Apex Money Posts

Happy Monday, money nerds. Today’s top money stories are all about how our friends and family influence us — both on social media and in real life.

How your friends change your habits — for better or worse. [BBC] — “We often think that self-control comes from within, yet many of our actions depend just as much on our friends and family as ourselves. Those we surround ourselves with have the power to make us fatter, drink more alcohol, care less about the environment and be more risky with sun protection, among many things. This is not simply peer pressure…Beneath your awareness, your brain is constantly picking up on cues from the people around you to inform your behaviour. And the consequences can be serious.”

The age of envy: How to be happy when everyone else’s life looks perfect. [The Guardian] — “Perhaps, though, each of us also needs to think more carefully when we do use social media actively, about what we are trying to say and why – and how the curation of our online personas can contribute to this age of envy in which we live.”

“I make seven figures a year traveling the world and let me tell you: Influencers are bullshit.” [Matt Kepnes on Thought Catalog] — “Calling yourself an influencer is all about you. That means all you’re doing is talking about yourself and trying to show your best life on social media — while then often complaining about how many hours you work and how hard it is. You know why it’s hard? Because, since you don’t really create anything of value to others, you have to hustle for every dollar…‘Inspiration porn’ only goes so far.”

Lastly, check out the Personal Finance Club account on Instagram. Nearly every day, Jeremy Schneider posts fun and informative images and infographics to help people get better with money. This is an example of how we — all of us — can use social media as a tool for good.

Found something you think your fellow nerds might like? Send it in! Help spread the top money stories on the web here at Apex Money.

It’s another freaky Friday, money nerds, and we’re glad to have you with us. Got some great stuff for you today. Let’s dive right in.

The man with the golden airline ticket. [Narratively] — “My dad was one of the only people with a good-for-life, go-anywhere American Airlines pass. Then they took it away. This is the true story of having — and losing — a superpower.” This story is long but it’s a great read.

“I make significantly more money than my new girlfriend. It’s causing problems.” [/r/relationship_advice on Reddit] — “I’m an anesthesiologist in Washington, D.C. and make over 300k a year…My gal works at a nonprofit and makes 55k a year. She’s a bit of a penny pincher, happy to spend money on trips and dining out, but budgets religiously and tracks every penny she spends. We’ve been dating for about four months now, and it’s going really well. I love spending time with her. The issue is, I think she’s uncomfortable with how much money I make…Any thoughts on how to navigate this?”

Who actually feels satisfied about money? [The Atlantic] — “These days, not even the rich feel rich. According to a recent survey by the financial-advisory firm Ameriprise Financial, only 13 percent of American millionaires classify themselves as wealthy. Even some of those surveyed who had more than $5 million…said they didn’t feel rich. If multimillionaires don’t feel wealthy, who does?

Lastly, here’s a perfect piece to finish a Friday: a classic stand-up comedy routine from George Carlin in which he talks about how our lives are dominated by Stuff:

Got something you think your fellow nerds might like? Send it in! Help spread the top money stories on the web here at Apex Money.

Hello, money nerds, and happy Thursday.

Financial independence and early retirement (FIRE) dominate the discussion at money blogs today. (Maybe a little too much, in fact.) Jim and I don’t want Apex to turn into a FIRE festival, so we’re careful not to go overboard with the F.I. links. That said, today’s top stories are all about FIRE.

An interactive guide to early retirement and financial independence. [Minifi] — There are l-o-t-s of “intro to FIRE articles” out there. I’ve written them. You may have written them. What sets this piece apart, however, are its interactive tools. These are useful for newbies and FI veterans.

My two biggest fears since retiring. [Route to Retire] — What got you here may not get you there. That’s something to think about if you’re an aggressive saver: Will you be able to “turn that off” in retirement? “It’s not a fear of running out of money, but rather trying to get used to the idea that it’s OK to spend it now.”

The spending “smile” of early retirement. [The Military Guide] — “This post will help you figure out your retirement [spending]…I’ll walk you through our 20 years of financial independence, how our spending had changed through the years, and how our retirement has remained on track the entire time – without financial interruptions.”

The aggregation of marginal conveniences. [Accidental Fire] — “I choose to consciously monitor the amount of comfort and convenience in my life as a way of slowing down my slide on the slope. The life of a king where everything is done for me and I don’t have to lift a finger frankly sounds miserable. I want to earn parts of my life. It leads to growth, gratitude, learning, and accomplishment.”

Got something you think your fellow nerds might like? Send it in! Help spread the top money stories on the web here at Apex Money.

Hola, money nerds, and welcome to Wednesday. I hope you’re having a good week so far. Today we have three articles and one video for you — and 75% of our stories are travel-related.

How to squeeze the most value out of credit-card points. [Movement Capital] — “Have you ever wondered if you’re getting the most value out of your credit card points? This post explains how to make your points stretch further, avoid annual fees, and ranks the most valuable sign-up bonuses. Travel blogs make money from affiliate links that pay them if you get approved for a card. This creates an incentive to push cards with high affiliate payouts and results in less coverage of other cards. This post doesn’t have any affiliate links.”

The best way to tour a country is through its grocery stores. [New York magazine] — “Grocery stores have the gritty, hustling authenticity of a bodega or street cart with the propriety and promise of Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s. And they offer a tourist-free paradise for people-watching, especially the kind of locals tourists never meet.”

True story: I’m a big believer in visiting grocery stores when I travel. Like the author of the article above, I find that they’re a great way to get to know a city’s (and country’s) culture. I also try to visit department stores when I travel, to buy one piece of clothing in each country. Final tip? Get your hair cut when you travel. It’s a trip!

Life Two: What we used to call “retirement”. [The Financial Times] — “Life One is our grown-up working life. Life Two is what follows. It’s the best part of life, so much so that Life One is just the long prologue that finally gives way to the main event, when enjoyment, happiness, and fulfilment peak.”

Let’s finish today with this video from Ask Sebby in which he reveals his hotel-room upgrade strategy. I’m not very sophisticated with my travel hacking, so videos like this are valuable to me.

Got something you think your fellow nerds might like? Send it in! Help spread the top money stories on the web here at Apex Money.

Today is Tuesday, money nerds, and that means it’s time for more of the best money stories from around the web.

“I don’t know what it’s like to be poor.” [The Power of Thrift] — “An old friend called me up the other day and asked me to loan him some money. He was one of my favorite people once, but I haven’t spoken to him in years and I haven’t seen his face in more than a decade, so his request startled me…It felt like a test, but I’m not sure I passed.”

The real midlife crisis confronting many Americans. [The Conversation] — “The midlife crisis experienced by most people is subtler, more nuanced and rarely discussed among family and friends. It can be best described as the ‘big squeeze’ – a period during which middle-aged adults are increasingly confronted with the impossible choice of deciding how to split their time and money between themselves, their parents and their kids.”

Today’s last article is long but it’s interesting. It’s so good that I bought a copy of the magazine so I can read it again without a paywall.

The last frontier: Homesteaders on the margin of America. [Harper’s, so possible paywall] — “The amazing thing was that a person, even a person of very limited means, could actually buy a piece of these vast acres of land — some of it farmland with pumped irrigation but most of it just undisturbed, primeval — ­for not too much money. Not that this would be a smart investment in terms of return…”

Finally, here’s a 12-minute video I found via Four Pillar Freedom. It documents a day in the life of an average Japanese salaryman in Tokyo. If, like me, you are fascinated by the lives of others, then you’ll enjoy this piece.

Got something you think your fellow nerds might like? Send it in! Help spread the top money stories on the web here at Apex Money.

Hello from San Diego, money nerds! As much as I wish I’d been down here for Comic Con last weekend, I’m actually here to hang out with some of my blogging buddies for a few days. I guess that’s just as nerdy.

Today’s stories follow a sort of narrative arc. Fun, right?

How to talk about money in your relationship. [Stefanie O’Connell] — “You don’t have to come right out and ask a bunch of deeply personal financial questions, but you should be on the lookout for cues and comments that might offer insights into your potential partners’ relationship with money, and think about how those views and behavior may or may not fit with your own. These clues can pop up in conversations ranging from upcoming vacation plans to how to split the check.”

Why are men still paying for first dates? [The Atlantic] — “Who’s expected to pay for a date may seem trivial — some would even argue that covering the tab is a form of respecting women — but there’s reason to believe that this minor, ‘benevolent’ form of sexism can lead to a fraught question of what the man is then owed.” [Related: Am I the asshole for letting my date pay for dinner? on Reddit.]

I was happy to marry a poor man. Then things changed. [Bitches Get Riches] — “When we met, [my husband] was an actor. He made about $20,000 every year; he had no health insurance; and nothing by way of retirement or savings…I love making money. And I’m good at it. In our partnership up to that point, making money was My Thing. By the time we got married, I was making 2.5 times the money he was, in a career with much more growth potential. I’d paid off my student loans early and weaseled him onto my insurance.” [Related: Am I the asshole for making my “yes” to my boyfriend’s marriage proposal contingent on him getting a better ring? on Reddit.]

Want to be happy and successful? Don’t be an asshole. [Fast Company] — “There is an arc to being an asshole. The aspirants (people trying to make a living) are generally kind…The near successful (where I’ve spent most of my adult life) tend to over-index on the asshole meter…The super-successful people I know are usually nicer, more generous, and generally better mannered.”

I think that last bit of advice could serve as a fully-functional life philosophy: Don’t be an asshole. In fact, it’s essentially the 4000-year-old Golden Rule stated in reverse.

Got something you think your fellow nerds might like? Send it in! Help spread the top money stories on the web here at Apex Money.

Happy Friday, money nerds! It’s the weekend!

Before you get out there and enjoy some much-deserved time off, we have three amazing articles for you. These are all long (sorry) but they’re all fantastic reads. Seriously. They’ll make you think.

The problem with early retirement. [Michael Kitces] — “In the end, arguably the biggest challenge in the FIRE movement – and ultra-long-term retirement planning in general – is that we haven’t done enough to develop ‘rules’, and a framework for rules-based spending adjustments, to know not just what is a safe point to retire, but what is a safe spending path as the subsequent future unfolds.” This is an excellent article — one of the best we’ve featured on Apex Money so far.

How a taxable brokerage account can be as good as (or better than) a Roth IRA. [Physician on Fire] — “Some people don’t seem to know what to do with additional money once available retirement accounts are maxed out. I’m showing how a taxable account can be just as good, and in some cases better, than the much-heralded Roth IRA.” (Also from PoF: The epochs of early retirement.)

Hey, now. Nothing’s as good as a Roth. (We Roths are awesome!)

This last piece is especially long but it’s also especially interesting. If you really are a money nerd, you’ll love it.

Paradigm shifts. [Ray Dalio on LinkedIn] — “The consensus view is typically more heavily influenced by what has happened relatively recently (i.e., over the past few years) than it is by what is most likely. It tends to assume that the paradigms that have existed will persist and it fails to anticipate the paradigm shifts, which is why we have such big market and economic shifts. These shifts, more often than not, lead to markets and economies behaving more opposite than similar to how they behaved in the prior paradigm.”

Speaking of Ray Dalio, here’s a 30-minute video that summarizes his principles for success. “I watch this every few months,” Jim says. “With my kids.” My buddy is getting his kids ready for life!

Got something you think your fellow nerds might like? Send it in! Help spread the top money stories on the web here at Apex Money.

Rise and shine, money nerds! It’s Thursday and time for some more top money stories. Today, we’re turning our attention to the psychology of money.

What your relationship with money reveals about you. [Psychology Today] — “Even if we spend countless hours thinking of ways to make more money, we may not give much thought to how we relate to money. But when you pay attention to your relationship with money, you can gain some important insights into yourself.”

The benefits of choosing to live life on “hard mode”. [Financial Mechanic] — “The thing about ‘hard mode’ is that you get better at playing the game. Every time you DIY, roll up your sleeves, and figure out something that you may be tempted to outsource, you gain more skills to use in the future.”

Financial independence does not equal success in life. [Tawcan] — “At the end of the day, it’s not about how much money you make, it’s not about how big your house is, it’s not about what kind of car you drive, it’s about the relationships that you build and the impacts you’ve made on other people’s lives.”

When we started Apex Money, Jim and I had a chat about ground rules.

• Is it okay to swear on the site? (Hell yeah.)
• How many stories do we showcase each day? (Three to five.)
• What’s more important, community or quality? (Quality.)
• Do we link to our own stuff? (Yes, but only if we’d do so if it were written by somebody else.)

Today’s the first day we link to something one of us wrote. It won’t happen often. We promise. Only when we think it’s good enough to share.

Identity economics: Who are you? And how does it affect your spending? [Get Rich Slowly] — “We make our purchasing decisions based on who we are and who we want to be. If we’re not clear on who we are and who we want to be, our choices tend to be arbitrary. They’re spontaneous and not based on anything other than immediate desire.”

When you’re feeling blue, just remember that even stars have their ups and downs:

Lastly, here’s Chelsea Fagan from The Financial Diet with a YouTube video that highlights five psychological tricks to help you get better with money.

Got something you think your fellow nerds might like? Send it in! Help spread the top money stories on the web here at Apex Money.

Welcome to Wednesday, money nerds. This morning, we have four money stories for you — and a video about trains. Enjoy!

Re-thinking how to view your time. [Of Dollars and Data] — “The key to changing your worldview on time is knowing when to trade it for money. Obviously, if you don’t have much money, you don’t have many options for trading, but as you gain wealth, this tradeoff will become more relevant. The traditional way to think about when to trade your money for your time has been to pay for anything that is below your hourly wage. This explains how one could justify paying for a cleaning or laundry service. I generally agree with this, but it can be expanded.”

This next piece is sad but it’s a great illustration of a point I’ve been trying to drill home for years: It is vital that you keep your housing payment as low as possible. When things are going well, it helps you to save more. And when the shit hits the fan, having a low housing payment means you get to keep your home instead of losing it…

I am unexpectedly a widow and clueless about finances. How can I keep my home? [/r/personalfinance] — “I’m just barely hanging in there covering the bottom line but what is the smart thing to do? No decision seems like a good one. Selling seems like a bad decision to me because I will owe the balance which will wipe out every penny of saving. Do I stick it out until loans are paid and some money is freed up, then try to live as frugal as possible and be house poor?”

How a career slow-down enhanced my life. [Cash for Tacos] — “I knew I wanted to find a position where I could improve my work life balance, earn at least 80% of my current pay and decrease my commute. With a little effort, I was able to find a position that checked off these three boxes. I now have less responsibility and am essentially a worker bee completing projects as they are assigned. I work 40 hours a week with only the occasional overtime. And more importantly, there is no phone tied to my hand. When I leave work, I barely think twice about it.”

How to make money from garage-sale arbitrage. [Financial Pilgrimage] — “Finding great deals at garage sales is all about volume. You need to be able to move quickly from house to house. Once you have experience, as soon as you walk up to a garage sale you’ll know if it is a dud or potential gold mine.”

Lastly, here’s an episode of His and Her Money in which Talaat and Tai McNeely chat with Khalil and Kyara about entrepreneurship — and especially about building a real-estate empire. Nothing scammy here. Just some down-to-earth chat about how people get started with rental properties.

Got something you think your fellow nerds might like? Send it in! Help spread the top money stories on the web here at Apex Money.

Welcome back, money nerds. It’s the second day of Amazon Prime Day. Er…Amazon Prime Days? (Well, that’s a clumsy thing, now, isn’t it?) To mark the event, let’s look at some top stories about shopping.

“Why I cancelled my Amazon Prime account.” [Quartz] — “I used my accidental Prime to watch some Amazon TV shows…and to make the occasional online order. I decided that wasn’t enough to justify the subscription. Around January, with three months remaining in my subscription, I tried to cancel my Prime account. Amazon sounded the alarm.”

How Costco gained a cult following by breaking every rule of retail. [The Hustle] — “Costco’s prices are so low that it barely breaks even on its merchandise sales. And despite pressure from investors over the years, it has refused to boost its markup…So, how does Costco make its money?”

The man who’s going to save your neighborhood grocery store. [Longreads] — “The approach Kelley’s suggesting still means completely overhauling everything, with no guarantee of success. It’s a strategy that’s decidedly low-tech, though it’s no less radical. It’s more about people than new platforms. It means making grocery shopping more like going to the movies.” [This is a l-o-n-g article, but it’s fascinating.]

The subscription economy: They see it, they like it, they want it, they rent it. [The New York Times, so possible paywall] — “Many young American urbanites have resigned themselves to a life of non-ownership, abandoning the dream of their parents and grandparents and great-grandparents before them, often out of financial necessity. But renting isn’t just a matter of necessity these days. It’s become almost posh.”

Should we splurge? Hell yes! [His and Her FI] — “Psychologists agree that retail therapy is a thing. In fact, when we buy something we can get a high from it. It is a short cut to the pleasure center of the brain. Splurging acts as a charge for the brain…It is good to engage in behavior like this OCCASIONALLY and with intention.”

Got something you think your fellow nerds might like? Send it in! Help spread the top money stories on the web here at Apex Money.