Welcome to Wednesday, money bosses. You’ll find it no surprise that I’ve collected some excellent money stories to share with you today. Let’s get to them.
I spent 44 years studying retirement. Then I retired. [Wall Street Journal, but this is a version that bypasses the WSJ paywall] — “Some retirees, if they can control events, plan a clean break from what went before and head in new directions. In my case, and knowing a lot about the experience of others, I foresaw continuity for myself across the transition: same person, same interests, same relationships. What is clear now is that I have arrived at a place that is further than I had imagined from the worker that I was, from the setting where I worked, and from the younger man that I had been. I have arrived only to embark.”
The booming underground market for bots that steal your two-factor authentication codes. [Vice] — “With these bots that cost a few hundred dollars, anyone can start getting around multi-factor authentication, a security measure that many members of the public may assume is largely secure. The bots’ existence and increased popularity raises questions on whether online services need to offer more phishing-resistant forms of authentication to protect users.”
In the supply chain battle of 2021, small businesses are losing out to Walmart and Amazon. [The Washington Post] — “Small retailers and manufacturers, already crushed by large national brands during the pandemic, are being disproportionately walloped by delays, shortages and other supply chain disruptions ahead of the holidays. In many cases, they’re losing out to giants like Walmart and Amazon, which are spending millions to charter their own ships and planes to move merchandise. Independent shop owners, who have no such recourse, say they’re often the last in line for products because manufacturers prioritize larger, more lucrative contracts.”
And today’s fun non-financial video is a blast from the past. It’s a 17-minute home movie called “Heavy Metal Parking Lot”, which documents heavy-metal music fans gathering in 1986 for a Judas Priest concert in 1986.
This was the summer between my junior and senior years of high school, and I have to say: All of this seems so, so familiar. It makes me nostalgic.
Okay, that’s all I have today. I’ll be back tomorrow with more. Join me, won’t you?