A good start to the year here on Monevator, from my point of view at least. Lots of readers kindly chimed in on my 2010 blog goals [1], and I stuck to the first of them, posting four more times this week on a wider range of money-related matters: technology investing [2], Shopify [3], snow and pay [4], and hedge funds [5].
I’ve still to nail those shorter posts, though!
Continuing the good vibe theme, my post of the week is from the Psy-Fi blog, where Timmar considers happiness and its relationship to wealth (via his customary detour into behavioural finance…)
Timmar writes [6]:
If anything, more money brings us less happiness in terms we’d really associate with feelings of contentment.
Higher salaries mean longer working hours, longer commutes, more stress, less time to stop and deadhead the flowers and socialise with our friends.
These aren’t the things we think of when we’re asked about whether more money would make us more cheerful.
I agree. While I hated earning less money back when co-founded a start-up – and it definitely made me less happy – I think that was because I felt I’d derailed my long set financial goals.
Actually having more money, before or since, has made virtually no difference to my happiness that I can tell. Perhaps I need to spend more of my money [7] though!
Some good reads from the money blogs
- The botched Brown coup and the UK debt markets – Capitalists@Work [8]
- Stockmarkets, volatility and predictability – Stumbling and Mumbling [9]
- 2010: An investing odessey – iii Blog [10]
- Was the last decade lost? – Bad Money Advice [11]
- Country ETFs ranked by 2009 performance (in $) – Darwins Finance [12]
- Handling two financial houses – Frugal Dad [13] & Money Relationship [14]
- The Four Agreements and financial freedom – Wealth Pilgrim [15]
- I picked Monster Worldwide for Sam’s fun fund – Financial Samurai [16]
- Investing basics (for U.S. readers) – The Digerati Life [17]
- Orange’s new contact-less credit card – Money Watch [18]
Financial and money articles from the UK papers
- Bubble warning – The Economist [19]
- Nurse, my smelling salts! Banks are still paying bonuses! – FT [20]
- UK companies to bring forward dividends ahead of 50% tax – FT [21]
- Merryn S-W was bearish going down, now she’s bearish going up – FT [22]
- Bad news for contrarians: Investors are taking on risk – FT [23]
- Mark Dampier suggests its time for defensives – The Independent [24]
- Neil Woodford: Shares “as cheap as I can remember” – The Telegraph [25]
- We’re all Icelanders now, says Robert Peston after referendum – BBC [26]
- Britain faces ‘toughest cuts for 20 years’ warns Darling – The Times [27]
- Under the skin of index trackers – The Motley Fool [28]
Like this roundup? Subscribe [29] to get a list of great links to read every Saturday.