What caught my eye this week.
I am recovering from an excellent wedding that ended late last night (not my own!) so straight into the links this morning.
Except to observe that people of all ages do seem very happy to mix again.
And that commentators who asked last summer “Will we ever be comfortable at a party again, post-Covid?” might have been bemused to see half a dozen pensioners crowding together into one of those comedy prop-strewn instant photo booths.
Of course that’s not to say that was necessarily wise behaviour for their age bracket in the midst of the ongoing Delta spread – nor to deny that there are limits to the double-jabbed vaccination protection that made this wedding possible.
More that the human spirit has strong reversion-to-the-mean tendencies.
Investing accordingly, I think.
Have a great weekend!
From Monevator
Should you borrow to fill your ISA each year? – Monevator
SIPP money saving hack – Monevator
From the archive-ator: Why your house is an investment, and an asset, too – Monevator
News
Note: Some links are Google search results – in PC/desktop view you can click to read the piece without being a paid subscriber. Try privacy/incognito mode to avoid cookies. Consider subscribing if you read them a lot!1
Downing Street hints triple lock will be watered down – Guardian
Inflation falls to 2% in UK amid retail discounting – BBC
HMRC digs deep into your data [Search result] – FT
Food industry chaos due to Brexit not Covid, say trade groups – Sky News
Lloyds moves into the landlord business with a 50,000 home plan – Guardian
UK house prices increased by 13.2% in the year to June 2021, up from 9.8% in May 2021 – ONS
Products and services
How will the post-Brexit return of roaming charges hit consumers? – Guardian
The pros and cons of a 35-year mortgage – Which
Sign-up to Freetrade via my link and we can both get a free share worth between £3 and £200 – Freetrade
John Lewis launches investing accounts with Nutmeg – ThisIsMoney
How to buy a secondhand phone, and what to look out for – Guardian
Nationwide is offering a £125 bank account switching bonus – Which
Homes for sale with a loft conversion, in pictures – Guardian
Comment and opinion
“Why I won’t wait to retire” – Humble Dollar
The best advantage of life: being born rich – Of Dollars and Data
The age of the ETF is looming [Search result] – FT
All or nothing markets – A Wealth of Common Sense
The optimal amount of hassle – Morgan Housel
The hidden risk of equal weighting index funds [PDF] – Northern Trust
Bubble wealth [Academic paper/PDF, a few weeks old] – SSRN
Naughty corner: Active antics
What’s harder? Asset allocation or stockpicking? – Behavioural Investment
There’s no such thing as buy and hold – Ensemble Capital
Quants are rethinking stock trades in the manic Reddit era – Yahoo Finance
How to craft a 30-stock, sector-neutral portfolio – Fortune Financial
Zooming out on Palantir’s vaunted vault of gold – Abnormal Returns
Hybrid workplace mindset mini-special
Why are so many knowledge workers quitting? – The New Yorker
It’s time to re-onboard everyone – Harvard Business Review
Mental health is the next big workplace issue – Axios
Disinfection robots and thermal cameras: the post-Covid office – Guardian
Covid corner
Is catching Covid now better than more vaccine? – BBC
Kindle book bargains
Surrounded by Psychopaths: or, How to Stop Being Exploited by Others by Thomas Erikson – £0.99 on Kindle
The Moneyless Man: A Year of Freeconomic Living by Mark Boyle – £0.99 on Kindle
Hired: Six Months in Low-Wage Britain by James Bloodworth – £0.99 on Kindle
Happy Money by Ken Honda – £0.99 on Kindle
Environmental factors
Twilight of the nautilus – Nautilus
The case for green versus blue hydrogen in energy production – DIY Investor
Behind the fight to save the Gulf of Mexico’s reefs – Texas Monthly
Off our beat
Inside Facebook’s Metaverse for work – The Verge
How to remember what you read – Farnam Street
Everybody is having hilarious fun and you’re not [On NFTs] – Justin Paterno
How Wingspan – a board game about birds – became a surprise hit – Slate
Time dilation – Seth Godin
It’s time to bring back cargo pants – Wired
And finally…
“The impression was gaining ground with me that it was a good thing to let the money be my slave and not make myself a slave to money.”
– J.D. Rockefeller via Ron Chernow, Titan: The Life of J.D. Rockefeller
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I have had a 30-odd year hiatus from board games – since the glory days of Games Workshop in the 1980s – but that Wingspan article has inspired me to get back into them – thank you!
Re: HMRC digs deep into your data
Very interesting and I can vouch for some of the claims, e.g. I have noticed over the last few years that the quickest way to find out how much tax has been deducted on any income drawdown withdrawal is to consult my HMRC account and not my income drawdown account!
That Northern Trust link about equal weighted risks is a bit of an eye opener. Another cherished illusion gone.
Interesting (to me) factoid in the FT today.
Central government tax revenues for July were £70bn – which is higher than for the same month in 2019, and in fact revenues have significantly exceeded pre-pandemic levels in each month since April.
@ Zero Gravitas. (4… )
… Pondering that point.
Some element of that must be pent up demand, some element of that must be money spent on holidaying in the U.K. (offset by the reduction in international tourism and business travel), Some might be from price increases – if we are to believe the 2% inflation figures- Some might be from transactional costs of selling/ moving house.
On the other side of the coin is the supply chain problems that must be throttling back that demand, and increasing prices for raw materials and goods – try get a discount on a new Toyota?. (prices of materials at our local builders merchant have risen two-fold in some instances – if the goods are available at all)
Either way it seems optimistic news. The supply side will eventually sort itself out. If it does without serious and lasting inflation is the question that many are asking.
JimJim
Anyone else who felt nauseated by that re-onboarding article? Solution to workers feeling disconnected is more corporate cringe. Am I the only one who has felt I don’t belong just because of corporate cringe? And corona has already added to the corporate cringe, now they think they should double down? I so hope this great resignation thing accelerates.
Does reversion to the mean imply places like ciniworld will recover? Look cheap on the chart compared to past price. Probably some structural issues a layman like me cant fathom.
@jim: Cineworld has massive debt. Rather you than me.
@Tom. That HBR article isn’t cringe, it’s utter cow manure.
I mean do they really expect anyone to implement BS like this:
“High, Low, Ha,” where each person shares one highlight from their week, one low point, and one thing that made them laugh.”
Honeslty, if asked my employees to do that they would quite rightly tell me exactly where to shove it.
COVID is a phenomenal opportunity to drive all the BS artists in places like middle management and HR, and all those pointless management and IT consultants into extinction. But they are fighting back with this sort of claptrap. We mustn’t allow them to survive.
@ZX:
Every cloud has a silver lining.
Wouldn’t it be great if a part of Covid’s legacy was a bonfire of “bullshit jobs”!
The return to work brigade are out in force. There was an article in the Atlantic today talking about the “benefits” of commuting. These people have no shame.
@tyro I jumped in yesterday ready to get burned by the dead cat bounce ha!
It’s a silly little punt really as I know little about the business and like you say they have big debt.
I’m just going off sentiment and human behaviour returning to type. Most of my little punts are bought like this, Tullow, Joules, Superdry way back when the 50mil accounting error. Cineworld is amongst most shorted I’ll have to hope the Reddit traders get on it!