Apex Money Posts

Happy Thursday, money nerds!

While pulling this week’s articles together, I noticed I had a large batch related to the same subject: happiness. Sometimes when this happens, I spread the pieces over all five days. Not this week. This week, I’m giving you a day devoted to happiness. Enjoy!

The comparative impact of cash transfers as a psychotherapy program on psychological and economics well-being. [National Bureau of Economic Research] — “One year after the interventions, cash transfer recipients had higher consumption, asset holdings, and revenue, as well as higher levels of psychological wellbeing than control households. In contrast, the psychotherapy program had no measurable effects on either psychological or economic outcomes, both for individuals with poor mental health at baseline and others.” Sometimes, money can buy happiness.

Happiness won’t save you. [The New York Times] — “On May 13, 1982, at the age of 38, Philip Brickman made his way onto the roof of Tower Plaza, the tallest building in Ann Arbor, and jumped. It was a 26-story fall. The man who’d done one of psychology’s foundational studies about happiness couldn’t make his own pain go away.”

What if you pursued contentment rather than happiness? [Greater Good Science Center] — “This was the moment when lightning struck for me, and I immediately felt chills down my entire body. No matter where I went on planet earth, all of the cultures I interacted with revered contentment as one of the highest states to cultivate in life. Yet in the West, we were obsessing about happiness—and feeling more anxious, depressed, and stressed. I decided to dig in and see what kind of ancient secrets could be revealed through a scientific investigation of the most underappreciated emotion in history: contentment.”

Using “enough” to find contentment. [Retirement Field Guide] — “I am content. Not because of anything external, but because of my awareness of what enough means to me.”

And to wrap things up, here’s a semi-related eight-minute video from the YouTube channel “Throughline”. It quotes Brené Brown and philosopher Michel Foucault as it explores the genre-defying work of hip-hop artist NF (of whom I’d never heard before today). NF doesn’t give into the tropes. He’s not about profanity or wealth or power games. He’s about the power of vulnerability.

This is a great video. It’s terrific. I’m serious. It’s all about honesty and authenticity. And I think those concepts mesh well with happiness and contentment.

Hello hello hello. It’s good to see you, my friend. As you probably guessed, I have some good stuff to share with you today about the wonderful world of personal finance. Let’s get right to it.

Three recession-proof investments for 2021. [Raptitude] — “Given the hobbled state of the economy, here are three lucrative areas to invest in, requiring no monetary capital. Unlike stocks or mutual funds, they tend to perform better during times of hardship and recession, providing direct gains to well-being in both the short- and long-term.”

Why so much financial advice is wrong. [A Lawyer and Her Money] — “Even good-hearted people trying to impart knowledge can only speak from their own experience. The decisions they made were ‘good decisions’ because they worked out. That, however, doesn’t mean you can or should make the same decisions now that they made in the past.

Popular myths of homeownership. [indeedably] — “Owner-occupiers only win the game when they downsize. Selling up their appreciating property, then buying a smaller or less desirably located property. The remaining sale proceeds could then be used to finance lifestyle choices or accomplishing bucket list items. The other cohort of winners from rising property prices are inheritance beneficiaries.”

You may have seen today’s video already. After all, it’s currently the #2 trending clip on YouTube with over 12,000,000 views. I don’t care. I’m sharing it anyhow. Here’s pop star Billie Eilish giving the same interview to Vanity Fair for the fourth consecutive year — with clips of what she said in past years.

I love watching people evolve and grow. If Eilish continues to participate in this for, say, twenty years, it’ll be a lovely glimpse into her development as a human being.

That’s it for Wednesday, weird-os! I’ll be back tomorrow with more of the same. Join me, won’t you?

Hello, my friends! I hope that you’re all doing well as we roll into December. Here are a handful of money stories I’ve found interesting lately. Perhaps you will like them too.

The eight stages of early retirement. [Millennial Revolution] — “When it comes to predicting your post-retirement life, you won’t know what it’s really like until you’re in it….After speaking to a few of my retired friends, I’ve found that despite the different paths we took post-retirement, there was a common pattern. So, for those of you pursuing FI and want a glimpse into your future, here’s an unofficial breakdown of the eight stages of early retirement.”

Why you should care about “sequence of returns” risk. [Budgets Are Sexy] — “Sequence of returns risk? Sounds like something only old, rich, retired people have to worry about…Wrong…Sequence of returns risk is the number-one risk that can cause early retirees to run out of money. So pay attention my young FIRE friends. This stuff is important.”

Your mental health can affect how you save money. [NerdWallet] — “Your mental health, especially during a stressful period such as the current pandemic, can play a role in money decisions…Mental health issues vary, but some can lead to serious financial consequences. Here are three scenarios to watch out for and how to keep your mental health on track these days.”

The broken promise of leisure time. [Behavioral Scientist] — “We have more time for leisure than we did fifty years ago. But leisure has never been less relaxing.”

That’s all, folks! I’ll be back tomorrow with more good stuff. See you then.

Good morning, my friends! Hard to believe, but today is the last day of November. We are about to enter the final month of the decade known as 2020. To celebrate, here are a handful of great money stories we’ve enjoyed recently.

Mony can’t buy happiness…but it can buy the ingredients to happiness. [Educator FI] — “Money can’t buy happiness. Maybe not, but lack of money makes happiness harder in our society. Most importantly, money can buy choice and that matters. A lot. Let’s take a deeper look at this.”

Save like a pessimist. Invest like an optimist. [Collaborative Fund] — “Optimism and pessimism can coexist. If you look hard enough you’ll see them next to each other in virtually every successful company and successful career. They seem like opposites, but they work together to keep everything in balance.”

A year-end financial review and planning checklist. [Women Who Money] — “As the weather turns colder and the daylight becomes shorter, you may be busy planning for the holiday season. But something else worth focusing your attention on during this season is your finances. Like your physical health, your financial health needs a check-up at least annually.” [Kim and I conduct our annual family financial summit on Thanksgiving Day!]

And our first video of the week isn’t one video — it’s an entire channel. Dad, How Do I? is a YouTube channel with nearly three million subscribes. In it, Rob Kenney answers questions and gives tips to folks who might not have a parent around to otherwise help. (People like me.)

Here, for instance, is his video on how to unclog a toilet.

He also has videos on topics like how to start a campfire, how to swap a car battery, how to get a real Christmas tree, and more! This is cool stuff, if you ask me…

Okay, that’s it for Monday. We’ll be back tomorrow with more great money stories. See you then.

It’s Thanksgiving in the United States today and I wanted to thank you for being a subscriber of Apex Money.

For J.D. and me, this has always been a fun project that has allowed us to share the fascinating things we find on the internet. It’s really nothing more than that.

We have no grand ambitions to turn this into a business or to “monetize” it with advertisements, we just want to share the things we find in the hopes that you enjoy them too. The only metric we ever look at is how many people sign up for the email newsletter. It shows us that people like it and, hopefully, share it with their friends.

If you like us, tell a friend, forward this email – it would really make our day. 🙂

As a bribe, I want to share with you a video that I think is absolutely hilarious because I’m really, deep down inside, just a 9-year-old boy – testing the wobbliness of hot dogs.

(this video is not indicative of the stuff we send out … OK, maybe a little bit)

Thanksgiving may look different this year but we hope you’re able to spend it with some folks you care about.

We’ll be back on Monday.

When I was younger, I played the piano. My parents wanted me to do it, so I did it (begrudgingly), and I was just playing music over and over again. I became “good” at playing the piano through sheer repetition.

I never learned about music. I never learned first principles about why some music “sounds” good and others don’t. I knew nothing about theory, I was just an imperfect robot.

One day, during a house party, I was watching my (music theater) friend playing the piano and he was explaining simple music concepts to someone else. I was riveted. It was like someone explaining gravity and it all making perfect sense. That’s the power of understanding first principles and, probably, one of my first aha moments.

How Julia Child Used First Principles Thinking [Farnam Street] – “There’s a big difference between knowing how to follow a recipe and knowing how to cook. If you can master the first principles within a domain, you can see much further than those who are just following recipes. That’s what Julia Child, “The French Chef”, did throughout her career.”

If It Hurts, It’s Probably True [Steli Efti, founder of Close] – “The truth is always simple. If it’s complicated, it’s probably not the truth. When things seem too complex, it’s probably a mind trick you’re playing on yourself because you don’t want to face the truth.”

2020 has been a dumpster fire – and now you can email a dumpster fire. 🙂

Email a Dumpster Fire.Literally. – “Send an email to dumpsterfire@hey.com with whatever you want to torch. Use plain text or an image attachment. PG-13 rules apply.” They print out your email and drop it in a dumpster fire. Wheeeeee!

Happy Thanksgiving Apexian! (unless you are outside the United States, then happy Thursday!)

I enjoy Joe Rogan’s podcast because he talks to a lot of interesting people. I don’t listen to every episode and I’d venture to say I miss/skip the majority. I enjoy it because you can listen to candid conversations with people with vastly different life experiences.

One such episode was with Andy Stumpf about getting through Hell Week in Navy Seal training. In the clip, you can hear Stumpf talk about the key to getting through the week is to “make the world small.” Instead of thinking about the week and being overwhelmed, think about the next meal.

You can hijack your brain to make it through a tough long task by making it smaller.

As the old maxim goes – “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”

The Circle of Concern & Influence – How to Reduce Worry, Stress, & Anxiety [Coach Carson] – “I originally learned this idea from one of my favorite books, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. Think of all of the events or situations in your life that concern you. Now imagine collecting all of these concerns into one big circle called the Circle of Concern. Everything inside the circle is of concern to you, and everything outside of the circle of no concern to you.”

Do you remember Y2K? Computers would implode because they couldn’t handle the date being 2000? That was COBOL.

The Code That Controls Your Money [Wealthsimple] – “COBOL is a coding language older than Weird Al Yankovic. The people who know how to use it are often just as old. It underpins the entire financial system. And it can’t be removed. How a computer language controls the financial life of the world.”

Life Lessons from a 97-Year-Old Lobsterman [Outside] – “John’s current lobster boat, the Sarah Ashley, is a 39-foot workhorse roughed up by salt and wind. Rusty tools, wires, screws, and a bunch of other unidentifiable items crowd her dashboard. There’s no chair for the captain—or anybody else. “She’s a little rugged,” John admits.

He’s rugged, too. One front tooth is chipped and his eyes, blue like the sea, are no longer sharp. But John’s core is shipshape, despite the bending, pulling, and lifting that sidelines many lobstermen before they hit 60. According to the U.S. Labor Bureau, John’s career is the most dangerous in the country, and half of the deaths of fishermen in 2017 were workers over 65.”

I restarted playing chess a few years ago and have been excited by the resurgence of the game as a result of streaming, the pandemic, and most recently, The Queens Gambit series on Netflix. I never really got into the Tiger King but this caught my interest and we binged it pretty quickly.

While the protagonist is fiction, at least one of the games shown is real thanks to the magnificent Garry Kasparov:

World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov on What The Queen’s Gambit Gets Right [Slate] – “Most of the games, it was not difficult, but the biggest challenge was the last game, because the last game is just, it’s a full game. And the problem is that the last game had to be played by the Queen’s Gambit. Of course I could pick up games from other openings, but it would be very much against the spirit of the book. How did I find a good game that will be played for 40 or so moves adjourned in a complicated situation? And then you have this very important element of Benny and his team calling from New York. It means the position had to be complicated. I found a few games and picked up one: Patrick Wolff against Vassily Ivanchuk, Biel Interzonal, 1993.”

What myth is still widely circulated as truth? [r/AskReddit] – A lot of fascinating myths in here including having to wait 24 hours to report a missing person, that lemmings commit mass suicide (fun game though!), and that you can reduce fat in a specific body part.

Man Becomes Overnight Millionaire After Meteorite Crashes Through His Roof [NDTV] – “An Indonesian man became a millionaire overnight after a meteor crashed through his roof. Josua Hutagalung, 33, is a coffin maker from Sumatra who became astronomically richer after he recently sold the meteorite for over 1 million pounds – or roughly ₹ 9.8 crore.” Money doesn’t grow on trees but it might fall from the sky!

This one is hard to read but highlights a social dilemma:

The Last Children of Down Syndrome [The Atlantic] – “Fält-Hansen says the calls she receives are about information, helping parents make a truly informed decision. But they are also moments of seeking, of asking fundamental questions about parenthood. Do you ever wonder, I asked her, about the families who end up choosing an abortion? Do you feel like you failed to prove that your life—and your child’s life—is worth choosing? She told me she doesn’t think about it this way anymore. But in the beginning, she said, she did worry: ‘What if they don’t like my son?'”

I know it’s not my typical “last link” but it’s powerful and I felt needed more attention.

See you tomorrow!

Good morning, my friends, and welcome to Friday. I’ve gathered some interesting longer stories for you to enjoy today — and over the weekend.

My secret life as a mysterious millionaire’s personal assistant. [Narratively] — “It started with a simple Craigslist ad. Before long I was being sent on sketchy tasks, pocketing wads of cash, and trying not to think about where his money came from.”

A brief history of Dover books. [Contingent Magazine] — “Many of the titles Dover published — both new and old — were risky for the same reason they were potentially-profitable: they were often on niche topics, but that meant they were highly-desirable to people interested in those niche topics.” [I loved Dover books. I still have a few of their clip-art books next to my on my bookshelf, although I couldn’t tell you why.]

Big lessons from history. [Collaborative Fund] — “There are two kinds of history to learn from. One is the specific events. What did this person do right? What did that country do wrong? What ideas worked? What strategies failed?…The second kind of history to learn from are the broad behaviors that show up again and again, in multiple fields and different eras.” This is a great article.

To take us into the weekend, here’s something fun. I was eight years old when Star Wars came out in theaters. That movie changed my life in ways that are hard to imagine today. I was obsessed with it and its universe. I remain obsessed with it. (But only that original film and the supporting material released through, say, 1985. Everything after is pretty lame.)

Anyhow, here’s an eighteen minute video that explains how instead of changing the film industry, Star Wars was almost a colossal failure. Star Wars was only saved in the edit. (In particular, by George Lucas’ then-wife, Marcia.)

If you’re a nerd like me, you’ll probably enjoy this.

And that’s all we have for this week. Jim will be back on Monday with more of the best from the world of personal finance. Take care, everyone!

Welcome to Wednesday, money mavens!

Before we start, a hearty congratulations to the winners of this year’s Plutus Awards! Although it probably sounds niche-y to many, the Plutus Awards are given to personal-finance blogs, podcasts, etc. One of my faves — Bitches Get Riches — won a well-deserved Blog of the Year trophy. But what I like most is the chance to add 10-20 new (to me) sites to the reading list that I use to curate material for this site. The Plutus nominees are a great source of new material!

Do you live in a 15-minute neighborhood? [Accidental Fire] — In this post, Dave at Accidental Fire looks at a new tool designed to measure a neighborhood’s walkability. It seems very similar to the long-extant Walk Score, but with a much simpler interface. Me? Four years ago, I lived in a very walkable neighborhood and loved it. Today, I live somewhere that is not walkable and I find it depressing.

Five things your millionaire neighbor won’t tell you. [The College Investor] — “The fact is, a lot of people aspire to have wealth, be a millionaire, or be rich – however you define it. But for many, myths about millionaires, their money, and their mindset is holding you back. Here are some common myths about millionaires you need to stop worrying about on your path to wealth.”

The man who wants to help you get out of debt — at any cost. [The Guardian] — “As Ramsey sees it, America’s debt crisis is an epidemic akin to drug addiction, and its roots lie in individual behavior. The only way to escape its crushing weight is to stop enabling yourself and go cold turkey: live on rice and beans, get a second job, sell your money-sucking car.”

Today’s video is a fun glimpse at the past. It’s a three-minute cip that looks at what it was like to be a Wall Street trader in 1980, forty years ago.

And if you like this, the same guy has a lot of great videos in which he interviews average folks about a variety of subjects. He’s been doing this stuff for a long time. These clips are like windows into the real past, not the over-produced film and television that most of us are used to seeing.

Okay, that wraps up Wednesday. I’ll be back tomorrow with more!