Good reads from around the Web.
Thanks to everyone who shared their responses to the new design tweaks [1] here at Monevator [2]. I’m pleased to say the consensus has been overwhelmingly positive.
Today’s Weekend Reading has a further experimental element.
I know! Exciting.
As part of his design feedback, reader Al went off-piste to suggest [3] that when we link to external sites from Monevator, we should be opening such pages in a new browser tab or window.
This way you don’t navigate away from Monevator when you click through to an external article. Our site remains just where you left, it in the original tab. Al prefers this method, especially when browsing a bunch of Weekend Reading links.
From a selfish perspective as a website owner, this approach is far better for me, too, as I am less likely to lose you to a site I link to.
But when I learned the craft of blogging a decade ago, it was frowned upon as rude to force new windows on readers.
Al says times have changed. Mainly it’s down to all that tabbing, as opposed to the old way of opening new additional windows. Tabs are much less of a burden on the reader than windows popping up all over the place. The benefits now outweigh the costs, he says.
For today’s Weekend Reading, I’ve experimentally made all the links open in new tabs.
What do you prefer? Do you prefer this approach to clicking through to the new site and then (hopefully) using your browser’s Back button to return to Monevator?
Please let me know in the comments below.
Enjoy the links – there’s tons of good stuff today – and have a great weekend!
From the blogs
Making good use of the things that we find…
Passive investing
- 40 years of indexing: From folly to fear – Abnormal Returns [4]
- Can you afford not to DIY Invest? – Retirement Investing Today [5]
- Bigger, stronger, and luckier – The Irrelevant Investor [6]
- Why not a value bias? – Research Affiliates [7]
- Confessions of an asset allocator – The Personal Finance Engineer [8]
Active investing
- Deal or No Deal: A lesson in investor psychology – The Value Perspective [9]
- That extraordinary post-Brexit bounce – FIRE v London [10]
- Huh? Stocks reach a record high – Investing Caffeine [11]
- Do ETFs make their underlying holdings more expensive? – Vanguard [12]
- Chemring and dangers of growth by M&A – UK Value Investor [13]
- Keystone Kop valuations – Musings on Markets [14]
Other articles
- What does ‘doing the work’ mean? – The Escape Artist [15]
- From the ‘job loop’ to the ‘knowledge loop’ – Persuasions [16]
- Who wants to be a billionaire? [PDF] – Lindsell Train [17]
- How millennials killed hobbies – Stephanie Buck [18]
- Life is not a journey to retirement – Richard Branson [19]
- When you change the world and nobody notices – Morgan Housel [20]
- Encouraged by others to take risks – The Finance Buff [21]
- How long can retirees expect to live? – Wade Pfau [22]
- A dozen things learned about the music business – 25iq [23]
Product of the week: HSBC [24] will pay you £200 if you switch to its Premier or Advance account, reports The Telegraph [25]. There are hurdles: To get the full whack you have to stay for at least 12 months, set up standing orders, and register for online or mobile banking.
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 [26]
Passive investing
- Stock market efficiency: Micro or macro efficient? – Mutual Funds [27]
- Jack Bogle: Champion of the long run – Wall Street Journal [28]
- Index funds help keep your returns on track – Guardian [29]
- Justify your Smart Beta methodology – ETF.com [30]
Active investing
- Investors should not write-off ‘bond proxies’ [Search result] – FT [31]
- Why builders are a good bet after Brexit – ThisIsMoney [32]
- First UK VCT to offer a regular savings scheme – Interactive Investor [33]
- Funds with performance fees come under fire [Search result] – FT [34]
A word from a broker
- Fix your currency costs and reduce risk – Hargreaves Lansdown [35]
- Meet the UK’s top fund manager – TD Direct Investing [36]
Other stuff worth reading
- Merryn S-W: Why we should all aim to die broke [Search result] – FT [37]
- Here come the £5 plastic notes – Guardian [38]
- Some savers told they can’t hold SIPP money in fixed-rate bonds – Telegraph [39]
- One day you’ll be too old to manage your pension – Telegraph [40]
- Has London’s property bubble burst? [Search result] – FT [41]
- Why Hong Kong cash buying London housing is not all bad – Guardian [42]
- What if you weren’t afraid? – New York Times [43]
- It’s a boy thing – 1843 Magazine [44]
- Why are so many BASE jumpers dying? – National Geographic [45]
Book of the week: You have probably heard the unmistakable sound of an implement being drawn across a barrel here some weeks. Let’s face it, there are only so many must-read investing books, and I’ve only so much time to read them. But a new book from Charles D. Ellis – on index investing no less – will surely make the grade for all you passivistas out there. The Index Revolution: Why Investors Should Join It Now [46] was published in the past fortnight. If you’ve read it, please give us a review below.
Like these links? Subscribe [47] 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”. [↩ [51]]