What caught my eye this week.
A few weeks ago we discussed [1] whether investing blogs were running out of things to say.
Perhaps this reached ace writer Morgan Housel via Chinese whispers as a death cry [2] of “FINISH HIM!”
Because as if to rub salt into the wounds, Housel has now condensed a whole blogosphere of personal finance wisdom into one short post [3].
My favourite sequence of his Short Money Rules:
3. Good investing is 50% psychology, 48% history, 2% finance.
4. Great investing is 40% skill, 20% luck, 40% inability to tell which is which.
5. Bad investing is 40% overconfidence, 40% fees, 20% denial that keeps it all going.
It’s all good stuff, so do check out Morgan’s complete article [3].
(With luck he’s dropped the mic, walked off the stage, and left the rest of us to keep on waffling these points into 1,000 word epics… 😉 )
Have a great weekend everyone!
From Monevator
Updated! Low cost index trackers that will save you money – Monevator [4]
From the archive-ator: A mortgage is just money rented from a bank – Monevator [5]
News
Note: Some links are Google search results – in PC/desktop view you can click to read the piece without being a paid subscriber. Try privacy/incognito mode to avoid cookies. Consider subscribing if you read them a lot!1 [6]
Research reveals who made the most from UK property [Search result] – FT [7]
Property repossessions at lowest level since the 1980s… – BBC [8]
…but property professionals still gloomiest in a decade – ThisIsMoney [9]
Amazon to launch first checkout-free stores in London – Retail Gazette [10]
The fashion models struggling with a life of debt – BBC [11]
JP Morgan is rolling out the first US bank-backed cryptocurrency – CNBC [12]
£25m car scrappage scheme for ‘low-income families’ in London ahead of 2021 air quality clean-up – ThisIsMoney [13]
[14](Click to enlarge)
BOE: Business investment diverged sharply after the EU Referendum – Sky’s Ed Conway via Twitter [15]
Products and services
Should you have to pay exit fees if your investing site shuts down? – ThisIsMoney [16]
New site launched to help workers claim uncollected pay – Guardian [17]
Could you make £150 a month selling unwanted clothes on fee-free Vinted? – ThisIsMoney [18]
How to improve your credit score [Search result] – FT [19]
Ratesetter will give you a free £100 [and me a cash bonus] if you invest £1,000 for a year – Ratesetter [20]
Hargreaves’ own-brand funds under-perform [Search result] – FT [21]
“Our MDF furniture brought toxic fumes into our home” – Guardian [22]
Mews houses for sale [Gallery] – Guardian [23]
Comment and opinion
When aiming for a target, consider the accuracy of the weapon – Portfolio Charts [24]
What are the different measures of inflation, and are we being conned? – Guardian [25]
Diversify when the upside is limited – The Market Cyclist [26]
Budgeting with Cardi B – A Wealth of Common Sense [27]
Do you like what’s in the tin of your global index fund? – DIY Investor UK [28]
They Live [On big picture asset allocation biases] – Epsilon Theory [29]
More evidence ‘tactical investing’ is code for ‘do worse’ – Capital Spectator [30]
How to wreck a pension plan in three easy steps – A Wealth of Common Sense [31]
Fund managers are still overweight cash and underweight shares… – Fat Pitch [32]
…but other data suggests private investors have already piled back in – Dan Lyon [33]
FTSE 100 dividend-based valuation and forecast for 2019 – UK Value Investor [34]
Sovereign bond returns since Waterloo [research, via Abnormal Returns [35]] – CEPR [36]
Brexit
Britain is losing £40bn a year to Brexit, says BOE rate-setter – ThisIsMoney [37]
Porsche is asking customers to commit to 10% price hikes if no-deal Brexit – ThisIsMoney [38]
Dutch Brexit humour from outside the nuthouse – Simple Living in Somerset [39]
Cambridge academic bares all in a bid to reverse Brexit – via Twitter [40]
Kindle [41] book bargains
Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb – £1.99 on Kindle [42]
ReWork: Change the Way You Work Forever by Jason Fried – £1.99 on Kindle [43]
Unscripted: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Entrepreneurship by MJ DeMarco – £0.99 on Kindle [44]
Off our beat
This man devised a formula for finding love, and followed it – BBC [45]
Fun rant about our supposedly inevitable jobless AI future – Scott Locklin [46]
The cognitive aristocracy – Of Dollars and Data [47]
Water bottle signalling [Clearly I’m ancient, news to me!] – The Atlantic [48]
“I stole £30,000 from my mum to make millions” – BBC [49]
Would a $249 gravity blanket help you sleep better? – 1483 [50]
And finally…
“Superior investors are people who have a better sense for what tickets are in the bowl, and thus for whether it’s worth participating in the lottery. In other words, while superior investors — like everyone else — don’t know exactly what the future holds, they do have an above-average understanding of future tendencies.”
– Howard Marks, Mastering the Market Cycle [51]
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- 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”. [↩ [57]]