Reading across disciplines is one of the best ways to improve our investment acumen. Here is a summary of some of the best articles I read this week.
When you see other people buying new cars, boats or other toys it can lead to a sense of entitlement. There’s a huge difference between buying stuff and being wealthy. Unfortunately, when you see those around you buying stuff it’s hard to avoid the temptation because we benchmark ourselves against the stuff we see and wealth isn’t something you can see parked in someone’s driveway.
It’s a cliche at this point to say that money doesn’t buy happiness because money sure can solve a lot of problems. But it sure doesn’t buy contentment or make it any easier to stay out of your own head sometimes. Benchmarking yourself against people who are more successful than you could provide the motivation to get better but it could also blind you to the fact that no one’s life is perfect.
https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2020/09/benchmarking/
Wave to Pay
Amazon is unveiling a new biometric technology called Amazon One that allows shoppers to pay at stores by placing their palm over a scanning device when they walk in the door or when they check out. The first time they register to use this tech, a customer will scan their palm and insert their payment card at a terminal; after that, they can simply pay with their hand. The hand-scanning tech isn’t just for Amazon’s own stores — the company hopes to sell it to other retailers, including competitors, too.
Your mobile makes you dumb(er)!!
The authors of the paper report the results of a straightforward experiment. Subjects are invited into a laboratory to participate in some assessment exercises. Before commencing, however, they’re asked to put their phones away. Some subjects are asked to place their phone on the desk next to the computer on which they’re working; some are told to put their phone in their bag; some are told to put their phone in the other room.
Each subject was then subjected to a battery of standard cognitive capacity tests. The result? Subjects measured notably lower on working memory capacity and fluid intelligence when the phone was next to them on the desk versus out of sight. This was true even though in all the cases the subjects didn’t actually use their phones.
https://www.calnewport.com/blog/2020/09/22/do-smartphones-make-us-dumber/
Save 50% of your increments to retire on schedule
Lifestyle creep is when someone increases their spending after experiencing an increase in income. So that new raise quickly becomes a fancy new object or an expensive new habit, and it’s gone. Some lifestyle creep can be very satisfying. After all, what’s the point of working so hard if you can’t enjoy the fruits of your labor? Once you spend more than 50% of your future raises, then you start delaying your retirement.
https://ofdollarsanddata.com/lifestyle-creep/
The relentless focus on the long game
I brought Michael Jordan a deal three years ago for $100 million,” Falk said. “And all he had to do was, other than giving his name and likeness, make one two-hour appearance to announce the deal and he turned it down. And God bless him. He’s been so successful, it gives him an opportunity to do whatever the hell he wants or not to do things he doesn’t want. And I really admire that. He’s very, very selective in the things that he wants to be involved in.
Falk said this was the norm for Jordan at a certain point adding, "By 1991 every deal that I signed with was at least 10 years." Falk said Jordan "never did one-off appearances" and would only sign deals where there was a long-term investment involved.
Thanks for the post. Great collection. Looking forward for this every weekend.
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