Good reads from around the Web.
The US blogger Mr Money Mustache has been making spendthrifts and complainers feel like they must try harder for years, to widespread acclaim and the occasional brickbat.
For my part I’ve always felt smugly on-side with Team Mustache, given that I’ve saved a big slug of my earnings for years and I’m well aware of how I (occasionally) spend my money.
However this week Monsieur Mustache opened up a new front in the doing-things-better-than battle, making me feel inadequate as a blogger as a result.
He’s only gone and create his own investing tool!
It’s called IndexView [1] and it looks like this:
[2]Note to the easily befuddled: This is just a non-interactive screenshot of the tool.
The idea of IndexView is that you can change the dates and see how time would have smoothed out your returns and spared your worry wrinkles, despite some crazy crashes along the way.
There are also various overlays you can add to the graph, such as the much touted cyclically-adjusted P/E ratio [3].
The tool only offers US data, but Tristan Hume – who everyone’s favourite mustachioed mister hired to do the coding – says he’d be happy to add another country’s data. However he hasn’t found any UK source that’s as easy to work with as Professor Shiller’s data is for the US.
I had fun playing around with it – give it a try.
Be nice if you could easily embed it in your own site like a YouTube video, mind.
From the blogs
Making good use of the things that we find…
Passive investing
- Active versus passive asset allocation – The Capital Spectator [4]
- In pursuit of past performance – A Wealth of Common Sense [5]
- Moving past the active versus passive debate – Abnormal Returns [6]
- How to track the US market [Ignore US 401(k) stuff in UK] – Rick Ferri [7]
Active investing
- What stage of the bull market are we in? – A Wealth of Common Sense [8]
- New highs, new fears – Alpha Capture [9]
- How to focus on defensive sectors – UK Value Investor [10]
- One way of seeing the stock market cycle – Crossing Wall Street [11]
- The Stockdale paradox and investing – Brooklyn Investor [12]
- Preserving investment capital – Under the Money Tree [13]
Other articles
- 6 things to do in your early 20s – Millennial Invest [14]
- Exercise for the soul – The Escape Artist [15]
- The two phases of wealth building – Retirement Investing Today [16]
- Cash ISAs are king, it appears – Simple Living in Suffolk [17]
- The case for simpler financial regulation – John Kay [18]
- The limits of Monte Carlo simulators [Nb: Nerdy] – Advisor Perspectives [19]
Product of the week: The Guardian points out [20] that despite fears of an imminent Bank Rate rise, there are still good fixed rate mortgages around. Top of the crop is a new 5-year fix from First Direct [21] at just 2.89%.
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 [22]
Passive investing
- Time, not timing, is key to investing success – Washington Post [23]
- How to win at the loser’s game: Part 1 [Video] – Sensible TV [24]
- The rise and fall of performance investing [PDF] – Charles Ellis / F.A.J. [25]
Active investing
- The 108-year old value investor who is still investing – Telegraph [26]
- Time to check out the supermarket strugglers – Interactive Investor [27]
- M&G unveils bond fund to weather interest rate rise [Search result] – FT [28]
Other stuff worth reading
- Finance is a strange industry – Morgan Housel / Fool [29]
- Don’t change strategy just because something happens – New York Times [30]
- Solar mini-bond touts a 7% return – ThisIsMoney [31]
- Where would it be better to rent in London? [Tool] – Find Properly [32]
- Downshifting from Ocado to Lidl to try to save money – Guardian [33]
- How long before your holiday home pays for itself? [Gallery] – Telegraph [34]
Book of the week: Readers of an active bent often ask for more articles about investment trusts. For those who can’t wait, The Financial Times Guide to Investment Trusts [35]
Like these links? Subscribe [36] 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”.” [↩ [40]]