Good reads from around the Web.
Hey you! Are you a Monevator reader living outside of the US or the UK – or at least a speaker of another language – who is pursuing financial freedom?
Then we need your help!
Every week or two I’ll get an email that goes something along the lines of:
“Dear Investor, I love Monevator but I’m based in Croatia [or Singapore or France or wherever] and some of the regulations and financial products are different here.
Also we have better cheese [/beer/monkeys].
Anyway, do you know any good Croatian [/French/so on] bloggers that are into investing and financial independence who I can also follow?”
And the answer is – no, I don’t.
However I was thinking that perhaps YOU do.
So this is the day when I’m asking you to tell us all via the comments below about any good non-UK/US blogs that you think your countrymen and women should know about.
Please share a link, and a few lines (in English) about why it’s worth reading.
No big media websites or similar. Personal bloggers are what we’re after here.
Of course perhaps the reason I keep getting asked this question is because there aren’t very many such websites out there in the wider world.
But if we do get a decent list then I’ll put together a post that can serve as a reference for future queries.
Oh, and please don’t abandon Monevator for your new foreign flame!
Variety is the portfolio diversification of life…
p.s. A thought experiment: You’re cruising down the motorway when a clown car suddenly appears headed towards you from the opposite direction, forcing you to swerve into a brick wall at 80mph. As the impact approaches, one of the clowns shouts: “What are you screaming for? You haven’t even hit the wall yet.” Do you sigh, relieved, and give him a cheery thumbs up? Yes, according to this delusional Telegraph article on the Brexit-vote induced rate cut.
From the blogs
Making good use of the things that we find…
Passive investing
- Clarifying the case for indexing – Vanguard Blog
- The simplicity portfolio: One year on – The Escape Artist
Active investing
- The US market isn’t really that expensive – The Brooklyn Investor
- The worst ETFs you can own – A Wealth of Common Sense
- Pro basketballers would make bad value investors – The Value Perspective
- Lies investors believe – A Teachable Moment
- A dozen things learned from Andy Grove of Intel – 25iq
Other articles
- Profit and loss – Seth Godin
- John Oliver on money [Video, funny] – The Evidence-based Investor
- A look at sustainable drawdown strategies – DIY Investor (UK)
- How are student finances holding up? – Save the Student
- The way to find success – What I Learned On Wall Street
- Perhaps the 25 greatest recipes in the world – Meb Faber
Product of the week: I mentioned on Friday that the best one-year fixed-rate savings bond I can currently find is from Ikano Bank, a subsidiary of IKEA. The Telegraph highlights the same bond – paying 1.6% as of today – and warns readers to act quickly before it is pulled. Second best is a 1.55% payer you can get from Paragon Bank, or if you can stretch to an 18-month lock-in then there’s a slightly higher paying 1.65% rate bond from the Bank of Cyprus.
Mainstream media money
Some links are Google search results – in PC/desktop view these enable you to click through to read the piece without being a paid subscriber of that site.1
Passive investing
- The case for low-cost index fund investing [PDF] – Vanguard
- A money man’s biggest financial mistakes – AARP
Active investing
- Swedroe: Investors like lottery tickets – ETF.com
- Emerging markets – time to look again? [Search result] – FT
- Why Tesla shareholders back the SolarCity takeover – New York Times
- Richard Beddard has issues with Games Workshop – Interactive Investor
A word from a broker
- Interest rates: The UK in a global context – TD Direct Investing
- Shares as an alternative to cash ISAs – Hargreaves Lansdown
Other stuff worth reading
- Treating the hangover: Carney cuts interest rates – The Economist
- How affordable is rent in your local authority area? [Tool] – BBC
- How parents fund house deposits nationwide – ThisIsMoney
- Should you cash in your final salary pension? [Search result] – FT
- Thank you George Osborne for the annuity rule changes – Guardian
- Use your pension to minimize inheritance tax [Search result] – FT
- Landlord claims buy-to-let can still generate 20% returns – Telegraph
- An interview with the founder of RateSetter – ThisIsMoney
- The doctor who beat big tobacco – Guardian
- Facebook is not a technology company – The Atlantic
Book of the week: I sometimes question what I have become. Such as when I find myself seriously considering whether I should buy a copy of Inside The Investments Of Warren Buffett, written by a German portfolio manager called Yefei Lu. This £26.42 tome (cheaper on Kindle) apparently spends 312 pages dissecting in loving detail just 20 of Buffett’s most interesting investments, going way back to 1958. It’s hard to imagine anything much geekier. Readers, I’m tempted.
Like these links? Subscribe to get them every week!
- Note some articles can only be accessed through the search results if you’re using PC/desktop view (from mobile/tablet view they bring up the firewall/subscription page). To circumvent, switch your mobile browser to use the desktop view. On Chrome for Android: press the menu button followed by “Request Desktop Site”. [↩]
Great fare for the financially minded – thanks again for the weekly digest. Alas I can’t help with France or Croatia, but FIRE seems to be catching on in other parts of the English speaking world. Australia for example – http://www.aussiefirebug.com
That Telegraph article scales new heights for idiocy – such anti-rational populist drivel makes it little better than a tabloid these days. Bizarre also given that Evans-Pritchard, the Telegraph’s main financial journalist, is a world class doom-monger and has been telling its readers for the best part of a decade that the end of the financial world is nigh!
No More Waffles
“I’m a 26-year-old guy from Belgium who is trying to save and invest his way towards financial independence. I keep this blog to stay motivated, inspire my readers, and learn from others”.
http://www.nomorewaffles.com/
No more waffles blog
A money moustache devotee from Belgium
I haven’t looked this blog up in a while though
One slightly odd one: http://trueeconomics.blogspot.com/ by Constantin Gurdgiev, a Russian economist based at Trinity College Dublin. He writes on a mix of Irish and European macro matters, and did a TEDx Talk a few years ago with his views on “human-centred” economic development.
Dividend investor from Florence, Italy
https://stalflare.wordpress.com/
That John Oliver piece hit the spot!
Great idea INVESTOR. Yeah trolling through paragraph after paragraph regarding 401k & Roth IRAs (US) or ISAs & SIPPs (UK) can get a bit tiresome (or even slightly jealous – since our own countries don’t seem to have such attractive investment vehicles) for the non natives. Luckily both this site and MMMs have quality writing to keep us interested. Only one I know about is that NMW one already mentioned above.
We do however have better Guinness in Ireland.
Mrs. Econowiser from/for the Netherlands
https://econowiser.wordpress.com/
Found this list from 2011 on the Get Rich Slowly website – not sure how many of these are still active:
http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2011/02/26/ask-the-readers-best-non-u-s-personal-finance-sites/
Read the guy claiming he gets a 20% return on a buy-to-let in the Telegraph (my parents’ choice; just back for the weekend) this morning and wondered if it would make your reading list. Surprised the “journalist” made no attempt to challenge Mr. Windsor on his supposed 20% return, given that he still needs to add mortgage interest payments, bills (as the article states, these are included in the rent that will be paid by the would-be tenants), property insurance, council tax (presumably, unless shared between tenants?) and any maintenance onto his costs. And that is before even considering the possibility that he won’t always have full occupency of the five rooms.
Thought you’d never ask 😉
Seriously though, great idea. I run (I think) the only English-language personal finance site in Japan. We provide information about local rules and regulations (Japan has a J401k and a NISA account) and have a small and active community that likes answering questions.
I blog a couple of times a week about frugality, saving, and diversified investing.
The website is: retirejapan.info
In response to your request for suggestions on good resources for international expatriates, see the link below to Andrew Hallam website, blog and book link. Advice on passive investing, global diversification vs home currency bias, international discount brokerages, tips on practical implementation and pitfalls to avoid.
https://andrewhallam.com
Another resource here:
https://the-international-investor.com/
Comparison of various international brokerages serving expatriates, and articles on more arcane topics such as procedures for reclaiming international withholding taxes.
@all — Cheers for the ideas so far!
@Blacksmith — Thanks for taking the time to write a note on those sites, but just to clarify for future input, what I’m really after here (and perhaps they don’t exist, or our readers don’t read them) are more personal style blogs. So the Retirement Investing Today of Spain, say.
On the ex-pat investing front, we’ve got a page here on Monevator which includes more links:
http://monevator.com/expat-investing-and-tax-us-and-uk/
“So the Retirement Investing Today of Spain, say.” Give it a few months and hopefully I’ll be able to oblige…
This: “If Britain is indeed experiencing a dent in consumer confidence then it is not down to Brexit – for that hasn’t actually happened yet.” might just be the single most idiotic sentence EVER written on the finance pages of a quality newspaper.
@RumTumF1: Yes that article was more …. from the Telegraph. No mention of additional costs but the biggest thing is the amount of effort owning several multiple occupancy properties entails. I would have to give up my job to be that landlord, significantly hidering the 20% returns.
From Spain:
http://inversorinteligente.net, a passive investing blog focused on the scarce options available in this country for The Accumulator fans.
http://www.dividends.es, about dividend growth investing.
Both of them by Antonio R. Rico
Here is a French one:
http://www.devenir-rentier.fr/
This is more a forum than a blog, however the issues discussed on it are very similar to those addressed on Monevator, with a significant bias towards investment in property, reflecting the widespread French aversion towards the stock market and preference for property (not unlike the UK)… It must be by far the most popular French website about financial independence, but I’m not really sure as I’ve been more interested in Spain lately. Although the website owner stays behind the scenes a lot (as it’s more a forum than a blog), he is a very charismatic young IT worker and a strong believer in long-term investing in stocks.
Here is my selection of Spanish blogs:
1) http://www.cazadividendos.com/
2) http://www.ahorrocapital.com/
3) http://jubilacionexpress.blogspot.fr/2015/12/inicio-de-blog.html
4) http://www.divindependencia.com/p/blogs.html
5) http://www.enormepiedraredonda.com/
1) provides high quality technical advice, similar to Monevator, on topics like for example the tax treatment of foreign (i.e. non-Spanish) dividends, how to declare them in your tax return and how the reclaim the rest of the dividend withholding tax from the foreign authorities, all written in a very accessible style (actually it arguably has done a better coverage of that particular topic than Monevator itself 😉 ).
2) is similar to 1). Don’t remember which of 1) or 2) have a philosophy of financial independence or not, sorry.
3) reads more like a “newbie”‘s blog, but I like the fact that it’s very detailed, especially the post with his reflection on international asset allocation for a Spanish-based resident: http://jubilacionexpress.blogspot.fr/2016/01/cual-es-la-composicion-optima-de.html
I can’t vouch for 4) at all as I just discovered it today: it is ostensibly about “financial independence through dividends” and provides a handy list of other relevant Spanish blogs at the link provided above.
5) is my favourite, at least from an entertainment point of view! It is much more about about lifestyle, travelling cheaply and meeting interesting people etc., as the author already took early retirement a few years ago. He has fantastic charisma and talent for story-telling and I found his blog captivating. Unfortunately the frequency of his posts seems to have gone down a lot (since he reduced his amount of travelling and starting spending more time at home?). Here is a particularly relevant post about a meeting of the “community of financial independence seekers” in Valencia last March:
http://www.enormepiedraredonda.com/la-comunidad-de-los-buscadores-de-la-independencia-financiera-nueva-serie-de-articulos/
Just a few words about myself in case you’re curious: I currently live in France after spending 13 years in London and taking early retirement 6 years ago at age 41, but I’m planning to move again to Spain in a few years’ time and I discovered those Spanish blogs recently while researching tax and investment issues in Spain. And, no, I don’t have a blog…
PS: I very much admire your courageous and principled stand against Brexit. Please don’t be intimidated by readers who think it has no place on a blog about investing and threaten to stop reading you, and accept this modest “pan-European” contribution as a token of my appreciation!
As Blacksmith mentioned, http://www.andrewhallam.com is an excellent blog aimed at expat investors. His books ‘Millionaire Teacher’ and ‘The Global Expatriates Guide to Investing’ are what got me started down the investing path. As a non-resident of the UK, I’m no longer eligible for things like ISAs or financial products like Vanguard Lifestrategy. He has lots of useful tips on this front. I set up my brokerage account in Luxembourg based on his book.
@ Andrew Williams @ The Investor
This: “If Britain is indeed experiencing a dent in consumer confidence then it is not down to Brexit – for that hasn’t actually happened yet.” might just be the single most idiotic sentence EVER written on the finance pages of a quality newspaper.”
I read the meaning of this as “any dent in consumer confidence can’t be due to THE MATERIAL effects of Brexit (as it hasn’t happened yet).
The possible dent in confidence may of course may be due to consumer concern about future Brexit or indeed to the effects of ‘Project Fear’ on consumer confidence.
To extend the clown analogy suppose you are in the inside lane in slow moving clown traffic on a motorway. The people in the back of the car want to move to the faster lanes but the front seat want to stay “we shouldn’t do that as the clowns in front tell us it’s dangerous to drive any faster and the outside lanes are blocked by a wall and the clowns won’t talk (trade with) to us if we move lanes”
The point is it is far to early to say what the economic effects of Brexit will be – it depends on the trade deals we negotiate with the EU and other countries and on UK domestic economic and monetary policy.
I know you have made detailed arguments in the past (and that its your blog)……… but calling people who disagree with you clowns and delusional ?? :):)
@PI — Alternatively, and more realistically, suppose you are cruising along a motorway, to the extent that you are one of the fastest moving cars of your type on the road. However, occasionally you get stuck for a few minutes behind a truck or a Sunday driver because hey, it’s the real world and you can’t just magically have everything your own way all the time. That doesn’t stop the children in the back urging you to switch lanes every few minutes – even from the fast lane to the slow lane – because, hey, children. You know it’ll get you there no faster, no more than switching queues in the post office does — and it’s very possible swerving at every excuse is more dangerous, too.
So you drive sensibly for 30 years, taking the odd bit of rough with the overwhelming smooth.
Of course the children keep moaning about ghosts, monsters under the bed, and the occasional moment in stuck traffic — so perhaps you shouldn’t have been so surprised when one day they manage to grab the wheel and swerve you into a dangerous lurch across the motorway. 🙁
It is not possible to say exactly what the economic effects of Brexit will be, but it is possible, as it always was, to say what they *probably* will be.
Brexiteer mind tricks don’t work on me. Calling an assessment of the future “Project Fear” because it’s not a positive one was bad enough before we saw any consequences, but it’s Orwellian newspeak now we’re seeing them.
First, as I and more importantly nearly every expert said, there’ll likely be a massive hit to confidence due to the uncertainty, risk, and sheer (economic) stupidity of it. That is what us happening now.
Predicting it didn’t make it happen, we’re not living in Ancient Greece.
Long-term, as I’ve said before, we’ll very likely just grow more slowly, forever (/foreseeable). It’s not impossible we’ll grow faster if we take a big lurch to the economic right (from our already fairly economically liberal position), at the expense of various regulations and social provisions. But still, I ascribe it a low probability.
Most likely we’ll muddle along, growth will be in aggregate 4-8% lower over say three decades, which won’t seem at all terrible and will be hard to disentangle from all the other shocks and factors — but will be from my perspective a voluntary and pointless bit of impoverishment.
In reality it will probably be uncertain enough for either side to be able to claim victory (sooner or later a global recession will come along to muddy the waters) but there is no good theoretical reason to believe that exiting a huge and prosperous free trade area should bring any sort of economic advantage, unless *perhaps* as I say if we use exiting the EU to abandon huge swathes of checks and balances, to stop worrying about things like pollution or unemployment rights etc, and to become some sort of ultra free market feudal trading colony.
But that won’t happen because almost nobody wants that. So we will just eventually negotiate crappier access to the EU than we had before, as a compromise but keeping virtually all the regulations etc.
Meanwhile literally millions of people in the UK now feel unwelcome, whether just vaguely due to the sentiments expressed in the campaign and result, up to the minority but real escalation of outright racism (I have a friend who won’t even go out after dark at the moment, after the vote).
And my life, like all my friends, will just be made more difficult for no good reason, a few mediocre ones, and several very bad ones.
I was calling the article delusional, rather than Brexit voters in general.
There are all manner of ways to describe them, seeing as there are so many different and contradictory Brexit voters. Some are kinder words, but delusional or even clowns are not the worst of them.
@The Investor. We are clearly going to have to agree to disagree about the economic outcome post Brexit. But some quick points
“Project Fear” is a fair characterisation IMHO if you consider that it involved the PM, Chancellor and Gov of B of E deliberately taking worst case scenarios, taking account of no nuance or adaptive economic policies and then choosing very concrete examples with the deliberate intention of frightening people. Particular low points were the comment about not protecting pensions and the emergency tax-raising budget.
In the two European countries I know best France and Germany racism is worse than the UK. In France Le Front National is in the ascendant. Having uncontrolled immigration and no democratic control over immigration and a governing class in denial / refusing to address the issue is the perfect storm for provoking racism. France still has this recipe and is at risk of having Marine Pen as President, the UK no longer does which is a cause for optimism. For what it’s worth there are reliable surveys that indicate that substantially more people voted Brexit because of the lack of sovereignty than because of immigration (see Daniel Hannan etc).
Everyone in the City now seems to forget the fact that the Commission has consistently tried to regulate away large areas of its business. Does anyone really think that this attack on UK financial services sector is anything than work in progress?
I am not sure if you have made this point but many others have claimed that being for Brexit some how indicates antipathy to countries in Europe and their people (distinct from the particular institutional arrangement that is the EU). There is certainly no logical or psychological coherence to this unfair characterisation. Doubtless in BNP types it exists but even amongst UKIP voters I would guess it is uncommon. (I write as a non-UKIP voter, from France, a country, culture, people I love and have the greatest respect for)
Finally, yes, most economic institutions were negative about the economic effects of Brexit but there are respected well known economists who disagree. This wouldn’t be the only example of “group think” amongst Institutions or of a majority argument being wrong. Jack Bogle, Vanguard and yes Monevator and their views on Index Investing come in to mind here. (This observation is made in the spirit of friendly admiration – just in case it seemed a cheap-shot).
PI
So the following are the blogs I ran across:
Singapore – http://www.turtleinvestor.net
Worldwide Expats – https://andrewhallam.com
For those in New Zealand I’d recommend Martin Hawes of http://www.martinhawes.com. He is author of multiple books, including the very popular Twenty Good Summers, and a practicing Financial Planner. His columns appear in national newspapers but you can also subscribe.
My own blog is new http://www.smallacornmoney.com and parts of it will soon have an international focus as I am currently researching and writing a book about managing your wealth globally, which is something I expect more and more people will be doing in this globally connected world.
@all — Thanks for the extra overseas blog ideas — please keep them coming! 🙂
Investor based in South Africa, detailing my journey to financial independence. Mostly invested in South African stocks which can offer higher returns than developed markets, but the blog is about investing in some of the best dividend paying stocks in the world, mostly outside of South Africa. http://www.dividendtycoon.com/
Thanks for the opportunity, I really enjoy reading Monevator, enjoying your blend of wisdom and humor.
@PassiveInvestor
‘I read the meaning of this as “any dent in consumer confidence can’t be due to THE MATERIAL effects of Brexit (as it hasn’t happened yet).[“]’
If this is what the author meant, s/he should have written it! However, it still makes no sense, because it assumes that people only respond to events when they have actually happened. Surely, you know that this is not true? Especially where finances are concerned.
I find this “Project Fear” stuff revolting because it shows that BREXIT supporters simply refuse to own the decision. I have still yet to hear ANY coherent idea from anyone as to how BREXIT will be managed. Instead we just get BREXITers smearing anyone who tries to understand or explain what the likely consequences of the vote are.
@Andrew Williams I am happy to own the decision. If when economic catastrophe happens then yes happy to discuss. Just it hasn’t happened yet. You may find “this Project Fear stuff revolting” but that doesn’t address the point I made arguing why “Project Fear” is an entirely reasonable description. Where are the Brexiteer smears – I don’t see them?
I won’t reply to any comments as I am aware that the real point of this post wasn’t Brexit and I don’t want to hijack the thread. I respect The Investors usual wish to keep things on message but get obliged to respond to the PS and your comment.
Adrian Steele (PI)
@PI — Yes, agree to disagree is the only practical solution really. I am not going to stop sharing my views here; as I’ve written before that’s partly what this blog is, as I appreciate you’ve acknowledged.
Each time I do it generates comments, albeit less than in the past (nevertheless I have had another half dozen emails this time, from this one P.S.). I have replied to many dozens of the hundreds of pro-Brexit comments/some of the emails in some detail, as well as writing probably 15,000 words on the subject, but I am only human. 🙂
And guests are arriving for a BBQ in 23 minutes! 😉
As I see it, Brexiteers largely can’t be argued with, although it’s not as bad as six weeks ago.
Partly it’s because of the sort of people they *generally* are (either under-educated, or over-educated 50-something Blimp types at the extremes, and tending to those extremes in between, as shown by all surveys cited multiple times, but not describing EVERY last Brexit-voter) and partly because there’s so much disagreement about what they voted for and why.
E.g. One pro-Brexit emailer who I’ve had a bit of back and forth with emailed this time that: “Don’t you realise that the Brexit vote was principally a vote of no confidence in Cameron/Osborne, and Brexit was the quickest way for the electorate to express it.”
Yes, exactly! That’s a major motivation! And what bitter Leave voters have been saying. The irony that he finally sees it is painful.
Even yourself, clearly at the decent end of the reasonable end of the pro-Brexit spectrum, is still talking about “economic catastrophe”. I said above and multiple times there probably won’t be “catastrophe”, once we get through the initial bump, so that discussion is irrelevant here. I have never used that word or sentiment.
There’ll just likely be less GDP/money/tax receipts for everyone, for decades, for no good reasons.
You also argue that immigration was second place to sovereignty, as if that’s material. Even if this is true (which I don’t believe, and which I often think is also conflated — i.e. the most logical reason for the regaining of the supposedly fatally lost sovereignty is to control immigration) there is no doubt that immigration (/worse) represented at least 30-40% of the Leave vote (I’d go higher) which is trivially enough to swing it to the 52% mark to Leave. So a red herring to claim some other thing was maybe slightly more important, IMHO.
And as I’ve written before, the idea of this loss of sovereignty is laughable anyway. We now have an unelected prime minister (albeit one I’m happy to see there, given the alternatives) heading up a party that 37% of the electorate voted for, and perhaps 25% of the eligible population voted for. I’m not decrying that, it’s our system, I’m just saying it’s hardly some hallowed democratic ideal.
For an excellent description of how the EU process actually works, see this long comment by Tyro:
http://monevator.com/weekend-reading-bored-of-brexit-its-only-just-begun/#comment-764493
Re: Racism etc, well I’d agree about France but not Germany (though the latter has a bigger more vocal minority, no doubt due to its history and legacy of East Europe etc). I have some sympathy, expressed from the start of this debate, that free movement should have been more controllable as clearly it was exerting at the least social pressures, even if all the supposed economic downsides are wrong. But that wasn’t enough for Brexit for me, or close to it. Over time it would have eased up as Europe gets back up-to-speed economically, and the one-off shock of the new entrants of a decade or so ago wears off. (Plus the well publicised points that we didn’t even control the immigration we could control. Again, I’m not for massively tighter controls. I am just saying I can see this was a flash point, to your point about increasing social tensions etc).
I agree with you not all Brexiteers hate Europe or Europeans or anything like that. (E.g. The Boris faction clearly doesn’t). I think evidently far more are xenophobic than Leave voters are, though, so I feel one is entitled to a bit of useful generalization in understanding motivations.
As for the tit-for-tat economists argument, no.
There were a small handful, who at least honestly called themselves “Economists for Brexit”. It wasn’t one for one, back and forth. As others have noted a downside of the impartial nature of the BBC coverage is it sought to give equal weight to the arguments, when there was nothing like an equal weight behind them. (The early days of climate change — another subject that riles the Blimp-y end of the Brexiteer spectrum — comes to mind on that score).
Now I’ve derailed my own comments! 🙁 (But thanks for acknowledging the tension in the thread. I probably should have put the P.S. in a different post, so partly my fault I concede.)
@RugbyTrader — I don’t think there is any simple way to measure it, and that we will literally be hearing arguments waged both ways for the rest of our lives. However as I’ve said, short of becoming Singapore (with all that entails) there’s no theoretical reason to think leaving the EU will boost growth.
@Andrew Williams — We’re going to hear them disowning the consequences for a decade. 🙁
@all — Thanks for the overseas blog ideas! More! But we’ve had Andrew Hallam 6-7 times now (I’ve deleted a few repetitions) so consider him covered. 😉
@PassiveInvestor
I agree that we have derailed this thread enough, so I won’t continue here.
Hi The Investor ,
I would like to promote my own blog which I have just started ,,,where I have also retired and depending on my passive income for past 2 years !
Pls find my blog link :
https://stestocksinvestingjourney.blogspot.sg
Thanks
Canadian pf blogger – http://www.tawcan.com/
Swiss blogger – http://www.mustachianpost.com/
Another one one from Singapore:
http://singaporeanstocksinvestor.blogspot.ch/
For Germany try http://der-privatier.com/
For Switzerland try http://www.mustachianpost.com
His list of European blogs can be found here :
http://www.mustachianpost.com/european-financial-independence-early-retirement-blogs/
And yes, the country where you are located is very important : have a thought for the poor chaps in Holland, who have to face a 1.2% wealth tax, and that with current yields…
And if you somehow still manage to be FI, and have the tenecity to actually retire early, then your social contribution taxes are based on your net worth, instead of your income, and are punishingly high.
Basically FI/RE is not possible in Holland…
Glad I switched country ( short term to FR, then long term to CH )
@Jos Dreesen
Why do you want to move from France to Switzerland? Isn’t Switzerland a very expensive country for an early retiree to live in? Also with quite high taxes (for the vast majority of residents) and very expensive health insurance. And cold!
Do you have a blog?
@david I dont blog as i do not have enough to contribute. CH is gre at while you are in accumulation fase, less so afterwards.Just started into deaccumulation, and looking into a move to DE. Before Brexit i would have considered Uk…
Thanks for the link to the Torygraph article, it was entertaining. Who coulda thunk it the daily journal for elderly xenophobes was an ardent proponent of the law of attraction, as evidenced by this priceless gem:
“The voters want to leave the EU. Some commentators lament this decision and seem actively to will that it turns out for the worse.”
Can someone pretty please put me in touch with these commentators? I hope they can give me some tips, for I’ve been actively willing a supermassive lottery win for years with no results.
@Jos Dreesen
I can’t comment about Germany: I don’t know much about the tax or health system there, just know that the cost of living there is quite low nowadays. I recommend you look at Spain and Portugal too: they are among the most popular countries to live in for people who don’t need to work, and for good reasons (from a tax point of view, Portugal is much more advantageous if a lot of your net worth is inside pension plans, otherwise it’s not too different). I would also look at Austria – don’t know much about it, but just to see how it compares with Germany for someone if your situation. I understand the attraction of Germany if you want to stay close to your family and friends in the Netherlands, though.
Many thanks for all of this, but in particular for ‘The doctor who beat big tobacco’.
For starters, it reminds me of Nick Train’s explanation of why he didn’t own tobacco stocks: ‘It’s not a moral objection on my part, but it feels like not a smart thing to do — to be a partner in a business that kills its own customers.’
The article is a powerful (if long) example of my moral issues with Passive investing (I appreciate mine is a minority view on this website).
It’s obviously a subjective thing but, apart from tobacco, I feel uneasy about unknowingly investing in any company which may treat its employees and shareholders badly, mess up the environment, and enrich its directors through misincentivised stock options.
For that reason, personally I do not want to invest passively, while appreciating it means I will probably underperform.
(obvious unspoken message here is – I’m all for more active investing articles from the Investor!).
here is blogger from Slovakia – http://peniazesucas.sk/
Very important blog entry by The Brooklyn Investor in your list above re the expensiveness (or otherwise!) of US markets that anyone fearful would do well to read.
After reading that, and the Stan Druckenmiller reference in the comments, I’d recommend reading this:
http://ciovaccocapital.com/wordpress/index.php/stock-market-us/a-historical-lesson-about-debt-bearish-conviction-and-the-need-for-flexibility/
These Masters of the Universe types are far, far from infallible; rather, they are exceptionally flexible and when they’re wrong do not remain anchored to prior views as do the internet’s doom-/boom-mongers, whom you follow to at your peril…
Germany has a ~25% flat tax on interest/dividends and a 25% capital gains tax (above a small threshold). It doesn’t have anything like ISAs, as far as I know. Investing in non-German ETFs is pretty horrendous in terms of tax. Some ETFs (e.g. Vanguard) reinvest part of their dividends, leading to having to declare fractions of the ETF. Germany’s highly complex and punitive tax system is one of the worst parts of living there, IMHO, though if you know the system supposedly there are lots of allowances.
As a expat reader who has benefited from your blog for the last year or so I thought I should respond to your call.
I can’t make any personal recommendations but this Norwegian blogger has already made a list of personal finance blogs in Norway… most private and some commercial. Many link back to your blog and repeat wisdom from here! http://aksjebloggen.com/10-blogger-om-personlig-okonomi-finans-og-aksjer/
nb Google translate works pretty well with Norwegian! One good thing we have here is a company called Nordnet (Swedish originally) who amongst others offer low or no cost fund purchase including 4 of their own tracker funds with zero cost.
Hi guys,
Thanks for an amazing blog. Monevator has been an source of inspiration for me personally, both as an investor, blogger and financial freedom seeker. Keep up the awesome work! 😀
I would like to recommend these two FI blogs from Norway:
– Pengeblogg(http://pengeblogg.bloggnorge.com/): Probably the oldest still running FI blog in Norway.
and, my own blog:
– Finansnerden(http://www.finansnerden.no/): Here I write about my journey towards having fuck you money within april 2026 through increasing income, saving, and investing in stocks, bonds and real estate.
Best,
Finansnerden, Norway
FIRE seems to be a thing in South Africa also:
http://investorchallenge.co.za/blog/
I’m adding my blog into the ring…. I blog from Barbados: http://www.oddcents.com.
Canada (sites I check regularly)
http://canadiancouchpotato.com/
http://www.canajunfinances.com/
http://www.myownadvisor.ca/
http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/
http://www.thebluntbeancounter.com/ (this one has more of a business finances angle)
http://www.moneywehave.com/
http://youngandthrifty.ca/blog/
http://canadianmoneyforum.com/index.php (Canadian message board)
Some more German blogs, received in an email:
http://whatlifecouldbe.eu
http://www.frugalisten.de
https://exstudentin.wordpress.com/
http://www.madamemoneypenny.de
http://klunkerchen.com
If I may, I would like to add one more german finance blog. It is called http://www.handelszeit.com and this guy is obivously concentrating on trading with options.