Apex Money Posts

When I was younger, my favorite magazine was Wired. It was printed on amazingly thick paper and I loved the heft of the magazine, the vibrant colors, and also the content of the magazine. As a young nerd, it was the equivalent of candy for the brain.

When I saw this next post, I recognized the name but couldn’t place it. Kevin Kelly. Kevin. Kelly.

Where had I heard that name?

Oh! He was the founding editor of Wired Magazine! And on his 68th birthday, he shared 68 bits of advice that I loved reading. They’re like 68 bits of candy for life improvement.

68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice [Kevin Kelly] – “Don’t be the smartest person in the room. Hangout with, and learn from, people smarter than yourself. Even better, find smart people who will disagree with you.”

Also, I learned a new word – pronoia! Such a good word!

If you are feeling the weight of the crisis, here are two articles that may help:

Personal Finance During a Crisis [A Wealth of Common Sense] – “Personal finances can be overwhelming to most people when things are going well. All of the different accounts, saving options and investment vehicles can be confusing especially when you consider you’re completely on your own when it comes to learning about this stuff. If personal finances are confusing during normal times, they can paralyze people during an economic crisis.”

What To Do When It Seems Like The End Of The F***ing World: 5 Steps To Cope With The Uncertainty [Money Side Up] – “I wanted to fall back on my psychology roots and what I have learnt in terms of; sleep, exercise and nutrition to provide 5 key tips for maintaining psychological wellbeing throughout these troubling times.”

And I want to leave you with a beacon of light to take with you over the weekend – it’s about the 90 vaccines currently in development:

The race for coronavirus vaccines: a graphical guide [Nature] – “More than 90 vaccines are being developed against SARS-CoV-2 by research teams in companies and universities across the world. Researchers are trialling different technologies, some of which haven’t been used in a licensed vaccine before. At least six groups have already begun injecting formulations into volunteers in safety trials; others have started testing in animals. Nature’s graphical guide explains each vaccine design.”

Go forth and conquer Apexian!

I love learning about craft.

In this case, I use the Mirriam-Webster definition of craft as “an occupation or trade requiring manual dexterity or artistic skill.”

Whether it’s blacksmithing, coopering, glass blowing, or any number of trades – the skill and care involved is amazing to watch.

I normally offer up some money posts followed by candy, today I’m going to lead with candy because it’s just so good.

Do you know who a putter-togetherer is? Watch this and find out.

To take the scissor theme for another step, here’s a fun one.

If you’re going to bet half a million dollars on a game of rock paper scissors, you better not do it in Canada because it’s a lose-lose-lose proposition. If you win, it’s really only $354,647.65 USD or it’s invalidated. Or you lose $354,647.65 real dollars. 🙂 (just kidding, love you Canada!)

$500K bet on rock paper scissors ruled invalid by Quebec court [CBC] – “A Quebec man lost $500,000 in a rock paper scissors best-of-three game that took place in January 2011. The wager has been ruled invalid.”

The Biggest Lie I Tell Myself is About All The Things I’d Do if I Had The Time [Time in the Market] – “If there’s one good thing that comes out of this quarantine is that it shatters this excuse. I have been at home since the middle of March. Now, I still have a job so it’s not like it’s magic free time manna falling from heaven. However, my job does allow me some freedom in terms of taking breaks and I save SO much time not getting ready for work and driving.”

Something to ponder…

Frauds of all types have been on the rise and with everyone at home, under pressure and stressed, it’s easy to fall victim.

And then you have the added factor that fraud schemes are getting very sophisticated… check this story out:

When in Doubt: Hang Up, Look Up, & Call Back [Krebs on Security] – “Today’s lesson in how not to get scammed comes from “Mitch,” the pseudonym I picked for a reader in California who shared his harrowing tale on condition of anonymity. Mitch is a veteran of the tech industry — having worked in security for several years at a fairly major cloud-based service — so he’s understandably embarrassed that he got taken in by this confidence scheme.”

The complexity of that scam is pretty amazing.

About a year ago, I was locked out of my Vanguard account for a couple days because of fraud. Someone was trying to log into a lot of different accounts and mine was one of them. They were successful with the credentials but 2FA saved me because I received the confirmation code. Vanguard never gave them access, did more investigation and saw that the person had tried to log into a few accounts. I changed my passwords (fortunately it was one I didn’t repeat anywhere, which makes me wonder how they got it!) and after verifying my identity, all was well. Still scary though.

It’s Okay to Be in Debt, Just Not Okay to Stay in Debt [Financial Pilgrimage] – “Ever since college I always thought I was good with money. At least, that’s what I’d tell myself in my 20s. At the age of 25 I was completely debt free! Yet, somehow managed to accumulate nearly $200,000 in debt by age 30. Most purchases were relatively normal in this day and age. A house, student loans, newer cars, wedding, a condo at the lak. Oh wait, a lake house is not normal but it happened. While getting into debt was not ideal, I really don’t regret any of it and thankfully we had the financial means to dig out. I know not everyone is as fortunate. Regardless, this is our story.”

And for this last one, would you try a bowl?

Long-Simmering Soup,/a> [Gastro Obscura] – “At a Bangkok bistro, one pot of beef stew has been cooking non-stop for more than 45 years.”

Enjoy the day Apexian!

About a year ago, we discovered this great game called Azul.

It’s easy to learn, quick to play, and there’s just enough strategy to be interesting but not take you forever to figure out. It’s also really easy to play online, which we’ve been doing through this site. We pair it with a little Houseparty and you have an easy way to hang out and play a game.

Another fun mindless game we’ve been enjoying is Animal Crossing on the Nintendo Switch. Our kids love it, we get to manage a little slice of island life, and we’ve even gotten upset at our son for chopping down all of our trees. He got upset that we got upset over a game, which was a little ironic. 🙂

You don’t have to play the game to enjoy this next article:

The Quiet Revolution of Animal Crossing [The Atlantic] – “Instead, Animal Crossing is a political hypothesis about how a different kind of world might work—one with no losers. Millions of people already have spent hours in the game stewing on that idea since the coronavirus crisis began.”

As an aside, if you’re a fan of Mario games, tanuki is the same as Tanooki Mario – which is what Mario turns into when he gets a leaf and can start flying.

What Day Is It? Life and Money During a Pandemic [The Luxe Strategist] – “On March 4th, my husband and I had an eerie feeling we should do a grocery shop. The store was bustling as usual, but I chuckled at the sight of an empty toilet paper shelf. In a health crisis, of all things to hoard–toilet paper, really? I snapped a pic, and posted it to my Instagram, probably inadvertently adding to the panic.

A month later, and the situation has drastically changed. Schools in NYC are shut down for over a month. For the past two weeks I’ve been working from home until who knows when. And two Fridays ago was probably the last time we’d browse a bookstore for a while.”

Need a good laugh? Watch this.

Have a great day Apexian!

I studied Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, one of the toughest CS schools in the country, and I remember what one of the professors said at orientation.

“Most of you were in the top 10% of your class in high school, most of you won’t be 10% of your class anymore.”

Numbers are funny that way huh?

Our year started at around 150 and I believe we lost 30-40 in the first semester. I’m not sure about the size of my graduating class but by merely surviving, I think I was about average. 🙂

When U.S. air force discovered the flaw of averages [The Star] – “… these pilots had already been pre-selected because they appeared to be average sized. (If you were, say, six foot seven, you would never have been recruited in the first place.) The scientists also expected that a sizable number of pilots would be within the average range on all 10 dimensions. But even Daniels was stunned when he tabulated the actual number.

Zero.” As it turns out, no one is average in every way.

My trip down memory lane about college pushed me to visit a friends’ website. He’s one of the few people from my CS class that I still keep in contact with from time to time and he’s still involved in software. His post, lightly COVID related, his home because I run a small enterprise too.

Businesses Should Have 3 Months of Savings? It’s Not as Simple As You Think [DaedTech] – He gets into why these memes comparing personal finances and business finances (and also U.S. Treasury finances) is inaccurate. It’s a relatively deep dive that includes discussion about accrual accounting (and when companies don’t pay) and other aspects that add complexity to the comparison – then he shares his business’ own evolution to provide color.

My personal belief is that businesses exist to make money for their owners and when they stop, they cease to exist. Human beings need to make money to exist and they cease to exist when they stop making money and, as a result, are unable to support themselves. That’s why people need emergency funds and businesses, largely, do not. If a business can make money but just needs a loan, it’ll get the loan. People only get loans when they can show they are able to pay it back.

And before you go, here’s a bit of free entertainment if you don’t have a Netflix account.

Netflix has put some of their educational documentaries on Youtube for free including many of their episodes of Our Planet, Babies, Explained, and other series. It’s not meant to be watched by any particular age group so don’t plop down your 8-yo expecting them to be entertained. There’s a doc on the stock market, racial wealth gap, and others. It’s a good playlist to pick through to see if anything catches your eye.

Yawn! Good morning, Apexians, and welcome to Friday. Hope you’ve got some fun stuff planned for your weekend? Me? I’ll be working. In a couple of hours, we’re scheduled to receive a dumb-truck full of gravel. My rough calculations show that I’ll be hauling about 100 wheelbarrow loads from the top of our driveway 200 feet to its destination in the backyard. All while I have a sore arm. Yeah, it’s going to be a long weekend.

Before we go our respective ways, though, here are a few fun money stories from around the web. Enjoy!

The food expiration dates you should actually follow. [The New York Times, so possible paywall] — “Here’s the first thing you should know: Expiration dates are not expiration dates. Food product dating, as the U.S. Department of Agriculture calls it, is completely voluntary for all products (with the exception of baby food, more on that later). Not only that, but it has nothing to do with safety. It acts solely as the manufacturer’s best guess as to when its product will no longer be at peak quality, whatever that means.” [I am saving this one to send to people who freak out about three-day past-day mustard.]

How the George Foreman grill changed history. [Men’s Health] — “The boxer reportedly wasn’t interested but after playing around with his own recipes finally agreed to some unique terms for a celebrity spokesman: He wanted a back-end cut on sales. Salton would cover the up-front costs and Foreman would take 45 percent of all profits, period. Dreimann agreed.”

How to build your own Nintendo Switch at home. [imgur, of all places] — “The key to a project like this is extreme patience. This took about a month and then some to bid on parts, find inexpensive sellers, and wait for ground shipping from China. In the end it was still worth it to me. This was a fun project to keep me busy during the quarantine while not breaking the bank.”

When your fictional pandemic becomes reality. [TOR] — “Sometimes, you’re haunted by your own stories. I wrote ‘So Much Cooking’ in 2015: in it, a food blogger describes cooking in quarantine during a pandemic, feeding an ever-increasing number of children she’s sheltering at her house with an ever-decreasing supply of food.” This is kind of amazing.

Lastly: here’s a two-year-old YouTube clip in which Gary Cook does the “to be or not to be” soliloquy from Hamlet…in the style of a vlogger who’s uploading his breakdown to the internet. I think it’s a clever idea done well. (One hilarious thing to note: At the time I write this, this video has 19,968 views, 3100 likes, and one dislike. One. I find that funny.)

That’s it for now. See you again soon!

Good morning, Apexians. We’re back with more of the best money stories from around the web.

First up, yet another look at the so-called education premium. Study after study shows the same thing: the more you learn, the more you earn. It’s not even a contest.

Average net worth by age and education level. [Of Dollars and Data] — “The good news is that, while comparing yourself to others in this way can be useful for helping you to stay on track, net worth is not the be-all and end-all of personal finance. Because the most important metric in personal finance is whether your money is allowing you to live the life that you truly want.” The education premium is real — and it’s spectacular.

Americans are drinking more alcohol during the coronavirus crisis. [Vox] — “The coronavirus pandemic has lessened the stigma of drinking alone, and of drinking, period. Americans are buying more alcohol, and it’s not just to stock up for the next few weeks or months.” For the first month of this, my alcohol consumption was down. (Actually, it’s been down all year.) But for the past week? Uh…yeah, I’ve been drinking a lot.

Do people become more selfless as they age? [The Conversation] — “Older adults do not just act like they are nicer people, which might easily be driven by selfish motives such as making it more likely that they will be remembered fondly once they are gone. Rather, the fact that their reward areas are so much more responsive to experiencing people in need being helped suggests that they are actually, on average, kinder and genuinely more interested in the welfare of others than everyone else.”

City climate dopplegangers. [City Projections] — “Find your city’s climate doppleganger: Search for a city and find cities around the world with similar climates (try searching by country and selecting the nearest city if your city is not found).”

Last of all is today’s video — and for once, it’s actually about money! Here’s the full-length (nearly 2-1/2 hour) 2004 documentary from Alain de Botton: Status Anxiety. It’s all about keeping up with the Joneses.

That’s it for Thursday. I’ll be back tomorrow to see you into the weekend…

It’s Hump Day, money nerds. But does that even matter anymore? Haven’t we all sort of lost track of what the day is? WI know we have in our house! A couple of times each week, we have to pause to think things through. And as for the actual date? Hahahahahaha. With no appointments and plans, the date no longer matters.

But you know what does matter? Smart personal finance. Smart personal finance never goes out of style. To that end, here are a few great money stories you might enjoy.

Coronavirus reminds us what functioning communities look like. [Quartz] — “Somewhere between work, kids, house, family, and friends, the idea of caring for those who lived in close proximity and yet were largely strangers to us became an abstract notion, a virtuous and distant hope but not a pressing priority. Coronavirus changed all that.”

How to design an anti-fragile career. [RadReads] — “In nearly every conversation, some recurring themes have emerged…[People are] optimistic. Not blind optimism that ‘everything will be ok’ – because there’s too much uncertainty to know that with 100% confidence. But a pragmatic and humble confidence thar results in the belief of their own resilience.”

The financial implications of owning a cat. [ESI Money] — “The best way I can describe Zeus is a dog in a cat’s body. He is friendly, loving, sweet, and so very cute. Since we knew he was awesome, it eliminated the possibility that if we got a cat we’d end up with a dud. I saw my chance to have one last, amazing cat in my lifetime.”

The woman who lives 200,000 years in the past. [Outside magazine] — “Lynx (who doesn’t share her legal name) is not your typical back-to-the-lander. The lithe, blonde former teen punk, who grew up in the ‘concrete and dismal gray’ environs of London, has become an unlikely torchbearer of humanity’s wild heritage. Her overarching aim is not to simply survive out here in nature but ‘to live as wild people lived’ and to show others how to do so as well.”

Last of all, here’s a fun video. It’s a Buddhist monk rocking out to Queen. I love it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqfT6zwJWUE

Well, I do not love the vertical video. Vertical video is such a curse but I’m afraid there’s no stopping it now. Too many people just don’t care. 🙁

Okay, enough of me complaining. I’ll be back tomorrow with more great money stories from around the web.

Today is Tuesday, money nerds, and this is Apex Money — your home for the best money stories from around the web. We’ve got some good stuff for you today (as always) but I think my favorite link is the last one…even thought it has nothing to do with personal finance.

Let’s do the money stuff first, shall we?

Ask Reddit: What screams “pretending to be upper class”? [/r/AskReddit] — Interesting discussion on Reddit about the difference in behavior between people who are rich and people who want to be rich. Rich people do and wear what they want, and have no need to have others think they’re rich. People pretending to be rich put on displays. They talk about money, display logos, and so on. This matches my experience.

Why intentional friction is a game-changer. [Break the Twitch] — “here are many ways you can create intentional friction (or reduce unintentional friction) to make small but impactful changes in your life. I’ve personally found great success in implementing this in my own life, and I’d encourage you to give it a try.”

99-year-old British vet raises £17 million for health service by walking laps. [BBC News] — “A 99-year-old war veteran has walked 100 laps of his garden to raise £17m and counting for the NHS. Captain Tom Moore originally aimed to raise just £1,000 for NHS Charities Together by completing laps of his garden before his 100th birthday. But he has smashed his target after nearly 800,000 people made donations to his fundraising page.”

Why this crisis is going to make wealth inequality even worse. [A Wealth of Common Sense] — “Some people will see their finances completely destroyed by this crisis and have to start from scratch. The economic machine and stock market will recover from this recession. People’s personal recessions won’t necessarily follow the same recovery timeline.” [Related reading: This is a no-fault recession at The Belle Curve]

Our non-financial link today isn’t a video. It’s better. It’s a massive list of videos.

For a long time, I’ve been wanting to pursue a variety of “chronological history” projects. For instance, I want to make time to read one biography of each U.S. President — in order. And I’ve considered making a list of historical films, then watching those in order.

Well, somebody else has taken care of that last one for me. Here’s a *HUGE* list of historical films in chronological order from Patrick Louis Coolney, Ph.D. I’d almost argue that this list is too exhaustive. It’s overwhelming. But then I realized that, for my own purposes, I could simply use this as a starting point. I can draw from this to create a smaller, curated list of films that I can watch over the next few years. Nerdy, eh? (Does that surprise you?)

Okay, that’s all for Tuesday. I’ll see you tomorrow, my friends.

Happy Monday, Apexians. I hope you had a good weekend. As for me, I spent much of my time working in the yard with my girlfriend. We moved into this house three years ago, and since then most of our attention has been focused on home remodeling projects. Now it’s time to tame the jungle outside our back door!

But I also found time to pull together links to some great money stories from around the web. Let’s take a look!

What to do if you’ve lost your job due to coronavirus. [Frugalwoods] — “Today’s focus is the benefits available to folks in the United States that’ve arisen in response to the coronavirus pandemic. If this doesn’t apply to you, it’s likely you know someone who would benefit from this information–please share this post with them. I’m not re-inventing the wheel today; rather, my goal is to provide you with all of this information in one place.”

How to care for home appliances and systems on a budget. [Yes, I Am Cheap] — “Imagine you’ve saved up and are now a proud owner of some high-quality home appliances. That’s great news, but you also need to remember that your expenses aren’t over. Those devices will need maintenance and they might break down no matter how well you take care of them. The same goes for any home system, like plumbing or electrical.”

Extreme frugality: Gardening edition. [Surviving and Thriving] — “Getting free seeds is only one way that we practice extreme frugality in the garden, though. A reader named Laure asked for an article about low-cost gardening. This one’s for you, ma’am.”

What to do when your options shrink. [CityFrugal] — “Our range of possibilities has narrowed, for at least the next few months. Good. Hard times aren’t for lamenting the options you’ve lost but rather to embrace the opportunities you still have. It’s time to get creative.”

To wrap things up for today, here’s a video I really enjoyed. It’s twelve minutes of villagers from rural Pakistan trying coffee drinks for the very first time. So real! So fun!

Okay, that’s it for today. I gotta go have my second cup of coffee. I’ll see you again tomorrow. Until then, take care.