Apex Money Posts

Brandon Ganch, a.k.a. Mad Fientist, is one of the OGs in the FI community. Last year, he conducted an experiment in ultralearning that culminated in producing enough music that he released an album. First, reading about his experience was fascinating (it’s a podcast so you can listen or read the transcript) but you can now buy his album. And stream it on Spotify. (or both!)

I think it’s cool when someone can fulfill one of their dreams. Even cooler when it involves producing something creative and putting yourself out in the world like this. I can’t imagine how scary it is. Favorite track is probably Bit Crush followed by Tokyo Eye and Please Rewind.

So You Turned $300k Into $3 Million. Now What? [A Wealth of Common Sense] – “Keep an aggressive allocation in a portion of your portfolio. As someone in the financial services industry, it would be easy for me to tell this person to take all of their money, pick a balanced asset allocation that suits their risk profile and time horizon, and move on with their life.” I like the idea of a “go nuts” allocation. 🙂

Meet YInMn, the First New Blue Pigment in Two Centuries,/a> [Hyperallergic] – “And now, for the first time in two centuries, a new chemically-made pigment of the celebrated color is available for artists — YInMn Blue. It’s named after its components — Yttrium, Indium, and Manganese — and its luminous, vivid pigment never fades, even if mixed with oil and water.” Cool!

I love food. I also never thought about a lot of the questions posed in this next article…

Introducing ‘Food Grammar,’ the Unspoken Rules of Every Cuisine [Gastro Obscura] – “SERVE SPAGHETTI AND MEATBALLS TO an Italian, and they may question why pasta and meat are being served together. Order a samosa as an appetizer, and an Indian friend might point out, as writer Sejal Sukhadwala has, that this is similar to a British restaurant offering sandwiches as a first course. Offer an American a hamburger patty coated in thick demi-glace, and they’ll likely raise an eyebrow at this common Japanese staple dubbed hambagoo.” Cheese on fish? Barbecue sauce on ice cream? Hmmm…

In 2008, I quit my job. I could’ve quit a year or two earlier but I waited until after getting married for one main reason – health insurance. As a healthy twenty-something, health insurance wasn’t going to be prohibitively expensive but it was a perk I wasn’t willing to give up (yet).

There were other reasons – such as a sizable education reimbursement benefit – but they all fit into the category of employer benefits. They were little brass handcuffs that kept me around a little while longer. It helped that I enjoyed my job and the folks I worked with, so I wasn’t suffering by any means, but I could’ve left earlier.

The handcuffs aren’t always gold and the “thing” offering them isn’t always your employer:

Golden Handcuffs are Sometimes Silver [Becoming Minimalist] – “Here’s the thing about golden handcuffs, and why the negative connotation is the most common use, most people wearing them don’t realize they’re wearing them. That’s why it works.”

Steal These Ideas For a Better 2021 [FrugalCity] – “I read to steal. I’m always looking for an angle – something juicy that I can take from a book and apply to my life. It could be as small as a witticism or as life-changing as a framework for making decisions. Whatever it is, I’ll be there, pen in hand, to capture it.” This list contains some gems.

Facebook shuts popular stock trading group amid GameStop frenzy [Reuters] – “Facebook Inc took down a popular Wall Street discussion group, Robinhood Stock Traders, in a move that its founder on Thursday described as backlash for conversations buoying shares of GameStop Corp and other companies this week.” Hmmmm…

Finally, presented with no explanation but guaranteed to spark joy (or not, in which case I’ve misread you!) – The Cube Rule of Food Identification.

Not sure what happened with GameStop last week? (I’m writing this on Friday, which is already a wacky day…)

Here are a few articles that will get you up to speed. I suspect we’ll hear more of this in the coming weeks and months:

How GameStop found itself at the center of a groundbreaking battle between Wall Street and small investors [The Guardian] – “he coronavirus pandemic hit GameStop hard. Like many retailers, already suffering from the shift to online sales, the video games chain is losing money and plans to close 450 stores this year. And yet, surprisingly, GameStop has become one the hottest stocks of the year.”

The GameStop stock frenzy, explained [Vox] – “How a bunch of Redditors made GameStop’s stock soar, much to the chagrin of the hedge funds attempting to short it.”

‘You will lose your money very, very quickly’: What investors need to know about GameStop’s stock surge [CNBC Make It] – “The GameStop surge is making headlines because it’s being driven by retail investors — individuals who buy and sell stocks for their own gains, as opposed to professional investors working on Wall Street — on the subreddit r/WallStreetBets (WSB), a community 2.9 million-strong that refers to members as “degenerates” and idolizes Elon Musk.”

And if you’re not interested in the GME hype, here’s a fun article to enjoy:

Lunik: Inside the CIA’s audacious plot to steal a Soviet satellite [MIT Technology Review] – “How a team of spies in Mexico got their hands on Russia’s space secrets—and tried to change the course of the Cold War.” O RLY?

Hello, my friends. Today, I have only one article to share with you. That’s because it’s one of the best personal-finance articles I’ve ever read. From Reaktor, Olof Hoverfält shares why he’s tracked every single piece of clothing he’s worn for three years.

This is nerdery after my own heart.

Hoverfält created a detailed spreadsheet to log what he wore for over 1000 days. He kept track of the cost of the items (so that he could determine cost per use), of course, but also so much more.

This article is a little long, so be sure to scroll to the end where the author shares his conclusions. They’re the same conclusions I’ve reached recently: Buy only what you know you’ll wear. Buy items that cover a wide range of uses. When you buy, only buy the best. And so on.

This is great, great stuff.

While I have only one article for you today, I do have a fun video too. From Mystery Scoop, here’s a mesmerizing ten-minute video in which the subjects of historical portraits are brought to life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s_hIs8s_N4

It sounds a little lame, I know, and I almost quit watching after I heard the voiceover at the start of the video. But I’m glad I stuck with it, and you’ll be glad too. This really is pretty amazing.

That’s it for today! I’ll be back tomorrow to take you into the weekend.

Welcome to Wednesday, my friends. Today, I have four different stories for you and I like each of them a lot. Seriously. They’re each worth reading all the way through. And I’ve tried to arrange them in an order that leads you on a sort of logical thought progression. I’m not kidding! 🙂

Let’s start with those silly kids over at Reddit’s /r/WallStreetBets:

How WallStreetBets pushed GameStop shares to the moon. [Bloomberg Wealth] — I don’t even know how to set this up. So, hedge fund managers are betting that GameStop stock is crashing and that the company is in trouble. But the folks on Reddit’s /r/WallStreetBets are fighting back. They’re buying the stock en masse, which forces the price up, thus hurting the hedge fund managers. In fact, the pros lost $1.6 billion in a single day last week because of this. It’s crazy. This is one of my favorite stories in recent years. It’s just so bizarre. (And a little bit scary.)

Now, as a counterpoint, here’s another story about the wisdom (or folly, actually) of taking financial advice from Reddit:

Just take the money. [Of Dollars and Data] — “Since the date of this post (9/30/17), GE stock has declined by 51%! Had the father followed the top commenter’s advice, his $1.8M would now be worth less than $900k. If he had instead put that money into the S&P 500, it would have grown to $2.9M today (assuming no taxes/fees). This is why you don’t take financial advice from Reddit.”

Living your values. [The Three-Year Experiment] — “One thing I’ve had to learn, over and over again, is that I must make choices that make me happy. I have spent large amounts of time worried over the choices we’ve made in our lives, especially when others’ values are different from mine…I have to remember to say ‘no’ when I want to say no. I have to remember that the only decisions that really matter are the ones that I make for my family, because we are the ones affected.”

Perspective affects everything. [Slowly Sipping Coffee] — “In the end, be nice. Be caring and be open to other views than your own. Just because you also existed in the same time and space as someone else DOES NOT mean you experienced the same thing.”

Finally, here’s the video for David Gray’s “Disappearing World” from 2013. I’d never heard this song before, but my college roommate recently recommended I give it a try. I think it’s great. It kind of captures the mood for January 2021. And it kind of matches our stories today.

That’s all I have for today, folks. See you again tomorrow!

Hello again, money nerds. Welcome back. Let’s dive right in to today’s stories, shall we?

Introducing a hierarchy of financial wellness. [Journal of Financial Planning] — “As we get older, the biggest threat to our financial security is not a stock market correction or rampant inflation. It is us….Financial wellness might best be viewed, therefore, as a tiered pyramid, with each layer building on the one below.”

The people the suburbs were built for are gone. [Vice] — “Much of the suburban sprawl of the 20th century was built to serve a very different population than the one that exists now, and so preserving what the suburbs once were doesn’t make sense.” This is a fascinating interview about changing U.S. demographics.

There’s value in chilling the f*** out. [I Pick Up Pennies] — “Chilling the fuck out is highly valuable, and I recommend it heartily. Even if it means retiring a couple to few years later. Heck, even if it means a slightly slower debt repayment. Constantly hustling is exhausting and draining — and generally it’s just not really a good or healthy way to live if you can help it.”

Why you should practice failure. [Farnam Street] — “Failing is a byproduct of trying to succeed. We do our research, make our plans, get the necessary ingredients, and try to put it all together. Often, things don’t go as we wish. If we’re smart, we reflect on what happened and make note of where we could do better next time. But how many of us make deliberate mistakes? How often do we try to fail in order to learn from it?”

Lastly, here’s a charming video to end our time together today. From HBO, it’s a 30-minute collection of calming scenes from classic Studio Ghibli films. This isn’t the sort of thing you’d sit and watch. (Well, I wouldn’t anyhow.) It’s more like something you’d put on in the background to calm your kids. Or your cats. Or yourself.

I recognize stuff here from Spirited Away and Ponyo and Howl’s Moving Castle and My Neighbor Totoro and The Wind Rises. I’m guessing that there are scenes here from every single one of Hiyao Miyazaki’s films.

Okay, that’s enough for Tuesday. See you tomorrow, friends!

Good morning, friends! Welcome to another week of Apex Money. My girlfriend and I just returned from a relaxing week-long vacation. I feel like I’m out of the loop. But that’s okay. Part of the fun of returning is feeling disoriented for a while. At least I’ve found time to gather some good stories about money for you. Enjoy!

Optimize your money and health by becoming a robot. [Accidental Fire] — “How did I become a robot? I’m normally a person that gravitates towards routines. I like forming habits, good ones obviously. In 2020 I put that trait on steroids.”

How to start a non-profit organization. [The Retirement Manifesto] — “A few years ago, my wife asked how to start a nonprofit organization. Recently retired, she wanted to ‘give back’ to society. She wanted to start a charity. She’s not alone.”

Three ways to achieve more flexibility in your career. [The Fioneers] — “Sometimes, people who pursue financial independence see financial freedom as all or nothing…This is a false dichotomy. Financial freedom is a spectrum. New levels of financial freedom provide more lifestyle design options and more flexibility.”

Seven ways to afford more of what you want in 2021. [Smart Money Mamas] — “When we define what we really want, for ourselves and for our families, it allows us to take small steps every day to direct our time, energy, and money toward creating a life full of what is most important to us. As we look ahead to what we want in 2021, consider these ways to afford more of what matters to you.”

No video today because I haven’t yet started browsing videos since we got home. I’ll do that later today. If you’ve seen a fun video recently that you think other Apex readers would enjoy, send it along!

Today, I want to share one story, which is not money related but life-related, and three powerful ideas I took away from that story:

Meet Virginia Apgar, the unlikely anesthesiologist who saved newborn babies [Massive Science] – “The newborn’s skin was blue and he wasn’t breathing. A few years earlier, the doctors would have documented the baby as stillborn, not believing there was anything they could do to help. If this were the mid-1950s though, a recent development in the field of obstetrics would have given them hope – the Apgar score. The newborn’s 1-minute Apgar score indicated that the newborn was in poor condition, but they treated him with oxygen. Sure enough, his 5-minute Apgar score showed improvement. Maybe he had a chance after all. Virginia Apgar’s invention helps saves newborns.”

1. There are tens of millions of human beings who owe their lives to Virginia Apgar. Probably more like hundreds of millions. How wild is that?

2. She began medical training in 1929 and, as in many fields, women were “drastically underrepresented.” She would become a surgeon but pivoted to anesthesiology because her mentor thought she’d have a hard time attracting patients. As a result, she was present for a lot of births and it’s shocking that 1 in 30 died at birth – in part because obstetricians abandoned babies that looked “too sick to survive.”

Gender discrimination is bad. And after reading this story, you might be tempted to think that gender discrimination is good. It steered her to precisely where she needed to be to devise the Apgar score. In reality, you should think of it as – “gender discrimination created a world in which this level of coincidence was necessary.”

If there were no discrimination, it’s likely someone else, far earlier, could’ve come up with this score. The more brains we have working on a problem, the better, especially on problems that society doesn’t realize are problems!

3. She never retired.

I remember a conversation I had with my dad (when I was a kid) about working.

He asked me who I thought was “happier” – the CEO of a large company or the janitor at that company?

I, predictably, said the CEO. He was in charge, was more powerful, and made waaaaaay more money.

My dad said the janitor had a clear cut job, was in control of his work, and didn’t have to stress about it once he was done. He may not have made more money but he wasn’t getting calls over the weekend about handling a crisis. The point of the conversation wasn’t who was happier but that you need to think a little more about a question before answering. Surface level is often not the whole story.

For some, becoming a CEO might be a dream job only because you don’t know all that comes with it. It’s like social media – you see all of the good and none of the bad. With a CEO, there’s a tremendous amount of responsibility and stress because a lot of people depend on you. One misstep and you could cost many people their jobs. You may be well compensated but that all depends on how well you handle that stress. 🙂

The Dream Job That Wasn’t [The New Republic] – “The concept of the dream job still persists, likely because so many of us are working in what the late David Graeber called “bullshit jobs,” or are simply not employed at all. Finding your dream job is a seductive idea: the do-gooder, Protestant version of the FIRE movement—rather than trying to escape work, why not try loving it instead? It’s a relatable impulse, but I imagine most dream jobs are more like running a lighthouse bed-and-breakfast for 40 paying guests than a paid vacation.” (did you know that cookbook recipe tester was even a job???)

Advice for Giving Advice [The Irrelevant Investor] – “I’m doubling down on my own advice. Lessons cannot be taught in the stock market. They can only be learned through experience.”

Lock It In [The Belle Curve] – “When I read about investors making millions on Tesla in the Wall Street Journal, I get nervous. I am also insanely happy for their good fortune. There is no greater luck than winning the lottery. It is not supposed to be this easy to make money in the stock market. Preserve and grow capital yes, but outright make a fortune? No. Money made this easily can be lost in the blink of an eye.” When a football team has won the game, they kneel on the ball to run out the clock. They don’t try to get more points. The game has been won and risking the win to pad the score is foolishness no matter what the game.

The Magical Art of Selling Soap [Laphram’s Quarterly] – “But American advertising—and cosmetic advertising in particular—traces its origins to the decidedly less-than-rational hodgepodge of science, magic, and faith that formed the culture of medicine and “wellness” in the late nineteenth century. The first efforts at national advertising were launched by patent-medicine manufacturers, whose elixirs, pills, drops, and ointments promised customers miraculous physical and mental transformations. For all of its purported down-to-earth rationality, the advertising industry had deep roots in magical thinking. This was a past it would never completely leave behind: that was, in fact, integral to its cultural success.”

One of the benefits of the pandemic is that we’ve spent a lot of time with our kids. It’s certainly been challenging and there have been many difficult times, but on the whole we’re thankful to have this “bonus” time with them. (yes, this is a bit of reflective silver lining thinking going on here!)

As we age, the data shows that we spend an increasingly greater amount of time by ourselves. We spend less of it with our family, which reminds me of this great Wait But Why post titled The Tail End, more of it with a partner, but increasingly more of it with just ourselves:

Who do we spend time with across our lifetime? [Our World in Data] – “Who we spend time with evolves across our lifetimes. In adolescence we spend the most time with our parents, siblings, and friends; as we enter adulthood we spend more time with our co-workers, partners, and children; and in our later years we spend an increasing amount of time alone. But this doesn’t necessarily mean we are lonely; rather, it helps reveal the complex nature of social connections and their impact on our well-being.”

A Brief History of Consumer Culture [The MIT Press Reader] – “Over the course of the 20th century, capitalism preserved its momentum by molding the ordinary person into a consumer with an unquenchable thirst for more stuff.” Eye opening.

A long time ago, I used to be a software engineer. One of the things you learn in computer science is that computers can’t be 100% random when they generate numbers. You can simulate something that closely approximates randomness to a human being but it’s never truly random and that’s bad for security.

What computers use is a “seed” to generate these numbers and the key is using a seed that is random. In less rigorous environments, programmers may use a digit in the time or something similar. But even that is not “safe” enough — so this company is using something different – lava lamps:

So cool!