Author: Jim Wang

Today is the first day of FinCon, which is the annual conference of money nerds. This year, we’ll be in lovely Washington D.C.

Many of the bloggers that we’ve had the pleasure of highlighting each weekday will also be there. If you are attending, make sure to say hi!

Here are today’s best:

I Inherited Money And Now I Can’t Blog About Financial Independence Anymore [The Military Guide] — This isn’t a post about financial independence, it’s about the stress of caregiving and settling an estate. “I’m finally ready to write about distributing my father’s estate. We don’t talk enough about financial literacy in polite society gatherings– let alone aging and estate planning– yet almost everyone in the room is dealing with the caregiver burdens and the concerns of losing a loved one.” I can’t imagine how difficult it was to write but you must read it.

The Safe Withdrawal Rate Series – A Guide for First-Time Readers [Early Retirement Now] — Karsten, AKA Big Ern, has a very comprehensive series of articles discussing safe withdrawal rates. It is quite intimidating to jump into but he has recently published a guide to this multi-part series (by multi-part I mean it’s in the 30s right now) that should make it easier to digest!

You’re Average, So Am I [Waffles on Wednesday] — “Average is an interesting term. The truest definition is ‘a level (as of intelligence) typical of a group, class, or series.’ That’s it, it means typical. But oddly that term has come to imply bad, or not good enough. Why would you just want to be Average?? Average is awful.” Or is it? The article gives you a peek at the Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder’s Meeting and the Oracle of Omaha’s best investing advice and just how average it is.

The Gambler Who Cracked the Horse-Racing Code [Bloomberg] — “Bill Benter did the impossible: He wrote an algorithm that couldn’t lose at the track. Close to a billion dollars later, he tells his story for the first time.” I challenge you to not click on that link and get sucked into this fascinating story!

Did you know there’s a grammatically correct order to how you list adjectives? “Brick red big house” sounds super weird because the adjectives are out of order.

See an article in here that your friend needs to see? Send it to them!

Who doesn’t want to be just a little more productive each and every day?

There’s a reason why David Allen’s 2001 book titled “Getting Things Done” remains one of the most popular books on productivity. People like getting things done. 🙂

Today’s Apex will feature one article that offers up an action based refresher on being more productive followed by two pieces that should whet your appetite for hustling in areas you probably hadn’t considered.

Let’s get into it!

How to Get More Done [The Happy Housewife] — “Just last month I was feeling pretty overwhelmed by all the to-do’s spinning around in my head. After talking to a few friends I realized I needed to sit down, make a list, and start getting things done.” This post is great if you’re struggling to get things done (or feeling like you’ve gotten anything done) – it’s a good approach that includes ideas like achieving quick wins, starting fresh, and more.

Here are two posts on fun little side hustles you can do that I haven’t heard too many people talking about:

How You Can Make Money From Hosting an Airbnb Experience [Studenomics] — I’ve been following Martin’s experiencing starting a coffee tour since Day 1 and him sharing it all in one post is great for anyone looking to host an Airbnb experience. “I finally applied to have my own experience on Airbnb. I was denied. I revised my application and got accepted on the second try. After 6 weeks of on-the-job-training, I’m convinced that this is the best side hustle out there right now. You can host any experience and try to make money from the Airbnb app.”

70+ Ways to Make Money on The Side [Budgets Are Sexy] — J at Budgets Are Sexy has long been a proponent of side hustles and this page lists all the obscure ways (75 at last count) people have been side hustling, from selling crickets online to flipping collectible sneakers. Turning coins into rings is one of my favorites.

And lastly but not leastly, for something that has nothing to do with money, here’s a fun oral history about the invention of the Super Soaker.

There’s a short video about it too.

Know someone who might want to start an Airbnb experience or recharge scooters? Or perhaps they’re a huge fan of Super Soakers? Send them this article!

Today’s episode of Apex Money isn’t as somber as the title might imply, but it does tie two really good articles together in a way that really drives their key points home.

Chew on these and let me know what you think:

The flaws a Nobel Prize-winning economist wants you to know about yourself [Quartz] — It’s a brief primer on cognitive biases. “Sorry to say it, but you’re not perfect. We like to believe that we are smart, rational creatures, always acting in our best interests. In fact, dominant economic theory these days often makes that assumption.”

Now, for one of the most powerful arguments for early retirement I’ve ever read:

Why Retire Early? Because Death Is Coming. [A Purple Life] — “Unfortunately I’m no stranger to death. My introduction to the Reaper happened at my father’s funeral – he took his own life when I was 7. During the next 13 years I attended the funerals of 5 close family members…

… I’ve made my current life as awesome as possible, but knowing that my time is finite also makes me strive for more. Time is all we have and having it wasted by doing things that don’t matter or that I don’t enjoy grates on me. Thinking about death helps me understand what I want out of life.”

100% yes.

Now to round it out with something a little lighter:

The Artist, the Conman and the $15 Million Fraud [Narratively] — “From imitation Gauguins to a piece of the true cross, how two small-town crooks fooled art collectors around the world and built an epic empire of fakes.” I’ve done three Apex curations now and all three have had some kind of heist/fraud/con involved… do you like them? 🙂

Speaking of frauds, if you want to dissuade your kids from playing those ripoff carnival games (or asking you to play), show them this video by Mark Rober. He explains how the games try to trick you and how you can, as best you can, beat the ones that can be beat:

Did you enjoy an article in this curation that you think a friend might enjoy? Send it to them or share it on social media!

Happy Friday – I bet you’re ready to start the weekend and if you wanted something fun you could chat with your friends about, we hope some of the articles in today’s curation can help spark some interesting conversations.

Let’s just get right into it:

Just the tip of the iceberg [Your Money Blueprint] — “All I could see was the fact that we were well fed and well housed. I didn’t really consider the fact they had to work for it. I only saw the end results, not the process. It’s a bit like an iceberg, where we only see the tip (results), but not all of the foundation layed under the water.”

Inside the Twisted, Worldwide Hunt for a $7 Million Stolen Car [Esquire] — “Joe Ford, car detective, searches the world for stolen rare automobiles on the black market. The case he’s on now could set him up for life—if he’s not outsmarted by a skilled network of criminals and cheats.” This article is so much fun.

The New Servant Class [The Atlantic] — “Low-skill, low-pay, and disproportionately done by women, these jobs congregate near dense urban labor markets, multiplying in neighborhoods with soaring disposable income. Between 2010 and 2017, the number of manicurists and pedicurists doubled, while the number of fitness trainers and skincare specialists grew at least twice as fast as the overall labor force.” The data highlights the rise of the “wealth work,” or jobs that support those with significant disposable income, and how the trend isn’t necessarily a good one.

Road-Tripping with the Amazon Nomads [The Verge] — “Chris Anderson moves through the Target clearance racks with cool efficiency, surveying the towers of Star Wars Lego sets and Incredibles action figures, sensing, as if by intuition, what would be profitable to sell on Amazon. Discontinued nail polish can be astonishingly lucrative, but not these colors. A dinosaur riding some sort of motorcycle? No way. But these Jurassic Park Jeeps look promising, and an Amazon app on his phone confirms that each could net a $6 profit after fees and shipping. He piles all 20 into his cart.”

This time-lapsed video of our planet rotating underneath the Milky Way is mesmerizing:

Did you enjoy an article in this curation that you think a friend might enjoy? Send it to them or share it on social media!

Happy Thursday peoples! Since the beginning of Apex, J.D. has been the primary curator with me (Jim) helping a little here and there with articles to toss into the gristmill of Apex.

But he’s traveling and so I get to take over!

So put on your favorite pair of money pants and behold the wonders that await you today:

“A Stunning Coup”: The Almost Unsolvable Harry Winston Diamond Heists [Vanity Fair] — “The $37 million Harry Winston jewelry heist was a perfect crime. The thieves’ mistake was returning for an even bigger score. But did police really convict the right men, or are the brains of the operation still at large?”

Dun dun DUUUUUUUN!

How the 0.001% invest [The Economist] — “THINK OF THE upper echelons of the money-management business, and the image that springs to mind is of fusty private banks in Geneva or London’s Mayfair, with marble lobbies and fake country-house meeting-rooms designed to make their super-rich clients feel at home. But that picture is out of date. A more accurate one would feature hundreds of glassy private offices in California and Singapore that invest in Canadian bonds, European property and Chinese startups—and whose gilded patrons are sleepwalking into a political storm.”

Barack Obama’s summer reading list [via Facebook] — Unrelated to politics, I’ve found both Obama’s reading lists and Bill Gates’ reading lists to be interesting ways to discover fascinating books.

Lastly, here’s a fun video of a chimpanzee absolutely destroying one of those Ninja Warrior type rope/climbing courses:

Do you have a friend who would love new books to read? Or interested in how the wealthy manage their money? Send or forward to them this curation!

Apex Money is a partnership between J.D. Roth of Get Rich Slowly and Jim Wang of WalletHacks.com.

There is a lot of personal finance content out there.

Some of it is good.

Some of it is less good.

And some of it is great.

Our goal is to filter through it all and bring to you the articles, videos, and podcast episodes that will change the way you think, change the way you live, and change the way you relate to money.

We hope you will join us in this journey!