Apex Money Posts

Our first article digs into the math behind the well worn “statistic” that active funds don’t beat index funds.

The statement is still mostly true, the math behind lacks a bit of… shall we say, rigor.

Even “Experts” Measure Stupidly [The Best Interest] – “how many mutual funds beat more than 75% of other funds in each of 5 straight years, 2017 – 2022. Answer: none.

The average person might say, “Well shit! All the more reason to drink the passively-managed Index Fund Kool Aid!”

Go ahead and drink. It won’t hurt you. Index funds are great. But the NYT is (probably unknowingly) using terrible, misleading math. It’s the third kind of lie. Bad math obfuscates a more important, nuanced truth.”

Practice Frugal Wealth [Financial Tortoise] – “But one of the big dilemmas that many of us will face once you have a sizable amount of wealth is this; the temptation to let the world know how successful we are. Before you couldn’t afford it, but now that fancy new car keeps catching your eye. Maybe your parents might finally come around to praising you instead of criticizing you for your frugal lifestyle? Or how about that huge home down the street that always seemed to have all the toys? It’s finally on the market. And you can finally afford the downpayment. Why not go for it right? You only live once.

But this is where I would caution all of us and recommend we all continue to practice the principle of Frugal wealth. Where despite how wealthy you become, you continue to live out the life of frugality.”

10 Things That Are 100% A Scam But Accepted In Society [A Dime Saved] – “Have you ever been living your life and then suddenly thought, this is a scam? This can’t be real? There are some things that are so part of our society and our everyday life. Still, we just accept them as normal because they’re so ingrained in our society or because everyone else accepts it, and we can’t really do anything about it?” This post got me angrier the longer I read it! 😂

We often think success comes with massive gains…

… but in reality, you just need to be consistently improving.

1% better every day means you’ll be almost 38x better at the end of the year.

Our first post includes some of those small steps you can take to make you richer.

21 Small Actions That Will Make You Richer [Darius Foroux] – “A financially consistent person is dedicated to getting richer just a little bit, year after year. It’s about doing the least amount of saving and investing to grow one’s net worth. If you are financially consistent, it’s a guarantee you will become wealthier over time. It’s all about how well you execute the little things. ”

Deep Habits: Read Less, But Better [Simplify & Enjoy] – “It’s great if you can read a book a week. With work and family commitments, I’ve managed to achieve this. However, I’m not only aiming to read more; I’m striving to read better.”

People go CRAZY for free stuff!

My wife and I both work and we have four kids, which means it’s literally impossible for her to be “mom” for every kid in every instance. There are simply too many conflicts.

That said, she still feels the pressure to do so and I see the effect when I “step in” (i.e. do my fair share) to do things like doctor’s visits, school functions, etc. I’ve been working from home since 2010 and before Covid, when she would have to go into the office during the week, I did a lot of the school and daycare visits. Sometimes (not often), I’d get comments about how nice it was I was able to be there.

At the time, I didn’t realize (yes, I’m a dolt) that the expectation was that these were “mom” duties. Antiquated, a bit rarer in our region (Washington D.C. – Maryland region), but still sometimes present.

Our first post of the day taught me a lot and gave me better insight into that perspective. There’s a lot that you don’t see out there that influences how people behave.

Internalized Sexism & Women’s Finances: How Misogyny Messes With My Money [Brave Saver] – “I was stumped — because no one had said anything — now that I was a mom. And yet, no one had to say a word for me to know some people were judging that choice. And more than that, I knew that I had wondered if I could be a good mom while working.”

If you’ve been wondering “how often should I rebalance?” then Vanguard has a report for you – Rational rebalancing: An analytical approach to multiasset portfolio rebalancing decisions and insights. The summary is that you should do it about once a year, especially if you aren’t doing any tax-loss harvesting.

Given my blind spots explained in the first post, this is a good video to remind yourself that we all don’t start off at home plate in the game of life – Social Inequalities Explained in a $100 Race:

Good morning, Plutus, Family! We are so excited to start 2023 with you all. Please kick your feet up and enjoy these great articles.

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

Dirty Secrets of Personal Finance. [Emancipare] – “Dividends! Real Estate! Crypto! Gold! Long/Short Options! I-Bonds! Ladders! Alternatives! Credit Card Points & Miles! Day Trading! Market Timing! Guess what – there’s no magic, only illusion. Nobody beats “the market” over time. Nobody.” (Submitted by Tarsha.)

A New Free Tool to Manage Your Asset Allocation. [The Retirement Manifesto] — “The free Net Worth template I created years ago has been downloaded by thousands of readers, but I just made a major improvement.  Now, when you open that spreadsheet, you’ll see a new tab titled “Asset Allocation” that is linked to all of the figures in the net worth spreadsheet.” (Submitted by J. Money.)

Price Changes Over Time, Some Things Have Become Ridiculously Cheap. [Accidental fire] — “Where prices are going to go in the near term is anyone’s guess, but over the longer term I think it’s safe to say that in general electronics and established technology items will continue to decrease. Anomalies such as chip shortages can temporarily disrupt that of course as we saw recently.” (Submitted by Tarsha.)

It’s Jim and I realize it’s Tuesday (having missed yesterday!) and my apologies – we were traveling back from a vacation and the first Apex of the year will have to be today!

If you missed J.D.’s post from last year, he’s taking a break and stepping away from Apex and, likely, stepping back from writing about money. I’ve known J.D. for over a decade and in that time, he’s always been writing and usually about money. Sometimes our lives move past what we’re doing in the moment and it takes a lot to realize that. If you want to keep in touch with him, check out his personal blog.

Sometimes breaks are good and I wish J.D. the best!

Envy Is the Cancer of the Soul [More to That] – “People like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, or Bill Gates will be in that green area. Their wealth is at an incomprehensible level in John’s mind, so instead of being envious of them, he will buy their biographies and seek to learn from them. The people that have taken John’s desire and achieved many multiples of it will feel like distant mentors as opposed to close rivals.” It’s an interesting look at something we all feel and try to control – envy.

Some Holiday Thoughts on Effort, Results, and Control [My Money Blog] – “There is so much we can’t control. I couldn’t choose the country where I was born. I couldn’t choose my parents. I couldn’t choose my genes. I couldn’t choose my gender or race or sexual orientation or decade that I was born. I couldn’t choose to have working eyes, ears, or nervous system.”

Don’t Turn Your Hobby Into a Side Hustle [Bloomberg / Washington Post] – “During a holiday dinner party, the host suggested we each share a significant moment from the year. As one woman shared how her pottery class had allowed her to explore her creative side, another cheekily said, “Oh, you could totally open up an Etsy shop and sell your work.” Before she even finished the sentence, I exclaimed, “No! Don’t monetize your hobby!”

Well, we’ve done it. We’ve made it to the end of 2022. I know that 2020 and 2021 were rough years for many people, but I’ll be honest. For me, this was perhaps the toughest year I’ve had in my own life. But now I’m done with it. Best of all, December was fantastic. And I’m very hopeful that 2023 can build on that fantastic-ness.

Anyhow, as I promised yesterday I’m here with a bonus weekend edition of Apex Money to take you into the new year. Let’s see what I found for you today.

How to create safety and security without accumulating wealth. [Iris Brilliant] — “Building safety outside of wealth accumulation starts with the practical skills needed to earn at least a minimum wage job, and extends to skills that will always be relevant, even in the face of a rapidly changing world struggling with climate chaos and economic collapse. It would be even more wonderful to include your vocation — the gifts you most long to offer the world to create the impact you want to have.” Two notes: First, this piece is long. Second, its politics will make some people tense. (Hell, I agree with the author in many ways, and its politics still make me tense.) Despite both of these caveats, I recommend this piece. It’s a good one.

How KFC became a Christmas tradition in Japan. [CNN Travel] — “Every year since the mid-1980s, life-size Colonel Sanders statues — dressed as Santa during the holiday — have welcomed droves of locals and tourists alike across the country. According to figures released by the American fast-food chain, KFC Japan pulled in 6.9 billion yen (roughly US$63 million) from December 20 to 25 in 2018, with lines out the door starting on December 23. KFC Japan’s busiest day is usually December 24, on which they usually sell about five to 10 times more than typical days.”

Is now a great time to retire? [1500 Days to Freedom] — “I think most (me included, hence this post) spend waaaaay too much time thinking about our numbers. What if we thought about life instead? This is what really matters. Be flexible and it will be alright.”

In the waiting. [Jillian Johnsrud] — “Right now, I’m waiting. Waiting to see if my life will change. And while I wait, I’m reflecting on everything I’m grateful for and mistakes I’ll keep trying to avoid. Thankfully you don’t have to be in the waiting to reflect on these things. You can simply ask the questions and make next year even richer than this year was.”

And that’s it for this year!

Jim will be back next week to bring in 2023 with you.

As for me? Well, I’m taking a break. As I’ve mentioned over at Get Rich Slowly and on my social media accounts, I’ve been doing a lot of soul-searching lately, trying to decide what the future holds for me. Increasingly, it looks as if I’m ready to move on from writing about money.

I’ve been doing this for nearly seventeen years now. I’ve enjoyed it, but more and more it feels like I’m clinging to something that’s no longer me. Does that make sense? And by clinging to this, I’m not allowing myself to move forward, to explore other areas.

Right now, my plan is to take a hiatus from Apex Money. I haven’t decided my future at Get Rich Slowly, but it’s quite possible that I’ll be taking a break from that too. But because I know I love to write, I plan to channel my energy into my personal blog. Perhaps I’ll see you there?

In any event, have a fantastic 2023, my friends! See you around…

Good morning, Apexians! J.D. here with a very late installment of your favorite aggregator of money news. As a reward for your patience, I’ll publish a bonus New Year’s Eve edition tomorrow. How’s that? Anyhow, let’s dive into today’s links.

A computer fit for the Amish. [Planet Money] — “The key selling point, perhaps not surprisingly, is all the things the computer doesn’t do. Like the sign says: No Internet, no video, no music. It’s ’80s-era technology that lets you do basic word-processing, spreadsheets and accounting. It’s the kind of thing some (but not all) Amish people would find acceptable to use for work.” A very short piece, but an important one (to me). I’ve been re-evaluating my relationship with technology, so stuff like this hits home.

Love song to Costco. [Longreads] — “Pushing a cart along the massive aisles in the Orlando Costco, my father loads up boxes of oranges and blueberries that he tries to force-feed me over the next few days…In the great halls of Costco, two of our greatest fears are assuaged — that of not having enough, and that of not being enough.” This is a great piece. And it’s long.

S&P 500 data tool. [OfficialData.org] — I can’t remember where I found this tool, but I like it. You plug in a start date, an end date, and an amount, then the calculator spits out an estimate of investment returns. As a money writer, this is handy for all sorts of things. But even if you’re not a money writer, it’s worth bookmarking for future research.

Boy Scout buys $11,300 in gifts for foster children to let them know they’re loved. [The Guardian] — “A 12-year-old who sold more than $56,000 in popcorn through his Boy Scouts troop recently spent more than 20% of those earnings buying presents for children in foster care in his region of Minnesota, delivering one of the Christmas season’s most heartwarming stories.”

To wrap things up, here’s a video I think is charming. It’s a minute-long compilation of dogs boarding a “doggy day care” bus in Skagway, Alaska. I adore it.

My favorite part comes just after 45 seconds in when all of the seated dogs lean in to sniff the pup that just got on board. I don’t know why, but I think it’s charming. It seems to encapsulate everything I love about dogs. I’ve watched that short bit a dozen times now. Kim thinks I’m crazy. I just think I like dogs haha.

Okay, that’s it. As I said, I’ll be back tomorrow with a bonus edition of Apex Money. See you then.

We hope you had a great holiday Plutus Family, but now it’s time to make your New Year Resolution before we enter into the new year. Thank you for being a part of the Plutus family and we look forward to 2023. Happy New Year Plutus family!

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

Top 9 Financial Resolutions for the New Year (2023.  [APR Finder] – “With each new year comes the perfect opportunity to reflect on the progress of your financial life and create actionable goals for the 12 months ahead. While most people focus on saving more money and paying down debt, others place importance on shifting behaviors around money management and increasing their income in an attempt to improve one’s financial circumstances.” (Submitted by Tarsha.)

How to Stop Shopping Impulsively in 2023: 23 Frugal Tips! [No Sidebar] — “Does it feel like no matter how much you work; you can’t seem to stay on top of your finances? The problem may not be how much money you’re making, it may be the rate at which you spend it.” (Submitted by J. Money.)

7 Ways to Develop Financial Trust in Your Relationship.  [Harris Cash Coach] — “If you find that you’re constantly fighting about money or hiding how you spend money from your partner, it may be time to rethink your relationship goals and values. Fighting about money can create tension in a relationship and make it challenging to accomplish future goals. When one spouse gets frustrated with the other, it can seem like you’re on an island all on your own, trying to resolve a difficult situation. How can couples develop and build financial trust in their relationship?” (Submitted by Tarsha.)

Hello, my financial friends! It’s J.D. Roth and I’m here this week to share some of the top money stories from around the internet.

Your 2023 financial to-do list. [Morningstar] — “Helping you look forward and plan for a productive year ahead is the goal of my annual financial to-do calendar and to-do list, which plots out a number of jobs you can undertake to improve your financial life on a month-by-month basis. The myriad tasks associated with maintaining an organized financial life seem daunting in list form, but they’re more manageable when spread throughout the year.”

What keeping a bullet journal taught me about using to-do apps. [The Verge] — “What I’ve since realized, however, is that it’s perfectly possible to keep lots of the things I liked about keeping a bullet journal without sacrificing the convenience of apps. Ultimately, what I liked about the notebook was less about its physicality and more about the fact that it forced me to spend real time actively thinking about and organizing my life on a daily basis. And that’s something that’s just as possible to do with an app as it is with a notebook.”

How to fall back in love with reading (even when your brain feels like mush). [The Cut] — “These all sound like great reasons to develop a practice of reading. But how? The key, as with most everything in life, is to build a habit of reading. What you’re trying to do is practice sustained attention. Like any habit, the trick is in figuring out what works for you.”

Ancient Rivers of Money [Ribbonfarm] — “If you think of markets [as rivers of money], things look very different. Some rivers of money are very old and very stable. You can at most fight to displace others from prime positions along the banks. Others are new and unstable and may change course frequently, creating and destroying fortunes through their vagaries. Others may be maturing, with dams being built to stabilize them. People have always bought food and clothes. They are only now beginning to buy iPads. They are starting to not buy CDs.” This is one of my favorite articles I’ve ever linked to.

To wrap things up today, here’s an hilarious video from TikTok in which a 10-year-old boy calculates how much it’ll cost for him to go on his first “date”. I loathe TikTok, so you know if I’m linking to a TikTok video it’s gotta be good. And it is…

@moonshinecali02 They always want Ice cream after #fyp #dating #thestruggle ♬ original sound – Cali_Moonshine909

And that’s all I have for you today. The Plutus folks will be here with tomorrow’s installment, then I’ll be back on Thursday and Friday to take you into the new year. See you then!

Jim here – this is my last Apex Money for 2022 and I want to say it’s been a pleasure sharing the fun, weird, (hopefully) educational, and sometimes quirky articles that I find on the internet. It’s been a pleasure. I hope you have a restful and relaxing remainder of your 2022.

Next week, J.D. returns with a smatter of gems!

When I Get Stupid [Richard Connor on Humble Dollar] – “Second, we should make our finances as “stupid-proof” as possible to prevent disastrous investing or spending mistakes that could derail our retirement. Mandell presents evidence that, on average, our capability to make financial decisions involving credit peaks at age 53. Our decision-making ability with investments peaks later, at age 70.”

‘Worse than feared’: Brexit to blame for £33bn loss to UK economy, study shows [Independent.co.uk] – “Mr Springford, author of the study, added: “There is a gap between the things politicians want to say about Brexit and what the data tells us. I think it’s become impossible to argue that Brexit has not hurt the UK economy.”” Politicians are not economists. They’re experts at getting elected.

And as my last share of the year, I must offer up this gem from a TED talk.

You Don’t Actually Know What Your Future Self Wants [Shankar Vedantam | TED] – I’m a huge fan of Shankar Vedantam and his podcast, Hidden Brain, is fascinating. This video is really funny.

See you next year!