Category: General

It’s been a long week for me, my friends. A long week but a short week. I’ve been fighting some sort of bug. A bunch of people came down with COVID after Fincon in Orlando last week, and I thought for sure I was one of them. But five negative COVID tests later (and five days recuperating), I feel much better. Somehow I dodged that bullet.

Fortunately, all of the downtime gave me plent of opportunity to read about money. So, here I am to close out another week with a nice stash of links. Enjoy!

Lived experience makes work better. [Behavioral Scientist] — “Solving problems requires more than just having powerful tools, you also need people who can use them properly. When it comes to fighting poverty, people with lived experience are essential teammates if we want to maximize the impact of any anti-poverty work.”

How to cut your water use in half. [Consumer Reports] — “When it comes to wasting water in the kitchen, the dishwasher isn’t the culprit — it’s probably you. Too many people rinse their dishes clean before putting them in a dishwasher designed to do that very job—and do it better than you can.” (True story: I know a woman who rinses her dishes completely clean before putting them in the dishwasher. What’s the point of even having a dishwasher in this case?)

How to save money on streaming services. [Consumer Reports] — “There are easy ways to simplify the confusing and expensive mess that streaming services have become. The following strategies can help you create a great plan for getting most of the shows you want to watch at a price you can afford.”

41 quick tips for health, wealth, and happiness [A Teachable Moment] — “Birthdays make you think, and this one’s no different. As that old dead Greek guy said, The unexamined life is not worth living. The point of aging is learning from past mistakes, figuring out what’s important, and passing this knowledge along. No need to make things more complicated than that. Almost six decades of living provide heaps of raw material. Here are some tips learned the hard way.”

And that’s it for this week. Jim will be back on Monday to educate and entertain you. I’ll see you at the end of the month. Until then, stay healthy and grow wealthy!

Today is Thursday. I’m J.D. Roth. And you are a money nerd. That means we’re all in the right place! Today at Apex Money, the four links (and one video) all require a certain amount of nerdery. They cover topics like student loan stats, net worth, and retirement spending. Boring to average folks. Exciting to Apexians like us. 😉

Who holds the student-loan debt? [Of Dollars and Data] — “Regardless of how you might feel about these ideas, there are many good discussions to be had about how to fix the student loan problem. I can only hope that, despite the complexities involved, we find a solution that works for everyone.” This is another interesting and nuanced discussion of a complex topic. [See also: Personal-finance creators share thoughts on student-loan forgiveness at Michelle Is Money Hungry and Some things I do and don’t like about student loan forgiveness at A Wealth of Common Sense]

A humanistic concept of net worth. [Money and Meaning] — “Financial net worth is an advantage that some leverage for good and others flaunt or squander or worse. When I think about net worth I use a different measure. My assets are the relationships I’ve nurtured, the growth I’ve earned through deep exploration, my creative capacities, the perspectives I’ve gained by traveling the world, the beauty that I surround myself with, my curiosity AND the financial resources I’ve worked for.”

How much do retirees spend on uncertain health costs? [Center for Retirement Research] — “Lifetime health care spending by retirees above and beyond predictable premiums is high and uncer- tain. However, Medicare, Medicaid, and other insur- ers cover a large portion of these expenditures. As a result, 65-year-old households pay, on average, $67,260 in out-of-pocket costs over their remaining lifetime, which is about one-fifth of total non-premium costs.”

What a $2 million retirement looks like in the United States. [The Wall Street Journal] — “We spoke in depth with four retirees who saved enough to build comfortable retirements, with net worths ranging from roughly $2 million to $4 million. They shared insights about how they spend their time and money, what has given them joy or anxiety, and how their expectations of life in retirement measured up to the reality.”

For once, today’s video is about personal finance. Here’s our buddy, Rob Berger, with a 45-minute video on YouTube. It’s a beginner’s guide to bonds.

Sound boring? Okay, bonds are a bit boring. But if you’re an investor, it’s important to understand how they work. And Berger is one of the best at taking complex, boring topics and making them digestable for folks like you and me.

Okay, that’s all for today. I’ll see you tomorrow as we head into the weekend…

Hey friends, it’s me again, Tarsha from the Plutus Foundation. I am so excited to share this week’s articles with you. Enjoy!

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

The Surprising Inspiration to Declutter I Found at the Museum. [No Sidebar] — “If I could live for 1000 years, what would I keep? When I am gone, what do I want archaeologists to learn about me from my stuff? What about you?”  (Submitted by J. Money.)

Do You Rent or Own Your Job? [Financial Panther] — “You can rent a job. Or you can own a job. It’s not easy to own a job. And there’s nothing necessarily wrong with renting a job either. But for me, owning a job is the way I’d rather do it. If I’m going to have to work, I’d rather work at a job I made for myself, even if it means I have to take all the risks.” (Submitted by J. Money.)

Slow FI and the evolution of Friendships. [Dinks on a Bus] — “I’ve noticed how my friendships have changed and evolved. Some friendships have ended, and that has been hard, but for the most part, my friendships have changed for the better since slowing down my journey to FI.” (Submitted by Tarsha.)

Today is Tuesday, my friends. My name is J.D. and this is Apex Money, your source for interesting stories about money (and more). Here’s what I have for you today.

Does capitalism work? [Gotham Gal] — “Capitalism is still the most effective way to create opportunities, but it is time for a new era of capitalism where we take what works and focus on the weaknesses so that we can all succeed at the level we hope to. If we started doing that, perhaps some of the issues our communities are dealing with right now would ebb, and our economy would accelerate. Something has to change.” I love this. Thoughtful and nuanced. I’m a die-hard capitalist, but even I have begun to have misgivings. I have no answers, but our current system seems broken to me.

How young people learned to love Old-Money aesthetics. [Robb Report] — “This strain of discreet wealth has never really been out of fashion — it’s not like Ralph Lauren was ever hurting — but since the pandemic, it has entered the zeitgeist anew. As the adage goes, everything comes back around eventually. So if you’d written yourself off as a fuddy-duddy, we have good news: Your time is now.”

One woman’s quest to rescue the trash of New York. [Curbed] — “Typically, her haul doesn’t go straight to the Free Store; first, she drags it up to her apartment, where she sorts and repairs items. Then she puts some of the more valuable finds up for resale; books get posted online, while nice clothes, paintings, tchotchkes, wallets, and the like get sold at occasional sidewalk sales or on the neighborhood secondhand circuit.”

How to live a simple life WITHOUT the stark white walls. [Rich in What Matters] — “If you’re intentional about your life choices, if you dig deep and consider long and hard about how you want your simple life to look (and what you can realistically afford), then you’re being intentional. If the result is color, stuff, plenty of engagements in the diary, or more than three pairs of shoes, then great.”

Last of all, here’s a five-minute video that explains how to summon an army of worms — because you’ve always wanted to know how to do that, right?

Okay, wormies, I’ll be back on Thursday with more good stuff. But come back tomorrow too when our pals at the Plutus Foundation will be here with their Wednesday update from the personal-finance community.

Good morning, Apexians, and welcome to another week! J.D. here with some tasty money links for a Monday morning.

I’m going to start today’s Apex with an excellent non-financial video. Here’s Ed Yong talking about the hidden sensory world of animals. It’s a nine-minute Big Think production that explores how different creatures experience the world in different ways. It’s fascinating.

And let’s finish up with a handful of recent money stories, shall we?

Gas prices are high. So, quit buying gas! [Financial Panther] — “Transportation is typically considered one of the big three expenses for most families (with the others being housing and food). Since it makes up a big chunk of our income, doing anything to cut down our transportation costs can make a big difference when it comes to our finances. But to do that, you have to be willing to do things differently. And most of us aren’t willing to do that.”

Americans keep moving to where the water isn’t. [Vox] — “Faced with growing costs from extreme weather disasters and the certain reality of a warmer and more disrupted future, Americans have been responding by not only moving toward riskier areas, but also moving away from safer ones.”

A day in the life of (almost) every vending machine in the world. [The Guardian] — “Every vending machine is a battleground. Profits are ruthlessly haggled over. Competition for spots is intense. Broadly speaking, the vending game is built on deals between operators (who own machines and have the skills to install them, fix them, constantly fill them with fats and sugars) and site owners (who have the rights to advantageous pieces of land).”

The fatFIRE movement is the polar opposite of Quiet Quitting. [Fortune] — “If quiet quitting is simply doing the minimum a job requires in a quest for a more equal work/life balance, FatFIRING advocates the opposite. It tells people to lean into work rather than lean out, and hustle as much as they can to achieve the same thing most workers want: freedom.”

That’s it for today. Come back tomorrow for another dollop of the good stuff.

Happy Friday!

Today’s going to be a bit of a grab bag of posts, starting with one by JD and how he lost money in crypto. It’s

I lost money in crypto so that you don’t have to! [Get Rich Slowly] – “On November 23rd of last year, I decided to conduct a little experiment. The best way for me to learn about cryptocurrency, I decided, was to have some skin in the game, to actually buy some. So I did. I put $5000 each into five different “coins” — a $25,000 investment. I bought Ehtereum (ETH), Cosmos (ATOM), Enjin (ENJ), Cardano (ADA), and Solana (SOL). Don’t ask me why I chose these particular coins. I had reasons at the time, but I can no longer remember them.” We’ve all been there buddy. 🙂

Wealth Clarifies [Rational Reflections] – “Accumulating wealth means different things to different people, but I think Morgan Housel’s assessment is about right: Most people aspire to accumulate money in order to spend it, which of course is the exact opposite of having wealth. This irony is one of those self-evident realities that few people stop to seriously consider.”

Two surprising reasons behind the obesity epidemic: Too much salt, not enough water [The Conversation] – “Throughout my many years of studying obesity and related health conditions, I’ve observed that relatively little is said about two significant pieces of this very complex puzzle: lack of hydration and excessive salt intake. Both are known to contribute to obesity.” Very interesting.

We started today with J.D. gambling investing in crypto and will end with the “The Messed Up Politics Behind those Gambling Streams” – which was a trend I completely missed but it’s still messed up.

Have a great weekend!

Happy Thursday! I’m (Jim) currently at FinCon right now, a conference for personal finance creators, and so this post was put together earlier in the week. J.D. and I will be here until Sunday, doing conference things, and hope these picks can satisfy your craving for posts about money (and other articles I find interesting). 🙂

Enjoy!

Pros and cons of being wealthy [Monetavor] – “You want to be rich. Perhaps very wealthy indeed. Who wouldn’t? Debating the pros and cons of being wealthy seems as one-sided as a boxing match between Warren Buffett and Muhammad Ali. However I’ve given this some thought – inspired by a strange and unfounded fear I’d be the £195 million winner in the EuroMillions – and there are quite a few bad points.” Some good points in this about the downsides of fantastic wealth.

I like this next one because it shows how spending just 20 minutes a week can have a big impact:

20 Minute Tasks to Improve Your Finances This Year [Jessi Fearon] – “Did you know that if you spent just 20 minutes a week focusing on your finances, you’d have spent a total of 17 hours on your money in just a year?! Okay, okay, I know what you’re thinking. “Uh, Jess, 20 minutes a week is nothing.” or you’re thinking, “20 minutes a week?! I don’t have that kind of time.””

This next article is about raising kids but has quite a few parallels with other areas of life, even if you don’t have kids (especially the emotional regulation section):

Ancient Traditions Reveal 2 Rituals That Will Make You An Awesome Parent [Barking Up The Wrong Tree] – “When the kid world is so divorced from the adult world, children feel exempt from responsibilities. Instead of getting emotionally rewarded by being a part of the family team, they find reward only in Roblox and Minecraft. But when their primary context is family tasks, they want to be a part of them – both the responsibilities and the benefits. This doesn’t sound as odd if you talk to the older generation. They grew up knowing they were expected to help in the family store or on the farm, not to live in a totally separate child-centered world.”

Happy Hump Day from the Plutus Team! Please take a quick break from your busy day and enjoy these curations we put together just for you.

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

What is Risk Tolerance. [MitlinFinancial] — “Risk tolerance is a topic spoken about often in the media and financial ecosystem. When you hear this discussed it usually gives you the impression that determining your risk tolerance is something easy to do. In reality, determining one’s risk tolerance is more of an art than a science.”  (Submitted by Tarsha.)

Should I Keep Working in Order to GiveWell?. [Abandoned Cubicle] — “What if you are within a few years or less of hitting an elusive early retirement goal, only to stumble upon a question like this: If you could save hundreds or even thousands of lives, would you keep working?” (Submitted by J. Money.)

How My Coworker and I Advocated for 20% Raises (Sample Letter Included). [Goodbye Whine to 5] — “This story is important to me because it shows that advocating for better pay in your workplace can be successful, especially when there is a collective effort.” (Submitted by Tarsha.)

I have a bunch of friends who swear by Yeti coolers. And Yeti tumblers. And Yeti coozies.

In fact, a LOT of people love Yeti coolers. They had $1.4 billion in revenue in 2021.

While we don’t own any of these very expensive coolers, I have seen cooler technology get much better as a result. There are now several brands that offer coolers and cooler adjacent products that are much better than the ole Coleman coolers. Market competition at its best!

Yeti Coolers Are Luxury Goods for Bros [The Atlantic] – “A Yeti, for the uninitiated, is a cooler made by the Austin, Texas–based company of the same name. But it’s not just any cooler. The brand’s acolytes—and there are many—will take seemingly any opportunity to tell you that Yetis are the best, coldest coolers that money can buy. With prices starting at $250 for enough space to get a small cookout drunk and ranging up to $1,500 for one so enormous, it could be used to cater an outdoor wedding, the coolers aren’t cheap. Yeti fans’ enthusiasm can be hard to argue with, though, not least of which because you probably don’t know anything about coolers. I, for example, do not.”

Neglected Ideas [Jonathan Clements on Humble Dollar] – “THE MOST POWERFUL financial ideas are those that help us make better money decisions—by providing a lens through which to understand ourselves and the world around us. Examples? Think about notions like loss aversion, diversification and market efficiency, all ideas frequently mentioned in HumbleDollar articles. Every investor, I believe, should understand such concepts.” It’s a good list of concepts we should all understand and internalize.

There’s a guy in Japan who gets paid to “do nothing” – to just be there. He doesn’t have to do more than give simple answers to questions and just hangs out. That’s a side hustle!

Something happens when you have kids. I’m not saying everyone needs to have kids or should have kids or anything like that.

I’m merely saying that for me, something changed when we had kids.

And it’s always interesting when you hear someone else talk about it, especially in the context of financial independence because kids, typically> really put a strain on those plans!

Why I’m Appreciating FI More Than Ever Now [Max Fientist] – “I didn’t think I’d ever want kids.

There was so much I wanted to do/see during my life and I felt like having kids would get in the way.

Two things changed when I got to my late 30s though.”

I don’t want to work anymore, so I quit. [Financial Mechanic] – “Have you ever been working, and suddenly wished you could quit? The idea dawns on you as simple. All you would have to do is shut your computer. Say, “I quit.” Stand up. Walk out of the office. I felt like that. So the next day, I nearly surprised myself just as much as my boss when I handed in my notice.” Financial independence gives you options! 🙂

The $65 Million Art Heist That Put ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ To Shame [Mel Magazine] – “Then, not long after October 15th became October 16th, they struck, snatching seven masterpieces in all: Claude Monet’s “Waterloo Bridge” and “Charing Cross Bridge,” Lucian Freud’s “Woman With Eyes Closed,” Pablo Picasso’s “Harlequin Head,” Henri Matisse’s “Woman Reading in White and Yellow,” Paul Gauguin’s “Woman Before a Window” and Jacob Meijer de Haan’s “Zelfportret.””

Question: So they took $65 million in art… but what are you going to do with it?
Answer: “Typically, when smart thieves steal highly valuable artwork, one of their preferred buyers is the insurance company that holds a policy on the artwork, as it’s far cheaper for the insurance company to pay a reasonable ransom than pay full price on the policy.”

Oh! Is that how it works? Cool!

By the way, the story gets crazier and crazier by the paragraph.