Hello, money bosses, and welcome to the Friday edition of Apex Money. Today, as I sometimes do, I want to lead with our non-money video.
You see, last night Kim introduced me to a Netflix series called “7 Days Out”. Each episode documents the final week leading up to some big event: the Kentucky Derby, the Westminster Dog Show, etc. Here’s a trailer for the series.
The episode we watched last night was about the renovation and re-opening of Eleven Madison Park, the world’s best restaurant.
My friends, I am here to tell you that this was an amazing 48 minutes of television. It is mind-blowing to watch all of these people — people at the top of their game — and their incredible attention to both detail and quality. I enjoyed this so much (and found it so inspiring) that I’m eager to watch every other episode in the series.
Check it out.
Okay, here are the final few money links for this week. Enjoy!
Experts from a world that no longer exists. [Collaborative Fund] — “Most things evolve, and evolve faster than people’s beliefs. It’s a tricky thing that leads to a long history of older generations whose success came from understanding the new rules of their era not recognizing that the rules may have changed again.” [J.D.’s note: This articulates something I’ve noticed as I’ve entered my fifties. I used to be progressive. But now the world has progressed beyond me — and that makes me feel very, very old.]
Where Americans find meaning in life. [Pew Research Center] — “Fewer Americans now mention finances, jobs or travel as a source of meaning in life than in 2017. The share of U.S. adults who bring up their material well-being – including references to feeling safe, secure, able to cover the basics, living comfortably or being well-off – has dropped from 29% to 18% over the past four years. This decline has been concentrated among two groups in particular: married adults and White Americans. In 2017, both groups were among the most likely to point to material well-being as a source of meaning.”
Ten 5-minute money actions to help your finances. [Becoming Minimalist] — “You’re not going to change your entire financial situation in one afternoon. Making changes in how you spend, save, earn, and give takes time and discipline. But you can make small positive changes in just a few minutes. And those small changes pile up—especially when we do them repeatedly.”
Lastly, over the weekend I had a conversation with a friend about how much I loathe companies like The New York Times, which will allow you to subscribe via the web but which subject you to a stupid, stupid phone-based customer-retention process in order to cancel. “That ought to be illegal,” I said. Turns out, now it is. The FTC is cracking down on this sort of bullshit. Thank god. But what puzzles me most is why a company like NYT, which generally has a good reputation, would think that it’s okay do behave like this in the first place.
That’s all I have. Jim will be back on Monday to take you into Thanksgiving. See you soon!