A busy week on Monevator covered everything from banker bashing [1] to, well, financial adviser bashing [2]. But it wasn’t all wanton violence, with posts on how to start investing [3], UK home buying [4], and DIY hedge funds [5], too.
Still need to work on making one or two of those articles shorter, though!
My post of the week is from The Simple Dollar, the huge US blog, and it continues the ‘financial adviser – friend or foe?’ theme.
Trent writes [6]:
It never hurts to know your stuff. Because my wife and I have been intimately involved in our personal finances for years, we knew what kinds of questions to ask and what to look for. We knew our stuff – and it revealed that our “advisor” did not.
After that meeting, my wife felt more competent and ready than ever before to take control of her own retirement savings and manage them herself through Vanguard. In the end, our disastrous meeting actually ended up being a confidence-builder.
It’s great that Trent’s wife felt empowered when she realised how informed she already was. You have to feel sorry for the next person who walked in through that adviser’s door though.
It’s hard to think of another profession where seeking advice is quite so dangerous if you don’t already know your stuff. Serial killer interviewer? Voodoo practitioner? Certainly you don’t expect to have to joust with your doctor or your architect.
I initially learned about investing because I wanted to grow my wealth, but the happy side effect is I can’t be railroaded by these creeps. I hope you reach the same place, too.
Some good reads from the money blogs
- Eight great movie rentals that will pay you back – Free Money Finance [7]
- Will switching to stock options decrease risk taking? – Darwin’s Finance [8]
- Invest? Borrow? Why not both? – Bad Money Advice [9]
- Stop complaining, you are already wealthy – Financial Samurai [10]
- What to do with a windfall – Money under 30 [11]
- Reward for what risk? – Mike [12] on Morningstar Advisor [13]
- Get a financial education in your 20s – Austin [14] on The Digerati Life [15]
- Store brand versus name brand taste experiment – the unique Len Penzo [16]
Financial and money articles from the UK papers
- Pick of the emerging markets – FT [17]
- Mortgage costs hit five year low – FT [18]
- China’s economy – not just another fake – The Economist [19]
- What you should know about banker’s bonuses – The Motley Fool [20]
- One in five chance of a second financial crisis – The Telegraph [21]
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