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Weekend reading: Fidelity or infidelity?

Weekend reading: Fidelity or infidelity? post image

My regular roundup of the week’s best money blogs and financial articles.

A new feature has emerged from the Monevator labs for those of you who follow the comment discussions on the blog.

Clicking on ‘Discussion’ in the top right corner of any page (between ‘Highlights’ and ‘Archives’) takes you to the new comment page. This page lists all the latest posts to receive comments and the comment authors, as well as an excerpt from their comment. Click on the author’s name to jump to their comment and add your views.

With this new page it’s easy to see if there’s been any more input on the threads you’ve been following. Alternatively, you can find a new discussion. You can still subscribe by email to comments using the tick box below the comment form, too.

One post that’s had a lot of comments this week is The Pros and Cons of Being Wealthy. The upshot is we’d happily take our chances! I also wrote about house price and food inflation,  and about companies paying dividends early to beat the new higher rate taxes.

My blog post of the week is from My Money Blog. Jonathan looks at how a reader’s holdings have been analysed by Fidelity’s portfolio review service, and finds that they’re basically being stuffed with a higher cost, lower return alternative to index funds:

Over the past 5 years, the Fidelity Portfolio Advisory Service managed to construct a portfolio that lagged a simple index fund portfolio by 1.70% annually. That’s a huge difference over time. Use any compound interest calculator and stick in two numbers that differ by 1.7%, and you’ll see the effect of compound interest working against you for a few decades.

Why did this account perform so poorly relative to its benchmark? Isn’t it supposed to beat the benchmark?

The moral: Never give anyone else control of your money. Most financial advisers are after your cash. They’re not half as interested as you in growing it.

More highlights from the personal finance blogs

Interesting financial newspaper articles

  • Buy-to-let returns 187% in the decade – FT
  • …while cash savers who switched saw 70% returns – FT
  • Obscure way to buy China cheap (but risky!)FT
  • The (supposed) sovereign debt domino effect – The Economist
  • Tories planning big income tax shake-up – The Telegraph
  • Investment reads: A new UK aggregation site – Investment Reads
  • Debate: Is investing gambling? – The Motley Fool
  • Dueling economists and their letters to The TimesBBC
  • Stamp duty rise hits mortgage borrowing – BBC (Via Andrew)
  • Sex at work: Weapon or repression? – BBC

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{ 6 comments… add one }
  • 1 Doctor Stock February 21, 2010, 5:22 am

    A great list… thanks!
    .-= Doctor Stock on: February Giveaway =-.

  • 2 Ryan @ Planting Dollars February 21, 2010, 6:08 am

    “…oh yes there is!” – nice touch, haha.
    .-= Ryan @ Planting Dollars on: Hiking Diamond Head and Snorkeling In Waikiki =-.

  • 3 David @ MBA briefs February 22, 2010, 2:16 am

    Thanks for the mention – it makes all the work that goes into writing a post worthwhile when it makes your weekly list.

    Lot of great stuff here, looks like I’m going to be busy reading for a while 🙂
    .-= David @ MBA briefs on: =-.

  • 4 UKValueInvestor February 22, 2010, 11:30 am

    Thanks for the link, and thanks for writing the blog. My ‘pass it forward’ for today is http://www.academicearth.org, as mentioned by a Mr Gates in the annual letter for his foundation. Being old and a bit of a luddite (who needs a mobile phone?) I’ve only just worked how to view such magical content on the TV via my PS3 (perhaps I’m not so much of a luddite after all). Much better than Eastenders or When Morons Attack.
    .-= UKValueInvestor on: A value based asset allocation strategy – A minor update =-.

  • 5 The Investor February 22, 2010, 2:18 pm

    Guys, you’re all welcome, thanks for stopping back and taking a look here.

    @UKValueInvestor – You’re using a PlayStation 3 as a TV viewer? Sounds pretty swizzy to me. Just as long as it’s not impacting on your Grand Theft Lara Croft Turismo time. 😉 Thanks for the suggested viewing, will check it out when I can.

  • 6 The Digerati Life February 24, 2010, 10:33 pm

    Thanks! Appreciate the mention!
    .-= The Digerati Life on: Get Credit Card Debt Relief! I’m Giving Away Free DebtGoal Subscriptions =-.

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