by The Investor
on July 24, 2009
I am not a standard personal finance blogger. Many of my peers only fixed their finances after first running up huge debts or losing their jobs. But I’ve never been in debt and I’ve never claimed a penny in welfare or benefits.
The closest I’ve got to the D-word was in my second year at university, when I borrowed money from a friend between grant cheques to buy a stereo.
In mitigation, I was still using that system a decade later – I bought well – and when I left college I had money in the bank, despite only ever receiving the standard student grant.
(Specifically, I took out a student loan, but only to put the money into a high interest savings account, then arbitraged the difference between the rates!)
Anyway, for me that stereo purchase was my wild moment – the equivalent of a week-long cocaine binge with dwarf waiters, fire-eaters and loose women on stilts. (I presume that’s what debt-fueled decadence looks like?)
Am I perfect then? I wish. I have financial blindspots just like anyone else – but maybe not the same ones.
[continue reading…]
Thanks for reading! Monevator is a spiffing blog about making, saving, and investing money. Please do sign-up to get our latest posts by email for free. Find us on Twitter and Facebook. Or peruse a few of our best articles.
{ }
by The Investor
on July 22, 2009
I believe Facebook will one day be seen as important a leveling force for humanity as the Magna Carta, the Suffragettes and the International Bill of Human Rights.
Why? Because what strikes you when you click through other people’s profiles is how similar we all are.
We no longer collectively aspire to marriage, 2.4 kids in the suburbs and cutting our lawn on Sundays in formation.
Yet we mostly have similar gangs of friends who crowd in front of the camera or who take photos of us on bridges during breaks in far-flung cities.
We all say we like books, films and music that thousands of others like.
We’re different, but we’re recognisable by our similarities. We rally around them.
But there’s another thing that strikes you when first encountering Facebook, if you’re over a certain age.
It is harder to write about, but even more true.
[continue reading…]
{ }
by The Investor
on July 4, 2009
Some interesting financial and investing posts I ran across this week, plus a few decent articles from the newspapers.
Dear reader, by the time you get this note, I’ll be gone.
Yes, proving Monevator really is the product of one man’s ego mind and not a corporate mouthpiece or a big media outlet, I’ve gone on holiday for a week and hung the ‘Out for Lunch’ sign on the door.
This means no new posts for seven days!
But please don’t forget to come back to Monevator, because while I’m sure I’ll have the usual “what am I doing with my life” musings when sunning myself abroad, I’ve also got lots of posts planned already.
[continue reading…]
{ }
by The Investor
on July 2, 2009
Important: What follows is not a recommendation to buy or sell Lloyds. I’m just a private investor, storing and sharing notes. Read my disclaimer. And remember that investing is best done via index tracking funds, not stock picks.
I have done a bad thing. Maybe. I bought Lloyds Group shares at 72p. Yes, greed has finally overtaken fear in my pondering of the banking shares. I can’t help thinking that this may be a once in a lifetime opportunity to buy a giant of tomorrow on the cheap today.
And so on Wednesday I placed about 2% of my portfolio in Lloyds.
I’ve owned the shares previously, and got out before they plunged 90% in merging with HBOS as I’ve written about before.
Why have I bought them again?
[continue reading…]
{ }
