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Your burning questions about money — answered.

Hello, my friends. Welcome to Tuesday. Today’s edition of Apex money, as always, features some of our favorite recent money stories from around the web. And today, each featured article asks (and answers) a question! Take a gander…

What is lifestyle design? (And why does it matter?) [The Fioneers] — “I actually prefer to think of lifestyle design as an action or an identity. I want to be in the process of designing a life that I love. I want to be a lifestyle designer. When learning about lifestyle design, it was helpful for me to breakdown the phrase into its component parts.”

How much should you pay for tax preparation? [The Wealth Accountant] — “A good place to start your accountant search is by asking people in a similar situation as you are. If you have income properties, ask other income property owners who they use as a tax professional. Business owners should do the same. If you have multiple state issues you certainly need to find someone in the same boat you are because not all tax professionals handle out-of-state or multiple state tax returns.”

Which password manager should you use to secure your digital life? [Wired] — “Now that so many people are working from home, outside the office intranet, the number of passwords you need may have significantly increased…A password manager offers convenience and, more importantly, helps you create better passwords, which makes your online existence less vulnerable to password-based attacks.”

Finally, here’s something that has nothing to do with money.

Until I became obsessed with Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation earlier this year, my favorite film of all time was Alien — the first one. It’s a nearly perfect film. (Rogue Nation upped the bar. I’m not even joking.) I’ve seen Alien dozens of times in my life, and I hope to see it dozens more.

Well, HBO Max has re-created the trailers for ten classic films (including Alien) in a modern style. These are fun…but they also make me tense. I hate hate hate the short-attention span, quick-cut video that’s so prominent today. (It’s one reason I don’t like TikTok.)

Still, it’s fun to compare the original trailer for Alien

to the “modern” trailer for Alien

I don’t know. That first trailer is a classic. I remember seeing it in the theater (at age ten) and being both scared and intrigued.

The second trailer looks like every other movie preview on the market today. And like all modern trailers, it gives away too much of the movie. It’s the entire movie in two minutes instead of two hours.

Okay, that’s it for today. I’ll be back tomorrow with more fun stuff. See you then!