Good reads from around the Web.
The advanced cloud-based super-server infrastructure that powers Monevator (i.e. two tin cans with a bit of string tied between) almost melted down this week, thanks to the follow-up from iii’s surprise fee hike [1].
Last week we were bombarded with readers alerting us via email [2] to the cost-grenade lobbed into the midst of their best-laid plans.
They were angry and confused, but this week they fought back, swapping strategies in the comment sections of our first [3] and second [4] posts about the iii whammy.
If you’re one of the thousands of subscribers [5] who now reads Monevator through your email in-box, you may not know that many of our posts get dozens of comments. Those two posts about iii now have nearly 100 between them.
What’s great about the comments on this website, so far at least, is that they are overwhelmingly constructive and polite, whether it’s feedback on our articles or readers helping each other out.
Having seen discussion forums ruined by abusive posters and the comment sections of online newspapers turn into a cesspit of bigotry and abuse, I show zero hesitation in deleting rude and willfully misleading or antagonistic comments. But so far I haven’t had to delete more than a couple a month.
In fact, the iii incident has made me wonder again about whether to introduce a discussion forum on Monevator.
One reason not to do so is there’s plenty of places where money-minded folk can swap tips across the Internet.
Another forum would hardly fill a void – it’d be more like elbowing your way to the bar!
The other reason is I’m pretty sure it’d be a time sink. A financial website forum isn’t like a discussion board for cat lovers. The potential for dangerous misinformation is vast, making timely moderation vital.
On the other hand, I imagine a simple board split across three or four sub-sections – Passive, Active, Financial Freedom Strategies, and Money Making Tips, or similar – could grow into something quite nice.
What do you guys think?
Are you happy banding together on Money Saving Expert or Bogleheads or The Motley Fool or similar and making hit-and-run raids on our articles? Or do you perceive a yawning gap in the market?
Reminder: You can get a snapshot of the latest comments on Monevator via the Discuss link [6] in the top right of the page.
From the money blogs
- Are higher MPG cars worth the money? – Bad Money Advice [7]
- Interactive Investor waives its exit fees – Simple Living in Suffolk [8]
- The latest FTSE 100 CAPE Ratio – Retirement Investing Today [9]
- Target-date funds: A game changer? – Vanguard [10] [via Mike [11]]
- Three universal laws of Wall Street – Rick Ferri [12]
- Cost of London living when the house is (nearly) paid – A Grain of Salt [13]
- Whither forecasting? The butterfly stirs – The Psy-Fi blog [14]
- Swedroe: Should you invest in firms with ample cash? – CBS [15]
- Roth: How to keep your financial advisor honest – CBS [16]
- Safety is an expensive illusion – Mr Money Mustache [17]
Book of the week: I could pretend to have read The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty [18]
Mainstream media money
- Burgernomics and McWages – The Economist [20]
- Forest management in the US [full of surprises] – The Economist [21]
- How to pick stocks after Facebook’s IPO – The New York Times [22]
- Outer London prices are diverging from the prime core – FT [23]
- The case for emerging markets [Roundtable] – FT [24]
- Beware of falling prices for villas in the sun – FT [25]
- Retirement income gender gap is narrowing – FT [26]
- A new kind of financial advisor, or a waste of money? – Telegraph [27]
- Long-term carers need respite holidays… – Telegraph [28]
- … given the grim truth about longevity – New York Magazine [29]
- Career change possibility beckons: Male stripper – Independent [30]
- Collectibles: Worth more than memories? – Independent [31]
- Where to buy a holiday home in ‘Costa Catastrophe’ – Guardian [32]
- LED bulbs pay for themselves in less than two years – Guardian [33]
Like these links? Subscribe [5] to get them every week!