Apex Money Posts

Happy Holiday Plutus Family. Please take a quick minute and enjoy these great articles.

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

Why You Don’t Want to Go Back in Time and Do It Over Again. [The Wealthy Accountant] – “If you had it all to do again the chances are you would make the same choices. Everything that made you (before the event you wish to change) would be the same. Faced with the same facts and stimulus you are probably going to walk the same steps or nearly so.” (Submitted by Tarsha.)

How Do You Know If You’re Frugal or Just Ridiculous? [The Frugal Girl] — “I think the line between frugal and cheap often comes down to a selfishness issue. When your money-saving efforts affect just you, and they don’t cause harm to anyone else, that’s frugal. When your money-saving efforts hurt or deprive someone else, that’s when you’ve crossed the line into cheap.” (Submitted by J. Money.)

How to Freeze Your Family’s Credit. [Beating Broke] — “About 15 years ago, I discovered someone had opened an account in my name and charged $1000. Luckily, I caught the fraud early, and the business where the theft occurred gave me my money back. However, that experience spooked me, so I froze my and my husband’s credit within days. At the time, parents could not freeze minor children’s credit, but that has since changed. Just recently, I started the process of freezing my younger children’s credit. If you’d like to do the same, here’s how to freeze your family’s credit.” (Submitted by Tarsha.)

The first post today covers an idea that I think is always good to remember.

Don’t Try to Get Rich Twice [A Wealth of Common Sense] – “The problem is making money and keeping money are two very different skill sets. It can be difficult to transition from a mindset of risk-taking to do-no-harm.” Another way to think about this is to stop playing the game after you’ve already won.

The Dangers of Elite Projection [Human Transit] – “Elite projection is the belief, among relatively fortunate and influential people, that what those people find convenient or attractive is good for the society as a whole. Once you learn to recognize this simple mistake, you see it everywhere. It is perhaps the single most comprehensive barrier to prosperous, just, and liberating cities.” (hat tip to Kottke.org)

A letter to young investors [Tawcan] – “Ask questions, be curious, and learn to trust your instinct. Would you eat something if it smells rotten? I bet you won’t. Similarly, if something is too good to be true or doesn’t pass the sniff test, don’t go on with it.” Good ideas in here.

“What got you here, won’t get you there” is a phrase I find myself thinking about from time to time.

Sometimes, the skills that got you where you are may not suit you into the future. It’s just how life is.

And sometimes, it refers to the tools in your life. Today, we see that with Fritz and his 401(k).

Saying Goodbye To The 401(k) [The Retirement Manifesto] – “She [My 401(k) served me well during the Accumulation Phase when I was diligently dollar cost averaging with every paycheck. But the past is the past, and she’s no longer meeting my needs in the Withdrawal Phase.” A good write up of why Fritz rolled out his 401(k).

Pairs nicely with his guest post on Budgets Are Sexy back in 2017 on how he became a 401(k) millionaire.

Advice For New College Grads [The Enlightened Caveman] – “The first thing to realize is that the 9-5 grind and the option are almost totally incompatible. What I mean is that you may have to work the grind for a while as you’re getting yourself set up, but the goal should always be to abandon the grind as soon as you can get what you need financially without it. Don’t fall into the trap of taking the first corporate job that falls out of the sky simply because you’ll be making real money for the first time. Many a listless and unsatisfied middle-ager was created by starting in corporate America with grand dreams only to be trapped by financial responsibilities that precluded the ability to take a risk when the time was right. It’s so easy to get sucked in, start spending more than you make, and then be shackled to the corporate ladder forever more. Be responsible with your money right now (more on that later).”

30 Things I’ve Learned About Money In 30 Years [Vee Frugal Fox] – “25. Financial literacy is invaluable and can change generations. Don’t underestimate passing down knowledge.”

Hey, my friends. Happy Friday! A bit late with this morning’s entry. I thought I’d prepped it for publishing but nope. Just found it sitting in my text editor, awaiting final touches. Well, better late than never, right? Here are some tasty money links for you.

The gifts we give our kids. [Finding Joy] — “When I work with affluent families, a common concern is how not to let their wealth hurt their kids. It’s not a champagne problem – it’s a real threat. Entitled children who are used to having everything handed to them can be monsters as adults. Individuals who lack financial discipline and exhibit a poor work ethic because their early environment didn’t require it often become poor pilots of their own lives.”

Don’t try to get rich twice. [A Wealth of Common Sense] — “Anyone who has become rich twice is dumb. Why would you risk what you need and have for what you don’t need? If you are already rich, there is no upside to taking on a lot more risk, but there is disgrace on the downside.”

Luddite teens don’t want your ‘likes’. [The New York Times gift article] — “On a brisk recent Sunday, a band of teenagers met on the steps of Central Library on Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn to start the weekly meeting of the Luddite Club, a high school group that promotes a lifestyle of self-liberation from social media and technology. As the dozen teens headed into Prospect Park, they hid away their iPhones — or, in the case of the most devout members, their flip phones, which some had decorated with stickers and nail polish.” I enthusiastically support this!

Now, to send you into the weekend, here’s something I didn’t expect to like: the trailer to next summer’s Barbie film. I have zero interest in this movie (even after seeing the trailer), but I have to say that the preview is pretty damn fun.

That’s it for today. Have a great weekend, everybody!

Howdy, money nerds, and welcome to another edition of Apex Money. I’m your host, J.D. Roth. Here are the articles I’ve gathered for you today…

What happens when you get what you want? [The White Coat Investor] — “The Grand Narrative of Success provides structure, meaning, and identity to our lives, and it is scary to leave that. At cocktail parties, we ask ‘What do you do?’ and we ask young people ‘What are you going to do?’ Heaven forbid if the answer isn’t something tangible and preferably profitable.”

More older Americans are living alone then ever before. [New York Times gift article] — “Nearly 26 million Americans 50 or older now live alone, up from 15 million in 2000. Older people have always been more likely than others to live by themselves, and now that age group — baby boomers and Gen Xers — makes up a bigger share of the population than at any time in the nation’s history.”

Five reasons to retire often. [Jillian Johnsrud] — “When I talk about ‘retiring often’ people are generally confused by the idea. Why would you retire more than once? Why not just push through for 40 straight years and then take the next 30 off? There are a hundred benefits to retiring often. And honestly the non-stop career path has some fatal flaws.”

The need to read. [Paul Graham] — “You can’t think well without writing well, and you can’t write well without reading well. And I mean that last ‘well’ in both senses. You have to be good at reading, and read good things.”

I’ll be back again tomorrow with more fun stuff. Come back then!

Hey Plutus Family! Hopefully, you can take a quick break from the hustle and bustle and enjoy these great articles.

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

The California Effect. [Mr. Money Mustache] – “Start noticing your own bubble and study the California Effect in your own lifestyle. Where do you see ridiculousness masquerading as normalcy? How can you extract the best of life in your area, while shedding the unnecessary downsides? How can you create an entirely new bubble of normal?” (Submitted by J. Money.)

I Aspired to Be Poor. [Rahkim Sabree] — “3 years later I think about how much my life has changed because of that talk. How many times I’ve been asked what I meant when I said I wanted to be poor. The look and sound of admiration people get when they hear I’ve done a TED talk and how incredibly honest and transparent I was in that moment and continue to be today.” (Submitted by Tarsha.)

The Best Holiday Gift List I’ve Seen This Year. [Maximum Gratitude, Minimal Stuff] — “Each of these gifts equips children and families to change their own lives for a better future. They’re useful, provide decent jobs, and do more than enrich a retailer’s bottom line. If you’re still looking for gifts for your loved ones, you can’t go wrong with these.” (Submitted by J. Money.)

Good morning, Apexians, and welcome to another edition of Apex Money. Today is a special day. “Tell us why, J.D.” I will! It’s a special day because today is Taylor Swift’s birthday. My favorite musician/director/writer/performer turns 33 today.

To celebrate, here are 33 of my favorite Taylor Swift videos.

Haha. Just kidding.

To celebrate, here’s my favorite cover of a Taylor Swift song. Here are Shoshana Bean and Cynthia Erivo performing “I Did Something Bad”. It’s AWESOME.

I’ve probably shared that video before. I’ll probably share it again in the future. I know you won’t mind. 😉 (If you really do want to listen to 33 Taylor Swift songs — or thereabouts — check out my YouTube playlist of Taylor Swift covers.)

Okay, moving on to the real reason you’re here…I’ve gathered the following personal-finance articles to share with you today…

Does this count as market timing? [Oblivious Investor] — “The point of the ‘don’t try to time the market’ message is simply that new investors need to learn that it’s impossible to predict a) where the stock market is going next or b) where interest rates (and therefore bond prices) are going next. But it can be OK to make financial decisions based on current interest rates or market values, as long as you don’t have to successfully predict where the stock market or interest rates are going next in order for the decision to make sense.”

Disaster planning for regular folks. [lcamtuf] — “Effective preparedness can be simple, but it has to be rooted in an honest and systematic review of the risks one is likely to face. Plenty of newcomers begin by shopping for ballistic vests and night vision goggles; they would be better served by grabbing a fire extinguisher, some bottled water, and then putting the rest of their money in a rainy-day fund.”

How to keep your work from taking over your life. [Greater Good Magazine] — “Personally, I learned that not thoughtfully working on work-life integration is a form of passive acquiescence to work that can take much more than you’re able to give. I can miss some important events—like that weekend of my daughter’s graduation. Addressing this requires some mindful self-reflection and some bigger conversations about what I need from work and what work needs from me.”

Okay, that’s all for this Tuesday. The folks from the Plutus Foundation will have links for you tomorrow, then I’ll be back on Thursday to share more fun stuff with you. See you then!

p.s. Trivia! Not only is today Taylor Swift’s birthday, it’s also the birthday of my buddy Grant Sabatier from Millennial Money.

Heigh-ho, everybody, J.D. here with another week of Apex Money goodness in store.

Here in Oregon, I’m suffering from a monster cold that just will not go away! Kim and I both picked this up from our nephews when we were in California for Thanksgiving. It’s not COVID (multiple negative tests), likely not the flu (both have vaccines), but it’s something similar that waxes and wanes. Right now, it’s waxing for me and I hate it. My head feels like a big balloon! Anyhow, enough about my stuffy nose. Let’s dive into personal finance.

How to create your estate plan: A checklist. [Morningstar] — “It’s helpful to think of estate planning as a process, rather than something that’s one and done and begins and ends in an attorney’s office. Crafting an estate plan involves a series of steps, some of which you’ve probably already undertaken and are probably going to need to revisit as your life unfolds.”

“My favorite investment writing of 2022.” [Of Dollars and Data] — “Unlike previous years, 2022 was painful for investors of all types. Stocks fell, bonds fell, and crypto really fell in the worst market environment since 2008. And, though this year was difficult for all of us, the silver lining is all the great investment writing that came out of it. With that being said, I present my favorite investment writing of 2022.”

The art of imperfection. [Austin Kleon] — “A lot of what I love in art is ‘deliberate imperfection,’ which you see in everything from Japanese wabi-sabi to Navajo rugs to punk rock. Mistakes or ‘happy accidents’ that don’t get thrown out, like mishearings that lead to new ideas. Chance operations, introductions of asymmetry, invitations to weirdness and error, and what Sally Mann calls ‘praying to the angel of uncertainty’.”

The magnificent bribe. [Real Life] — “The bribe is a discomforting concept. It asks us to consider the ways the things we purchase wind up buying us off, it asks us to see how taking that first bribe makes it easier to take the next one, and, even as it pushes us to reflect on our own complicity, it reminds us of the ways technological systems eliminate their alternatives.” This is a heady piece, but a good one.

That’s all I have for you this Monday. I’m going to crawl back in bed again to continue sleeping this off. I’ll be back tomorrow with more. See you then!

What You’ll Wish You’d Known [Paul Graham] – “I’ll start by telling you something you don’t have to know in high school: what you want to do with your life. People are always asking you this, so you think you’re supposed to have an answer. But adults ask this mainly as a conversation starter. They want to know what sort of person you are, and this question is just to get you talking. They ask it the way you might poke a hermit crab in a tide pool, to see what it does.”

We do not know which events will make history [Klement on Investing] – “Similarly, I dare say that the events of 2022 will largely be forgotten in the future. We may think that this year has brought with it the re-emergence of high inflation, but I am not so sure about that. We may think that we may have seen a major war in Europe, but I am not so sure anyone will remember this event in a couple of decades from now.”

Maximize Your Savings: Top Savings Rates ‘Soar’ Past 4.00% [The College Investor] – “The FDIC reports that the average savings interest rate nationwide is 0.24% APY (annual percentage yield), which is up 4x from a year ago (when it was just 0.06%). However, the best savings account rates and money market account rates are all at 4.00% or higher.” Interest rates are high right now, which is bad for borrowers but great for savers!

Have a great weekend!

This first one today is a video of what happens when you dissolve a credit card (it’s from the UK, so it’s a bank card) in acetone to reveal only the metal inside.

What’s inside a bank card? [BBC] – “Hannah Fry dissolves a bank card to reveal the hidden technology inside.”

Yes, she dissolves a card in acetone and then uses it to buy coffee!

How I Successfully Appealed My Home Appraisal When It Was Wrong [The College Investor] – “Well, last week, after a period of waiting, we got the appraisal back on the house we were looking to buy, and it ended up coming in a full $70,000 below our offer price, and well below fair market value to similar properties inside the same development. SO IRRITATING!”

When — and How — to Say No to Extra Work [Harvard Business Review] – “With more and more teams being understaffed, chances are you’ve been asked to take on more work. Top performers are a prime target for additional requests. But you need to be careful about what you agree to take on. In this piece, the author outlines when it’s best to say no to taking on more work: 1) When your primary job responsibilities will suffer. 2) When it’s someone else’s work. 3) When there’s no clear exit strategy. 4) When the ask is unreasonable.”

All the Personal-Finance Books Are Wrong [The Atlantic] – “They tend to treat their readers like fools without willpower. So you could argue that they’re wrong for the right reasons.”