Today is Tuesday, and this is Apex Money. As always, Jim and I (and our friends at the Plutus Foundation) collect our favorite stories about personal finance (and more!) to share with you every weekday morning. Here’s what we have for you today.
Changed by the trip. [Humble Dollar] — “The longer we live, the more perspective we have — and the more foolish many of our earlier beliefs seem. We start our adult journey confident that we’ll make our mark on the world and that the financial rewards we collect will greatly enhance our life. By the time we reach retirement, things look quite different.” [Related: Getting old from Gotham Gal]
Scarcity is an ally of appreciation. [A Wealth of Common Sense] — “Scarcity can add meaning and clarity. When I was young I went out all the time. I drank too much. I never watched what I ate. And when you’re young you can get away with that. But too much of a good thing can dampen your enjoyment of it…Scarcity is an ally of appreciation.”
Lies our consumerist society tells (and why you should reject them). [No Sidebar] — “People go into huge amounts of debt, get stuck in careers they hate, and buy tons of stuff they don’t even have the time to enjoy. And it’s not even because they want to impress others. It’s because of the tiny voice in their head telling them that their worth is tied to what they own.”
“Buy now, pay later” sounds too good to be true because it is. [Vox] — “The thing about buy now, pay later is that the later part always comes. Sometimes, the pay ends up being more than you think you’re signing up for, and often for stuff you shouldn’t have bought in the first place.”
Those first two stories are especially interesting to me. You should check them out.