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Apex Money Posts

“The best thing I’ve ever bought.”

Hello, my friends. It’s Friday and it’s Jim’s birthday. Let’s all send him best wishes, shall we? 🙂

Happy birthday, Jim!

And now, let’s look at some of the top stories from the world of personal finance.

The problem with the homeless shelter system in the U.S. (and why it’s not being fixed) — according to a hobo. [/r/vagabond on Reddit] — “As a vagabond of 18 years, I have been to hundreds of homeless shelters across America. As a volunteer and founder of a non-profit group of homeless volunteers, I have volunteered at hundreds more.
Don’t get me started with how bad some of these places are. Allow me to sum up some of my experiences, and shed some insight as to what you can typically expect at your local shelter(s).”

Seven ways to get free groceries. [Surviving and Thriving] — “Most people already know that food banks provide free groceries. The tactics I’m suggesting below are a bit more outside-the-box. Will they meet your every pantry need? Probably not. But any free items you do score will affect the bottom line.”

“The best thing I’ve ever bought is an ebike.” [Financial Panther] — “When I think about life-changing things I’ve bought over the years, the list is pretty small. A laptop. My first smartphone. The robot vacuum that’s saved me literally hundreds of hours of cleaning time. But perhaps the best thing I’ve ever bought has to be an ebike.”

I’m a little skeptical of new-fangled tracking devices such as Apple’s Airtags. They seem like an expensive solution to a non-problem (for me). But here’s an intersting Twitter thread in which one fellow shares how he used Airtags to recover a stolen $800 scooter. After reading this, the things make a little more sense to me. (I’m not going to buy any, but now I understand why somebody would.)

Last week, I watched this short video essay about why the film Arrival is so good.

The essay prompted me to watch the movie again — even though I just saw it a few months ago. Whoa! I’ve always thought Arrival was fine but nothing remarkable. This time through, I was blown away. This is a great, great movie — but you can only appreciate that if you know what’s going to happen. You have to know the end of the film to understand the beginning.

And that’s kind of the point of the movie. That’s what it’s all about!

I feel like this is a very daring way to make a film, to create a story and structure that is incomplete unless you watch the thing twice. Most people aren’t going to do that. But for those who are willing to do so, it’s an amazingly rewarding experience.

And that’s it for me. Jim will be back next week to share more of the best from the world of money. See you then!

Don’t turn your passions into work.

Hey hey, everyone. It’s Thursday and I’m back to share more of the best from the world of personal finance. I like all of today’s pieces very very much.

More is more: The end of minimalism. [The Walrus] — “In a consumer culture, minimalism was always a somewhat fancyland ruse. It was domestic anorexia sold as health; materialism repackaged as its opposite; perfectionism hawked as peace. It was the perversion of labelling a home curated down to zero the ultimate luxury or, worse, virtue.”

Don’t turn your passions into work. [Bitches Get Riches] — “Your hobbies and your passions are a big part of your identity. Much bigger, in fact, than what you do in your job or career. They are beautiful. The magic they can work on you is powerful. Do not sacrifice them on the altar of something so low and common as a job. It’s the easiest way to grow indifferent to what used to inspire you.”

Health care in the U.S. compared to other high-income countries. [The Commonwealth Fund] — “The top-performing countries overall are Norway, the Netherlands, and Australia. The United States ranks last overall, despite spending far more of its gross domestic product on health care. The U.S. ranks last on access to care, administrative efficiency, equity, and health care outcomes, but second on measures of care process.”

Despite remaining non-political on most subjects, I will never shut up about this one. The U.S. health system is some stupid, stupid shit. Half measures aren’t going to fix it. Privatized health insurance is the primary culprit. It has to go. I don’t care how wasteful you think “socialized medicine” is. It’s less expensive than what we currently have…and it’s more effective too.

Health care spending vs. quality

And today’s final link is mostly for me. From my buddy John at ESI Money, here’s the huge list of awesome retirement activities. For a decade, I’ve been fighting against the notion of “retirement”. Today, I’m ready to embrace it. This article is exactly what the title says: a long list of stuff to do when you don’t have to work. I’m going to use it as a source of inspiration!

That’s it for Thursday. Come back tomorrow, won’t you? We can all celebrate Jim’s birthday together.

The three phases of making a major life change.

Welcome to Wednesday and welcome to Apex Money. Today, I’ve rounded up for interesting articles about personal finance. Enjoy!

It’s okay to outgrow the life you thought you wanted. [Rainesford Stauffer] — “Often, there’s a desire to cling onto how we thought life should go, sometimes until it outweighs the reality of how it is going — what makes us happy, versus what we feel should; what is truly stimulating or fulfilling, versus what we’ve been told should be chased and sacrificed for. A question I ponder is: How do we untether ourselves from the people we imagined we’d become?” This piece really hit home for me personally.

The three phases of making a major life change. [Harvard Business Review] — “Research on the transformative potential of a catalyzing event like the coronavirus pandemic suggests that we are more likely to make lasting change when we actively engage in a three-part cycle of transition — one that gets us to focus on separation, liminality, and reintegration. Let’s consider each of those parts of the cycle in detail.”

Young people don’t know what it’s like to be old. [Slightly Early Retirement] — “Most of the people who show the most ignorance about aging are in their forties or younger. This is reasonable because someone like me, in my sixties, fully understands what it is like to be 24, because I’ve been there. But a 24 year old is abysmally ignorant of life at 65 because they have zero first hand experience of what 65 feels like.”

PrepperFI: Achieving financial independence while preparing for the worst. [Tread Lightly, Retire Early] — “I’m hoping that our individual life choices will insulate us from some of the potential ill effects humans and the future could bring. Hopefully we’d be better equipped to suffer the mental strain that could come with wide reaching global environmental austerity measures.”

That’s it for today. I’ll be back tomorrow with more great stuff. Y’all come back, you hear?

The highest forms of wealth.

Good morning, money nerds, and welcome to Apex Money. Today, as every weekday, we’re going to look at some of our favorite personal-finance stories from around the web. Let’s dive in!

The highest forms of wealth. [Collaborative Fund] — “Money buys happiness in the same way drugs bring pleasure: Incredible if done right, dangerous if used to mask a weakness, and disastrous when no amount is enough. The highest forms of wealth are measured differently.”

Negotiating tips for people who hate negotiating. [Bravely Go] — “A lot of us head into any meeting where money will be discussed with guns blazing, ready for war. But the first mistake is thinking that negotiation is a battle. It’s not. You should think of negotiation as a tango; you and your client or boss are in this thing together.”

Homeownership can bring out the worst in you. [Vox] — “None of this is meant to be an indictment of people who want to become homeowners. But it’s a warning about how it could affect your thinking and politics. Because while there is some rationality to the fears that drive homeowners to oppose growth and progress in their communities, there is also a massive cost.”

The state of American friendships. [Survey Center on American Life] — “Americans appear more attuned than ever to the importance of friendship. However, despite renewed interest in the topic of friendship in popular culture and the news media, signs suggest that the role of friends in American social life is experiencing a pronounced decline…Americans report having fewer close friendships than they once did, talking to their friends less often, and relying less on their friends for personal support.”

Lastly, here’s today’s video. And for once, it’s actually sort of about personal finance! From the Half as Intersting channel on YouTube, here’s a five-minute look at how to decode credit card numbers.

This isn’t really useful info, I’ll admit, but it’s sort of fun to know. Well, fun for money geeks, anyhow. 😉

Why you should spend money on your friends.

Hello, Apexians, and welcome to another Monday! It feels like it’s going to be a great week, doesn’t it? Maybe that’s because Kim and I recently made an offer on a home and had it accepted — all without a crazy bidding war!

Our home inspection last Friday went well. Tomorrow, we’ll have an additional structural inspection to look at some cracks around doors and windows. It’s probably just standard settling stuff, but we want to be sure before we actually purchase the place, you know?

The place we’re buying reminds me some of the Brady Bunch house. It’s a 1964 two-level ranch with some mid-century modern vibes. Because of that, let’s lead off today with our bonus video. Here’s a 20-minute CGI recreation of the Brady house. So fun!

Next, let’s dive right into the personal-finance links.

The end of peak consumerism? [The Art of Manliness] — “When you shop online, you’re more likely to only buy things you really need; when you shop in a store, you’re more likely to pick up extra stuff. Statistically and specifically speaking, consumers spend an average of $50 more when they shop in a store versus online.”

What self-care really means. [Thought Catalog] — “Self-care is often a very unbeautiful thing. It is making a spreadsheet of your debt and enforcing a morning routine and cooking yourself healthy meals and no longer just running from your problems and calling the distraction a solution. It is often doing the ugliest thing that you have to do.”

Why you should spend money on your friends. [Incognito Money Scribe] — “What are friends for? A lot. While it is important to identify what expenses you can cut from your budget, it is equally important to identify what you like to joyfully spend money on. We should never get too hung up on spending time and money on friends. It sounds trite, but it seems necessary to write because fewer and fewer people have them.”

That last article really hits home for me. This past year specifically (and the past five years, in general), I’ve allowed too many friendships to lapse. This summer, I’m actively working to rekindle those relationships, and it feels like this is some of the best spending I can possible do.

Anyhow, that’s it for Monday. I’ll be back tomorrow with more of the best from the world of personal finance. See you then!

Would you renounce your citizenship?

In 2020, 6,707 Americans renounced their citizenship in favor of a foreign country. And many of them are ultra-wealthy and appear to be doing this to reduce their tax burden.

Wealthy people are renouncing American citizenship [Axios] – “The IRS publishes a quarterly list of the names of people who have renounced their citizenship or given up their green cards, but it only includes people with global assets over $2 million.”

The interesting thing is that we don’t know why they repatriated. I do know that my friends who have dealt with the tax system while working abroad… it’s a nightmare. They had contracts in which the company paid for an accounting firm to do it but even then sometimes they mess things up. I can’t imagine a regular person trying to do it themselves.

My Biggest Financial Regret (And How to Avoid Making the Same Mistake) [Bravely Go] – “It took me three and a half years total to pay off my debt and that is three and a half years of time in the stock market (during the longest bull market in US history I might add!!!!) that I will never, ever get back. Time is the one thing that we can’t make more of. […] Adding a missed three and a half years on top of that lifetime of low income, plus a lack of generational wealth and no inheritance, and time becomes a hell of a lot MORE important to me and people like me.

This next one is a kind of fun to read this meandering discussion about retirement from a guy who has had his hands in a bunch of different things from education to entrepreneurship. I enjoyed this article on his blog, which he wrote in 2006 but recently appeared on HN:

Early Retirement [Philip Greenspun] – “Retirement forces you to stop thinking that it is your job that holds you back. For most people the depressing truth is that they aren’t that organized, disciplined, or motivated.” This is just one small sliver of a massive and delicious apple pie – read the whole thing!

How cool is this domino robot?????

Have a great weekend!

A grab bag of stories

As I read articles on the internet, I throw the most interesting ones into a list that I hope to share with you.

From time to time, I’m able to weave a narrative around a collection of stories. Sometimes I can’t.

Today is one of those days where you get some interesting stories with no connection to one another other than I think they are interesting. Enjoy!

First – my good friend Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich has a new podcast! He talks with regular people about money and really dives deep. The first episode features a couple who started a baklava business together and it’s spicy!

Check out Ramit’s new podcast

Cities That Will Pay You To Move There [Accidental FIRE] – “The website MakeMyMove.com is a central hub to find places in the United States currently offering incentives to relocate. As of this post some of the cities that will pay you to relocate are as diverse as Honolulu Hawaii, Augusta Maine, and uh, Baltimore Maryland.”

The Billionaire Playbook: How Sports Owners Use Their Teams to Avoid Millions in Taxes [ProPublica] – “Owners like Steve Ballmer can take the kinds of deductions on team assets — everything from media deals to player contracts — that industrialists take on factory equipment. That helps them pay lower tax rates than players and even stadium workers.”

Wild Superyacht Secrets I Learned When I Became a Deckhand [Bloomberg] – “The to-do list I shared with the eight other crew members included tweezing fried chicken crumbs off the teak flooring, acting as a human clothes rack on seven-figure shopping sprees, and ferrying to the middle of nowhere to pick up caviar. If you thought life was always glam aboard a superyacht, here’s proof that it’s super-not.”

Hachiko: The True Story of a Loyal Dog That Waited at Train Station for Deceased Owner [Cesar’s Way] – “Ueno never came home from work, as he suffered a brain hemorrhage and died. Of course, Hachi had no idea about this, so the loyal dog continued to wait for his owner’s return. Every day like clockwork, when the train would appear, so would Hachi, searching for Ueno. Hachi’s fidelity earned him the nickname “the faithful dog.” Hachi never gave up hope and continued to wait for more than nine years for his owner to return” That’s loyalty.

How to offer 20% over a house’s list price and lose out

When we bought our current home several years ago, I was lucky to be on a company’s payroll (it was just after I sold my blog and was working for the company as part of the transaction). If I hadn’t been receiving a paycheck, it would’ve been much harder to buy a home despite my credit score or bank balances.

A little silly but that’s how it works, right?

Well fast forward to today, I wanted to check out refinancing our mortgage to lower rates and it turns out things are slightly better. I just need to have a tax return but since my accountant always waits until October (the extension deadline) because of how slowly K-1s come in, we haven’t finalized that yet.

All this to say that it pales in comparison to when J.D. offered $777,777 (fun number!) on a house listed at $649,000 and lost. Oh he also signed a $50,000 appraisal gap waiver and required no repairs. How wild is that???

We offered to buy a home for $128,000 over list — but it wasn’t enough! [Get Rich Slowly] – “That’s right: Two months after selling our home — and three months after beginning to search for the next place — Kim and I have waded back into this crazy housing market. We’re not sure how long this process will last (or what the outcome will be) but we’re prepared to be searching for many weeks, if not months.”

This reminds me so much of the frothy housing market back in the mid-2000s. Our townhouse back then was listed at something like $260,000 and sold for $295,000 – “only” 14% over list. My parents didn’t understand how a house was selling over list (different times Mom and Dad!).

May we live in exciting times.

The ballad of the Chowchilla bus kidnapping [Vox] – “In 1976, a school bus carrying 26 children and their driver disappeared from a small California town, capturing the world’s attention. Forty-five years later, we revisit the story. […] What happened to Chowchilla is the story of a generation-defining crime that briefly shook the world, and the ripple effects it had on the state’s heartland. It’s about the huge differences between urban and rural California, the rich and the poor, how a town overcame being dragged to hell and back, and what we have to learn from the fading ghost stories of the 20th century.”

Stay Skeptical of Personal Finance Gurus [The Sensible Merchant] – “No two situations are the same so no two outcomes will be the same when you start tweaking the dials. This is why it’s unhelpful to share your numbers and comes off as a platform for you to humble brag more than help.”

Life’s Two Halves

I sold my first personal finance blog when I was 30 and could, if I wanted to, effectively “retire.”

Except I didn’t. I decided to start other businesses, including the blog that I work on full-time now, WalletHacks.com, and it’s because I didn’t really know what to do. I felt I still had more in the tank, I wasn’t ready to stop earning because I felt like I didn’t need to, so I kept on at it.

So even though it’s been ten years, and I still don’t feel ready to stop the income engine, this first article about the two halves of one’s life was important for me to find. I still think it’s enough to find meaning in success but I can now see a world in which it won’t be.

Life’s Two Halves [Humble Dollar] – “I was around age 50 when I came across the writings of psychiatrist Carl Jung and his discussion of the two halves of life. For me, the timing couldn’t have been better. Jung saw that, in the second half of life, it’s no longer enough to find meaning in success. He knew, as we age, we find purpose in different ways than in life’s first half.”

Attention Is The Cash Value Of Time [A Teachable Moment] – “Despite what you think, time isn’t your most valuable asset. Attention supersedes all. You’re as free as your attention span permits.” A quick read that will make you think. The author suggests living paycheck to paycheck isn’t a bad idea.

Sega sued for ‘rigged’ arcade machine [Polygon] – “Key Master has been the target of multiple court cases in the past, dating back to at least 2013. This 2021 lawsuit, as well as the others, claims these machines are rigged only to allow players to win prizes at certain times — specifically, at intervals determined by player losses.” I thought everyone knew this about the Key Master game? It’s in all the tutorials of how to “beat” it.

Fraud on the Farm!

Do you remember Farmville? It was a Facebook app that let you run a farm and reached 80 million players.

I never played it myself but played some of their mobile phone clones and remembered that it was a entertaining and mindless way to spend some time. It’s really not that different from games like Animal Crossing on the Switch, which we played quite a bit last year during the pandemic.

So when I read this headline about a Ponzi scheme with a Farmville clone, I had to read it. I never spent money on Farmville or any of the other clones, so I didn’t understand how fraud could be involved. As it turns out, this clone involved real money (well, in the sense that you could pay into it!):

Fraud on the Farm: How a baby-faced CEO turned a Farmville clone into a massive Ponzi scheme [Rest of World] – “Farm Bank let players make money, while supporting real farms. Then the CEO vanished with $80 million.”

What it Means to be Rich [A Wealth of Common Sense] – “Having millions of dollars wouldn’t come close to providing the same feeling I got this past week watching my 7-year old scale a rock wall like a champ or confidently walk up to do a high ropes course with zero signs of trepidation or fear.”

How to Live Like You’re Already Retired [Incognito Money Scribe] – “Most of us are guilty of waiting to do something until an ideal future arrives, which is never guaranteed to arrive. […] There is a lot of research that shows what things unequivocally help retirees live a healthier, happier and more meaningful life (one of which is volunteering). Those same studies and surveys actually tell all of us how to live better lives right now. Because the benefits of those activities encompass all age groups. Essentially, if you want to lead a more fulfilling life, then do the things retirees are told to do to make the most of their remaining years.”