Category: General

Welcome to Wednesday, money nerds. J.D. here with a collection of interesting stories for you.

I don’t often share podcasts here because I don’t listen to podcasts. They just don’t work for me. That said, our first item today is a podcast that sounds interesting. If I were to listen to podcasts, I would listen to it. 😉

How to ask for a raise (and actually get it). [The Struggle is Real podcast] — “Negotiating a raise early in your career can lead to a 6-figure increase in your lifetime earnings. And that is just one negotiation. By developing your negotiation skills and making a habit of consistently asking for a raise throughout your career, you’re bound to outearn a peer who starts at a similar salary by a long shot.”

“One hundred things I know.” [Mari Andrew] — “In this newsletter I’m more interested in exploring what I don’t know rather than what I know, but I’ll make an exception to share a few things that have made my life richer, and could potentially make yours a bit easier.”

Feeling mortgage-rate envy? You’re not alone. [The New York Times gift article] — “American homeowners now stand on two sides of a divide. On one side are those who had the good fortune to buy or refinance between 2020 and early 2022, and now enjoy notably low monthly interest payments on their principal. On the other side: everyone else.” [Kim and I bought in August 2021. Our mortgage rate is 2.63%. With that rate, we would be insane to ever sell this house.]

How much does it cost to build a house? [Architectural Digest] — “According to the National Association of Home Builders, the sale of newly built homes is on the rise as of May 2023. Still, the home building process can be a daunting task, though with proper research and planning, owning your dream home is a possibility. In this guide from AD, we break down everything you need to know about home building costs.”

Lastly, here’s a video I enjoyed last week. It’s a sixteen-minute look at the most popular junk food from the 20th century.

I was born in 1969, so a lot of the stuff from about 1959 to 1989 is right up my alley. Why was pizza so popular when I was a kid? Because it became popular in the late 1950s. Chips Ahoy! Pop-Tarts. Pringles. Pop Rocks. Sour Patch Kids. All part of my childhood. And all things I crave as an adult haha.

Good morning, Apexians, and welcome to a shortened week. J.D. here with another round of tasty personal-finance treats.

I hope everyone in the U.S. had a fine holiday weekend and said a fond farewell to summer. September is here, and with it comes meteorological autumn (followed in a few weeks by calendar autumn, of course). The hot weather seems to have left us here in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. It feels nice to have a break.

To get us started with fall, here are a few stories we’ve enjoyed recently.

How to manage money as a committed couple. [XY Planning Network] — “Every person comes with their own money story. It’s important to mention that you can’t project your own money story onto your partner. Your relationship with money is your own but it’s important to also make space for your partner’s money story as well.”

How to live with lifestyle inflation. [Money with Katie] — “Once I found myself graduating from a median income to a higher one, I straddled the line between two worlds: Do I maintain my exact same lifestyle and invest everything extra, or do I recognize that I can afford a little lifestyle creep?”

Robot Recipes. — “If you’ve ever tried to find a recipe on the internet, you know that most recipe pages have frustrating popups and endless advertisements that are completely unrelated to the recipe. It’s nearly impossible to find the actual instructions or a simple list of ingredients. You have to scroll past a constantly changing and slowly loading page to get there, and once you’re almost there another ad loads and moves the page content down. By the time you find the recipe, you’re no longer just hungry – you’re downright hangry.”

Why note-taking apps don’t make us smarter. [The Verge] — “Note-taking, after all, does not take place in a vacuum. It takes place on your computer, next to email, and Slack, and Discord, and iMessage, and the text-based social network of your choosing. In the era of alt-tabbing between these and other apps, our ability to build knowledge and draw connections is permanently challenged by what might be our ultimately futile efforts to multitask.”

To wrap things up, here’s a twelve-minute video from Ali Abdaal on YouTube explaining how to remember everything you learn. I think it goes nicely with that story from The Verge.

Abdaal’s channel is one of my favorites. I know you’ve probably already heard of him (and might even subscribe to him), but he’s popular for a reason. He’s got great info presented in a pleasing style.

Okay, that’s it for today. I’ll be back tomorrow with more stories about money. See you then!

Do you think there’s such a thing as a perfect life?

If you asked me as a kid, I’d probably say yes. Now that I’m in my forties, I think perfect is the eye of beholder. 🙂

The first post is short, so no “snippet” to tease you in. Just read it. It’ll take all of five minutes and be 100% worth it or your money back.

The paradox of the “perfect life” [Rad Reads]

Mainstream media would have you believe that America is bitterly divided. On some subjects and in some areas, some of us are. But the vast majority of what we appreciate is the same. I take comfort in that.

Where Americans Find Meaning in Life [Pew Research] – “Economic, religious and political divides shape where Americans find meaning – but family, career and friendship emerge as common themes.”

I don’t follow tennis much but it was a sport my Dad loves, so I was fond of it. I’m also interested in what happens to athletes after they leave their sport. So this feature on Andy Roddick, the last American man to win a tennis major back in 2003, was fun to read:

Andy Roddick’s Open Era [GQ] – “Twenty years after winning the US Open, Andy Roddick has thrown away his trophies and moved on with his life. But in a rare interview, the last American man to win a grand slam reflects on that historic triumph—and all the pressure, fame, failure, love, and loss that came after.”

Enjoy your long weekend!

I believe I owe much of my success in life to luck.

I might have characteristics that improved my chances of success but I still think luck had a lot to do with it. And I’m OK with that, better to be lucky than good, as they say.

But what if I told you there were ways you could improve your luck? I believe there are and this first post identifies a few ways.

How To Be Lucky [Sapient Capital] – “There are two contrasting ways of pursuing wealth, power and success. The approach that works the best is also the one most people seem to ignore.”

This pairs nicely with this idea – the Surface Area of Luck.

If Your Employer Refuses To Negotiate Salary, Try These 11 Creative Counteroffers [Bitches Get Riches] – “Have you ever gotten yourself all hyped-up and battle-ready to ask for more money—only to learn your employer REFUSES to negotiate salary? This happened to me when I was a young professional. I went for a role at a company that tied its job offers to intelligence test scores. (This is not a normal or cool thing to ask, by the way. It’s elitist, ableist, racist, irrelevant, and indicative of really bad leadership. Alas that I was young, dumb, and living on breadcrumb…s.) The recruiter warned me in advance that this employer refused to negotiate salary beyond their initial offer.” I’ve never negotiated salary (I only had two full-time jobs where I was there a total of five years), but this post was fascinating!

The Real Estate Hustle-Culture Con That’s Exploiting Investors and Wrecking the Housing Market [The New Republic] – “A lawsuit filed against “influencer” Grant Cardone offers an inside look at a get-rich-quick scheme that could help enable the next housing market crash.”

You Probably Need Less Money Than You Think For Retirement [A Wealth of Common Sense] – “This is the perfect encapsulation of lifestyle creep and why some mythical number in the future probably won’t solve all of your problems. Younger you would probably be blown away by how much you make but older you is a completely different person with different preferences and responsibilities.”

Burger King gave candy to a worker who never called in sick. The internet gave $400K [NPR] – “Burger King cook and cashier Kevin Ford was happy to receive a small goody bag from management as a reward for never calling in sick. But people on the internet were less thrilled. They believed Ford deserved more — over $400,000 more.” For every GoFundMe scam story, I hope there are a hundred of these types of stories.

If you have kids, supervise them. Not only is it a good idea but it helps their earning power!

Parental supervision positively impacts children’s economic prospects two decades later: A prospective longitudinal study [PLOS One] – “Parental educational attainment, income, and family structure were strongly associated with their children’s household income at age 35 (e.g., r = .392, p < .05). Parental supervision of the child was associated with increased household income for the child at age 35, adjusting for SES of the family of origin. Children of parents who did not engage in adequate supervision earned approximately $14,000 less/year (i.e., ~13% of the sample’s median household income) than those who did. The association of parental supervision and child income at 35 was mediated by the child’s educational attainment."

When you’re young, dwelling on your mortality seems grim. Weird. Sad, even.

When you’re old, dwelling on your mortality seems enlightened. Aware. Freeing, even.

As I get older, the realization that my life will end doesn’t make me sad. It makes me value it more because it’s no longer infinite.

Running Out of Life [Lazy Man and Money] – “No one knows when they are going to go. Last month, I talked with a 42-year-old personal trainer about setting up an appointment to get on his program. Less than a week later, I was at his funeral.” Hat tip to J. Money for pointing out this gem.

The Secret Weapon Hackers Can Use to Dox Nearly Anyone in America for $15 [404 Media] – “Most Americans have very little choice but to provide their personal information to credit bureaus. Hackers have found a way into that data supply chain, and are advertising access in group chats used by violent criminals who rob, assault, and shoot targets.” This isn’t good.

Unlocking Agency: Journey From Paycheck to Purpose [Chris Wong] – “Paycheck People are risk-averse people who take no agency in their lives. They have “failures of nerve” – an obsession with rationalization to justify events rather than taking action. Courageous Thinkers not only have agency, but adapt to uncertainty to push through on their objectives. They know their interests and shape their identities and narratives to find meaning.”

It’s Friday, folks! But before you head into the weekend, I’ve gathered some interesting money stories for you.

First, though, I have a favor to ask. Jim and I do our best to scour the web for interesting stories about money. In my dream world (and Jim’s dream world, I think), we’d feature more personal blogs and fewer big media sources. But there’s a problem: The traditional personal money blog seems to be fading away. (I mean, look: I retired from Get Rich Slowly earlier this year, so I’m part of the problem, right?) And those blogs that do remain are more SEO-driven than helpful.

So, I guess what I’m asking is this: If you have a favorite blog (or YouTube channel) that you think we ought to feature more often at Apex Money, let us know. If you’re reading this by email, just hit reply and let us know your favorite sources. If you’re reading on the website, leave a comment. (Comments are usually closed. They’re open for this post.)

Help us broaden our horizons!

Okay, with that out of the way, here are the links we’ve gathered for you today:

The stuff you buy is getting worse. [Vox] — “I hate to say that the onus is on us, but in many ways it is. Corporations aren’t going to do this work for us, or without us. Consumers need to be able to identify quality, learn to take care of what they own, and advocate for regulations and legislation wherever right-to-repair doesn’t yet exist. Buy less or secondhand, and when you do buy something new — it happens! — make sure to do your research.” [I may have linked to this before. That’s okay. It’s worth reading again. It reinforces my recent drive to buy ONLY quality.]

Unlock your home’s potential with the magic of margin. [Becoming Minimalist] — “No matter what space you’re working on, the key is to declutter first and organize second. It’s the margin in these spaces that has the most impact, especially when it comes to staying organized. Because when you reduce the volume, spaces have a way of organizing themselves.”

How to stick to long-term changes. [Zen Habits] — “It’s hard to stick to long-term changes when you don’t get very immediate results. Seeing progress quickly can be very encouraging — so how do we find encouragement when we don’t see that quick progress?…Let’s look at some of the things I’ve found helpful in sticking to long-term changes when we aren’t getting immediate results.”

That, my friends, is all we have for you this week. Jim will be back on Monday. I’ll see you in ten days. Have fun!