Apex Money Posts

Dr. Jim Dahle of White Coat Investor received an email from a reader in which they outlined what seemed like an investment opportunity that was simply too good to miss.

After just two minutes, Jim decided it was pretty fishy. And if you follow his analysis, it definitely looks suspicious.

Don’t Invest in ‘Too Good to Be True’ — Lessons Learned from an Alleged Ponzi Scheme [White Coat Investor] – “‘I don’t know anything about it. Feels too good to be true, doesn’t it? I wouldn’t invest for that reason alone. I mean . . . if you get a 100% return every 18 months, that’s the equivalent of an annualized return of 59%. At 59% returns, you would own the entire world in less than a lifetime. But the pro-forma shows a 29% average return. Still pretty darn high. With those sorts of returns, a doctor saving half his income could retire in like three years.'”

Turns out the whole operation may have been a ponzi scheme!

The lessons learned section (near the bottom of the post) are solid bits of wisdom.

I’m 44, which makes me a young Gen X or an elder Millennial, though I’ve always been skeptical of generation categorization.

But it is fun reading stories about how Millennials ruin everything (remember that trend a few years ago) and this latest article about how whether Millennials are scared of “middle age.”

Millennials face down 40 [Business Insider] – “As millennials approach the milestone, things look a bit different than they did when our baby-boomer parents reached it and declared themselves “over the hill.” (I’m a millennial, so I’m using “our” here.) Forty is supposedly the new 30. The start of middle age no longer means sending your kids off to college, getting a divorce, or buying yourself a Corvette. The modern 40 means having toddlers running around, buying your first home, and, at last, catching up on retirement savings. Or looking around and wondering whether some of those life touchpoints passed you by.”

It’s an interesting article that puts a lot of things into perspective, whether you’re in your 40s or not.

Do you remember when the personal finance index card came out?

It was all of the big ideas of personal finance distilled onto a single index card.

I like it when the core tenets of a subject can be distilled into something easy to understand.

This I why I really like this next piece. It takes Phil Pearlman’s four simple rules on health and wellness and applies to finances:

The Laws of Financial Health [The Uncertainty of It All] – “The laws of financial health are equally simple. Simple does not equate to easy, though. What is hard is consistency, execution, and discipline. Our brains just don’t see money as simple and easy.”

Be sure to read it through and get to the emotional section too.

The post today looks long but it’s really quick with lots of graphics, also a very powerful message.

Considering Time and Quality of Life [Meaningful Money] – “Considering both your lifeline and healthline, along with others’ healthline and lifeline, can help you live more meaningfully by allowing you to invest your time, energy, and even money in experiences with the people most important to you.”

… but milk is white?

(OK I know this isn’t really money related but I found it so fascinating and it kinda is related because marketing?)

The real reason cheese is yellow [Vox]

The problem with economics (and economists) is that all their ideas are predicated on the idea that humans are rational. But anyone who has ever talked to another human knows that we are not rational.

That’s what gave rise to “behavioral economics.” Which is when economics when it runs into real life.

It’s with that idea in mind that I present to you this great post by Jason Cohen on A Smart Bear.

The Serengeti Plain: Fallacies that aren’t fallacies [A Smart Bear] – “Economists claim that “maximizing expected value” is what logical people do. It doesn’t bother those same economists that they cannot predict any major metrics of the economy or markets, while constantly issuing memos excusing their models for getting it wrong for the 74th time in a row. All while calling everyone else irrational.”

Enjoy!

Hello Apexians… I’m currently at FinCon, a financial creator conference, so I’m not going to be sharing articles for the rest of the week. I’ll be back Monday though!

Before I go, I want to leave you with this gem:

The ultimate gambler? How Denise Coates became Britain’s richest woman [The Independent] – “She is the mastermind behind Bet365, the company that made it possible to gamble online any hour of the day or night. With a family fortune of £7.5bn, she pays her taxes and donates to charity. But is there a wider human cost to her huge success?”

Spoiler alert: yes, there is a wider human cost.

Mini-retirement is a better name for what is normally called a career break – in which you leave one job without going immediately to another. It’s a time to reflect and think about what you’re doing, rather than being on the hamster wheel doing it.

Fun little article about it with people’s actual experiences:

Mini-retirements are all the rage, but what exactly does it entail — and can you afford to take one? [Irish Independent] – “Taking a mini-retirement can be game-changer but you have to plan financially to make it work — just ask the people who took one.”

A really good question… especially in areas more prone to natural disasters.

I’ve heard horror stories of insurance premiums in places like Florida (and in same cases, situations where homes aren’t insurable) and have wondered the same.

Just how doomed is home insurance? [Vox] – “Right now, that leaves a trio of unpleasant options. Insurers can raise their rates in line with the risks they face, pricing more people out of coverage and leaving them to fend for themselves. Regulators can limit rate hikes and enforce coverage minimums, which can drive private insurers into bankruptcy or out of the market altogether. Or the government can subsidize or offer its own coverage, which would leave taxpayers holding the bag for mounting losses.”

I’d trust it as much as you’d trust a random person on the Internet… and maybe a little less than that!

Google’s AI results are pulled from a variety of sources and so you have to be careful with what you read. Always do additional research and vet your sources!

Google AI Inaccurate In 43% Of Finance-Related Searches [The College Investor] – “Generally, the AI Overviews were correct for basic 101-level questions, such as “what is” or “how to”. They had the most correct answers when covering basic personal finance topics, including banking and insurance.

AI Overviews struggled the most with anything that has nuance – which is most of personal finance. That’s harsh, but most of the incorrect answers involved navigating more complex tax topics, investing topics, and student loan topics.”