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Is a Bond Ladder Strategy Right for Your Retirement?
Using a bond ladder can be a low-risk way to save for retirement.
7 Smart Habits of Minimalists You Should Try
Death by a thousand cuts
I’ve been on the internet for a long, long time.
Via local Bulletin Board Systems, I started reading USENET newsgroups — mostly Star Trek and comic book and computer game stuff — during college in the late 1980s. I got sucked into the world of MUDs. Soon after graduating, I heard about this new thing called the World Wide Web, so I installed Mosaic on my Macintosh SE.
Before long, I taught myself HTML and built my first website. Eventually, in 1997, I started my first blog — back before blog was even a word!
I was drawn to the web (and the internet) in part because it seemed so egalitarian. Anyone could start a website about anything, and as long as they produced great stuff and shared it, people would read. I also liked the fact that almost everything was free. It didn’t cost anything (besides your $19.95 monthly dial-up service) to access any of this information. The early web was a de facto sharing economy.
Best of all? The web was a wide open space, a blank slate, a platform free from dominance by mainstream media. Little people like me could have a voice.
None of this lasted long.
The Monetization of the Web
Soon, banner ads came along. I hated banner ads when they first appeared. “My site will never have banner ads,” I told my friends. (This was my first real lesson that you should never say never. My friends have been giving me grief about this for more than fifteen years!)
In 1998, Google arrived and changed everything. Until that point, web search was a miserable experience. It wasn’t very good and it was overly monetized. Google was the opposite. It was amazing and had no monetization at all.
Hahahahahahahaha. How things have changed. Today, Google is all about ads. And using it is more and more a miserable experience. Look at this mess:
How long until Google has transformed itself into AltaVista?
In time, the mainstream media realized that the web wasn’t going anywhere. By the early 2000s, they were treating it as an important part of their operations. By the early 2010s, the web had become the most important part of most media companies’ platforms. And if it hadn’t, those companies would soon be dead.
Meanwhile, two parallel (but related) trends developed.
- First, there was the rise of “software as a service” (Saas). In the olden days — 1995, say — when you wanted a computer program, you went down to Circuit City and bought it. You paid for it once and you owned it forever. As “web apps” became a thing, companies shifted from one-time payments to a subscription model. Today, even big companies like Microsoft and Adobe have adopted the practice of continually charging for their products. (And if they don’t use a subscription model, they often “sunset” their software, which is essentially the same damn thing.)
- Second, forward-thinking sites and companies learned there was money to be made by disrupting existing business models. Netflix is a great example. Founded in 1997, this company has single-handedly destroyed multiple industries, most notably retail video. And, eventually, Netflix began to disrupt the monolithic television industry itself! Initially, this was beneficial to consumers. Now, in 2019, it’s become apparent that oops, nope it’s not. (See also.)
Twenty-five years ago, when the web was young, it was all about free. Anyone who could afford a computer and a $19.95/month dial-up connection was free to create and publish whatever they wanted — and free to consume what other people had created. It was like some sort of digital utopia.
Death by a Thousand Cuts
Today, the web is most decidedly not free. And it’s getting less free with every passing month. Let’s be honest: More and more, life online is expensive. It’s like death by a thousand cuts.
Guide To Land Loans: What Are They, Types of Land Loans & More
Buying land and building your ideal home sounds like a dream, but there are several key things to investigate if you want to know how to get a land loan. Unlike construction loans, land loans are an option if you want to own the land and build it at a later date. However, land loans… View Article
The post Guide To Land Loans: What Are They, Types of Land Loans & More first appeared on Total Mortgage.
SaveBetter Review: The Best Place to Go for High-Interest Savings?
SaveBetter pools high-interest savings accounts and CDs from financial institutions nationwide, giving customers access to high-yield accounts they otherwise wouldnât know about. But is SaveBetter the best way to secure the best savings rates? I answer that question and more in this SaveBetter review.
The post SaveBetter Review: The Best Place to Go for High-Interest Savings? appeared first on Good Financial Cents®.
Examples of Good Debt vs Bad DebtÂ
Good debt and bad debt are terms used to describe different types of debt and their effects on your financial health. Good debt is debt that improves your income or net worth, can be repaid responsibly, and has a good return on investment. Â Bad debt, on the other hand, is debt that you are […]
The post Examples of Good Debt vs Bad Debt appeared first on Credit Absolute.
Your 2023 Financial To-Do List (15 Things To Check Off)
Do you have money tasks that you need to do but you keep putting off? Today’s financial to-do list will put you back on track so you can start checking things off your list. Managing your whole life, especially your financial life, can be difficult. There are so many things to remember and so many […]
The post Your 2023 Financial To-Do List (15 Things To Check Off) appeared first on Making Sense Of Cents.
What Is a Cash-In Refinance? Lower Your Loan Balance and Your Mortgage Rate
If youâre currently the proud owner of a mortgage, youâve undoubtedly heard of a cash-out refinance, one that allows you to tap into your home equity. They were quite popular during the housing boom, when homeowners serially refinanced and simultaneously pulled âcashâ from their homes while property values skyrocketed. You may have also heard the… Read More »What Is a Cash-In Refinance? Lower Your Loan Balance and Your Mortgage Rate
The post What Is a Cash-In Refinance? Lower Your Loan Balance and Your Mortgage Rate appeared first on The Truth About Mortgage.
Aurora seeks third extension to deadline for merger with Better.com
Aurora Acquisition Corp. wants to extend the deadline of its merger deal with Better.com again, dimming prospects for the deal to go through.Â