Category: General

Good morning, Apexians. J.D. here, and I’m three days late. That’s right: I forgot to share links with you on Monday and Tuesday. Totally my fault. But I’m here today and I’ll be here tomorrow. So, let’s look at what I’ve found for you!

The five levels of wealth. [Physician on Fire] — “Instead of a distinct monetary amount, it’s nice to think of [wealth] in terms of real-life situations we can relate to. This takes into account the cost of living and really what your lifestyle is like. Using these ideas as a framework, I’ll explain my version of the different levels of wealth.”

Why you should (almost) always make the first offer. [Lifehacker — remember that site?] — “The irrational power of the Anchoring Effect is why making the first offer (sometimes called “dropping the anchor”) is a powerful tool in a negotiation. But that doesn’t mean it always works—you need to know how to use it in order to get the full benefit of the effect. Here are some things to consider when planning to drop an anchor into a negotiation.” [Actually, I’ve always heard that you should not make the first offer, so this is news to me.]

Questions to ask yourself before you buy anything. [No Sidebar] — “It’s one thing to declutter your stuff and make new space, but resisting the consumer itch is another beast entirely. Everywhere we go we’re bombarded with marketing, and it’s cleverer and more subtle than ever…So how do you rewire your desire, exactly? You can start by asking yourself seven simple questions every time you’re considering buying something new.”

To close things out today, here’s a lovely (non-financial) video of a father teaching his daughter the song “Moon River” from baby to seven years old. It’s a sweet montage.

But wait! There’s more! Here’s the same girl playing “Moon River” on her own (serenading the family dog). And here she is playing John Lennon’s “Imagine” to a cat.

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

Hey Plutus Family! It’s not too late to join us for our Content Creator Happy Hour PLUS in downtown Los Angeles tonight, November 16th at 7pm.

As always, tickets are free, but extremely limited. All attendees will be entered in a drawing for a $100 gift card! That’s a new twist. RSVP in advance to qualify.

Register for Plutus Voices Los Angeles here.

Here’s what we wanted to share with you this week.

When the Existential Feeling Get Heavy: How to Feel Happier Every Day. [Live FI Now] – “All of the goals I’m working towards were exciting to me when I set them (and are still worthy of pursuing) but sometimes the progress feels slow, and I find my motivation waning. I fall back on discipline when motivation swings back and forth, but really, I think the missing element here is excitement. What is life, if not exciting? Nothing but a mere existence, no? So how do we find excitement in our day-to-day lives and feel happier every day?” (Submitted by J. Money.)

Ending My 40s… [Money and Meaning] — “I don’t know what the next decade will bring, but I know that, me, my 49-year-old self cannot imagine it. And that is a wondrous freedom. FIRE gave me my financial liberation, but the real liberation has been surrendering to the call and letting go. Giving a grateful yes to everything given, including, especially, the things I did not want. It is only then had I understood the wonder of wings, the miracle of flight.” (Submitted by J. Money.)

5 Purchases ALWAYS Worth the Money. [Bravely Go] — “”We love a money saving tip, but there are definitely things that are worth spending lots of money on. Things that make your life richer, better, and easier. Here are 5 things that may have a higher upfront cost but are always worth the price.” (Submitted by Tarsha.)

SHTF = “shit hit the fan” and it’s what doomsday preppers are prepping for.

SHTF isn’t something we’ve experienced in the United States, regardless of what you feel about politics and Covid and everything, but it has been hit in other places. I found this thread from Prephole to be fascinating because it collates some threads written by someone who experienced SHTF in Bosnia. It’s an incredible insight.

How I survived a year of SHTF in 90s Bosnia [Prephole] – “I am from Bosnia, and as some of you may know it was hell here from 92-95, anyway, for 1 whole year i lived and survived in a city of 50 000- 60 000 residents WITHOUT: electricity, fuel,running water,real food distribution, or distribution of any goods, or any kind of organized law or government.The city was surrounded for 1 year and in that city actually it was SHTF situation.” Scary and incredible. And long.

How Do the Wealthy Invest? [Of Dollars And Data] – “… there seems to be an obsession with the wealthy and how they invest their money as if their allocation decisions are what created their wealth. Of course, for some wealthy individuals this is true. Warren Buffett got rich based on how he invested his money. But many other wealthy people didn’t. They got rich as business owners or doctors or lawyers (or something else) and have since allocated their wealth to private equity and hedge funds. Keep this in mind before making any changes to your portfolio.”

Don’t Pay for Cord-Blood Banking [The Atlantic] – “Umbilical blood can be a valuable treatment for rare diseases. But that doesn’t mean you need to pay thousands of dollars to bank your baby’s.”

The first post was grim but I want to leave you with a happy note – The Eight Splendid Truths of Happiness by Gretchin Rubin.

I love Costco.

That’s it. Enjoy the first post. 😂

Observations of a New Costco Member [Rational Walk] – “Costco’s recent gross margin was 10.5%. The comparable gross margin figure for Wal-Mart is 24.4%. Target operates at an even higher gross margin of 28.3%. To take a conservative viewpoint, if Costco’s products have an average price advantage of 15% over Target and Wal-Mart, a customer only has to spend an average of $400 before recouping the $60 annual membership fee. As we can see from my example, it is often possible to recoup the membership fee with an even lower volume of spending.”

Slowing Down: How to Live More Deliberately in a Fast-Paced World [Coach Carson] – “Have you noticed that modern life is a drummer playing at breakneck speed? From work to meals, to exercise, to conversations, our pace is fast and furious. But even at the beginning of the industrial revolution in the early 1800s, nonconformists like Henry David Thoreau were already encouraging us to move at a slower, more deliberate pace in life.”

Charles Shultz Philosophy [5AM Joel] – “…the people that make a difference in your life aren’t world class achievers that are the best in their field. It’s the regular people that spend time with you and care about you. It’s the ones that make you feel loved and boost your self worth.”

Happy Hump Day Plutus Family! Please join us in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday, November 16 for our Content Creator Happy Hour PLUS!

As always, tickets are free, but extremely limited. All attendees will be entered in a drawing for a $100 gift card! That’s a new twist. RSVP in advance to qualify.

Register for Plutus Voices Los Angeles here.

Here’s what we wanted to share with you this week.

House Hacking: Why It Should Be Your Next Investment Strategy. [It’s My Money Journal] –“Despite the need for accommodation and housing rising on a daily, millions of Americans struggle to own a property or even afford suitable housing. This is due to the sky rocketing prices in real estate. How does an individual who feels like buying a house is out of reach in an expensive market work towards purchasing a property?” (Submitted by Tarsha.)

The Fingerprints of History. [The Irrelevant Investor] — “At the time, Scott was running an asset management company, but the thing that hit me had nothing to do with his day job. He told Josh and I that he was in the process of reading every issue that Time Magazine had ever published, starting in 1923. I couldn’t believe it… Not only did Scott take years of his life to go through all of this, but he documented it for us to enjoy.” (Submitted by J. Money.)

The 4% Rule for Retirement Could Fail for the Frist Time. [Money-Side-Up] — “High inflation could spell the end of the “4% rule” for retirees. The 4% rule for retirement has supported early retirees for the best part of a decade, that was during one of the longest bull market runs in history. The question is, can it survive this bear market, one characterised by stagflation. The 4% rule has been the rule of thumb for retirees far and wide. This includes those in the F.I.R.E community such as Kristy Shen (Canada’s youngest ever retiree) to traditional retirees.”(Submitted by Tarsha.)

Today’s post has a theme! It’s about the transition from work to FIRE (financial independence retire early) and some of the posts have inspired the others, which is always the fun thing about blogging.

Bloggers read each other’s blogs and sometimes you get a spring of ideas that combine together to form a geyser.

Today is one of those geysers – please enjoy!

The genesis post was one we shared a short time ago – My First 6 Months of Early Retirement Sucked Shit: What They Don’t Tell You about FIRE by Bitches Get Riches.

That inspired our first post of the day – The Amazing Race [FI for the People] – “Having experienced burnout about 25 years ago, I had the benefit of knowing what it felt like. Spoiler alert: it’s not fun. In the last few years before I FIREd, those old feelings crept back. And grew. Even though my life outside work was great and my clients were satisfied with my work product, I could tell that my working life and work satisfaction level were headed in the wrong direction.”

Which in turn led to this post by Mr. 1500 Days – Live Boldly [1500 Days to Freedom] – “I worked really hard to get to FI and even when I met my goal, I worked for another year. The reason can be summed up in one word. It’s 4 letters long and starts with an F. Not that F-word; get your mind out of the gutter people. The word I’m thinking of is: Fear.”

As more FIRE bloggers share their thoughts about the transition into retirement, whether it’s making the leap itself or adjusting to life after the leap, the more people will respect that the transition is as difficult as the accumulation of assets.

You may have heard that the Powerball is up to an estimated 1.9 billion dollars – that’s a lot of dollars!

I have to admit that I (Jim) chipped in a few bucks with some friends last Saturday just for the fun of it. Didn’t win. 🙂

For A Dollar and A Dream: State Lotteries in Modern America [Next Big Idea Club] – “Lotteries are popular in large part because the traditional economy does not provide enough opportunity to get ahead. In the late twentieth century, as lotteries spread across the country and became a weekly purchase for millions of households, rates of upward mobility stagnated. High-paying manufacturing jobs disappeared and high-growth industries became increasingly concentrated in certain parts of the country. Many Americans found themselves shut out of the American Dream and the opportunity for financial stability.”

Go to the Local Farmers Market on Vacation [Eater] – “Because my favorite type of vacation is a lengthy road trip through the mountains, I tend to eat a lot of terrible gas station food when I travel. Sometimes I plan a trip to a grocery store beforehand, stocking up on trail mix and sandwich supplies to eat while traipsing through a national park, but more often than not, I’m living on beef jerky and chips. That was, of course, until I made it a priority to hit the farmers market in every city that I visit.”

The Opposite of Schadenfreude [Prime Cuts Newsletter] – “Savor the joy of others. It is abundant and free and it will lift your spirits and boost your wellbeing even as you add positive energy to the world.” Mudita. I love it.

Hey hey, money nerds. As promised, I’m back with a bonus Saturday installment this week because I forgot to publish links on Thursday. I can’t deprive you of your weekly quota! Here’s what I have for you today.

The secrets of stealth wealth. [Financial Imagineer] — “Stealth wealth is the opposite of conspicuous consumption, it’s about finding true wealth and quality of life which financial freedom helps to unlock. It’s all about having the ability to do what you want, when and where you want with whomever you like to. It’s all about having to focus less on money and having more time, freedom, and peace. Once you understand this, your world will change for the better.”

Secrets of a professional negotiator. [The Retirement Manifesto] — “For the final nine years of my career, I was paid to negotiate. It feels strange saying this, but the fact is that I was a professional negotiator. I negotiated for a living. It’s time to share my secrets: The secrets of a professional negotiator.”

How to detach yourself from your financial wins and losses. [The Root of All] — “The way to train yourself to detach from the emotional pull of wins and losses is to put all your energy into your response. While we can’t know whether an event is good or bad, we do know the quality of our response. It is always possible to respond virtuously in any situation. It’s always possible to do good.”

And that’s all I have for you this week. Jim will return on Monday to share more personal-finance goodness with you. See you then!

Heigh-ho, everybody. J.D. here with another day of Apex Money. I didn’t get yesterday’s edition out — sorry about that — so I’ll have a bonus Saturday installment for you tomorrow. But today? Well, I like the batch of articles I’ve collected for today. They’re all centered around a theme: happiness.

The fallacy of ‘preparing for life’.” [Accidental Fire] — “Every year is still 365 days, but damn if they don’t seem to be getting shorter and shorter. Nobody seems to be able to find the time for anything, their dreams, their passions, or their kids soccer game…Don’t suffer in a job you hate just to financially prepare for a future thing called retirement. Life is now. There is no preparing for life, there’s only life.” Preach!

The eight splendid truths of happiness. [Gretchen Rubin] — “In my study of happiness, I’ve labored to identify its fundamental principles. Because I get a tremendous kick out of the numbered lists that pop up throughout Buddhism (the Triple Refuge, the Noble Eightfold Path, the Four Noble Truths, the eight auspicious symbols), I decided to dub these fundamental principles as my Eight Splendid Truths.”

Will more money make you happier? Probably not. [Becoming Minimalist] — “Regardless of how much money contributes to happiness (and the jury is apparently still out on that), the one thing we do know is this: Prioritizing the pursuit of money NEVER contributes to overall happiness and life satisfaction. In fact, those who prioritize money over the pursuit of more value-based goals end life with less satisfaction and fulfillment.”

The best idea humans ever had. [Raptitude] — “If you look at what ancient humans say about how to live, it’s always some version of this full-time devotion to good…They don’t say, ‘Have a good time, but do enough difficult stuff to be able to consider yourself a good person,’ as modernity seems to prescribe, but rather, ‘Train yourself in each moment to always do the morally best thing, with love and without hesitation. Make this your purpose in life and sacrifice everything else for it.'”

What does success look like? (And how does it feel?) [One Frugal Girl] — “What if success focused on our emotional well-being, social connections, and job-related enjoyment? What if we weighed time, money, relationships, and health? Do you have time freedom? Do you have the flexibility to focus on your passions or share your time with people you love? Do you have time for the people and things that matter most to you?”

Good stuff, right? Well, I’ll be back tomorrow with more good stuff. See you then.

Good Morning Plutus family! Before you dive into these great articles, we want to invite all content creators, and your friends to join us for our Content Creator Happy Hour in Los Angeles on Wednesday, November 16th at 7pm.

As always, tickets are free, but extremely limited. All attendees will be entered in a drawing for a $100 gift card! That’s a new twist. RSVP in advance to qualify. Register for Plutus Voices Los Angeles here.

Here’s what we wanted to share with you this week.

Ultimate Detailed Price Battle!!! Is Shopping at A Warehouse Club Really Saving Anything? [Chief Mom Officer] — ” When I remove all the items I couldn’t buy at Aldi’s because they didn’t have an equivalent or where I wouldn’t want the alternative option for my family, it’s clear that shopping at BJ’s is the winner for us. Those items would cost $285 at BJ’s compared with $333 at Aldi’s. The cost savings is over $100 when compared with Target, and almost $200 when compared with Price Chopper!” (Submitted by J. Money.)

11 Ways to Teach Kids About Money This Winter. [Debt Free Guys] — “Now’s a great time to teach kids about money – when they’re kids. With school back in session and months of snowstorms and indoor activities, here’s a list of fun activities that will subtly teach kids about money, finance and even the basics of running a small business.” (Submitted by Tarsha.)

My First 6 Months of Early Retirement Sucked Shit: What They Don’t Tell You about FIRE. [Bitches Get Riches] — “My body and my subconsciousness understood exactly what was happening to me. “You are very, very depressed,” they told me with crystal clear enunciation. “Sleep ten hours a day, invest 200 hours into a video game you don’t particularly like, and put cheese on EVERYTHING until these passes.”(Submitted by J. Money.)