Good reads from around the Web.
A great article in Time [1] this week featured insights from the economist Dan Airely.
The author of several eye-opening books [2]
Unlike most productivity gurus – who seem to start from the premise that better time management will helpfully make us more productive worker bees – behavioural economist Airely is alert to the agenda of the consumerist world:
“The world is not acting in our long-term benefit. Imagine you walk down the street and every store is trying to get your money right now; in your pocket you have a phone and every app wants to control your attention right now.
Most of the entities in our lives really want us to make mistakes in their favor.
So the world is making things very, very difficult.
If you followed every directive from your surroundings these days you’d quickly be broke, obese, and constantly distracted.
It’s like we’re surrounded by scheming thieves: thieves of our time, thieves of our attention, thieves of our productivity.”
As always, it pays to know your enemy.
Do read the rest of the article [1].
From the blogs
Making good use of the things that we find…
Passive investing
- Starting investing is the hardest part – Abnormal Returns [3]
- ‘Myth’ of passive investing gaining traction [My quote marks] – Prag Cap [4]
- A chat with Rob Arnott of Research Affiliates [Nerdy] – Reformed Broker [5]
- The bond bull market has distorted risk premiums [Nerdy] – AWOCS [6]
Active investing
- Shares don’t fall just because they’ve gone up – Wealth of Common Sense [7]
- Sector weights: Another financial toolbox gizmo – Investing Caffeine [8]
- Taking account of Return on Capital Employed – UK Value Investor [9]
- A reminder on the difficulties of shorting – The Value Perspective [10]
- Illustrated history of every US stock market crash – TraderHQ [11]
Other articles
- There are no gatekeepers – This Is Going To Be Big [12]
- Low-cost healthy eating rules – Under the Money Tree [13]
- How to hack your life for the better – The Escape Artist [14]
- Monkeys reject income inequality – A Wealth of Common Sense [15]
- Are you giving the shaft to your future self [16]? – Mr Money Mustache [17]
Product of the week: Are solar panels better than a savings account? A journalist writing in ThisIsMoney [18] thinks he will break even in just seven years on his £6,250 installation.
Mainstream media money
Some links are Google search results – in PC/desktop view these enable you to click through to read the piece without being a paid subscriber of that site.1 [19]
Passive investing
- Fewer active managers are beating the market [Search result] – FT [20]
- Why would you pay £500 to lose £23,500? – Motley Fool UK [21]
- Gold is a hedge… if you have enough time – Swedroe/ETF.com [22]
- Beware alternative investments – Swedroe/ETF.com [23]
- Don’t pander your wealth away – Housel/Fool US [24]
- Morningstar can’t usefully pick winning managers – Advisor Persp. [25]
Active investing
- A new UK radio station about investing – Share Radio [26]
- Overconfidence is deadly when investing – MarketWatch [27]
- How some good came of the AO flotation [Search result] – John Lee/FT [28]
- Buffett’s bargain railroad – Bloomberg [29]
- Anthony Bolton’s recollections – Telegraph [30]
Other stuff worth reading
- Credit unions are making a comeback – Guardian [31]
- Poorer graduates shut out of much of London jobs market – ThisIsMoney [32]
- The $1 billion trading site that vanished (with the money) – Bloomberg [33]
- Ten winners of the 20-year old National Lottery – Telegraph [34]
- If other industries were like Wall Street – Housel/Fool.com [35]
- Saving ourselves from not saving – NYT [36]
Book reader of the week: Looking for a Christmas present for a book fan who is running out of space on their shelves ? Amazon has cut the price of its Kindle Paperwhite [37]
Like these links? Subscribe [38] to get them every week!
- Reader Ken notes that: “FT articles can only be accessed through the search results if you’re using PC/desktop view (from mobile/tablet view they bring up the firewall/subscription page). To circumvent, switch your mobile browser to use the desktop view. On Chrome for Android: press the menu button followed by “Request Desktop Site”.” [↩ [42]]