Author: J.D. Roth

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!

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!

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!

Welcome to Wednesday, money nerds! And welcome once again to Apex Money, where we do our best to share the best money stories from every corner of the interwebs.

This week, I’m at Lake Tahoe, hanging out with blogging buddies. I’m handing curation duties over to them, asking them to give me their favorite recent articles. And, as I’ve mentioned all week, our talk continues to be centered around the Tim Ferriss article about fame that I shared on Monday. I’m not kidding: This piece has everybody talking.

Still, I’ve managed to get people to give me other stories worth sharing.

My business partner Tom Drake (from Maple Money) thinks you Apexians would appreciate this MSN Money article about the “Japanese art of saving money“. — “What sets this 116-year-old method apart, however, is that it doesn’t involve any budgeting software, apps or Excel sheets. Similar to bullet journaling, kakeibo emphasizes the importance of physically writing things down — as a meditative way to process and observe your spending habits.”

Mr. Josh Overmyer likes this story from MSNBC about thrift-store arbitrage. Enterprising entrepreneurs rummage through used books, clothes, and gadgets to find casually discarded treasures, which they turn around and sell for a profit online. “Reselling online touches several current trends. You don’t add to the landfill. You streamline your possessions and satisfy your inner Marie Kondo. And you side hustle, because who can’t use a few extra bucks?”

Here’s a video recommended by Lacey Langford, The Military Money Expert ®. She loves The Alter Ego Effect, Todd Herman’s recent book about using the power of secret identities to transform your life. The premise? Defeat negative self-talk by naming it and isolating it. Then, when you need to perform at a high level, pretend you’re somebody else. Pretend you’re Sasha Fierce.

Here’s a four-minute video in which Herman describes the alter-ego effect.

This video is a little cheesy, no doubt, but it’s an interesting concept, one I’d find useful for me. I’m intrigued enough that I ordered his book, in fact. I’ll read it and report back in the near future at Get Rich Slowly.

Lastly, here’s an article submitted by Apex reader Craig, who is not a blogger and not present here in Tahoe. At The Atlantic, Annie Lowrey writes about the great affordability crisis breaking America. “Beyond the headline economic numbers [of the 2010s], a multifarious and strangely invisible economic crisis metastasized: Let’s call it the Great Affordability Crisis…In one of the best decades the American economy has ever recorded, families were bled dry by landlords, hospital administrators, university bursars, and child-care centers. For millions, a roaring economy felt precarious or downright terrible.”

Do you have something you think your fellow readers would enjoy or find interesting? Send it to us! We love reader submissions.

¡Hola, amigos! Welcome once more to Apex Money, your source for the top money stories from around the web.

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m hanging out with a bunch of blogging buddies at Lake Tahoe, on the Nevada-California border. For fun, I’ve asked them to share some of their favorite recent articles with me. Everyone keeps pointing out the Tim Ferriss piece we linked to yesterday. It’s on all of our minds. But I can’t link to that twice in two days, right?

So, here’s what we have for today.

My new friend Michelle Black had several suggestions, including a piece from Brave Saver: Why should moms have to justify their choices? “I and many moms have gotten the message loud and clear,” author Elyssa writes, “that we must sacrifice and burn ourselves out to warm everyone around us.” Michelle says this article spoke to her, that she could relate to it.

Robert Farrington from The College Investor likes this recent post in the /r/fatFIRE/ subreddit: What’s in your safe? “It’s really interesting to see what people keep in their safe,” Robert says. “I don’t have one. But many people do. Some of this stuff is obvious, but some of it isn’t. I think your readers might find this useful.”

The awesome (and heavily-bearded) Nick True pointed me to this l-o-n-g PDF document — which may be slides from a presentation? — about the state of tech in 2020. I’ll be honest: While I can’t grasp the larger narrative thread here, scrolling through the slides (if they are slides) is fascinating. Some of you will find this tedious. Others will love it.

To wrap things up for the day, here’s something completely non-financial worth watching. My pal Philip Taylor turned me on to Kraig Adams, a YouTuber who creases (mostly) silent travel videos as he hikes around the world. For instance, here’s an awesome video of him hiking alone for three days in Perú.

This brings back memories of my own 2011 trek in Perú (which was not solo). One of the highlights of my life. The country is beautiful and filled with amazing people.

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

Hey, all! It’s J.D. here, back for another week of top money stories from around the web. This week, I’m in Lake Tahoe with some of my favorite blogging buddies. We’re taking a mid-winter break to hang out and enjoy one another’s company.

As we filtered into Reno over the weekend, there was one article that everybody wanted to talk about. Author Tim Ferriss — famous for The Four-Hour Workweek recently shared 11 reasons not to become famous. It’s a vulnerable (and sometimes disturbing) look at the price of fame.

Nobody in our blogging group is famous famous. We’re not movie stars. We’re not even Tim Ferriss. But each of us has stories of strange things that have happened — haters, stalkers, over-enthusiastic fans — and how that’s altered the way we present ourselves publicly. Some people (like me) haven’t made many changes. Others have made drastic changes. And the women, especially, have learned to be cautious. (See also: this article on sexual terror and how it costs women at The Dumpster Dog Blog.)

Okay, that’s a little dark and deep to start the week, I know. Let’s turn our attention to more mundane money stuff, shall we? Here’s some cool recent stuff.

A retrospective on the history of work [since 1950]. [Atlassian] — “You’ve made it to a new decade of work and life. Buckle up because it’ll be like no other that’s come before it. Things have changed so much in just a few decades, influencing how we approach our work in ways you can only see when you stop and take a look back. What has changed, what hasn’t, and what does the future of work hold?”

The biggest lie in personal finance. [Of Dollars and Data] — “The biggest lie in personal finance is that you can be rich if you just cut your spending. And the financial media feeds this lie by telling you to stop spending $5 a day on coffee so that you can become a millionaire.” Preach! Unless you earn an out-sized income, a hard-core devotion to frugality will never make you rich. It’ll just make you miserable.

What is an investment policy statement? (And how do I write one?) [Women Who Money] — “An investment policy statement (IPS) is your investing roadmap. It’s a document outlining your financial goals and strategies, with guidelines for achieving them. And it will help you stay on the right path as you move forward, despite what the market or everyone else is doing. An IPS can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be. It provides an overall vision of your investment strategy and holdings.”

Finally, to get your week started right, here’s a ten-minute film I love. While that Tim Ferriss article captures the dark side of humanity, this story captures the light. And that’s the side I prefer to see, the side I prefer to focus on.

This is a dramatized version of a popular Reddit comment. It’s simply called “Today You, Tomorrow Me”.

Screw all the bickering and strife in this country lately. People are people, man. Can’t we all just get along?

Good morning, money nerds! It’s Friday, which means the end of the week. But not for me. You see, I’m currently in the midst of creating an audio-only course about financial independence and early retirement for Audible and The Great Courses. My first deadline — for half of the material — is today. I’m not finished.

Fortunately, my project manager has extended my deadline to Monday. Also fortunately, I’m nearly finished. I’ve completed three lectures and have written the bulk of the other two. But that still means I’ll be hacking away in the word mines for most of the weekend. I’ll be working.

But don’t you worry about that. You enjoy yourself. And before you head home, here are some recent top money stories for you to enjoy.

How to create sustainable money habits. [Frugalwoods] — “It’s not good enough to do good with your money one month, you’ve got to do good with your money all the months. That’s the only route to true improvement. Frugality can become your default and you can train yourself to do the right thing with your money. It’s about establishing habits that are easy to follow.”

The secret tricks used by restaurant menus. [BBC] — “You may not realise it, but the menu probably played a far greater role than you’d credit. Far from being glorified pricelists, restaurant menus are sophisticated marketing tools that can nudge customers towards certain choices. Restaurant menus can even tell us what to think.”

How poor Americans get exploited by their landlords. [CityLab] — “It is a mistake, Desmond and Wilmers argue, to see slums as a byproduct of the modern city, rundown areas that occur by accident. Instead, they contend that the slum has long been a ‘prime moneymaker’ for those who profit from land scarcity, racial segregation, and deferred maintenance.”

Magnitude matters. [Humble Dollar] — “Why don’t we spend our time and energy on financial issues that have the greatest impact? We’ll drive to a more distant gas station to save 10 cents a gallon, but fail to do all the maintenance needed to extend the life of our car. What lies behind this sort of behavior? The savings from getting the best price per gallon is concrete and immediate, while maintaining our car is long term and abstract. It’s simply easier to focus on the 10 cents.”

Let’s end Friday with a special treat. Or, at least it’s a treat for me. You see, I used to be a devoted fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I videotaped every episode, audiotaped every episode, and took detailed notes on every episode, which I then entered into a spreadsheet. (How many episodes was O’Brien in? What about Keiko?) Yes, I am a nerd, thankyouverymuch.

Well, as you probably know, there’s a new series called Star Trek: Picard. At the moment, it’s only available through the subscription service from CBS, and I refused to pay for yet another streaming service. So, I’ll wait a year for Picard to be released on iTunes. (That’s what I did with Star Trek: Discovery.)

Fortunately, for a limited time, CBS has posted the first episode of Picard on YouTube. You can watch it for free! I haven’t done so yet, but I will this weekend…

Speaking of weekends, it’s time for you to start yours. We’ll be back next week with more of the best of the web. See you then.