Hey hey, money bosses. Come on in and gather around the fire. Today, I have several new money articles to share with you.
The escalating costs of being single in America. [Vox] — “Think about your household’s monthly expenses…Now imagine paying for all those things completely on your own. If you live by yourself — or as a single parent or caregiver — you don’t have to imagine. This is your life. All the expenses of existing in society, on one set of shoulders. For the more than 40 million people who live in this kind of single-income household, it’s also become increasingly untenable.” [I’ll be honest. I find this article (and this similar piece from 2013) to be an example of what I call “niche whining”. But maybe you think the author has some good points? If so, let me know!]
Ten years with a one-fund investment portfolio. [Oblivious Investor] — “I’m really not that optimistic about the value to be gained from various modest changes to asset allocation. For any given investor, there’s an unlimited number of asset allocations that would be ‘good enough’…An all-in-one fund is about as boring as it gets, which is what I want. And it also checks the boxes of being diversified and reasonably low-cost. For us, that’s (still) a good fit.”
How ‘greedy work’ explains the persistent wage gap better than bias. [Behavioral Scientist] — “In her new book, Career and Family, [Claudia Goldin] argues the wage gap is the symptom of a far greater problem, one that has largely been invisible. Her exploration began with a mystery about the causes of the gap. A significant part of the wage gap is explained by factors like age, education, and experience…As she looked for patterns, progress, and regression to better understand the causes and consequences of the gap, she also discovered something significant: that labor market discrimination — biased managers, for instance — likely play a far less central role in the perpetuation of the wage gap than does a structural issue, which she calls greedy work.”
Why you should delete your social media accounts (if only temporarily). [Zapier] — “Lots of people talk about deleting their social media accounts. I actually did it…I’d been considering the idea for months, and I’m not honestly not sure what pushed me to do it. I only intended to trial it for a week to see how things went. But here we are, three weeks later, and I still haven’t re-installed either app—and don’t plan to. Here’s why.”
Lastly, here’s a super fun 23-minute video from Vanity Fair in which a casino-cheating expert reviews card counting and casino scams from movies.
I’m not a casino guy. Gambling seems foolish to me. But it’s fun to watch how things work behind the scenes — and how people try to game the system.
Okay, that’s it for Tuesday. I’ll be back in the morning with more stuff for you. See you then!