Review Archives - Lazy Man and Money

Getting Fit with Oculus Virtual Reality

January 4, 2022 by Lazy Man 3 Comments

I’ve always been a fan of the idea of virtual reality. I watched VR5 and The Lawnmower Man in the early 1990s. I even bought a computer programming book on how to make your own Wolfenstein 3D game. Yep, 30 years ago virtual reality was virtually everywhere.

Then the web got popular and virtual reality was mostly pushed to the side. Virtual Reality has been on a comeback over the last 7 or 8 years since Google Cardboard came out. Google made a push for virtual reality on phones creating its “Daydream” platform but pulled the plug a couple of years ago. Phone VR never seemed to catch on, though my kids liked it. We didn’t do it too often because they’d be bouncing into walls and doors. It was great for the cost (the viewers were typically about $5 or $10), but it was a novelty – nothing that you’d consider useful.

About a month ago, I saw a deal on the Oculus Quest 2. A surprising number of people had upvoted it on the deal site. I clicked on it and learned that Oculus hardware is like Apple, it very rarely goes on sale. They weren’t having a sale this time either, but a lot of places were offering $50 of store credit with the purchase. So buying from Amazon was almost the same as $50 cashback, so I justified it as costing about $250. I usually research these deals, but this time I took a good friend’s recommendation from a few months before, “You gotta get this!”

He was 100% right!

The first time I put on the headset, it was shocking. There was no black like with the phone VR. Wherever you moved your head was all part of the virtual environment. The resolution was incredible and realistic. With the two handheld controllers, I had “hands” that can grab and throw stuff. This made me wonder why they don’t have feet cuffs that you could use to run and kick. Maybe they are leaving it as a reason to upgrade to a future Quest 3.

My (just turned) 8-year-old tried it next. I didn’t think much about it, but I had it start from the boot-up screen. There’s a lot of things flying around in the beginning and it freaked him out. He was much better once he was in a game and had control. My 9-year-old try was next with the demo app. He was throwing paper airplanes, hitting a ping pong ball with a paddle, and dancing with a robot in a minute or two. He immediately declared it as the best Christmas gift ever.

It took a while for my wife to give it a try. She’s not into technology and I think viewed it as another technology device that would sit on the shelves gathering dust. However, when she did, she was amazed. The opening room reminded her of the best parts of two of her favorite places, Arizona and Hawaii. She instantly said, “Do they use this for therapy? This would be awesome!” She next went to the same demo as my 9-year-old. Dancing with the robot was just as big of a hit with her.

I got a surprise when I bought and downloaded my first game, Thrill of the Fight, a boxing simulator. Oculus has been running a daily deal where a game is usually around 30% off. Everyone said it was a must-own game. The retail price of $10 was extremely reasonable compared to the $60 my kids spend on their Nintendo Switch games. Take another 30% off and I didn’t think too long before clicking purchase.

Nearly every reviewer mentioned that Thrill of the Fight was their new cardio routine… and it was kicking their butt. You can add me to that list of reviews. Boxing fitness is nothing new. A year ago, my wife signed up my son and me at a local BoxFit studio to do a class. They didn’t have enough kids interested for their own class, so they suggested we come to a regular class. The class itself would have been good if the music didn’t have 30 curses per song. The instructor was extremely embarrassed, but it was too late to switch out the music. In any case, there’s no problem when you are boxing at home.

The boxing game isn’t like real boxing, because you don’t wear gloves, don’t hit people (just air), and one more thing… you aren’t getting punched back. Still, I’m throwing hundreds of punches while dodging and blocking a virtual fighter that has endless energy. It’s one of the games that has helped this woman lose 40 pounds. I burn about 200 calories in a few rounds every day. I have to work up my stamina it seems.

A couple of days later, my 9-year-old mentioned that he would be interested in learning to golf. That’s great, except that golf isn’t popular in late December in New England. There’s an indoor golf place though, so we went there and got some details on who we could call to get some lessons. Afterward, I thought, “I wonder if they make a golf game for the Oculus?” After reading a few reviews, I bought Golf+, a $16 game developed by TopGolf, the company that makes the indoor golf virtual reality systems. Virtual Golf isn’t great for getting fit, but it seems like it could improve some hand-eye coordination. If nothing else, he’s going to get to know which clubs are the best fit for any particular situation.

Next up, drumming. The kids’ school music teacher was representing the state of Rhode Island in the Rose Bowl. He says my 9-year-old is the best drummer in the class and has emailed us a couple of times about how good he is. We’re looking to get him lessons, but once again, I thought, “I wonder if they make a drum game for the Oculus?” In less than 2 minutes, I had downloaded a demo version of Smash Drums. The demo is great and so far it’s challenging enough that I haven’t thought about spending the $20 to buy the full version. The irony is that my 8-year-old seems to be better than my 9-year-old. It’s not as much exercise as the boxing game, but it can burn some serious calories as well.

Finally, I bought a table tennis game. I actually haven’t played it yet, but it was one of those 30% off deals and it was another “must-have” game. Like with the golf game, people who play it competitively say that it is realistic and useful. I also hear that it can be great exercise as well.

I should mention one more thing. I haven’t done anything with the social settings. I made myself as private as I could and I don’t interact with real people. I may in the future, but I wanted to set things up in a way that would be most suitable for the kids.

I know, all of this sounds amazing. It is amazing. However, there are a couple of downsides too. For example:

1. Oculus is a Facebook company. Ugh, they’re selling data on my ability to throw a jab to someone. In the future, they say they’ll allow people to register without a Facebook account, but I’m guessing that it’s too late because they’ll be able to tie all the data together.

2. Oculus says that it isn’t for anyone under 13. This has to be because they can’t market to children. They give some excuses about kids having developing eyes and while that is true, it doesn’t mean that a few minutes a day is going to hurt them. Kids under 13 can’t get a Facebook account anyway, so they can’t have their own space. Of course, there are no parental controls. I found out about this weeks after I bought it and several hours after trying to set it up. It was a complete shock that my kids, at the age of four, could use Google Cardboard, but at the age of 9 can’t use an Oculus Quest. Additionally, the strap that fits the Quest 2 on your head doesn’t work well for kids. There are videos on YouTube about how people are buying an “Elite” strap – at an additional cost of $50, which works better for kids.

So, Can you Get Fit with Oculus Virtual Reality?

The jury is still out on whether I’m going to lose weight like the woman in that article. I think a good diet may have a lot to do with that. However, it does make me more active and I believe that it can augment anyone’s fitness plan.

I don’t see it replacing exercise in general. There’s no resistance or weight training (the handheld controllers are light). However, it’s 18°F outside today. I’d much rather do a few rounds of boxing indoors than go out.

Aside from getting fit, you may learn a few skills that could turn into real-life hobbies.

The Best Personal Finance/FIRE Book You’ve Never Heard Of

October 29, 2018 by Lazy Man 7 Comments

You probably know that I’m not a fan of clickbait titles. That’s why I didn’t use a clickbait title.

Let’s make a deal. If you’ve heard of this personal finance book, you stick around as a reader. If not, I’m okay if you click away angry and never come back.

Have you ever heard of If You Made a Million by David M. Schwartz? It’s illustrated by Steven Kellogg who happens to have written and illustrated one of my wife’s favorite books, The Mysterious Tadpole. My wife read it when she was a little girl. Our own kids are very familiar with Alphonse.

By now you may have realized that If You Made a Million is not about helping adults understand money. It’s about helping children. But please don’t click away just yet. If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the last 2 years, it’s that adults can learn quite a bit from children’s books.

Let’s dig into what makes If You Made a Million so special. (By the way, I was not paid to write this review. I simply saw it at the library. I will however make a small commission if you purchase the book from the above link.)

If You Made a Million

Before I get started with the review, let’s get a very important number out there: 1989. That’s when If You Made a Million was written. Yes, the book is as old as Taylor Swift. It is also three years older than Your Money or Your Life, which is often considered the first FIRE book. It was also written 6 years before Suze Orman wrote her first book.

Being old doesn’t make things good. (This blog is living proof of that.) Let’s get to the actual content.

Overall, the book takes a child on a journey of earning and spending money. It starts with feeding a fish a penny, which will allow you to buy one of a shyster’s pebbles. It continues to educate children about coins with increasingly more difficult jobs and ways to spend the money. These first few pages are fairly boring, but they go quickly since there’s only a sentence or two on each page. It’s an important to build that foundation.

Once you get into earning a dollar, the book tells the story of compound interest. Here’s the first one:

At ten dollars, the compound interest story gets a little more exciting:

At one thousand dollars, the idea of checks and how they work is introduced. It’s simply much easier than carrying around a wheelbarrow of coins or even a bunch of bills.

At fifty thousand dollars, we learn about how mortgages work:

There’s a little more to mortgages. Specifically it shows how you keep giving money to the bank year after year for 40 years. The illustrations show the old man still physically bringing his check to the bank for his castle payment. It also explains that, this time, you are the one paying interest to the bank.

Finally we get to the FIRE part of the book. It only takes six sentences. The first four are:

“If you have some very expensive plans, you may have to take on a tough job that pays well.
If you think ogre-taming would be an exciting challenge, you can have fun and make a great deal of money, too.
Of course, you may not enjoy taming obstreperous ogres or building bulky bridges or painting purple pots.
Enjoying your work is more important than money, so you should look for another job or make less expensive plans.”

Remember what I wrote before about adults learning from children’s books? That last sentence is “Exhibit A” of that.

I promised you six sentences. Here’s two more:

Did you catch the financial independence message there? Having that kind of passive income gives you the option to not work at all, but maybe you should choose the work that interests you because doing nothing could be boring.

There’s a quick concluding page after that to get children’s minds thinking about what they’d do if they made a million dollars.

Final Thoughts on If You Made a Million

I found it surprising how well the math from 1989 holds up today. Obviously the banks aren’t paying 5.25% interest like the examples. However, we often work with similar (or even larger) interest rates assuming more risk and different asset allocations.

Also, the one million number at the end might not seem like enough today. However, it is $2,034,157.94 in 2018 dollars. You’ll often see $2 million as the target number for FIRE, so the one million number from 1989 is solid.

After the story ends, there’s a significant section of “A Note from the Author.” Here you get about 1500 words on each of the themes in the book: why money?, how banks work, interest and compound interest, checks and checking accounts, loans, and income tax.

Finally there’s a huge explanation on how he calculated some of the amazing numbers used in the book. These are things like a million dollars in pennies will stack 95 miles high and a million dollars in quarters would way as much as a whale. If you love geeky math, this is fun, but you could choose to skip it and still get all the financial lessons.

Now that you have a good understanding of If You Made a Million, I have two questions:

1. Are you going to live up to the deal and stick around as a reader?
2. Did you think my title was clickbait or just spot-on analysis?

Let me know the answers in the comments.

My 2015 Financial Year in Review

January 20, 2016 by Lazy Man 2 Comments

I thought about reviewing my 2015 finances at the end of the year, but I decided against it. I didn’t want it to get lost in the shuffle of all the other year-end reviews. Plus if you were anything like me, you were focused on the holidays. I didn’t have time to read too many article, much less in-depth ones covering a whole year.

Finally, I want to publish what I feel are my best articles when people are mostly likely around to read it. Now is a great time, because you can learn from my mistakes and have a terrific 2016, right?

I started to write this and realized that I had a ginormous amount to say on each area. It didn’t make a lot of sense to put it all in one article and lull you to sleep, so I divided it into a few different areas that I’ll cover over the next couple of weeks. (If you find this stuff boring, don’t worry, I’ll be working in other content as well.)

Here are the areas, I’m covering:

The first of the series will be posted in a few hours. I will update this post and link to the articles as they go live.

I’ve written most of the articles already and they have a common theme. They all start out with a challenging situation. In fact, the news on almost all fronts looks very bad. However, if you can make it to the end, you’ll find that overall each area has positives that may even outweigh the negatives.

It may sound trite to suggest that everyone should review their last financial year, but they really sound. If I didn’t have a personal finance blog, I doubt I would have sat down and wrote it out. I learned a lot by taking the time to put it on ~~paper~~ screen. I’m also a lot more optimistic on where my finances are going now that I’ve blasted through most of the challenges.

Amazon Echo, Revisited

June 2, 2015 by Lazy Man Leave a Comment

Last year (by a few hours), I reviewed Amazon Echo (read the review).

The Echo is an odd device that doesn’t seem to sit any existing category of consumer electronics. It is a digital information assistant like Apple’s Siri, Google’s “Okay Google”, or Microsoft’s Cortana. However, it isn’t designed to be portable. It also wasn’t released with a large base of knowledge. It is still far, far behind of the those Big Three phone platforms.

Instead of being portable it has very good speakers and microphones. It’s always listening for the key word, “Alexa” that tells it to pay attention to the next command. I’ve had it work from over 30 feet away when there are no other distracting sounds.

When I last reviewed the Echo, I was one of the first people to receive it. It couldn’t do too much more than play music. And the music was mostly limited to Amazon’s Prime library. It has Bluetooth, so I could pair it with my phone and run music through that. It works fine, except when you do that Alexa (the Echo) becomes kind of dumb. I can’t tell it to find the Aerosmith MP3s on my phone and play them.

You could do a few other things such as tell Alexa to set a timer or add an item to a shopping list. (Unfortunately, the shopping list wouldn’t work with Wunderlist, where I keep my lists).

In short, the Echo could do quite a few different things, but nothing particularly great. I bought in because I liked the concept and put some faith behind Amazon’s engineers being able to expand what it can do.

Since that review, Amazon has sent me regular updates of what they’ve added. Here’s a few of them:

Sports scores – This was kind of a no-brainer. I’m almost surprised it didn’t launch with them.
Traffic information – You have to set up your standard commute online first, but then you can simply ask, “Alexa, what is the traffic like?” Since I work from home, this isn’t particularly useful to me, but it could be handy for a few people.
Link Your Pandora account – This was a big one for me because I listen to Pandora more than my own music collection of MP3s.

I want to expand on that last one a bit. It is so much easier to ask Alexa to “play my Pandora” station than in it is to use any app. When I use the Amazon Fire TV Stick in my bedroom, I have to turn on the television, switch the source to the TV stick, and then navigate to the Pandora application. While the Fire TV stick has other advantages, score a win for the Echo for playing my music as soon as I can think about it.

These are all small changes to things that the Echo could do out of the box.

There’s one more big addition that has come about since my original review. The Echo can actually controlling items in your home.

For example Echo now works with Belkin’s WeMo Switch to allow you to turn on and off appliances. That might not be the most exciting thing in the world, but has been the basic building block of home automation for years.

The other thing that Echo can do is work with Philips Hue Lightbulbs. These bulbs are clearly for the “early adopter” audience. The bulbs change colors and can even sync with shows like 12 Monkeys on the Syfy network (which you should definitely catch). It’s out of my budget for the novelty, but it would be interesting to see my room’s change lighting with the action of my television. The Red Forest on the show was freaky enough without my whole room turning red.

The Echo can’t change the colors of the light bulbs right now. It is limited to turning them on and off and dimming them.

Again, this isn’t super-exciting, but it is baby steps. I don’t think locking and unlocking doors is too far away. If you have a lock that is wifi enabled, I would expect it to be coming down the pick any day now.

What I’m really hoping for though is for Alexa to read my email to me as I make breakfast. (If you are concerned about the privacy risk here, there are ways that it can be implemented without that issue.) I’d like it to work with my calendar. Tell me what appointments I have when I ask and add appointments when I tell it what to add.

If the Echo can work with my Pandora station there should be no limitation to working with my other accounts. Maybe in 6 months, I’ll be writing another review to tell you about it.

Who Wants In on the DRAFTApp Private Beta?

May 14, 2015 by Lazy Man Leave a Comment

This post is part of the #IwantDRAFT campaign with support from DRAFT, the app that uses crowdsourced data to help you understand and compare your portfolio, in partnership with Kasai Media. As always, the words and opinions, are mine and mine alone.

When I lived in Silicon Valley, I was fortunate enough to attend Finovate, a conference of financial companies, most of them very small start-ups. Companies like Mint and Lending Club cut their teeth there. I like to call that time in 2008 the Golden Age of consumer financial applications. As the years went on, companies seemed to put their focus on creating products that they could sell to banks. Those are great too, but they are a pain to write about. People can’t use them right away.

Over the last couple of days, a new company, DRAFT, has used Finovate to launch a new consumer-focused application for tracking your money. It’s 2008 all over again, and I mean that in an awesome way. They are opening up their private beta and all you have to do is give your email address to get in line.

So what is DRAFTApp? It’s a mobile application designed to help you manage your money in one place. It

One of the most interesting things to me is the crowdfunding aspect of draft. You can see this in the image. It gives you not only your returns, but also a comparison with the top 10% of DRAFTApp users. This really shines when it comes to understanding the investment fees that you’ll pay. I’ve seen hundred of charts about how fees greatly reduce investment returns… and perhaps I take it for granted that regular readers have seen some of them as well. Of course DRAFTApp highlights this as well.

I will be signing up for DRAFTApp just for this alone. (I’m going to bring down that Top 10% average… ha ha!)

One thing that I won’t focus too much on is the investment returns of the top 10%. By definition 90% of people are going to be disappointed in it. I had significant money in Europe, which didn’t perform well last year. I know my performance is going to be disappointing. I want to be careful to not let this disappoint change my diversification to chase winners.

That said, it is refreshing to have other options than just a comparison of my portfolio to the S&P 500. Many tools use a few basic indexes and in the last year, I didn’t compare well with that either. In most cases your portfolio isn’t an index, so I find such comparisons odd anyway.

There are a few more features that I could highlight, but I think part of the fun is discovering them on your own. So why not join the waitlist and give it a shot? You’ve got nothing to lose