Category: General

What’s Your “Why”? (And the Point of FI) [TicTocLife] – “Have you really taken a moment to stop and think about what the wealth you’re building is for? I don’t mean basic motivation that drives just about everyone to save money. I’m not asking about obtaining the ability to pay your bills, make ends meet, or create some sort of “contented life”. Rather, I’m asking you if you have thought about the purpose behind your pursuit of something beyond the normal—financial independence.”

It’s important to ponder these things on your journey towards financial independence.

Buying Crypto Assets [AVC] – “I do not believe the web3/crypto opportunity can be captured by simply holding Bitcoin and Ethereum anymore. You must own a broader set of assets because the market is expanding beyond the OGs now and you need to be exposed to more of it.”

How My Genius Roommate Changed My Perspective [Farhad Ghayour] – This exercise inspired me to approach the world with this new-found mental tool. I thought to myself: “Identify my goal, take into account what I have, and creatively repurpose towards my goal.” I thought that I was ready. I had unlocked his way of thinking. I looked around my room and tried to find other things I could repurpose in creative ways.” The name for this is French – it’s bricolage. I love it.

This last post is very quick to read but something you might want to take some time to ponder:

This column will change your life: Helsinki Bus Station Theory [The Guardian]

Have a great weekend!

I love the phrase “What got you here won’t get you there” because it’s a lesson that is never taught in school.

In school, you’re trying to fit in. When you get out into the real world, you realize that success comes when you don’t fit in. It’s when you stand out and excel. It’s a hard lesson to learn and many never learn it.

A lot of things in life change over time and those who adapt and adjust tend to excel.

How The Money Game Changes With Time [Banker on Fire] – “Spend less than you make, invest the difference, let your investments compound for as long as possible. That being said, you still need to calibrate your approach. The strategies that work when you are twenty-five no longer apply when you are nearing retirement – and vice versa. In today’s post, let’s explore how the money game changes as you go through the various stages of life.”

No, It’s Not Just You: Why time “speeds up” as we get older [Harvard] – “How a clock measures time and how you perceive it are quite different. As we grow older, it can often feel like time goes by faster and faster. This speeding up of subjective time with age is well documented by psychologists, but there is no consensus on the cause. In a paper published this month, Professor Adrian Bejan presents an argument based on the physics of neural signal processing. He hypothesizes that, over time, the rate at which we process visual information slows down, and this is what makes time ‘speed up’ as we grow older.” Here’s the longer article published on Cambridge University Press but the post on the Harvard site gives a good summary. Interesting theory.

If we are simply dropping frames, maybe we should use those frames better!

How To Learn Stuff Quickly {Josh W. Comeau] – “Learning how to learn effectively is super important, especially as a software developer; learning new things is practically the whole gig! If you can learn to quickly pick up new languages/frameworks/tools, you’ll be able to be way more productive than the average developer. It’s sort of a superpower. In this blog post, I’ll share what I’ve learned about learning, and show you how I pick up new skills lickety-split!”

I like articles about learning because it’s a meta-skill – get better at getting better at stuff will result in being better at stuff faster! 🙂

All joking aside, it’s a good article, check it out.

The Trouble with Optionality [The Harvard Crimson] – “This emphasis on creating optionality can backfire in surprising ways. Instead of enabling young people to take on risks and make choices, acquiring options becomes habitual. You can never create enough option value—and the longer you spend acquiring options, the harder it is to stop.”

Risking, Fast and Slow [Of Dollars and Data] – “Slow risk is the accumulation of bad decisions that eventually leads to an unwanted outcome. It’s developing heart disease after decades of improper eating. It’s getting divorced after neglecting your spouse for years. It’s sitting in cash while you wait to buy the dip. With slow risk, there’s no single event that you can point to and say, “Here’s where I went wrong.” No. It’s the cumulative effect of your improper decision-making that leads you astray.”

REvil Ransom Arrest, $6M Seizure, and $10M Reward [Krebs on Security] – “The U.S. Department of Justice today announced the arrest of Ukrainian man accused of deploying ransomware on behalf of the REvil ransomware gang, a Russian-speaking cybercriminal collective that has extorted hundreds of millions from victim organizations. The DOJ also said it had seized $6.1 million in cryptocurrency sent to another REvil affiliate, and that the U.S. Department of State is now offering up to $10 million for the name or location any key REvil leaders, and up to $5 million for information on REvil affiliates.”

This is kind of cool and kind of ridiculous — Man in Bosnia builds a rotating house [on Youtube]

They’re like you and me, except they have millions of dollars and access to financial instruments we don’t! 🙂

How the super-rich buy their homes [Financial Times] – “For years the super-rich, advised by a suite of lawyers, accountants and bankers have taken mortgages — often reaching up to 100 per cent of the value of the property — on the world’s priciest homes. The majority of loans are interest-only; most are never paid off unless the home is sold; increasingly, when the home is inherited, the next generation will take out a comparable loan. The money saved can then be shuffled around the world in search of the best tax deal and the biggest investment gains.”

Why the Survival of the Airlines Depends on Frequent Flyer Programs [Marker] – “It turns out frequent flyer programs are worth more than the airlines themselves.” The article is from 9/2020 but still accurate today.

Spiders are much smarter than you think [Knowable Magazine] – “Cross studies the behavior of jumping spiders, the undisputed champs of cognition among spiders. Although these tiny arachnids have brains that could literally fit on the head of a pin, the work of Cross and other scientists suggests that they have capabilities we’d have no problem hailing as signs of intelligence if exhibited by animals with much larger brains, like dogs or human toddlers.” You have to read the section where they describe the jumping spiders and the strategies they use to HUNT OTHER SPIDERS. And then the lab tests. It’s remarkable.

A hectamillion is someone with $100,000,000 – that’s one hundred million dollars (or more!).

I can’t even begin to fathom it but through the power of the internet (mostly Reddit), there’s a hectomillionaire who has written about the things that ZestyLife8262 has been working through:

• This is the their first post jumping things off – For people with $100M+ NW, how do you manage your money and life?
• Part 1 of 5 – Introduction
• Part 2 of 5 – Investments and Portfolio Management
• Part 3 of 5 – Expenses and Living without Financial Constraints
• Part 4 of 5 – I am NOT a Superman
• Part 5 of 5 – Work and Purpose

I enjoyed it for the peek into the life and challenges. I don’t know if “Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems” is legitimately a thing but Mo’ Money certainly does mean different problems.

Welcome to Friday, my friends, and welcome to another day of Apex Money. Today, I’ve got four interesting articles for you all…

How to avoide lifestyle inflation — and when to embrace it. [Bitches Get Riches] — “If all of this sounds suspiciously like lifestyle inflation, that’s because it is! And yet I feel no guilt over inflating my lifestyle from time to time when my income significantly increases. This is generally considered a cardinal sin of personal finance. It’s right up there with buying lattes or taking the name of Dave Ramsey in vain. So let’s unpack that.”

This advice for becoming a better golfer can also help you become a better investor. [Elm Wealth] — “Scott’s insistence on taking uncertainty into account in making good decisions applies equally to golf and investing. We cannot reach good decisions by focusing on the base-case return of an investment. Instead, we need to weigh up all possible investment outcomes, the cost or benefit of each one to us, and the probability of each.” [I like this article a lot.]

Does money buy happiness? [Female in Finance] — “I lived in a beautiful building in the heart of Lake Oswego, Oregon with floor to ceiling windows. And I would lay in bed, and just watch all of the people outside. They were laughing, holding hands, playing with friends, eating ice cream, and walking their dogs. I wanted connection so desperately. I would have done ANYTHING to walk around the block, say hi to a stranger, order a chai latte, walk my dog, grab tacos with a friend. The money didn’t matter. It didn’t make me happy.”

Many Americans are overpaying for their car loans. [Consumer Reports] — “CR’s investigation found that interest rates charged can be stratospheric; in some cases APRs stretch beyond 25 percent. But our analysis also reveals that consumers who are financially similar and have comparable credit scores can be charged wildly divergent interest rates. Even people with high credit scores can be charged exorbitantly. What’s going on?” [This happened to me. I have excellent credit — a score over 800 — and I was given a loan with an exorbitant interest rate. My fault for not pushing back harder, I know. In the end, I just paid it off in a few months, but interesting to know it’s an issue for others too.]

That’s it for this week, Apexians. Jim will be back on Monday with more great stuff. And I’ll see you in ten days — from Cincinnati! 🙂

It’s Thursday, my friends, and this is Apex money, your home for great personal-finance stories from around the web. Here’s what I have for you today.

How to spend money on yourself without feeling guilty. [One Frugal Girl] — “Once you pay for your obligations, you shouldn’t feel guilty spending money. A budget helps you visualize the truth. You aren’t taking away from anyone by fulfilling your needs too.”

The problem with America’s semi-rich. [Vox] — “While this 9.9 percent drives inequality — they want to lock in their positions for themselves and their families — they’re also driven by inequality. They recognize that American society is increasingly one of have-nots, and they’re determined not to be one of them.”

Americans are more generous than Europeans — by a large margin. [New York Post] — “Liberals often love to portray America as a cartoonishly greedy nation driven by a hyperindividualistic and capitalistic nature that exhibits little concern regarding the common good or others around the world…Yet by nearly every measure Americans are more generous with their money and time than anyone — including Europeans.”

To close things out today, here’s my favorite fun video of recent weeks. It’s Jurassic Park — but with a cat!

This is so fun and so well done. It’s hilarious. And if you liked that, don’t miss Claws!

And that’s it for this edition of Apex Money! I’ll be back tomorrow with more. See you then…

Welcome to Wednesday, my friends. Today, I have several interesting articles for you. The first one is especially good, but it’s very, very long.

Untangling skill and luck. [it’s complicated…] — “There’s a simple and elegant test of whether there is skill in an activity: ask whether you can lose on purpose. If you can’t lose on purpose, or if it’s really hard, luck likely dominates that activity. If it’s easy to lose on purpose, skill is more important. In this report, we will discuss why unraveling skill and luck is so important, provide a framework for thinking about the contribution of skill and luck, offer some methods to help sort skill and luck in various domains, and define the key features of skill in the investment business.” This PDF is long (and 11 years old) but it’s fascinating. Well worth reading.

Ten ways to make your time matter. [Greater Good Magazine] — “The modern discipline of time management (or productivity) is depressingly narrow-minded, focused on devising the perfect morning routine or trying to crank through as many tasks as possible, while investing all your energy on reaching some later state of well-being and accomplishment. It ignores the fact that the world is bursting with wonder—and that experiencing more of that wonder may come at the cost of productivity.”

A man’s dog was stolen. He found the thief, and instead of calling the police, he got her into rehab. [The Washington Post] — “Morton shared his story with the woman, and she told him her own. She explained that she had been living on the streets for several years, relying on sex work to fund her drug addiction, Morton said. She wanted to get help, he said, but she was terrified.” [This is a great story.]

Are we on the verge of chatting with whales? [Hakai Magazine] — “Several animal species have proved to be vocal learners—acquiring new vocabulary, developing dialects, identifying each other by name. Some birds even learn to imitate cellphone ringtones. Dolphins acquire individual whistles that they use as an identifier for themselves, almost like a name.” [I believe strongly that animals are far more intelligent than most people credit them.]

And that’s all for today. Come back tomorrow for more interesting stuff, won’t you?

Are you ready for a second consecutive day of long, interesting articles? I hadn’t intended to dive deep two days in a row. In fact, I’d already created today’s edition of Apex Money, but yesterday I read two fascinating articles related to the current supply chain issues in the U.S.

Because these pieces are timely and very much money-related, I’ve decided to run them today instead. And the regular links (and cat video) I had scheduled for today? Well, we’ll do those on Thursday instead.

I hope you find these articles as informative as I did…

I’m a twenty-year truck driver. Let me tell you why America’s shipping crisis isn’t going to end. [Ryan Johnson on Medium] — “I’m a Class A truck driver with experience in nearly every aspect of freight. My experience in the trucking industry of 20 years tells me that nothing is going to change in the shipping industry…My prediction is that nothing is going to change and the shipping crisis is only going to get worse. Nobody in the supply chain wants to pay to solve the problem. They literally just won’t pay to solve the problem.”

An unexpected victory: Container stacking at the port of Long Beach. [Don’t Worry about the Vase] — “A bureaucrat insisting that stacked containers are an eyesore, causing freight to pile up because trucks are stuck sitting on empty containers, thus causing a cascading failure that destroys supply lines and brings down the economy. That certainly sounds like something that was in an early draft of Atlas Shrugged but got crossed out as too preposterous for anyone to take seriously.”

Hey, how about we close things today with something light? After two days of long, deep articles, here’s a short video that has nothing to do with money. It’s a recipe my brother posted on Facebook yesterday that I’m eager to prep: carrots with chives from Jacques Pépin.

Doesn’t that look delicious?

Okay. That’s it for Tuesday. I’ll see you Apexians tomorrow. Sound good?

Yesterday, I read (re-read, actually) a Quartz article from May 2018. In it, Michael Coren interviews Jameson Wetmore, a social researcher at Arizona State University’s School for the Future of Innovation in Society. Their conversation explores the Amish and their relationship with technology.

I found the interview helpful because it crystalized some of the things I’ve been thinking about since last winter.

You see, I’m more and more convinced that the online world isn’t the place for me. It’s been my primary home for twenty years now, and during those two decades the internet has given me a lot. It’s given me wealth, friends, a career. But it also seems to have directly contributed to my poor mental health. It’s exacerbated my depression. It’s introduced anxiety to my world. It’s introduced me to addiction.

During the past twelve months, I’ve given a lot of thought to my relationship with technology — especially my relationship to the modern internet. As a result, I’ve begun distancing myself from social media. (I used to love posting on Facebook. Nowadays, I rarely do so.) I’ve written less at Get Rich Slowly. Sometimes, I even find it tough to gather links for Apex Money.

And you know what? By distancing myself from the online arena, my mental health problems have decreased. I’m happier. I’m more engaged with the world around me. I’m more like the person I used to be.

Anyhow, re-reading the Quartz article about how Amish people relate to technology really hit home yesterday. There’s so much to think about here that I’ve decided that today’s installment of Apex Money will feature only this interview.

From the piece:

It’s not that the Amish view technology as inherently evil. No rules prohibit them from using new inventions. But they carefully consider how each one will change their culture before embracing it. And the best clue as to what will happen comes from watching their neighbors.

This article made me realize that perhaps I (and perhaps you?) ought to approach technology the way that the Amish people do. Instead of embracing every new thing that comes along, perhaps I (and perhaps you?) ought to wait. Be patient. Watch what happens as others adopt the new tech and how it changes their lives.

By now, I think it’s pretty clear that social media is a cancer in our society. Therefor, I’m ready to (mostly) leave it behind. It doesn’t improve my life, and it doesn’t improve the lives of anybody that I know. But the internet itself? Well, I’m still undecided about that. For now, I’ll keep doing what I’ve been doing for the past few months: maintaining my old habits, but at a much-reduced level of involvement.

(Okay, I lied. Today, let’s have two links. The Quartz interview refers to a E.M. Forster story from 1909 called “The Machine Stops”. I just read it. It’s a shockingly prescient piece of writing. Forster predicts a future where people live isolated in underground rooms but connect with each other through a vast Machine. Then he explores the social ramifications of such a society. He gets much very, very correct.)