What caught my eye this week.
Watching a handful of my friends get pretty rich over the past few years, it’s been striking how little they’ve changed.
Of course the props are swapped. Better cars breakdown. Household appliances are replaced with services, or even by part- or full-time staff. Baggage is stranded in more exotic locales. Arguments with their partners go upscale [1].
Sometimes one of them does something odd, like painting all the interior walls of their home griege and replacing literally 95% of the furniture to match the same rain cloud tone.
But mostly they are the same old Tom, Dick, or Harriet they were before.1 [2]
I recently had a coffee in Berkeley Square with one who was fitting me in between the hedge funds. He was lamenting in turn his success or otherwise with dating apps, and trouble with his teenage son.
The same pep talk I offered could have been delivered to an old childhood mate in his caravan in the provinces back home.
Spare any change?
Of course this is a convenient narrative [3] for those who want to argue that we’re all in it together.
We’re not. Those of us with a lot of money have it better.
But it’s true, too, that there is a limit to how much better.
Not because of the canard that, after a certain point, happiness brought about by money plateaus. This bit of social science no longer appears to be true, according to recent research. (See the Guardian article I linked to above).
Rather, it’s because much of what really matters to us simply cannot be bought [4].
As a beautiful post by Lawrence Yeo on More To That [5] put it this week:
You can be the healthiest person on the planet, but if you love no one, what’s all that vitality for?
You can be free to do whatever you want, but if there’s no one to spend that time with, what’s the point?
Is it even possible to feel a sense of purpose in your days if you believe that you’re loved by no one?
Yeo is doing original digging on a very well-worked seam in his article – albeit not so much in the Beatles-y extract above, which nevertheless ring true – and I’d urge you to give him a read.
Maybe follow up with Ben Carlson, who this week wrote [6]:
Happiness is a complicated topic because when you ask people what they want out of life the answers typically involve career achievements, financial goalposts, or status.
A good job or a high salary or a certain level of fame are easy to quantify and define. Relationships are not.
Money has a value you can attach to it. It’s impossible to quantify the value of strong relationships in your life.
Or with Indeedably, and his sombre reflections [7] from a palliative care unit:
Over the weeks spent visiting the ward, I got to know some of the patients. Lending a sympathetic ear or supportive hand to those in need of a diversion, while the person I was there to see slept.
None reminisced about the jobs they had performed. The nappies changed, houses built, essays marked, budgets prepared, businesses founded, or lines of code written. Beyond their former professions being a token of identity, they barely rated a mention at all.
None reflected on the things they had bought or experiences they had purchased. Cars. Holidays. Houses. Concerts given or attended. Sporting events witnessed or participated in. All irrelevant.
It must be something in the water?
(Middle) class warriors
I do sometimes wonder if I’ll look back on all the effort I’ve put into saving, stock picking, and even running this investing blog over the years as a bit of a tawdry exercise.
I long ago gave up believing Monevator will make many poor people less poor. If we’re doing our job properly, then we help make ‘are or soon will be well-off’ people a little bit more well-off.
Which isn’t nothing, but it’s hardly God’s work.
I’m not looking for sympathy or anything like that. I’m proud of this site!
I just wonder now and then if I should have been writing poems, or helping out at a care home.
The feeling passes, and I’m grateful for the autonomy [8] my decisions have given me. But I’m also left wondering at the counterfactual shadows. Flitting around, just out of sight.
Have a great weekend.
From Monevator
What order to put things into an ISA or SIPP – Monevator [9]
Pensions, the LTA, and IHT – Monevator [10]
From the archive-ator: Crisis investing as swine flu panic spreads – Monevator [11]
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.
UK inflation breaks declining trend with surprise jump to 10.4% – CNBC [12]
Households spending 12% more on essentials than a year ago – Guardian [13]
Mortgage rates drop to six-month low – Which [14]
Ministers reportedly scrap plan for earlier rise in UK state pension age – Guardian [15]
Fewer than 10% of over-50 retirees tempted back to work by Budget – This Is Money [16]
TFL ‘to spend £4m naming each London Overground line’ – My London [17]
Amigo to be wound down after failure to secure financial backing – Sharecast [18]
Wealthy executives make millions trading stock of competitors – ProPublica [19]
[20]
A sensible strategy for the UK needs radical changes on pensions [Search result] – FT [21]
Counter-argument: Stop blaming everything on pension funds! [Search result] – FT [22]
(Sorry they are both FT search links. I consider my FT subscription a must these days.)
Products and services
How two similar index trackers can generate different returns – T.E.B.I. [23]
Millennials and Gen Z are driving up the price of retro items at auction – This Is Money [24]
Open a SIPP with Interactive Investor and pay no SIPP fee for six months. Terms apply – Interactive Investor [25]
English wine: the brilliant bottles to try – Which [26]
Open an account with low-cost platform InvestEngine via our link [27] and get £25 when you invest at least £100 (T&Cs apply. Capital at risk) – InvestEngine [27]
Tesco to reduce value of points with Clubcard reward partners – Which [28]
Studio flats for sale, in pictures – Guardian [29]
Comment and opinion
William Bernstein: riskless at age 104 [US assets but relevant] – Advisor Perspectives [30]
How seven couples aged 20 to 80 manage their joint finances – This Is Money [31]
Youth: the envy at work that dare not speak its name [Search result] – FT [32]
Threadneedle’s dubious claims about active fund outperformance – Trustnet [33]
Are pensions really so good for inheritance tax planning? [Search result] – FT [34]
Status games: absurd or necessary? – RAD Reads [35]
Don’t let the tax tail wag the investment dog…okay, maybe once – S.L.I.S. [36]
Altogether now – Morgan Housel [37]
Unhealthy claims [The NHS isn’t perfect, but at least it avoids all this!] – Humble Dollar [38]
More evidence time in the market beats timing the market [Research] – Ben Felix via Twitter [39]
Reminders about risk from the banking crisis mini-special
Understanding the banking panic [Short video] – Cullen Roche via YouTube [40]
Everything you didn’t think of – Young Money [41]
Reality meets expectation – Fortunes & Frictions [42]
Five ways investors can succeed by knowing their limits – Morningstar [43]
Banking crisis highlights shifting nature of real estate assets – Dror Poleg [44]
Crypto o’ crypto
No, Bitcoin isn’t pumping because it’s a safe haven from the banks – Molly White [45]
Coinbase, SEC on collision course for ‘existential’ clash over crypto industry – Reuters [46]
SEC charges various celebrities with crypto violations – CNBC [47]
Naughty corner: Active antics
Defending discounts: the investment trusts buying back the most shares – Trustnet [48]
With regime change, institutions are rethinking their portfolios – Institutional Investor [49]
Short-term gain, long-term pain – Capital Allocator [50]
Wandisco revisited – Maynard Paton [51]
Strategic thinking matters – Klement on Investing [52]
What is Bill Ackman up to? – Institutional Investor [53]
More thoughts on the banking crisis – Calafia Beach Pundit [54]
Kindle book bargains
Banking On It: How I Disrupted an Industry by Anne Boden – £0.99 on Kindle [55]
Bank of Dave by Dave Fishwick – £0.99 on Kindle [56]
Never Go Broke by Lee Boyce and Jesse McClure – £0.99 on Kindle [57]
Green Living Made Easy: Hacks to Save Time and Money by Nancy Birtwhistle – £0.99 on Kindle [58]
Environmental factors
Bathing water status rarely granted in England, analysis finds – Guardian [59]
Scientists release ‘survival guide’ to avert climate disaster – BBC [60]
Cruise ship invasion – Hakai [61]
We need to talk about carbon credits – Klement on Investing [62]
DIY giant B&Q offers solar panel installation for the first time – This Is Money [63]
Bras fit for burying: Australia to set standard for composting textiles – Guardian [64]
Off our beat
The age of AI has begun – Bill Gates [65]
Unschooling [On taking your children out of school] – Aeon [66]
What are the world’s safest holiday destinations? – Which [67]
Dining across the divide: “I thought I was going to meet an awful Tory” – Guardian [68]
The real reason South Koreans aren’t having babies – The Atlantic via MSN [69]
Please get me out of dead-dog TikTok – The Atlantic via MSN [70]
I saw the face of God in a semiconductor factory – Wired [71]
Off our beat Succession season 4 mini-special
The final season of Succession is going to be a bloodbath… – Vox [72]
…with Tom Wambsgans on the up and up… – The Ringer [73]
…though there’s still a lot of wood to chop to the top – The Ringer [74]
And finally…
“There are no atheists in foxholes or ideologues in a financial crisis.”
– Ben Bernanke, quoted in Too Big to Fail [75]
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- At least after a hard-to-endure 12 months for those who got rich very quickly, before they get over themselves… [↩ [82]]