Good reads from around the Web.
Still to buy all your Christmas presents? You’ll get no sympathy from me if you intend to shop on foot like some Luddite from the 1980s.
Why not go the whole hog and hit the High Street on a horse?
Me, I’ve done all my Christmas shopping online via Amazon [1]
bust-up reunion. It’s become even easier since I joined Amazon Prime. No crowds, no packing, no delivery fees, and no worries it won’t make it on time.
So in the spirit of giving, I’ll share a few Amazon-able gift ideas with you.
Fear not! I won’t try to cherry pick the best BBC box sets [2]
Instead we’ll stick to what we know, with money and investing book ideas plundered from the many I’ve read and featured here in 2013.
Best for new passive investors
The third addition of Smarter Investing [4]
Best for those who should know better
Investing Demystified [6]
Best for old-school share investors
John Lee is one of the greats of UK private investing, with the noble Lord having become famous through his FT columns – and his revelation that he was an ISA millionaire by the early 2000s through his investing results. Now we can learn how he did it in his eagerly-awaited How to Make a Million Slowly [7]. I’m glad to report there’s even a Monevator plug on the back!
Best for value investors
I wish I’d bought the attractive hardback version of The Value Investors [8]
Best for investing wisdom
The Most Important Thing: Illuminated [9]
Think of the children!
There’s a dearth of new books out there for newcomers to investing – a shame given that the state pension age has just been raised to 143 (or thereabouts) and half the country is in hock.
This means it is hard for me to recommend new books for disinterested nieces or nephews.
I still meet people whose life was changed by reading Rich Dad Poor Dad [10]
Alternatively, perhaps just throw the superlative Warren Buffett autobiography The Snowball [11]
From the blogs
Making good use of the things that we find…
Passive investing
- Simplify to avoid opportunities for failure – Abnormal Returns [12]
- Introducing Vanguard’s new AlphaBet ETFs – Vanguard blog [13]
Active investing
- Fragile state: Are investors forgetting already? – Value Perspective [14]
- Profiting from the fog of investing – UK Value Investor [15]
- As good as it gets for UK investors? – The Munro Blog [16]
- Emerging markets look interesting – Simple Living in Suffolk [17]
- Investors feast while bears get cooked – Investing Caffeine [18]
- 10 US stock ideas from some quants – The Reformed Broker [19]
Other articles
- Do risk-adjusted returns matter? – Oblivious Investor [20]
- Why property is a pension for many – Retirement Investing Today [21]
- A reader’s budget busted [US but relevant] – Mr Money Mustache [22]
- Here’s why everyone is warning about bubbles – Phil Pearlman [23]
Product of the week: The Post Office [24] is offering attractive five-year fixed rate mortgages that can beat Help To Buy alternatives if you can stretch to a 10% deposit, reports ThisIsMoney [25]. It’s charging 4.29% for a five-year fix at 90% loan to value, but there is a £1,495 fee.
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
- October best month ever for UK tracker sales [Search result] – FT [27]
- ETF fund strategists are making hay from the ETF boom – Reuters [28]
Active investing
- Asset prices: Not yet fully inflated – Economist [29]
- Shares can survive the end of money printing – Telegraph [30]
- Buffett’s peerless market-beating ways revealed – Bloomberg [31]
- Cash is still king for affluent investors – FT [32]
- 10 US stock ideas from the ‘ultimate’ stock pickers – Morningstar [33]
Other stuff worth reading
- How many tulips can you buy with one bitcoin? – The Atlantic [34]
- Bankrupted by a mobile phone bill – The Guardian [35]
- House prices show biggest leap for six years – The Guardian [36]
- Autumn Statement disappointing for savers – Telegraph [37]
- New CGT rules for homeowners turned landlords – ThisIsMoney [38]
Book of the week: Don’t fancy the money books? Then indulge your bucolic fantasies with this gorgeous book of Perfect English Farmhouses [39]. The words might be good, but I just look at the pictures and sigh. A bit wet, I know.
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- Reader Ken notes that: “FT 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”.” [↩ [44]]