Author: Jim Wang

Do you still pay for cable?

A few years ago, we cancelled our cable. We weren’t using it at all.

Seems like fewer and fewer people are…

Cable’s Continued Collapse [Spyglass] – “Everyone knows by now (finally – I wrote this almost a decade ago) that cable TV is in a prolonged state of decline. But the numbers (assuming these numbers are at least directionally accurate) are nevertheless sobering.”

How Much Should You Spend on Vacation? [Art of Manliness] – “Some financial experts recommend this one: spend 5-10% of your net income on vacations. If you’re in debt, your budget should be closer to the 5% mark; if you’re not, it can be closer to the 10% end of the range. So, for example, if your net income is $80k a year, then you could reasonably spend $4-8k a year on vacations.” I’ve never thought about how much I spent on vacation as a percentage of net income… a fascinating idea.

Finally, we have an interesting story about the mafia and Sicily’s citrus trade:

Can We Blame the Mafia on Lemons? [Atlas Obscura] – “Economists and historians are connecting the early rise of organized crime with Sicily’s citrus trade.”

See you next week!

Be Kind, But Keep Your Integrity [More To That] – “The one thing we have high expectations of, however, is who she is as a person. And for that, we distill it all down to this one statement: We want her to be kind.”

What’s Ozempic doing to our brains? [Vox] – “Desire — for food, companionship, fun, sex, whatever — can bring excitement, joy, and even purpose to life. It’s the Good Stuff! But too much craving is the seed of addiction, of unhealthy eating habits, of the shameful feeling of being torn between what’s good for us and what we crave. We cannot live without wants, yet we cannot be overcome with them. […] Scientists are starting to see the potential for GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic to pull off this trick.”

Show this chart to anyone who tells you college isn’t worth it [Axios] – “Yes, college is still worth it: The wage gap between recent college and high school grads has been widening for decades, and grew even more last year, per new data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.”

This is the chart:

It may not be worth it to everyone, but it’s definitely worth it.

Happy Monday!

I enjoy all kinds of personal finance writing. Sometimes, I’m in the mood for a bit of money philosophy and mindset.

And sometimes, I just want to see a list of little hacks and tips you can immediately use to improve my life a wee bit. Our first post of the week does that.

Every Bit Helps [humbledollar] – “IN NEW ORLEANS, a lagniappe refers to a small gift or bonus—like receiving 13 items for the price of 12, or a so-called baker’s dozen. Today, credit card points are a popular form of lagniappe, delivering a modest bonus every time you spend. But many other lagniappes are also readily available:”

Get Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable [Nir and Far] – “We may not enjoy whatever discomfort we expose ourselves to in the moment—be it a physical, mental, or spiritual hardship—but doing so is key to personal growth and even just plain contentment.”

Watch It Burn – Two scammers, a web of betrayal, and Europe’s fraud of the century. [Atavist] – “Daphne and other scammers’ pillaging of Europe’s carbon market constitutes what the media have called “the fraud of the century”—billions of euros were stolen in a matter of months. The shadowy scheme attracted established crime rings and amateur hucksters alike, many of whom knew each other. But the scam lent itself to duplicity: No one was ever sure who was working with whom, who might be screwing someone else over, or who had started the whole thing.” It’s really really really long.

Ok, despite the numerous exclamation marks, I’m not losing my mind about NVIDIA even though it added $277 billion to it’s market cap yesterday. I think it’s great that technology companies are doing well and while I don’t directly own any shares, they’re in the S&P 500 so our brokerage account balances went up too.

It’s just crazy how quickly things are moving and we’ll see if this is showing us the way forward or just some early excitement. Either way, nothing to do except enjoy the ride.

Speaking of how quickly things are changing… did you see this?

New dating app requires good credit score to join [Yahoo Finance] – “A new dating app called “Score” has been launched by financial services company Neon Money Club. Score is positioning itself as an app for financially responsible singles, requiring users to have a minimum credit score of 675 in order to join.” What time to be alive – and another reason to keep your credit score high!

Compensating compassion [Works in Progress] – “Too few people donate their organs, dead or alive. How can we make it easier to donate, but avoid the abuses that some fear from cash payments?” If you’re interested in this subject, incentivizing organ donation, this article is very thorough in looking at the data and experiences of other countries. I learned quite a bit about the various programs across the world.

Finally, I love ramen. But I love watching people hone their craft even more.

The Ramen Lord – “At Chicago’s buzziest new restaurant, Mike Satinover is obsessed with one goal: making the perfect bowl of Japanese noodles.”

Like Mike Satinover, obsess over something this weekend!

Index Funds Have Officially Won [Morningstar] – “But for active management, ill omens lurked. Although retail buyers cared little for indexing, the strategy had by the mid-’90s become the rage among institutional investors. What’s more, Vanguard 500 Index’s VFINX 20-year returns were appealing. Before long, the marketplace would notice that fund’s success. In fact, I ventured at the time, indexing might someday account for as much as … gasp … 30% of the fund industry’s assets.” I’m surprised that passive (index) mutual funds have only exceeded 50% market share in January of 2024, I suppose that’s a bit of confirmation bias on my part. Some good thoughts (and criticisms of those thoughts) on the implications of this.

What’s Driving the Stock Market Returns? [A Wealth of Common Sense] – “Earnings growth has been the main driver of stock market returns since the end of the Great Financial Crisis. It’s also worth noting that although dividend yields have been relatively low in recent decades, the growth in dividends paid out by corporations has been healthy.”

Minimalism is Neat, but Clutter Makes a Home [The Atlantic] – “I’m reconsidering these mementos and many others as I try to clear out space in the small apartment I share with my husband and toddler. But I can’t seem to give them away. So they collect in the corners of rooms, evoking the randomness of a thrift store—and not the twee, curated kind. I don’t necessarily love the look of mismatched junk congesting the nooks and crannies of my home, but the clutter satisfies a deeper emotional need. Collectively, it represents every stage of my life, the lives of relatives who have died, and now the life of my not-quite-2-year-old daughter. It connects me to people and times that would otherwise feel lost.” Ok maybe clutter isn’t so bad… and the last paragraph is a doozy. (tip of the cap to Kottke.org, who shared this article and whose gift article link you’re clicking)

We have a medley of articles – a post from my friend Robert sharing his rules for getting rich, a crazy story in The Cut about someone getting scammed out of $50k, and finally a note from the FTC about what they’re doing to stop AI impersonation.

Enjoy!

How To Be Rich: 10 Rules To Grow Wealth [The College Investor] – “Being rich doesn’t always mean having money, but 90% of the time it does. However, there are habits, behaviors, and “rules” essentially, that will allow you to get rich and grow wealth. It’s not an overnight process. There aren’t any get rich quick schemes here. What you’re going to read below are my ten rules for how to get rich and grow wealth – over time.”

The Day I Put $50,000 in a Shoe Box and Handed It to a Stranger [The Cut] – “On a Tuesday evening this past October, I put $50,000 in cash in a shoe box, taped it shut as instructed, and carried it to the sidewalk in front of my apartment, my phone clasped to my ear. “Don’t let anyone hurt me,” I told the man on the line, feeling pathetic.” This story is unbelievable.

FTC Proposes New Protections to Combat AI Impersonation of Individuals [FTC] – “The agency is taking this action in light of surging complaints around impersonation fraud, as well as public outcry about the harms caused to consumers and to impersonated individuals. Emerging technology – including AI-generated deepfakes – threatens to turbocharge this scourge, and the FTC is committed to using all of its tools to detect, deter, and halt impersonation fraud.”

I was always surprised whenever President’s Day rolled around because it’s a federal holiday that is always the third Monday in February. We just had a lot of days off for the holidays, we’re barely into the year (though it is February already!), and it’s still cold out. It doesn’t really mark a big transition period, it just kind of shows up one day and “hey, we’re off today!”

If you’re off today, thank you for sharing some of that time off with us!

My Game-Changing Spreadsheet to Track Upcoming Credit Card Bills [Route to Retire] – “It’s kind of a hassle to log into each credit card provider’s site and see what balance is going to be paid and when. Then I’d have to add it all up and figure it all out. I need to do this regularly maybe every few weeks or so… not something to look forward to. I didn’t like it. Tracking upcoming credit card bills shouldn’t be this hard. Since I couldn’t find an easy solution, I decided to make my own tracker for our upcoming credit card bills.”

Who Benefits From The Layoffs? [Retire By 40] – “As a shareholder of these companies, I liked the big pop last year, but I think they should cool it with the layoff. The workforce is getting too lean. Performance will suffer if they continue laying off workers at that pace. Also, I only have 200 shares of Meta. The big pop was nice, but it didn’t make millions for me. I probably should take profit and trim back my position a bit like Zuckerburg.”

How to Cancel Unwanted Subscriptions [Milmo] – “Subscriptions are everywhere. From streaming services to online memberships, it’s easy to accumulate rack-up subscriptions without even realizing it. That’s not even factoring in the frequent moves that come with military life. The financial drain caused by unwanted or unused subscriptions can sneak up on you. In this article, I’m going to share the importance of identifying and canceling unnecessary subscriptions to keep your budget under control.”

Victory [Truly Adventurous] – “At 11-years-old, Victoria Brucker planted her feet wide and crouched down to face the large metal machine as it whirred up, ready to deliver a pitch. Her heart hammered inside her chest as the gaggle of boys impatiently waited behind her for their turns.

Victoria was determined to make her local Little League’s All Star baseball team, composed of the best players in San Pedro, California, but the odds were stacked against her. Not only was she a girl–the only girl–trying out, but she was also a year younger than most of the other boys. And she had only played baseball for three years. There were plenty of parents in the community who had made their feelings clear about the prospect of a girl on the team: She won’t be tough enough… She’ll start crying when she doesn’t get on base… She’ll make a fool of the team.”

Happy Friday!

For some reason, this post didn’t get out to you this morning so here it is to help you ease into the weekend. 🙂

Our first one for the day highlights a career I heard about but never read up on – college admissions consultant. Whatever you may think about it, they exist and parents are using them. Our oldest is only 12 but we’re not far from when these types of things will start coming onto our radar.

Inventing the Perfect College Applicant [New York Magazine] – “For $120,000 a year, Christopher Rim promises to turn any student into Ivy bait.” wow.

100 Simple Truths [tr.af] – “26. You can either build your dream, or help someone build theirs.” Some gems in this one.

And for our last article, a story of crime and jailbreak! (no, not unlocking smartphones from their carriers, breaking out of prisons!)

The Secrets of the World’s Greatest Jailbreak Artist [GQ] – “Few prisoners in France are as notable as the 46-year-old Faïd, who officially ranks among the country’s highest-risk inmates. A notorious thief—the architect of a flurry of dazzling heists and blockbuster robberies in the 1990s that targeted banks, jewelry stores, and armored cars—Faïd became more infamous still in 2013, when he blasted out of the Sequedin prison, near Lille, where he’d been serving time after a botched robbery, using smuggled explosives. That dramatic escape embarrassed the top echelons of the French justice system, and since Faïd’s recapture six weeks later, he’s been under stringent restrictions.” It starts with a jailbreak but then goes into Faid’s history, which is filled with less than savory stuff.

Have a great weekend!

Is it really so bad to let some things slip through the cracks?

The Art of Letting Things Slip Through The Cracks [Accidentally Retired] – “This is a reminder to me as much as anyone. You are only human. You can’t do it all. It is okay to let things slip through the cracks!”

The Munger Operating System: How to Live a Life That Really Works [Farnam Street] – “It’s such a simple idea. It’s the golden rule so to speak: You want to deliver to the world what you would buy if you were on the other end. There is no ethos, in my opinion, that is better for any lawyer or any other person to have. By and large the people who have this ethos win in life and they don’t win just money, not just honors. They win the respect, the deserved trust of the people they deal with, and there is huge pleasure in life to be obtained from getting deserved trust.”

aHere’s a good (short) explanation for Why buying a house in the US is so hard right now by Vox.

Also, this has nothing to do with money but WOW THIS LOOKS INCREDIBLE

NBA UNVEILS STATE-OF-THE-ART LED COURT FOR ALL-STAR 2024 EVENTS TAKING PLACE AT LUCAS OIL STADIUM

The NBA today unveiled the state-of-the-art full video LED court that will be used for #NBAAllStar 2024 events taking place at Lucas Oil Stadium, which include the #RufflesCelebGame… pic.twitter.com/JzOLmFbgaK

— NBA (@NBA) February 5, 2024

A Few Thoughts on Spending Money [Morgan Housel on Collab Fund] – “There are two ways to use money. One is as a tool to live a better life. The other is as a yardstick of status to measure yourself against others. Many people aspire for the former but get caught up chasing the latter.”

This next piece may be titled “investment” but it’s not just where you put your money. It’s also about where you put your time. It’s a good way to think about it (it’s long but well worth it):

Deciding whether an investment is worthwhile [Jason Cohen on A Smart Bear] – “Of course you’ll never know if you made the best choice, even with hindsight. So the goal isn’t to make the “best choice,” but rather to make an excellent choice. To invest wisely, with the information you have.”

Know someone who is about to retire? Or has recently retired? Check out this viral TEDx talk by Riley Moynes (many thanks to Fritz from The Retirement Manifesto for writing about it!):