What caught my eye this week.
I can’t deny the Monevator Christmas party is always a little awkward, but I look forward to it every year.
It’s the anonymity that makes it tricky. Not just keeping our identities secret from the waiting staff, but also from each other.
Finumus doesn’t want anybody to know who he really is, you see. But when you land your private helicopter in the pub garden it’s a bit of a giveaway.
Meanwhile my false beard always gets covered in gravy.
Secret Santa adds to the surreal air, but again it’s easy to guess who gave what.
Did I really need The Accumulator’s slightly musky Chillbreaker now the cost-of-living crisis is over?
And while Squirrel accepted her framed stock certificate of a triple-levered uranium ETF – blatantly from Finumus – with good grace, TA groaned as he unwrapped a copy of One Up On Wall Street.
“Every bloody year…” he complained, warding off Peter Lynch’s stock-picking classic with a copy of Tim Hale’s Smart Money – which he carries with him everywhere to shun temptation, like a Holy cross.
Lynch’s book flew back through the air at me – it’s not easy to duck when you’re sporting a three-foot long beard – and I packed it away for next year.
(Stay hungry, stay frugal!)
Then there are the gatecrashers.
It’s nice enough when Lars shows his face for old time’s sake. And it’s heartening to see The Greybeard grown fat on his equity income trust dividends after all these years.
But is that not Ermine in the corner? Plotting something with a bright-looking fellow on a dusty old Sinclair computer?
When the whole of yesteryear’s Team Monevator turns up expecting brandy and mince pies, I’m afraid to say we sneak out the back door and escape via that waiting chopper.
Monevator membership revenues are going quite well, but we’re not running another Studio 54 here!
Thank you, thank you
Talking of membership, a huge thanks to the many readers who now support this site with a few quid every month. It’s made a big difference.
I was reading Ed Zitron this week on how the Internet, media, and just using a computer has been progressively ruined over the past decade, and I thought again that I’d probably have turned off Monevator if enough people hadn’t signed up to support our work.
Zitron writes:
As every single platform we use is desperate to juice growth from every user, everything we interact with is hyper-monetized through plugins, advertising, microtransactions and other things that constantly gnaw at the user experience.
We load websites expecting them to be broken, especially on mobile, because every single website has to have 15+ different ad trackers, video ads that cover large chunks of the screen, all while demanding our email or for us to let them send us notifications.
I know – of course we do some of this ourselves.
We show ads to non-members on the website, and I prompt new visitors to sign-up to read us by email. We (sparingly) use affiliate links. And some of this involves the same tracking stuff we’re all exposed to on every other site on the Internet, apart from possibly Wikipedia.
I suppose a few people may consider us adding a membership tier to be part of this ‘making everything worse’.
Well I don’t.
I love the membership tier and the purity of email.
Some dwindling number of diehards will never accept that creating digital products and destinations for years on end has to be paid for somehow.
But for the rest of us I prefer a model where we directly pay for things.
I do it myself with other websites and newsletters. Though I accept the costs add up, and there is a limit.
If you are of the grumpier persuasion, you’d probably be surprised at everything I turn down.
Paid-for links to crypto, currency exchange, and loan sites. (We never sell links). Well-known companies asking us to create stealthy articles to promote their products. Lucrative guest posts by SEO firms. The long trails of clickbait ads that even old-line newspaper sites have at the end of every article these days.
Again, you might say you’re looking at an advert next to these words on our website right now.
All I can say is that this is the thin end of a very thick wedge. And I fight to stay at the right end.
We’re still standing, yeah yeah yeah
Zitron’s article turned a bit hyperbolic but I agree with most of it.
However where I disagree is his broad brush claim that media sites have done all this ‘enshittification’ for vast growth and profits.
In fact they’ve usually made endless compromises and degraded the experience to near-unusable levels either because they are desperate not to go bust or because they already went bust and the new owner is squeezing out whatever juice is left in the brand. The big platforms have sucked all the air and money out of the Internet, and everyone else is left to starve.
We’re spoiled in the UK. We have the BBC and (whatever you think of the politics) The Guardian, two of the least-polluted free media sites left standing.
But countless others have gone dark, or else it would have been better had they done so.
As for independent blogs, maybe 95% of those I’ve linked to in the UK are no longer around.
Honestly, I’m sometimes tempted to turn Monevator into a subscription-only newsletter and switch off the lights, too. It’s a better experience for readers and better for us. No more fighting spam each day!
But we still get so many emails from new people thanking us for helping them take their first steps in investing, or from older hands for keeping them on the straight and narrow.
I’ve collected several hundred of these. That folder is probably the crowning achievement of my working life.
Perhaps I should have tried harder to achieve more, I guess, but anyway I’m loathe to turn off the site while we’re making a difference – however much Google is trying to kill us and others off with its endless algorithm changes.
So again, if you’re signed up as a Monevator member then thank you!
You make it possible for us to continue to keep 99% of the 2,000-plus articles we’ve written free to read. A portion of your subscription covers the 30 minutes or more I spend every day keeping Monevator clear of toxic links, racist and sexist comments, and bit rot.
Hopefully you’re enjoying the extra member content too, of course!
We’re able to go deeper in the member-only articles, especially with my active ones. And it’s very nice not to worry about search engines with them.
Don’t forget you can browse all our Mavens and Moguls posts in their archives. There’s quite a few now!
The weakest link
On the opposite tack, a few members have asked me to paywall more content.
Really – I was surprised too, but I guess it reflects a desire not to be taken advantage of.
Personally I feel we have the right balance with our investing-related content, but there is a chance that I will eventually make the Weekend Reading links a members-only affair.
Doing these links is a service to our regular readers. Nobody stumbles across them via search.
And Weekend Reading is the reading list I’d love to see each week if I wasn’t creating it myself. It takes eight to ten hours to compile each one (much of which consists of reading and rejecting articles you never see links to) but it is a labour of love.
However its roots lie in that better Internet of 20 years ago.
Back then we used to do ‘blog carnivals’ where blogs would link to each other to spread their traffic and credibility around.
Yet besides one or two honourable exceptions – thank you Simple Living in Somerset and Abnormal Returns – almost nobody links freely now.
I’ve included hundreds of links to certain blogs and had at most a couple back to us over two decades. More often zero.
I get it’s harder because we’re a British site and we can be kind of nerdy. But we do have some articles that are universally worthy of linking to.
Even worse, Google probably penalises us nowadays for doing what used to be the right thing and highlighting the best of the web via these links.
It’s so rare to do this now that it’s potentially become an indicator of a spammy link farm.
Ho hum. A halfway house would be to keep the Weekend Reading list free but for email subscribers only. So again, subscribe to the free emails if you haven’t.
Finally, if you’re a member but you’re not getting the emails you expect to see, then please do drop me a line via a reply to this email (ideally) or via the contact form link top-right (risk of getting stuck in spam.)
The system is not perfect, but I can always sort out problems. Ditto if you have log-in issues. (Deleting your cookies usually does the trick).
The best readers on the Web
Okay, that’s a lot in the weeds for a busy Christmas weekend.
I try not to solicit membership too often but the reality is some people churn away (et tu Maven?) so we have to keep topping up.
TLDR: please everyone sign-up as members and then we can stay classy indefinitely.
Beyond that, thanks for reading us for another year.
With all the competition from cat and dog TikToks and belaboured YouTube videos where someone reads out their Vanguard statement for 20 minutes for 100,000 views, we do not take our audience for granted.
Nor, for that matter, the many wonderful readers who add so much value in our comments.
If Monevator still has a USP in today’s universally indexing-friendly age, it’s surely in the quality of the discussions that take place beneath so many of our articles.
Happy new year
Right, that’s us almost done for 2024. I’ll have my Moguls missive out for December but otherwise we’re taking a break until the first Saturday of the new year.
So cheers, Merry Christmas – and see you in 2025!
(Now grab the other end of this cracker TA…)
From Monevator
Vanguard raises prices: what’s the alternative? – Monevator
From the archive-ator: Board games to keep you busy during our Christmas break – Monevator
News
Note: Some links are Google search results – in PC/desktop view click through to read the article. Try privacy/incognito mode to avoid cookies. Consider subscribing to sites you visit a lot.
Bank of England holds interest rates, says economy doing worse – BBC
UK companies cut jobs at fastest rate in nearly four years – City AM
London rents rise by record 11.6% year-over-year in November – Bloomberg
Brexit reduced goods exports by £27bn, with smaller firms most affected – LSE
Hargreaves Lansdown blocks access to four investment trusts – Investor’s Chronicle
Rachel Reeves puts pensions review on hold [Search result] – FT
Anger greets decision not to compensate ‘Waspi women’ – Guardian
The relentless advance of American asset managers in Europe – FT
‘Risk to renters’ as buy-to-let lending predicted to fall – BBC
Boaz Weinstein starts campaign to take over UK investment trusts – Yahoo Finance
US fintech company collapses and takes life savings with it – Independent
A turbulent year for London’s markets…in four graphs – City AM [Remember when I was told I was scaremongering?]
Products and services
What to do if you need to remortgage in 2024 – Which
Chase’s new best buy account pays 5%, including a six-month 1.5% booster – Chase
Should you ever use or buy gift cards? – Be Clever With Your Cash
Open an account with low-cost platform InvestEngine via our link and get up to £100 when you invest at least £100 (T&Cs apply. Capital at risk) – InvestEngine
Why does a first class stamp now cost £1.65 when they were 27p in 2000? – T.I.M.
How to buy a castle in France for the price of a semi in Britain – This Is Money
More than half of all bank transfer scams originate on Meta – Which
How to ensure you qualify for Nationwide’s £100 Fairer Share payment next year – This Is Money
Homes for sale with dining rooms fit for Christmas lunch, in pictures – Guardian
Comment and opinion
All that really matters in investing – Optimistic Callie
Sharing lessons – Humble Dollar
Why 2025 could be the start of the ‘Great Downsizing’ – This Is Money
The three best inflation hedges – A Wealth of Common Sense
If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich? – Hot Takes
The trouble with US equity exceptionalism – Behavioural Investment
Morningstar’s annual safe withdrawal rate review [US but relevant] – Morningstar
Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous – A Teachable Moment
Making a retirement plan when you’re still young – Flow FP
Sizing Bitcoin in portfolios – Blackrock
Towards a longer view of US financial markets [Nerdy] – CFA Institute
Naughty corner: Active antics
Beware the return of the S&P 500 bubble – UK Dividend Stocks
Warhammer is weird. That’s why it works [Search result] – FT
Persistent alpha – Verdad
Who Neil Woodford blames for his funds’ collapse – City AM
A common misconception about Warren Buffett – Flyover Stocks
Traders are going crazy over obscure quantum computing stocks – Sherwood
Why the 2022-2024 fintech winter may thaw in 2025 – The Basis Point
Some angel investors are better than others [Research] – NBER
Kindle book bargains
Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder by Nassim Taleb – £0.99 on Kindle
The Big Con [On the Consulting Industry] by Mariana Mazzucato – £0.99 on Kindle
Nudge: The Final Edition by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein – £0.99 on Kindle
How Westminster Works…and Why It Doesn’t by Ian Dunt – £0.99 on Kindle
Environmental factors
How balcony solar is taking off – Guardian
Pacific nations wrestle with how to protect oceans – and livelihoods – Guardian
Seven climate wins you might have missed in 2024 – BBC
Asia reveals how a hobby is driving singing birds to extinction – Yahoo
Rapid spread of bee-killing Asian hornets halted in UK – Guardian
Illegal cockfighting threatens sea turtles across Central America – Mongabay
Caviar pizzas, new money, and the death of the ancient fish – Hakai
Robot overlord roundup
Apple urged to scrap AI feature after false headlines – BBC
To whom does the world belong? – Boston Review [h/t Abnormal Returns]
Existential mini-special
An uncertain future requires uncertain prediction skills – Wired
We don’t have to destroy ourselves – The Garden of Forking Paths
Uncertainty is a part of being human – Guardian
Off our beat
I have a few questions – Morgan Housel
Easier for Rachel – Humble Dollar
How fit are you? 11 ways to easily test your strength, balance, and mobility – Guardian
Hundreds of websites to be shutdown under UK’s ‘chilling’ Internet laws – Telegraph via Slashdot
Why most of us are posting less – Culture Study
A weekend at the ventriloquist’s convention [Loooong] – N + 1
How Paul Krugman change the public face of economics – Noahpinion
How to avoid getting lost in thought – Raptitude
And finally…
“Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall increase.”
– Holy Bible: King James Version
Like these links? Subscribe to get them every Friday. Note this article includes affiliate links, such as from Amazon and Interactive Investor.
Hear, hear; thank you and Merry Christmas. Look forward to your posting a (ID redacted) selfie from the festive works outing!
;o)
Thank you for all your content in 2024 (and previous years). I would not complain if all your content was behind a paywall, however, I know you help people at the start of their investing life and may not have access to your content otherwise.
Season’s Greetings,
Lee.
Thanks again for all your work, time and musings, and the rest of the team. 2024 has been a bit of a naff one on a personal level, but the learnings and information gained via this site have meant the financial impacts of some poor health have been cushioned. Roll on 2025.
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year year.
Thanks for inviting me to the party, TI!
(I didn’t realise until I bit into one that the gold coins weren’t chocolate… But the crackers with stock tips instead of jokes were a nice touch.)
Happy Christmas to all – and wishing the site a successful year to come!
Yeah, back at you big fella. Thanks to all for all your efforts. See you next year, DV.
Happy Christmas and thanks for all you do!
Thanks for another great year of education and discussions.
Much appreciated and hopefully long may it continue.
Thank you for your excellent job. Your help was greatly appreciated during my long years of toil in the NHS to facilitate my escape act and live a life of modest luxury in the Med. Merry Christmas and looking forward to more excellent articles and links in 2025. I must say that the comments are also some of the best I have seen in any website. You have created a great community of experts around this site.
Peace and goodwill to the Monevator Massive!
Love monevator..long may it continue. Obs thanks for the great articles but I would also like to express my gratitude to the mostly unsung heros that are the comments posters. There are too many great ones to list but many times I’ve read a post that I would like to thank but don’t want to clog up the discussion. Here’s a nod to you all. Thanks, have a good one! And keep them coming
Merry Christmas to you and all the contributors to Monevator, including the commentees.
I came across this website comment via the dreaded X and thought it might be of interest to you (if this comment doesn’t end up in spam) https://www.davidbrin.com/nonfiction/proxyactivism.html
But I thought it kind of describes what your members are doing by our small fee – keeping something we feel is worthwhile going and maybe changing the world for some in a small way.
The Monevator community feels special, and I’m happy to form part of it. You made the right pricing choices by creating the lower entry Mavens subscription. If it was for the premium Moguls only I’d never have converted, and would feel bad for not supporting the site. Agree that comments add value to already superb content. After years of reading nowadays perhaps 2/3 of even the nerdier comments make sense to me!
Happy holidays!
Please keep running this site. It is such a useful resource.
I know from personal experience how difficult it is – and have given up myself in my niche interest presence some time ago.
Thank you for all the good work! Have a great festive time.
Thanks for all the effort and articles to TI and TA.
I really think you need better pseudonyms – Batman & Robin, Butch & Sundance or Delboy and Rodney possibly.
Also echo the thanks to the other posters who take the time to write thoughtful, constructive and helpful posts in the main.
One comment on this week’s links – the Chase 5% offer should read as “including” rather than “plus” as it is 3.5+1.5 for 6 months.
I raise a glass to y’all. I really enjoyed Ed’s never forgive them link – I was recently and fairly charged as a mobile refusenik but I ain’t got nothing on Ed. It sounds like I iced my Facebook account in the nick of time earlier this year.
To the old ways of intelligent human discourse rather than AI slop 😉
Another hearty thank you from me too.
After *counts on fingers* about seven years of religiously logging onto your site a couple of times a week and reading almost every article (I draw the line at the nerdiest posts about bond drawdown strategies…), you’ve just persuaded me to sign up via email.
I feel a bit ashamed not even being a Maven, but – and I probably shouldn’t admit this – if you put Weekend Reading behind a paywall, that would probably push me to become a paying member.
Thank you, and Merry Christmas. I love coming here.
Another big thank you for all the great articles (which must involve a significant amount of research and time I’m sure) and weekend reading items over the year. The comments are great to read too. All make the membership subscription extremely worthwhile.
[Existential mini special, re the Garden of Forking Paths, see also comments + links at #41, 42, 44 & 45-48 (Aug 23) on DA here: https://monevator.com/weekend-reading-not-a-prayer-for-serenity/
Thank you for all your efforts this year. I too love this site and look forward to my Saturday reading. I subscribe to Pensioncraft and the FT and I would give them up before Monevator!
Merry Xmas and best wishes for a successful 2025
I am sure you believe it, as having followed this site since the beginning i have never thought you into trolling, but the statement
“We’re spoiled in the UK. We have the BBC and (whatever you think of the politics) The Guardian, two of the least-polluted free media sites left standing.”
Is quite incredible, amid even a cursory look at how both responded to the October mass murder and rape of Jewish children and elders. Both weee found to deliberately pivoting against Jewish people.
Many, many other examples exist.
The Times is but one that is head and shoulders of both.
Enjoy the financial info as ever, and have a great Xmas
Is anyone going to mention how lucrative 2024 has been? It’s been an annus miraculus. I guess if we do that we’re guaranteed to come a cropper in 2025
Gary, The Times site isn’t free. Might be much better, but it isn’t free.
Marry Christmas to TI and TA, long as this site exist.
Thank you TI & TA, other contributors and regular commenters. I have only commented a couple of times before, and never in a substantive way to actual financial discussions (I have no particular financial expertise or unique experience to share). However, I am here several times a week and religiously read all the articles and comments, gaining much in the way of entertainment and education on the way.
So, I do want to momentarily step out of the shadows to say “Cheers” to you all at the end of another informative, enlightening and thought provoking year.
I have followed this site for many years: there is so much great, informative content, you should be proud of what you have achieved.
Merry Christmas
As Roberto #8 but colder and wetter in Wales.Thankyou.
For this tired dad, you are the Sunday Supplement of personal finance email round-ups. I look forward to and devour the content in the same way I used to for old media. Thank you and merry Christmas
Thanks for all the effort and time it takes to produce the excellent articles and resources.
Merry Xmas all
I understand the sentiment of not being taken advantage of but for me supporting a site that I regularly direct people to when teaching them about investing is a way of paying it forward ( i really must look into whether i could leave the day job and do financial coaching full time as its definitely the ‘find something you love enough to do for free and youll never work again’ ).
The fact I feel I can afford to is in no small part down to the knowledge gained on this website.
Take advantage all you want
Thanks @TI and @TA for all your efforts this last year … and a big thanks to folks like @ermine and @AlCam for all their follow-up musings too.
Whilst financially it’s been a good year, in all honesty I cannot wait for 2024 to be over. This site has kept me distracted from my cancer treatment (fingers crossed all sorted, now in remission) and it has been a mine of fantastic content and (mostly) great banter.
Due to the work of @TA I think I’ll be cooking up a gilt-ladder or two next year – would never have approached doing this before, so thank you very much.
Here’s to 2025 … bring it on !
@Rhino #22 > It’s been an annus miraculus.
I confess I have made the assumption that this is simply the high recent levels of inflation rattling out, shortening the ruler against which we measure our networth. It was one of the useful points made in Rob Dix’s money book that your market holdings are a store of value outwith government manipulation of the money supply.
But hey, not to look a gift horse in the mouth, wherever the uplift came from it’s better than not having it at all.
Merry Christmas, and happy winter solstice all!
I’m a non subscriber. I love the site. I love Weekend Reading especially. The site feels like one of the few non toxic corners left on the internet. I’m not one of the typical readers though, I don’t think. Not high earner, not high net worth. Every month finances are very tight. Monevator has changed my life for the better, from piles of debt in 2014, to small regular investments these days (I’d probably be homeless without the site given recent health issues, if I’d not changed finances). I’d hate to lose access – certainly to the articles that help people like me most, but also understand that producing such quality should be rewarded. Hopefully in the future I will be able to start to repay what this site has given me, but for now thank you is all I can offer.
@ermine – well 2024 was the year I did some ‘inflation adjusted’ calculations (with a helping hand from Al Cam the inflation guru). Let’s just say I wish I hadn’t. . I quickly recoiled and took the blue pill of nominal returns. Think I’ll stay there for mental well being reasons.
2024 also the year I attended a FIRE meetup for first time which was pretty cool. Matching blogs to real people is fascinating after all this time.
I think you once met up with liberate dot life, a long since moth balled blog, in the real world. Which made me think an ermine hike to see some historic stones could be a grand day out!
@Team M:
Seasons Greeting to all at Monevator Towers.
Great year in ’24!
Long may it continue.
P.S. I trust you have all now got over the office Christmas party?
@Rhino:
No guru – just wanted to understand inflation better and had the time and inclination to do so once I pulled the plug.
Re: red pill (vs blue pill), see last para (that begins “Fearing …”) at: https://monevator.com/vanguard-price-rise/#comment-1852375
Merry Christmas / holiday of choice.
TI (and TA) thanks for all you do. The subscription is a thanks rather than a particular interest in the extra articles. Without the free content I would never have been able to read so many of your great informative articles and not gone on to subscribe. As you say, it’s a balance and I for one think you do an amazing job at maintaining that balance.
@all — Thanks to everyone for such smashing feedback, very generous and great to hear that we’re still mostly hitting the right spot. 🙂
@carl — Understood, and thanks for reading us. We definitely appreciate some people at the start of the journey are watching all the pennies — in fact we support that if things are tight! 🙂
One way we’ve tried to tilt towards this reality is to make the Maven member articles a bit more de-accumulation focused, so hopefully geared more for those at the other end of the journey, where there’s a bit more cash to spare but also a need for insights into the trickier and arguably less well-covered end of lifecycle…
@The Investor
First of all, thank you for all the amazingly helpful articles over the years and I wish you and everyone at Monevator a lovely Christmas and New Year!
I think the general idea of making Maven member articles more de-accumulation focused, so hopefully geared for those with more cash to spare, is a pretty smart idea. It would be nice, however for the occassional free article on this area, even if it is primarily only a collection of free resources for less wealthy retirees.
Happy 2025!
Thank you to all the Monevator team! Another year of tremendously insightful articles and well worth the subscription. Happy Christmas.
Ditto, all the supportive comments.
It has been 5 years since feeling comfortable with our level of FI and finally pulling the plug on work. After many years of benefiting from all the fabulous articles and associated comments, I have finally and belatedly signed up as a Maven. £30 pa is a small price to pay for this great resource. Not sure I am yet a Mogul!
Long may Monevator continue.
Thanks to all at the Moneyvator team for the work you do and best wishes.
@Rhino #33 Well I’m all for stoney things 😉 I went a blog meetup 12 years ago. In tribute to our host’s ‘I’m Still Standing’ riff I note that very few of those blogs are still standing.
Ed Zitron’s article seems pertinent – it was the platforms wot ate all the good things. Plus people have lost the ability to read – it’s all youtube videos and podcasts. Panem et circenses because, y’know, focus is hard.
I am still not a digital native, though I accept the STFU old man vibe from the last post. In return for eschewing the hive-mind I have time to think and to look, Thoreau’s a man is rich in what he can afford to leave alone is me.
There’s little I can contribute to a meet-up, because as I learned then, I am a serious anomaly, both in having a work does not equal meaning philosophy which 12 years and some experimentation shows holds for me. And absolutely nobody else. Not quite Nagel’s What is it like to be a Bat but further along that line than is useful.
The demon inflation makes it hard to see right. I do think anyone looking at a great 2024 does need to ask the question how much of this is real particularly if a lot of your capital was bought a while ago – pre Covid say. They still need to kiss the ground and thank their lucky stars, because although the numbers are wrong the value is largely preserved. But we do need to think of those starting out too. Hopefully they will gain from the crash yet to come when we discover AI isn’t all that, or indeed they will gain from the next 15 year bull run is somebody works out how to use it to add value.
@TI I am all for keeping Weekend Reading on the open part of the site, and the deacc emphasis on mavens seems an equitable balance. I don’t feel taken advantage of at all, in the round playing some of the hints easily pay for a mogul subs. Sure, there’s some small print saying don’t do that, but I am old enough and ugly enough to go yeah whatever. So far my error was not to go big enough.
A Merry Christmas to all Monevatorites, and be of good cheer because the World can’t end today since it’s already tomorrow in Australia 🙂
It is curious how my and @Gary’s (#21) recollections disagree. None of the media I saw expressed anything but stunned horror to the atrocities of 7 October 2023 – and that would have included both the BBC and Guardian because of their open access.
In the weeks and months subsequently several commentators expressed their concern that the Israeli response was disproportionate, and that included people writing for the Guardian and also other papers – though there was rather little on the BBC website which includes little other than news (of course the broadcast discussion programmes will have covered all points of view). The Guardian also gave space to writers expressing support for Israel, though none that I saw that gave any credible justification for the death of 14,000 children as part of any legitimate self-defence.
But more importantly, absolutely none used anyone’s Jewish faith as a basis for criticism. At least in the mainstream media I see.
@Gary @Jonathan B — Thanks both for sharing your views but there are better venues to debate such a contentious topic I’d suggest, so with both sides represented let’s now please leave it there.
Thanks!
@ermine – ‘There’s little I can contribute to a meet-up, because as I learned then, I am a serious anomaly’
..and therein lies the value of the contribution. Precisely because, rather than despite the fact, you present a perspective not shared by the majority.
Sometimes we need the inconvenient lone voice of alternative rather than the comforting cacophony of the status quo.
Happy Christmas & thanks as always, Monevator team.
Glad to hear others who enjoyed the Ed Zitron piece (but agree that it did veer a bit into ‘old man shouts at cloud’ at times, so I hope it wasn’t just read by people like us as confirmation bias). This & the OG Doctorow piece are so important, I think, we are sleepwalking into it all, and it’s already pretty hideous.
It will remain a slight mystery (I think being UK, rather than US, is definitely some of it, & not being as aggressive monetisers) why Monevator isn’t much bigger than it is, & so it’s a shame to have to say that consequently it’s probably the better for that.
I suppose I must ask (unless I missed something) *cough* where’s the book. I know many people who say their careers went into another gear once they had a book published. But I also know that writing a book is really hard! And very different from writing shorter online pieces. (I must be in a minority of one who was unimpressed by Morgan Housel’s first book – I adore his blog essays, but didn’t think he managed to convert it successfull into a book format).
Happy Christmas again, & here’s to good things in 2025 (for me, a return to form for LTI is high on my list!).
Merry Christmas everyone, have a lovely time!
As always, thanks for the links TI. 😀
Happy Christmas everyone.
I’m so pleased that I found Monevator a few years ago (I can’t quite remember but think it was through the compound interest calculator). I agree that it does seem like one of the more civilised parts of the Internet and I routinely find the comments very intelligent and thought provoking.
Thank you @TA and @TI for providing such a useful and informative resource. I look forward to the weekend reading email each and every week.
@Alan — I think you’re right re: the Chase account wording, ‘including’ is a bit clearer. I’ve changed it now. Thanks!
@Rhino — TA (mostly) and me (a little bit) finished 95% of a book about ten years ago. But for various reasons we couldn’t/didn’t get it to 100%. Now the original text would need revising and it’s all too daunting for what would probably be a labour of love only, realistically.
@all — Thanks for the further nice comments — and for the new sign-ups! 🙂 Don’t want to clog this thread up with my thanks but we’re enjoying and appreciating them all.
It’s interesting—I initially visited the site for the articles, but it’s the weekend reading that I find absolutely brilliant. As a financial adviser, I value having access to a diverse range of articles and opinions, and this is a standout. The best £8 I spend every month!
All the best to everyone here, both content makers and commentators. This site remains one of the few civilised places left on the internet. I’ve been following for years but don’t comment much, if at all, mainly because I can’t match the expertise on show here but also because I don’t read the articles until a few days have passed. This allows the comments to build up to a reasonable level. And as mentioned already, the comments (mostly) really do add to the enjoyment of the site.
Merry Christmas!
Thanks for all the hard work that you all do to keep this unique site going without lowering the bar. Please KBO into the new year and beyond. Long live the Monevator!
@ermine(#41) – ‘I am a serious anomaly, both in having a work does not equal meaning philosophy which 12 years and some experimentation shows holds for me’.
You are in good company. Bertrand Russell agrees with you:
https://harpers.org/archive/1932/10/in-praise-of-idleness/
@Nimbus, couldn’t agree more. A great, civilised site with loads of information and brilliant comments that take the debate to another level. Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and all the best for 2025. I’m sure it will be another quiet year…!
This particular passage in Russell’s ‘In praise of Idleness’ is unforgettable:
‘When I was a child, shortly after urban working men had acquired the vote, certain public holidays were established by law, to the great indignation of the upper classes. I remember hearing an old Duchess say, “What do the poor want with holidays? they ought to work.” People nowadays are less frank, but the sentiment persists, and is the source of much economic confusion’.
Just another voice to add to the Merry Christmas and Thank You chorus.
Merry Christmas and thank you for all that you do.
I think that Weekend reading is one of the best curations on the Internet. And that the whole Monevator concept represents a hopeful reminder of what the Web can be.
Since the subject of Russell has arisen here’s my merry Xmas prezzie to all.
It’s a cracker. Ho, ho, ho.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OXtO92x5KA
Merry Xmas one and all. May 2025 bring you good fortune. Verdad Persistent Alpha piece reminiscent of FundExpert’s fund momentum approach (as well as macro hedge fund pod shops). CFA Institute series should provoke caution in using the widely circulating comparisons back to 1928 and 1871 for the US markets. That said, UK Dividend Stocks highlight that we’re likely approaching bubble territory regardless of issues with underlying data for metrics.
Thanks to the Monevator team and best wishes to all for 2025!
And thanks also for the Bertrand Russell links, fascinating stuff.
Thanks to all at Team Monevator and all the readers who comment, for entertaining and educating me these past 10 years.
Wishing everyone a merry Christmas and a prosperous 2025.
Merry Christmas and all the best for 2025, thanks for everything!
@TI
Sorry to have to “fuel your ire” at this festive time but reality has to be faced viz:
https://www.lse.ac.uk/News/Latest-news-from-LSE/2024/l-December-2024/brexit-reduced-goods-exports-by-27bn
@Factor — Yes, it’s grim of course but I think the appetite for doing anything about it has probably fallen even further given how the first few months of the Labour administration have gone.
They have certainly played their hospital-pass of a hand poorly, but nevertheless they are also getting panned by the electorate / media for more or less coming clean on the real numbers and the state the UK is actually in.
The same would be true of anyone trying to ‘fix’ Brexit.
Remember a substantial number of nincompoops still think it was an economic boon for Britain, and they’d be reminded of that as soon as any new trade-offs were agreed to try to take the edge off the economic damage.
As always, nincompoops = believing the non-existent economic argument for Brexit.
(If you voted to reduce immigration or for superior government then fair enough, though I wouldn’t rush to mark that report card either if I were you… 😉 )
Verily ’tis a time for giving – the state pension is normally paid with “religious” regularity on every fourth Friday but I see from my daily balance check that it has actually been paid today!
@Factor,
So you NI number ends (before the alphabetic last character) 80 to 99, see: https://www.gov.uk/state-pension/when-youre-paid. My DB seems to always be paid early in December too – but did not know that largesse extended to the SP too. Will hopefully find out about this in a few years time.
Unfortunately, this approach can make January seem like a long month though. But I should have got accustomed to that by now as my salary was always paid early in December.
When I worked overseas I learned that some nations pay their employees double pay in December – ie their salary is effectively divided by 13 and 1/13 is paid Jan to Nov inclusive and 2/13 in December. No idea if this still happens? Then there are those that get paid every 4 weeks – and I guess that must be a bit confusing.
Pay day itself is also a curiosity. All my working life I was paid in arrears very much towards the end of the month (although various algorithms applied, e.g. 28th (unless a weekend/holiday), the last Friday, the last working day, etc. I do know of some company’s that pay their staff in the middle of the month – but I never worked for one of them. Having said that, my DB actually pays me in advance, so I receive e.g. Aprils pension (in principle) at the start of April but in reality it is always paid at the end of March. This year I received Januarys DB pension yesterday.
Merry Christmas and best wishes to all at Monevator and all its readers!
@AI Cam #66
Nope – I don’t fit that formula; perhaps because my first 11 years of employment were in the armed forces. My OP is normally paid on the 25th of each month but they always make an exception and pay on the 24th at Xmas time. So a win win for me today 🙂
Thanks again for providing this fantastic site and best wishes to everyone.
While I rarely find the time to read the weekend links these days, I was a bit taken aback by the suggestion to close down free access. I pay my subscription to keep a great site going, not to restrict access to it. Please keep it as open as possible!
Charlie Bilello looking back on 2024 in stock charts:
https://bilello.blog/2024/put-these-charts-on-your-wall-2024-edition
Hot takes: Markets exists to make fools of as many people as possible. Always DYOR – given six hours to fell a tree, spend four of them sharpening the axe.
@White Sheep — Noted. (And thanks for the support as well as nice words! 🙂 )
We’ll have to see. But in any event I’m pretty sure I’ll go through a transition test of making it email subscriber-only (free subscribers, just delivered over email) to solve the SEO problem first and as a teaser to encourage a few more passers-by to sign-up for a regular dose of Monevator.
So there’ll be no immediate changes, nor probably even medium-term ones. Things move slowly around here… 😉
In terms of making the site generally more attractive to free/casual readers though, I decided today to ‘invest’ some of the membership money in switching off those adhesive ad units that stick to the bottom of pages, across all formats.
While unlike some sites I’ve always made these closable I still really don’t like them and nobody else does either.
The trouble is they are very effective at monetising drop-in traffic. So turning them off will probably reduce ad revenue by 20% or so.
But hopefully the nicer browsing experience will encourage a few more curious readers to stick around — whilst annoying some regulars that bit less. 🙂
(Note that ALL adverts disappear when you’re browsing the website as a member, it’s ad-free, so please do sign-up if you’re reading and haven’t yet and solve the problem for both of us! 😉 Link top-right…)
@TI:
what is the motivation for having people receive content via email rather than web site visits? I detest having to go into email at weekends and on a Saturday visit anything up to 5 times hoping the weekend links have been published, which presumably generates more ad impressions? Hang on, have I just given you an incentive to post the weekend links as late in the day as reasonable?
I generally read on a laptop, so appreciate the option of collapsing the bottom adverts – is there not an option for more sidebar ads? I’ve got sideways screen estate to spare, but would rather scroll as little as possible.
Just to add my thanks and to wish everyone merry happiness. Word of the day “nincompoops”. I love this site!
@JB — Hah, it is an old fav. Cheers!
@Xeny — Most people have a closer relationship to email then to their website browsing these days, so I’d say your position is a bit unusual. 🙂
(Perhaps you could avoid the pain by using a non-work address? Just speculating.)
Evidence: The typical Monevator article is now read by far more people over email than on the site when first published, though of course over time the site can get lots of casual search traffic.
With that said quite a few people appear to use the email as a trigger/link to click through to the site to read the article. Some will be following other links in the article, and some will be going to read the comments. No comments on email is the biggest disadvantage I think.
From our point-of-view we’re much more likely to retain a reader once they’re on email. Obviously them signing up suggests a much more serious ‘buy in’ then casual browsing, but even so the stats are pretty stark. Millions of people must have visited Monevator once or twice over the past ten years and never returned. I’m sure multiples higher than those that stick around would have enjoyed and benefited from our content if we kept hold of them (via email).
But of course every other site thinks that too!
p.s. Yeah, removing the bottom ‘sticky’ ad should make the site much more pleasant to use. The software automatically populates the sidebar when space is available already. It might compensate a bit but this is going to lose a bit of revenue, no doubt. But as I say hopefully ‘investing’ a bit of the member revenue in paying for this lost income will work out better for everyone in the long-run if it improves the attractiveness of browsing the site, encourages a few more people to take that second click and read that second article, etc. 🙂
Seasons Greeting to all and thank you @TI & TA, another year of great work by you both, long may it continue 🙂
As the poor relation, i love reading your articles but having everything behind a paywall will lose me as a reader.
I do not have the high net worth or high income some of your readers have. But as with other articles, only giving the rich/wealthy access to the knowledge to escape the rat race leaves us behind.
Merry christmas and thank you for your informative articles.
@TI
I am with Xeny here, I nearly always only read on the web, rather than email. I don’t have a work email address… On the web because:
Thank you for all you do. Wishing you a fantastic 2025. Signing up for Moguls is on my todo list for the holidays. Power to you and your team.
@poorrelation We all started with very little.
The issue with all newspaper and website subscriptions is a gradual and steady loss of money, but the value of a single article or insight can significantly outweigh the annual subscription cost…
Coming in late here, but I just wanted to say a massive thank you to the Monevator team. I started my investment journey in 2011, before Vanguard arrived in the UK (!), and this site was fundamental in getting me started and keeping me going. I’m pretty sure I’m now well into FI numbers, which is in no small part thanks to the Monevator team.
I never see the comments as I just read everything via the newsletter but I wanted to visit to say I’m very happy to be a subscriber, and love what the team here does. You’ve been a companion from the start of my journey and I can’t thank you enough. There really wasn’t much out there in 2011 that was UK focused aside from you guys.
Thanks again and keep up the good work!!