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Weekend reading: Our top 10 articles of 2014

Weekend reading

Hope you’re enjoying the break? It does seems to have been a good year for some strategic calendar leverage.

A friend tried to explain to me how with judicious timing and a couple of convenient office parties he was aiming to take three weeks off by using just two days annual leave. As a professional non-jobber I dozed off and don’t recall the details, but I admired the spirit.

For my part, I’m going for a week off Monevator, and hence I wrote this post last Saturday and set it to publish automatically.

Fingers crossed it’s not now wildly inappropriate. If the aliens have invaded or a Tsunami has washed away Norfolk then hey ho, stiff upper lip and all that.

Here are ten 14 of my favourite articles from Monevator in 2014.

I hope you missed one, or else you’re pleased to re-read another.

If not, well, 2015 is imminent, and that means you’ve got a brand new clutch of exciting articles about expense ratios and withholding taxes to look forward to.

Erm…

Happy new year!

(All titles in blue link to the article).

How to be a capitalist

A very popular post, which is heartening given all the frappuccino communists around these days. If I pull my finger out and write a book, this’ll be it.

Warren Buffett’s most personal bet yet on index investing

The mega stockpicker doesn’t trust anyone to do better for his wife after he’s gone than the market. I believe his declaration was a significant wake-up call.

The Warren Buffett passive portfolio

Woken up by Warren? Here’s how to create your own Buffett-style passive portfolio using UK trackers.

How to construct your own asset allocation

You could go to one of the many advisers who are now charge 0.25 to 1% a year to set you up with six ETFs. Or you could pour a cup of coffee and read this post.

Valuing growth stocks is hard

For various reasons, I don’t write much about active investing on the blog these days – but in sharp contrast to my co-blogger I remain very much a stock picker.

The Accumulator’s confession booth

One to read for the 60-plus confessions from Monevator readers, as well as the chance to hear The Accumulator admit to owning an active fund. (Gasp…)

Compound interest and its enemies

This isn’t a post that will knock many of you over, but I quite like our occasional Investing for Beginners series. Must do more in 2015.

How to read a fund factsheet

The kind of high octane journalism that Monevator is renowned for. Okay, I admit it’s pretty mundane but the devil charges for the details with investing.

When to buy insurance

I’m very pleased to have former hedge fund manager Lars Kroijer writing for our blog. Here he turns his ultra-rational mindset to insurance.

Why you shouldn’t track your investment returns

I admit that for me this is in the eat five pieces of fruit and run three times a week category of an aspiration rather than actuality. I’m getting better though!

The staggering way The City overcharges investors in active funds

The first of a ten-part video series from Sensible Investing TV on the ins and outs of passive investing. Makes a great primer.

Not your father’s retirement

Our newest regular contributor, The Greybeard, introduces himself and explains why he’s looking at retirement through a whole new lens.

Lump sum investing versus drip feeding

You would not believe how many emails we get about this (which we can’t answer in terms of personal advice, anyway). As to which is best? It depends…

A landlord is someone who borrows money on your behalf

In which I either continue to reveal the Matrix behind modern personal financial, or else I continue to try to justify bottling out of buying a London flat…

So that’s it from us in 2014. If you spot any good investing articles elsewhere on the Web this week, please do share them in the comments below. Otherwise see you on the other side!

{ 4 comments… add one }
  • 1 agranny December 27, 2014, 6:38 pm

    I love your website and would “like” it on Facebook if I were a member.
    Happy New Year and thank you for educating me!

  • 2 The Investor December 27, 2014, 10:13 pm

    Thanks agranny, Happy New Year to you too!

  • 3 theFIREstarter December 29, 2014, 2:21 pm

    Just re-read the “How to be a capitalist” article and there was one rather important point I noticed again – I checked my contract and yes, my current company does “Own everything I do” whether it is outside work or not. What a joke! So technically they would own my blog and it’s contents if they found out and had the inclination to take it off me.
    Hopefully no one I know at work reads this and works it out… hehe 🙂

  • 4 @algernond January 3, 2015, 1:12 am

    Since it’s the beginning of a new year, it seems a reasonable time to ask this, but before I do, I’d like to point out that I am passively investing my SIPP & ISA in > 60% world tracker funds (mostly Vangaurd), so it’s not like I’m not a believer in Capitalism.

    Just wondering, when he world is economy is shocked into radical change by the impending global warming catastrophe (surely within the next 50 years), what do think will be the likely impact on our low cost index tracker funds ? Maybe worthy of an article ?

    Happy New Year !

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