Today, money nerds, we’re going to lead off with a non-financial video.
You see, when I was boy during the 1970s, my parents were huge fans of the music group ABBA. We didn’t have TV and we didn’t have a lot of money, but my father managed to find the cash for a fancy stereo. On rainy nights, we’d all sit together in the living room of our trailer house and listen to his records: Neil Diamond, John Denver, Linda Ronstadt, and — especially — ABBA.
ABBA disbanded forty years ago. They haven’t recorded an album since 1981. Well now, for whatever reason, they’re back. And the first two songs are pure ABBA. They take me back to my youth. I love them. Maybe you will too?
Here’s “I Still Have Faith in You”.
And here’s “Don’t Shut Me Down”.
The full album (called Voyage) comes out on November 5th. I’m eager to hear it!
But you’re not here for aging disco rockers. You’re here for money stories, aren’t you? Let’s get to them.
Why restaurants have become more expensive. [Grub Street] — “In January of 2021, wholesale food prices began inching upward across the country, maintaining at least a one percent increase every month since then — a trend not seen since 1973 — according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In a study by the National Restaurant Association from June, two-thirds of restaurant operators said their total food costs were higher than they were before the pandemic.”
Are we in a melt-up? [Of Dollars and Data] — “Of all the things that you should do during a melt-up, the most important is to get invested. Do not sit in cash. Why? Because even if the market does eventually return to its prior levels, sitting in cash will destroy you psychologically.”
The best password managers (according to experts). [The Strategist] — “If you don’t want to bother with a dedicated app, three of our experts say the free password-management tools like Apple’s iCloud Keychain or the managers built into your browsers are all you need.”
How to make your marriage more financially equal. [New York Times, so possible paywall] — “There are plenty of reasons to equalize the financial decision-making in your marriage — and this goes for every couple, heterosexual or not. If you’re among the many getting married now as part of the great pandemic wedding boom, consider adding another promise: that yours will be a financially egalitarian marriage.”
That’s it for today. I’m off to listen to some old ABBA albums. Gonna be so much fun!