Apex Money Posts

Our first piece is aimed at medical professionals but applies to everyone. It’s a good framework for thinking about your dream life and how to go about achieving it.

All too often, we go along a path without giving that path much though. We progress through the stages and end up at a destination we never wanted. We thought we did, when we started, but because we didn’t evaluate it along the way… we just kind of end up somewhere less desirable. Sometimes we need a reminder to consult the map and see if our journey is still going where we want to go.

What’s Keeping You From Your Dream Life? [Passive Income MD] – “I became an attending and thought I was set. Then I realized that I wasn’t in control of my time and life and I wanted more. I wanted to live the dream life I thought I was always striving for. So how do you achieve your dream life? It’s simple (but not necessarily easy). Similar to how you used goals and discipline to get you through med school, you can make a plan to achieve your ideal life. ”

I love a good heist. Or code cracking. And not like the other one I shared this week where it was an inside job that someone entered in rogue code, that’s just plain theft.

The Gambler Who Cracked the Horse-Racing Code [Bloomberg Businessweek] – “On the evening of Nov. 6, 2001, all of Hong Kong was talking about the biggest jackpot the city had ever seen: at least HK$100 million (then about $13 million) for the winner of a single bet called the Triple Trio. The wager is a little like a trifecta of trifectas; it requires players to predict the top three horses, in any order, in three different heats. More than 10 million combinations are possible. When no one picks correctly, the prize money rolls over to the next set of races. That balmy November night, the pot had gone unclaimed six times over. About a million people placed a bet—equivalent to 1 in 7 city residents.”

There’s a $20 bill with a Del Monte banana sticker on it! It sold for $396,000 in 2021!

Wow!

Our first post for today is from JD’s site, Get Rich Slowly, but it is NOT written by JD!

It’s written by Michael Laurence and it shares an important message.

Life is not a game [Michael Laurence on Get Rich Slowly] – “Comparing yourself to others has no good outcome. Either you look around and consider yourself inferior to your peers (which makes you insecure and unhappy), or you deem yourself superior (which makes you arrogant and egotistical). Neither is conducive to happiness or to being a good person.”

Why Early Retirement Isn’t Just About Escaping a Sh*tty Job [Route to Retire] – “However, the part that frustrates me is that your job doesn’t necessarily define what you need out of life. In many cases, more time is what you’re after. And, in order to gain that extra time, early retirement very well might be the right answer for many folks.”

This next piece isn’t about money, per se, but about disruption. It’s a fascinating piece and I hope you enjoy it!

https://aeon.co/essays/a-history-of-disruption-from-fringe-ideas-to-social-change [Aeon] – “On 3 April 1917, a crowd gathered to meet a train arriving from Helsinki at Petrograd’s Finland Station. The train carried Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. He greeted his audience with a speech calling for the overthrow of Russia’s government – and, six months later, he made this happen. The world changed.”

Is it Wednesday already? The Plutus team could not wait to share these awesome articles with you. Also, if you have a minute, please learn more about the Plutus Foundation. Enjoy!

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

Can’t Take It with You. [Young Money] — “I’ll take you anywhere in the world for two weeks, name the spot.” The year was 2008, I was a few months shy of my eleventh birthday, and my grandma, Mama Ruth, had just offered me one hell of a proposition.”  (Submitted by J. Money.)

Sustainable Funds: How to Invest Without Killing the Planet. [Bravely Go] — “If you’re someone who care about clean water, fair pay, animal welfare, or worker’s rights, you’re probably interested in making your financial plan sustainable as well. You can use an ethical bank, shop local, and yes, invest in sustainable funds! But like…what’s the deal with them? How do they work? Are the secretly BS?” (Submitted by Tarsha.)

Top 5 Tips for School Shopping on a Budget. [The Frugal Expat] –. “It’s that time of year again. As August rolls around, parents, children, and teachers start thinking about school again. With school comes supplies and new clothes for the fall…Here are the five top tips for getting through this school shopping season without breaking the bank.”(Submitted by Tarsha.)

 

I absolutely love this first one – it’s an academic paper and the abstract is very academic (WORDY) but the gist is this:

We spend too much time on decisions where the differences are really small.

Should I bulk buy tomato sauce at Costco or by the jar at my local store. The difference between the two decisions is mere cents.

But we don’t shop around for car insurance or mortgage loans or “big” things. And that’s a huge mistake because we’re spending our time on things that, ultimately, will matter very little at the cost of spending time on things that do.

Irrational time allocation in decision-making [The Royal Society of Publishing] – “Empirical evidence suggests that in many ecologically relevant situations, decision difficulty and the relative reward from making a correct choice, compared to an incorrect one, are inversely linked, implying that it is optimal to use relatively less time for difficult choice problems. This applies, in particular, to value-based choices, in which the relative reward from choosing the higher valued item shrinks as the values of the other options get closer to the best option and are thus more difficult to discriminate.” The gist is that we spend too much time on a choice where the two options are pretty close in value.

My Twelve Rules for Life [Russ Roberts] – ““Whoever has the most toys, wins” is not one of my twelve rules for life. There are many things that are more important than accumulating material well-being, especially when you’re young and a little tougher. Take the job that uses your skills and that enhances those skills over the job that pays more. And take the job that makes you feel good about what you’re accomplishing for others over the one that doesn’t.”

How an Iowa Man Cracked the Lottery [Artful Living] – “His boss, an Iowa deputy attorney general named Thomas Miller, was retiring in July 2014 after nearly three decades of prosecuting everything from murder to fraud. He had hired Sand four years earlier and made him the youngest prosecutor in a nine-attorney team that handled challenging cases all over the state. Now, Miller was offloading cases to colleagues. This one, having to do with a suspicious lottery ticket worth $16.5 million, was full of dead ends. Investigators didn’t even know if a crime had been committed. The most tantalizing pieces of evidence were on a DVD: two grainy surveillance clips from a gas station. Sand slid the disc into his laptop and pressed play.” This story is so circuitous but so much fun to read. Also, amazing how much work went into tying everything together once they started tugging on the thread. 🙂

Jim here – our first post today really resonated with me because I definitely bought into the narrative of American culture, hustle, and work.

Now that I’m older, I realize that that level of “optimization” of our careers is unnecessary. In fact, it may even be bad. As our kids get older, I’ve given a lot of thought to the idea that maybe our kids would benefit from a gap year between high school and college (and to seriously consider if college even makes sense!).

When I hear about student loan forgiveness, the eye watering aspect of it that always shocks me is just how much debt some kids are carrying. I was lucky to escape college with ~$35,000 of debt and the great fortune to start a personal finance blog that earned good money on top of my salary.

Maybe rushing into the next thing is a bad thing. Maybe taking a breath isn’t so bad.

The Roads Not Taken [Jillian Johnsrud] – “Our lives are full of roads not taken. Paths diverged, and we made a choice. One choice pulled us farther away from the other choice. Maybe you have regrets. But most likely, you don’t. The choices we made brought us to where we are now. The mistake is thinking that once the paths diverged, they will never loop around again. There were lots of good reasons you didn’t choose that other path at the time. But what if you had another chance? Would you still be interested? Is there still a spark of curiosity or excitement?” Good food for thought and I love that rule of thumb she uses.

You Bet! [Memo by Howard Marks to Oaktree Clients] – “… you make the best decision you can based on what you know, but the success of your decision will be heavily influenced by a) relevant information you may lack and (b) luck or randomness.” This 15-page memo is long but reads quickly and gives you a good way to think about investing (and a games).

Inside the Organized Crime Ring That Stole Nearly $1 Million Worth of Bikes From Denver Retailers [5298] – “Like most 3 a.m. phone calls, the one that woke Lisa Kaveggia on September 8, 2019, delivered unwelcome news: Mojo Wheels, the Denver bike shop she’d owned for 31 years, had just been burglarized. Kaveggia roused herself and, still in her pajamas, rushed to the store. When she arrived, she found a gaping hole where Mojo’s front entrance used to be. The door lay inside the showroom—knocked off its hinges and out of its frame—and a section of wall was visibly pushed in.”

Hey, everyone. J.D. here with four more stories about personal finance, including one that answers a question that’s been bugging me for a year now: Why are restaurant prices so high right now? The article I’ve linked is possibly behind a paywall for you, so I’ll spill the beans: The answer is complicated. All restaurant costs have been skyrocketing (and for a variety of reasons), which means prices have been soaring too. As a guy who eats out a lot, this has caused some pain in my budget. Time to cook more from home, I guess. (And that’s essentially what our first article is about.)

Eating healthy on a budget. [Less Debt, More Wine] — “You probably already know that eating well costs money. But did you know that it also takes time and effort? And even though it may seem like a luxury, eating healthily can be more affordable than you think. If you want to eat healthier without spending too much money, try these tips.”

Why restaurant prices have soared. [The New York Times, so possible paywall] — “At restaurants around the country, staff shortages, supply-chain logjams, the Ukraine war and other forces have driven up the price of nearly everything…We designed a check that reflects the complicated reality of running a single restaurant in 2022, and the sometimes-hidden costs and causes that have led it to charge more.”

Is geo-arbitrage a financial fairy tale? [Mr. Tako Escapes] — “The Tako family recently moved from the Seattle area to a small town not far from Tucson, Arizona. This was a move of about 1500 miles (2414 kilometers). Generally speaking, Arizona is considered a ‘lower cost’ state, but the numerous issues we’ve run into during our move have actually made it very costly.”

“Our 90-day cruise experience.” [FI Heroes] — “We spent the last three months living on a cruise ship. That’s right, we finally made our Value Cruising dreams come true! We booked eight back-to-back cruise itineraries on one ship that started its journey in Florida and ended in London. Since leaving the U.S. back in April we have visited 43 different cities across 15 different countries.”

That last story amazes me. I wish it had more actual numbers. I want to know how much it costs to live on a cruise ship for three months! I’ve subscribed to FI Heroes now, though, so that I can catch follow-up articles as they appear. That was a fun read.

Okay, that’s all for this week. Jim will be back on Monday with more great stuff. See you then.

Good morning, you sexy money nerds. Welcome to another installment of Apex Money. Here are the articles I’ve rounded up for you today…

Daily happiness > future happiness. [Budgets Are Sexy] — “THIS is the stuff that makes living life so joyful… The big goals are important and you get a bigger boost for hitting them, but they’re sooooo far and few between and if you’re not paying attention enough you’ll speed through life and miss out on everything else. And believe me – you do not want to Rip Van Winkle it and wish you could go back in time!”

The neuroscience behind bad descisons. [Quanta Magazine] — “For many of us, the main concern over decision-making is practical — how can we make better decisions? Glimcher said that his research has helped him develop specific strategies. ‘Rather than pick what I hope is the best, instead I now always start by eliminating the worst element from a choice set,’ he said, reducing the number of options to something manageable, like three.” I love the idea of allowing yourself to pick the worst option of the three best choices.

Reciprocity: Getting what you give. [Farnam Street] — “Reciprocity teaches us why win-win relationships are the way to go, why waiters leave candies with the bill, why it’s a good idea to use the least force possible to secure an outcome, and why a lot of companies don’t permit their employees to accept gifts. This model demonstrates why we should view giving as being as valuable as having.”

Learning to choose quality over quantity. [One Frugal Girl] — “Striving for a quantity-based life can lead us to feel ungrateful. When we choose quantity over quality, we can’t stop counting. This quest for more can make our lives feel empty…Our consumer-driven culture motivates us to upgrade possessions and increase the number of things we own. But the quantity of our belongings doesn’t improve the quality of our lives. Instead, it impairs it.”

I’ll be back tomorrow to take you into the weekend. Join me, won’t you?

Hey Family, it’s your girl, Tarsha from the Plutus Foundation. If you are in the Portland area, please check out our event for Plutus Voices.

Plutus Voices will be in Portland on Today, August 17, 2022, at 6:30 pm. Our Plutus Voices events offer a chance to learn and network surrounding important topics in the personal finance space. Tickets are free but extremely limited. RSVP now and see more details at plutusvoices.com.

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

The Biggest Mistake People Make When They Find Out About Fire. [Alan Donegan] — “Why do humans have this self-destructive tendency to make everything binary? I either spend everything I have, go into debt but I am happy, or I spend nothing and miserably work towards FI? Sacrificing happiness for financial independence is stupid. You are sacrificing years of your life to get to a magic number that won’t make you happy either.” (Submitted by J. Money.)

How to Take a Life-Changing Mini-Retirement. [Money Flamingo] — “Have you considered taking a mini-retirement? Whether you feel burnt out and need some time away from your full-time career, want to travel, start a business, or refocus and plan out your future – a mini-retirement or sabbatical might be an ideal break for you.” (Submitted by Harlan.)

Learn How to Beat Inflation and Make Sure Your Retirement is Safe. [Eat Sleep Breathe FI] — “How do you even begin to prepare for a recession in a way that actually makes a difference, rather than just shooting in the dark? We gathered insight from some of our favorite, most trusted financial creators.” (Submitted by Tarsha.)

Today is Tuesday, and this is Apex Money. As always, Jim and I (and our friends at the Plutus Foundation) collect our favorite stories about personal finance (and more!) to share with you every weekday morning. Here’s what we have for you today.

Changed by the trip. [Humble Dollar] — “The longer we live, the more perspective we have — and the more foolish many of our earlier beliefs seem. We start our adult journey confident that we’ll make our mark on the world and that the financial rewards we collect will greatly enhance our life. By the time we reach retirement, things look quite different.” [Related: Getting old from Gotham Gal]

Scarcity is an ally of appreciation. [A Wealth of Common Sense] — “Scarcity can add meaning and clarity. When I was young I went out all the time. I drank too much. I never watched what I ate. And when you’re young you can get away with that. But too much of a good thing can dampen your enjoyment of it…Scarcity is an ally of appreciation.”

Lies our consumerist society tells (and why you should reject them). [No Sidebar] — “People go into huge amounts of debt, get stuck in careers they hate, and buy tons of stuff they don’t even have the time to enjoy. And it’s not even because they want to impress others. It’s because of the tiny voice in their head telling them that their worth is tied to what they own.”

“Buy now, pay later” sounds too good to be true because it is. [Vox] — “The thing about buy now, pay later is that the later part always comes. Sometimes, the pay ends up being more than you think you’re signing up for, and often for stuff you shouldn’t have bought in the first place.”

Those first two stories are especially interesting to me. You should check them out.

Hello, friends, and welcome to another week. Here in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, the late summer days have been beautiful lately. It doesn’t feel like autumn yet…but it feels close to autumn and it’s awesome.

Speaking of awesome, take a look at these articles I’ve gathered for you today.

The untold story of Napoleon Hill, the greatest self-help scammer of all time. [Gizmodo] — I’m going to lead off the wekk by linking to a story that Jim just featured to last Thursday. Why? Because if you haven’t read it yet, you should. It’s a l-o-n-g and interesting account of the life of Napoleon Hill, one of the folks who helped launch the modern self-help industry — and a scam artist to the core. People like Hill and the shit they sell have made it difficult for legit folks to actually provide helpful info to others…

How to choose your college degree. [Gian Segato] — “Until recently, college management and students’ career planning was my core professional focus: I had the privilege to notice first-hand how students approach decision-making, what works, what doesn’t, and how wrong sometimes it can get. I have a few ideas to share that might make the decision easier.” Sidenote: I love the design of this site. Love it.

The best career decision you can possibly make. [Ryan Holiday] — “BE YOU. Be the only one of you in the whole world. Be the red. That’s where the fun is (without having to fake it). That’s where the money is (you can name your price). That’s where the value is (you can’t be replaced).”

20 ways to simplify your life to create more ease and space. [Balance Through Simplicity] — “Simplifying your life is about focusing on what’s important to you. It’s about finding easier ways to do the things that you have to do and giving yourself more wriggle room for the things you want to do. Simplicity isn’t a magic wand for an easy life, but in my experience, it definitely makes things easier.”

Okay, that’s all I have for this Monday. I’ll be back tomorrow with more great stories about personal finance. See you then.