Apex Money Posts

Well, hello Apexians! It’s J.D. here back from a couple of weeks in Hawaii. Happy new year to you. I hope your holidays were grand.

As often happens when I take an extended break, I’m having trouble adjusting to the Real World. My daily life is pretty chill by most standards, but vacation life is moreso. It’s strange to come home and have to process email, etc. But I’m doing it! And while I’m doing it, I’m collecting links to share with you all. Links like these…

“My sister is marrying into wealth. I’m jealous.” [/r/povertyfinance/ on Reddit] — “My sister is marrying into a ridiculously wealthy family, which is great, I’m truly happy for her. What I’m feeling isn’t really jealousy, more like astonishment at just how big the gap is. I had no idea the kind of frivolity involved in being rich.” [Nearly 600 comments about lives of the rich and famous.]

The definitive introduction to Building a Second Brain. [Forte Labs] — I discovered Tiago Forte’s “building a second brain” methodology a couple of years ago. I like it. I’ve s-l-o-w-l-y been implementing his system for myself. Like David Allen’s “getting things done”, the system itself is the friction point. Unlike GTD, with BASB even implementing pieces of the system are useful. Two of my now-daily tools come from this system (Instapaper and Readwise), and I’m working on making a third tool part of my life (Obsidian).

Frugal vs. independent. [Morgan Housel] — “The world tells you – even by a mere whisper – that everyone should want the same things: A big house, a nice car, advanced degrees, credentials, social clubs, etc. I like most of those things. But you have to realize how much of their appeal is an attraction to status, which can be completely different from happiness.” Excellent stuff from Housel, as always.

Lastly, here’s a video that has nothing to do with money and everything to do with deliciousness.

While in Hawaii, Kim and I re-discovered our love for musubi, that Hawaiian treat (or is it actually Japanese) consisting of seaweed wrapped around meat and rice. When we lived in Portland, we went out of our way to visit a local Asian market that had amazing chicken katsu musubi. In Hawaii, of course, spam musubi is more popular.

We resolved that we’d learn how to make this snack for ourselves. And this video from Plays Well with Butter explains how to make authentic spam musubi:

I have’t tried this yet — my musubi mold will arrive tomorrow — but I’m looking forward to doing so. Looks easy and delicious!

Hello hello Apexian!

This marks the final Apex Money post of the year, as we will be taking the next week off. J.D. will return to kick off 2024 with posts that he forgot to share in 2023! 😂

In true end of year fashion, we will start with a post that looks back on 2023:

Six charts that defined the markets in 2023 [Axios] – “Egg prices peaked at $4.82 a dozen in January and then started, er, cracking, but falling prices for these staple ovoids didn’t curb the Great American Egg Price Freakout of 2023.” Once you get past the first chart, which is about GDP, you get into charts that reflect public consensus and understanding – like egg prices, housing prices, etc.

Happily Ever After [Humble Dollar] – “In late 2021, I split my portfolio in two. One part I’ll use to fund my retirement, while the other part I’ll leave to my two kids. This “bequest” portion consists of my three Roth accounts, which are roughly a quarter of my overall portfolio. Because I don’t foresee ever touching this money, I’ve invested the entire sum in stocks.” Clever.

Wealth is the Control of Time [Investment Talk] – “When you think about it, money is a funny thing. Over the centuries, a diverse list such as seashells, massive stones, gold nuggets, salt, beaver pelts, and pieces of paper were all accepted as money. For many people today, money is just pixels on a screen. While certain forms of money performed better than others, its function remained the same across millennia—to enable time and energy expended in the present to be exchanged elsewhere and at a later date.” Money = time!

Finally, as this is the last post of the year, I want to say thank you for subscribing, reading, and enjoying this little project of J.D. and mine. We do it for fun, we hope you enjoy it, and we wish you a prosperous and healthy new year!

J.D. will be back on January 1st (or thereabouts) with our first edition of 2024!

I like long lists of facts and this, entirely financial related, one delivers!

There are so many good ones it was hard to use one in the excerpt and they all have sources.

75 Facts from 2023 [The Idea Farm] – “Money.com estimates in 2020, 44% of workers with FSAs forfeited money, and the average amount was $408 per person. Workers forfeited approximately $3 billion in 2019 and $4.2 billion in 2020.” Use your FSA money!!!

Exploring the purpose of life [The Beautiful Truth] – “What is the purpose of life? Whatever you may think is the answer, you might, from time to time at least, find your own definition unsatisfactory. After all, how can one say why any living creature is on Earth in just one simple phrase? For me, looking back on 18 years of research into how the human brain handles language, there seems to be only one, solid, resilient thread that prevails over all others. Humanity’s purpose rests in the spectacular drive of our minds to extract meaning from the world around us.”

This is a fun video of the smallest to the largest thing in the Universe video. The size of a person is the mid-point and they compare small and large things of equal multiples, it’s really quite well done and worth the twelve and a half minutes:

OK, I’m a sucker for A Christmas Carol. For me, it’s the quintessential Christmas story, second only to Die Hard. (I’ve never watched A Christmas Story)

And so when my friend Joe from Stacking Benjamins sent us their podcast episode, I knew I had to listen to it.

Just check out the cover art:

It’s called Doug and the Three Ghosts and really funny (and financially educational!). And quirky. 😂😂😂

Kyle Deschanel, the Rothschild Who Wasn’t [Vanity Fair] – “When Kyle de Rothschild Deschanel arrived in New York nightlife and venture fundraising circles a few years ago, he was an instant hit. Equal parts charm, enterprise, and fabulous family wealth, he seemed to live on a 24/7 carousel of mega-dollar deals and raucous parties. It was almost as if he had conjured his entire existence out of thin air. What if he had?”

Eleven theories for how to achieve true happiness [Clearer Thinking] – “The question of how to achieve true happiness has been debated for thousands of years. In this article, we’ve summarized eleven approaches to happiness, new and old, that are popular today.”

Oniomania (n.) – an abnormal impulse for buying things

Beware this as we enter this last week before the festivities crescendo!

Shop Till You Drop [Humble Dollar] – “HERE’S A RECIPE FOR disaster: a good internet connection, plenty of storage space, lots of time on your hands—and credit cards.”

Help with Christmas: Free gifts and resources for low-income families [Wealthy Single Mommy] – “Need help buying Christmas gifts this year? You may be eligible to participate in one of these organizations below that help financially struggling families get free Christmas toys for their kids. For holiday gifts for low-income families, keep reading about Christmas assistance programs.”

Five Ways Mindfulness Helps You Age Better [Greater Good Magazine] – “As I get older, I notice that my peers and I are starting to lose some of the abilities we once took for granted. Aging brings unwelcome changes in our physical fitness, joint health, cognition, and more. And, of course, our pending mortality looms larger for us than it did in our youth. What can we do to have more health and happiness in that later part of life? One possibility is to become more mindful.”

Happy Friday, friends. Here are the money stories we’ve gathered for you today.

How to get out of everything — from extra work to Christmas parties. [The Guardian] — “The golden rule on all invitations is ‘stop and think’: If this were happening in half an hour’s time, how would you feel? A lot of parties won’t clear this hurdle, and now you have to figure out what to say. It’s very simple…”

The annoying (and hard to solve) problem of stolen packages. [Vox] — “As more Americans turn to online shopping as their primary way of buying goods, however, stolen packages are proving an annoyance and frustration for customers, and a looming dilemma for retailers and shipping companies that, with few exceptions, are still figuring out how to address them.” [My solution? I’m just home all of the time, so I bring in packages when I hear them delivered haha. (Sad but true.)]

Shop ’til you drop. [Humble Dollar] — “If you have a credit card, research suggests you’ll spend significantly more than if you were paying with cash or a check. The availability of 24/7 online shopping makes it just that much worse. Here are eight signs — besides the pile of packages outside our front door each day — that tells me impulsive spending has reached our house.”

Here’s a confession related to that last story.

When I was young, I was a compulsive shopper. I had issues. But reading and writing about personal finance for the past seventeen years fixed those issues. Mostly.

Lately, though, I’ve noticed that my compulsive shopping has returned but it’s all online. Watercolor video on YouTube recommends some new brushes? I’ll order them all from Amazon. New game come out for the iPad? I’ll buy it, even though I don’t know when I’ll get time to play it. And so on.

Now, I’m in a different place than I was twenty years ago. I can afford these purchases. And honestly, watercolor brushes are only $8 or $12 each, so it’s not like I’m wasting a vast fortune. Still, I’m spending on impulse instead of with intention.

So, for this reason (and several others), it’s very likely that I’ll be allowing my Amazon Prime membership to lapse when it comes time to renew in May.

Okay, that’s all I have for you this year. Seriously, I’m about to enjoy two weeks of vacation in Hawaii (depleting all of the airmiles and credit-card points I’ve accumulated in the past decade haha), so I will not see you lovely people again until 2024.

Have fun and enjoy your holidays!

Howdy, all, and welcome to another edition of Apex Money. No fol-de-rol this morning. We’re just going to jump right into the links.

Which financial decisions merit careful attention — and which don’t. [The Finance Buff] — “Not all financial decisions require equal attention from us. Spend more energy on decisions that are one-time, all-or-nothing, and difficult to switch. Ongoing decisions don’t need to be optimized upfront. Start with something, split, experiment, and adapt as you go.” Great advice!

What to know about assisted living. [The New York Times gift article] — “While it’s easy to get wowed by fancy dining options, sparkly chandeliers and other building amenities, none of those are markers of quality care. If you’re considering multiple facilities, ask about the ratio of residents to aides — on nights and weekends as well as days — and whether there are licensed nurses in the building, and when they are there.” [Dull but important. Worth bookmarking for future reference.]

Why living in a big city is making you poor. [Darius Foroux] — “It’s time to recognize the scam that big cities represent and take control of your life. Whether you choose to move out or accept the challenges of urban living, the most important thing is to acknowledge the reality of the situation and make conscious decisions about your future.”

No end-of-post chit-chat today either haha. But come back tomorrow. I promise I’ll be a little more chatty then. 😉

Happy Taylor Swift Day, my friends! Today my personal hero turns 34. I’ll be celebrating by listening to her discography on random play all morning and afternoon. But you know what? That’s no different than any other day…

Our first piece today comes from my favorite money blog and it’s about an interesting subject I’ve been thinking about recently. It’s a complicated subject, in my opinion, and there aren’t any easy answers. But Lauren does a fine job of wading through the subject:

Second-hand stuff is more expensive than ever. [Bitches Get Riches] — “In addition to the increased authentic demand for secondhand goods, there’s intense new artificial demand in the form of resellers. If you browse the same secondhand sources frequently, you’ll see this happen all the time. A freecycle dresser gets snapped up quickly, only to reappear a few weeks later with a fresh coat of paint, nicely staged photos, the phrase ‘midcentury modern’ in the description…and a $400 price tag.”

Loss aversion: Understanding and overcoming your fear of letting go. [Becoming Minimalist] — “Loss Aversion, simply put, is our tendency to prefer avoiding losses rather than acquiring equivalent gains. It’s a concept that often appears in conversations around behavioral economics analyzing why people make the financial decisions they make. In economics, it is seen over and over again that for people, the pain of losing is psychologically about twice as powerful as the pleasure of gaining.” [This is me. I can’t get rid of anything in my life because of loss aversion. It’s a real problem. I call it “scarcity mindset”, though, not “loss aversion”.]

It’s okay to ditch financial practices that no longer serve you. [Blueprint for Financial Prosperity] — “If you’re looking at certain practices and wondering if you can give them up, tell yourself you’re giving it up temporarily. See if it has an impact. If it does, go back. If it doesn’t, let it go. Try to build and mold your financial systems to work with your tendencies and is a net positive, instead of trying to force change on yourself to fit your financial systems.”

I was going to add another fun video for you all today, but then I realized my entire recent watch history is watercolor videos. I mean, there are some great watercolor videos out there, if you’re into that sort of thing. But some how I think the target audience for these if very small haha. So, no video today.

But I’ll be back tomorrow to share more great stuff! See you then.

Top of the morning to you and welcome to Tuesday. This is Apex Money, and I’m your host J.D. Roth. As Jim and I do every day, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite recent stories about money — and more. Today’s features lean to the “and more” side of the equation. 😉 Enjoy!

Just your handyman. [Plough] — “I’m a handyman. People hire me to fix things. My jobs start when someone tells me about something they’d like me to build, or some problem they want me to solve: we need to put a window in the north wall; we want a tile tub surround; this sink is leaky; our old fence is rotten and needs replacing; we’d like to paint our kitchen cabinets. Each call or email is a window into a more complicated situation.” [Something about this reminds me of Wendell Berry.]

In 1970 Ireland, pubs briefly replaced banks — and it worked. [VinePair] — “In 1970, Ireland’s citizens got a taste of life without bank tellers when most of the nation’s banks closed for roughly a year. One might think that meant the day-to-day transactions that keep any capitalist society in motion came to a sudden halt, but guess what? They didn’t.” Fascinating!

Why randomness doesn’t feel random. [Behavioral Scientist] — “We ascribe meaning too readily to the clustering that randomness produces, and, consequently, we deduce that there is some generative force behind the pattern. We are hardwired to do this.”

I think I mentioned this a few weeks ago, but I’ve only recently “discovered” the amazing Olivia Rodrigo. Her music makes me feel like I’m a kid again. It gives me that same feeling as listening to my favorite bands when I was 12 or 13.

Anyhow, what’s fun about Rodrigo is that she’s grown up during the digital age. She’s 21 (I think) right now, so YouTube has existed for most of her life. And wouldn’t you know it, but there’s ample documentation of how she’s evolved as a singer since she was four years old. Crazy.

This poorly-produced compilation video gives a sort of overview of Rodrigo’s growth. (I’ve skipped ahead past a lot of fol-de-rol to get to the singing.)

Girl’s had confidence from the start. Wow. Her vocals might have been weak at times, but she’s kept at this for 17 years. And now she’s one of the biggest stars in the world.

Good morning, friends! J.D. here with another week of Apex Money. I’m late with this Monday post because I lost all day yesterday to a high fever. All I could do was stay in bed and be miserable. I didn’t have the energy to read about personal finance. But today? Today, I feel much better.

So, here are some of the cool stories I’ve found to share with you all…

The three-legged stool of retirement [The Retirement Manifesto] — “Just like money, both health and time can be optimized by thoughtful investment. If you’re not exercising, start now. If you’re wasting your time doing things that don’t matter, rethink your priorities. Ultimately, health and time are the scarcest resources in our lives. It’s a shame more of us don’t act accordingly.”

“I ditched my iPhone for a flip phone.” [Coveteur] — “My flip phone experiment felt like a success. I had more meaningful connections with friends and strangers and more space for independent, creative insights. To be honest, even with some of the friction that comes with using a flip phone, I didn’t really miss my smartphone.”

Why Americans’ “YOLO” spending spree baffles economists. [BBC] — “Despite past trends, US consumers are spending at record levels. Economists are mystified – and struggling to forecast an end point. Throughout a period of sky-high interest rates, depleted savings and grinding inflation, Americans have spent with abandon.”

“My four anti-personal-finance-expert beliefs.” [A Wealth of Common Sense] — “My relationship with personal finance has evolved as I’ve aged and changed my habits. Many of the personal finance rules written in stone will always apply…However, there are other personal finance commandments I don’t completely agree with anymore.”

That’s it for this Monday. I’ll be back tomorrow with more. See you then!