useful to keep you up to date on pop culture.

Are you on TikTok? [Quartz Obsession] — “You might be baffled by the rise of TikTok. It’s a short-form mobile platform where users can create 15-second video clips set to music. That humble function belies its massive popularity. One of the most popular apps of all time, TikTok has been downloaded an estimated 1.3 billion times. But, unless you have a pre-teen or adolescent in your life, you may have missed the memo.” [Related: What happens when TikTok fame fades?]

A friend urged me to download TikTok a couple of weeks ago. I’ve browsed through it a couple of times but I have to be honest: I don’t get it. Like Twitter, it seems mostly pointless. It’s difficult to convey complexity and nuance in 140 characters; it’s similarly difficult to do anything meaningful with 15 seconds of video. And most of what I’ve ssen on TikTok is, well, dumb. But hey: I’m old!

To wrap things up, here’s a curious little video from Now I Know. Today is February 28th, as I’m sure you know. And because this is a leap year, tomorrow is February 29th. There is not February 30th…unless you lived in Sweden in 1712.

On a related note (also from Now I Know), North Korea has its own numbering system for years.

That’s it from us at Apex. You all go out and have a great weekend. We’ll see you in March!

What happens when rich people marry poor people?

Today is Thursday, money nerds, and this is Apex Money. As always, Jim and I are here to share some of the top money stories from around the web. Ready? Let’s dive right in.

First up, our good pal Melanie Lockert has launched a new endeavor! Melanie is all about the intersection of money and mental health, so it should be no surprise to hear that she’s started a new podcast on the subject: The Mental Health and Wealth Show. Melanie’s one of my favorite colleagues (and friends). And as a life-long depressive, this podcast is perfect for me.

Now, let’s move on to the articles!

Dealing with financial incompatibility in relationships. [Gen Y Planning] — “It’s possible to get along really well with someone even though the way you handle money is totally different. Many times, couples can come up with a system that honors their personal styles. Other times, your differences are an indication of red flags you shouldn’t ignore. Here are my tips for couples who are navigating this common issue.”

Why frugality, minimalism, and environmentalism work so well together. [Frugalwoods] — “The mindset centers on arriving at a place of enough. Of recognizing and internalizing that we have enough food, clothing, couches, cars. Of being content with what we own and not in a constant mode of greed and grasping…There will always be bigger, newer, and nicer. The question is how we manage our expectations around bigger, newer, and nicer things.”

What happens when rich people marry poor people? [Yahoo! Health] — “In her book The Power of the Past: Understanding Cross-Class Marriages, released earlier this month by Oxford University Press, [Jessi] Streib drew on extensive interviews with 42 married heterosexual couples, 32 of whom were born into different social classes, to learn more about how class mores affect marriages — and vice versa. [We] recently spoke to her about her research.” [See also: What happened when I unwittingly married into money.]

Dying malls seek second life as entertainment destinations. [Curbed] — “Faced with the challenges of drawing crowds and ringing up sales, malls across the country aren’t just adding new experiences as an added attraction, they’re giving over large swaths of space to entertainment companies and expecting them to become the main draws…Meant to be a recreation of Main Street, malls are quickly becoming, in part, theater districts for entertainment.”

To close things out today, I have not one but two delightful pieces of catness for you.

First, here’s the latest from Cat and Girl. For those unfamiliar, Cat and Girl is delightful absurdist web comic from Dorothy Gambrell. It’s been around since 1999, which is nearly as long as I’ve been blogging.

Anyhow, the most recent Cat and Girl mocks the mad rush to monetize everything. I thought it was funny. Perhaps you will too.

Cat and Girl

But wait! That’s not all! As promised, here’s a second silly cat-related tidbit. It’s a short video of a cat. Sitting in a child seat. Watching Tom and Jerry. It’s perfect.

Well, that’s all for today, money nerds. I’ll be back tomorrow to see you into the weekend.

Reddit gold.

Good morning, Apexians! It’s Wednesday, money nerds, and today we’re sharing a collection of pieces curated from everybody’s favorite time-sink: Reddit. I have a love-hate relationship with that site. There’s a lot of great stuff to discover, but there’s also a lot of noise.

Today, let’s look at some of the good stuff. Here are few recent Reddit posts that I think you all will enjoy.

“I just bought a used car for the first time. Here’s what I learned.” [/r/personalfinance] — “I just bought a used car for the first time this past weekend. While I am very happy about the car and I think I found a good deal, honestly I found the entire car buying experience terrible so I figured I would try to share what I learned from this experience. Keep in mind that this is really a write-up about buying a used car from a dealership and not a private seller.” [See also: the /r/personalfinance vehicle wiki]

The marketing genius of Lil Nas X. [/r/Entrepreneur] — “Lil Nas X was a college dropout sleeping on his sister’s couch with a negative balance in his Wells Fargo account. Five months later he’d broken Mariah Carey’s record for the most consecutive weeks at number one. This post tells the story.” Fascinating read about how the success of last year’s biggest song blew up thanks to carefully planned use of social media.

How did the Inca Empire function without money? [/r/AskHistorians] — “The Inka state functioned by what we (most historians and archaeologists) understand to long-standing cultural conventions related to reciprocity. This study relates to a larger body of literature in economic anthropology (among other specializations) that study the ideas related to ‘gifts’, particularly how they create obligations to give, to receive, and to repay, sometimes in the absence of (or in spite of) a monetary system.” Fascinating.

“Am I the asshole for saying I got my dress at Goodwill in front of my boyfriend’s boss?” [/r/AmItheAsshole] — “Recently my boyfriend had a big company dinner with his law firm, all the lawyers and their spouses would be there. I said I’d go, and I had a nice formal dress to wear. I’d gotten it at a Goodwill in the wealthy part of town and it was from a really upscale brand…So at the party, a couple of the lawyer’s girlfriends and wives complimented my dress and one woman asked where it was from.” Interesting discussion. Some people think used clothing is gauche. Others see nothing wrong with it.

Lastly, via /r/OTR (for old-time radio), here’s a 90-minute PBS documentary from 1972 on the history of radio comedy. I realize that few of you Apexians are likely to watch this, but I’ll bet there are a few of you who, like me, will enjoy this

That’s it for Wednesday. It’s all downhill from here!

Poverty isn’t a lack of character. It’s a lack of cash.

Today is Tuesday, money nerds, and this is Apex Money, your daily source for the best money stories around the web. Today we have a collection of articles about poverty — and how to fight it.

Poverty isn’t a lack of character. It’s a lack of cash. [The Correspondent] — “A world without poverty – it might be the oldest utopia around. But anybody who takes this dream seriously must inevitably face a few tough questions. Why are poor people more likely to commit crimes? Why are they more prone to obesity? Why do they use more alcohol and drugs? In short, why do the poor make so many poor decisions?” This is a thoughtful article on a complex subject.

The cognitive burden of poverty. [Behavioral Scientist] — “Poverty, and the ever-present concerns that come with it, places an undue burden on an individual’s limited mental resources. Compared with those who are free from poverty, this burden leaves those in poverty with fewer cognitive resources with which to make choices and take action.”

Tips for getting out of poverty. [/r/povertyfinance on Reddit] — “I’ve grown up a minority in poverty with a younger brother and a single mom. I worked in fast food starting at $6.25/hr and banking from the age of 15 till late college. In the last 7 years I’ve graduated from college ended my full-time teller role and have been fulfilling my career choice as a designer throughout multiple roles…Here are some tips for things I’ve learned throughout the years that might be useful for people looking to break out of poverty. I hope it can help someone.”

“How I broke the cycle of poverty.” [/r/povertyfinance on Reddit] — “[This] post is not intended to be a one-size-fits-all approach. It’s merely a lowly account of how I beat the cycle of poverty. I will mention parts of my personal 30+ year journey as illustrative examples. I’m a very pragmatic person, so I like organizing my points into actionable deliverables and providing practical tips.

To close things out, here’s a short video exploring on of Pittsburgh’s weirdest traditions: the parking chair. When they leave their homes, residents place a chair of some sort to hold their parking spot. It’s not technically legal, but the city goes along with it and everyone respects the tradition.

I love regional quirks like this.

Here in Oregon, for instance, we’re serious about pedestrians having the right of way. Pedestrians have the right of way at all crosswalks — and every intersection counts as a crosswalk, whether it’s marked or not. In other parts of the U.S., cars will mow down pedestrians even when they have the clear right of way. (I spent six months in Savannah, Georgia, where crossing the street was a nightmare.) Here in Oregon, cars are required to stop if somebody is legally crossing the road — and people respect this law. I like it.

Top ten behavioral biases illustrated.

Good morning, money nerds! It’s Monday! It’s the start of another week. As always, Jim and I are here to share the time with you — and to share some of our favorite money stories from around the web. Let’s get started.

First up, Robert Seawright at Above the Market has been publishing a great series of posts exploring the top ten behavioral and cognitive biases that cloud our thinking — with money and everything else.

He’s illustrating each post with examples from music, film, and pop culture, which helps make each bias more relatable and understandable. As I write this, he’s covered six biases and has four more to go.

  1. Believing is seeing (confirmation bias)
  2. A bird in the hand (loss aversion)
  3. The Lake Wobegon effect (overconfidence)
  4. Intentions and outcomes (self-serving bias)
  5. Everybody loves a winner (herding behavior)
  6. The map is not the territory (the narrative fallacy)
  7. Planning is guessing (the planning fallacy)
  8. I knew it all along (hindsight bias)
  9. Fighting the last war (recency bias)
  10. Often wrong but never in doubt (bias blindness)

How much are we paying for our subscription services? A lot. [The New York Times] — “Online subscriptions sure sound cheap, but what do a few bucks a month to watch TV shows, store photos online and stream music add up to? Quite a lot, it turns out. In 2019, we each spent $640 on digital subscriptions like streaming video and music services, cloud storage, dating apps and online productivity tools.” [Related: Another six-million Americans ditched cable last years.]

If you want a marriage of equals, then date as equals. [The Atlantic] — “Heterosexual women of a progressive bent often say they want equal partnerships with men. But dating is a different story entirely. The women I interviewed for a research project and book expected men to ask for, plan, and pay for dates; initiate sex; confirm the exclusivity of a relationship; and propose marriage. After setting all of those precedents, these women then wanted a marriage in which they shared the financial responsibilities, housework, and child care relatively equally. Almost none of my interviewees saw these dating practices as a threat to their feminist credentials or to their desire for egalitarian marriages. But they were wrong.”

Why avoiding bad decisions is more important than making great decisions. [Of Dollars and Data] — “I used to think that my edge in life was being smart, but it really isn’t. My edge is being not stupid. There’s a big difference…When I look back upon my life I am quite proud of my general ability to be not stupid.”

That’s it for today. We’ll be back tomorrow with more great stories. See you then!

The ABCs of wealth.

Hello, money nerds. Let me be the first to say: TGIF!!! I might have had just a little bit too much with my blogging buddies this week in Tahoe. Now I’m paying for it. (Rough life, I know.)

To wrap up the week, let me share a few other money stories that came up in conversation this week. I can’t remember who shared each of these, so I can’t give proper credit. But they’re all good!

Why inflation is the single biggest retirement threat. [ESI Money] — “What matters is the inflation you can expect in the future, not the past. And nobody knows with any confidence what future inflation will be because the past is not necessarily indicative of the future. Knowing the next 15 years of inflation would require either a crystal ball or a direct connection to a higher power. I don’t have either and neither does your financial planner.”

Anonymous contributors answer: What’s some underrated general life advice. [80,000 Hours] — “The following are excerpts from interviews with people whose work we respect and whose answers we offered to publish without attribution…The advice is particularly targeted at people whose approach to doing good aligns with the values of the effective altruism (EA) community, but we expect most of it is more broadly useful.”

“I made one simple financial change and it lowered my spending.” [The Atlantic] — “I came up with…an un-fun, disciplined rule and applied it to my own spending—and it has mostly worked. The rule is simple: After I buy something, I log the transaction on my phone, recording the price and what I bought. The idea is to increase the pain of paying, especially with a credit card, by forcing myself to take note of what I’m spending.”

Vicki Robin on the ABCs of wealth. [Triple Bottom Line FI] — “Abilities, Belonging and Community are the three forms of natural wealth you build intuitively in the process of aligning how you earn, spend and save money with your purpose and fulfillment. As you take your eyes off the false prize (of more, better and different stuff) you put them on the real prizes: friends, family, sharing, caring, learning, meeting challenges, intimacy, rest, being present, connected and respected. In other words, those best things in life that are free.”

To round out your week, here’s something I love. One of our attendees at the ski lodge this week has an enterprising daughter named Ellie. Ellie has created her own YouTube channel in which she’s documenting the process while she restores a 1965 Ford Falcon.

Here’s the episode in which Ellie pulls the engine from the car so that it can be overhauled.

There’s so much I love about all of this. I’m a fan of child entrepreneurs, child creators, and people who defy stereotypes. So much of that going on all at once here. No wonder I love it.

Okay, that’s all for this week. Time for me to go back to bed, to try to recover from all the fun I had in Tahoe. Bye!