What caught my eye this week.
How are you feeling? Pretty comfortable? Enjoying the stock market recovery? Ready for a relaxing weekend?
Well I’m here like the Angel of Bad Breath to cause a stink with the following miserable graph, which comes courtesy of The Retirement Field Guide [1] via Abnormal Returns [2]:
[3]
The graph shows how after the age of 60, financial literacy decreases by about 1.5% a year.
As author Ashby Daniels says [1]:
Nobody likes to think about getting older. Even less so, nobody likes to think about the decline of their mental health.
But the harsh truth is that as we get older, our cognitive abilities decline. This is especially true with regard to personal finances.
In an era when we’re being charged with taking control of our finances as never before – from how we save for retirement to how we invest our pensions – this seems to me a wrinkled grey elephant in the room.
Older and not wiser
Even worse of course is that we don’t want to admit to any decline. Just as we’re all better-than-average drivers, so we’re destined to believe we’re on top of our finances long after we’re not.
And let’s face it, older people aren’t exactly receptive to being reminded of these issues. My mother already thinks young people have it in for her generation by questioning its stance on Brexit.1 [4] It’s easy to guess how they’d take to being told they don’t know best what to do with their own money.
I’m saying “they” but I appreciate not a few of you are in this older age group. Besides, I know what I’d say if confronted for the first time at 75 by someone saying they needed to take control of my investments (er, “f…lounce off!”) so we’re all in this together.
Clearly there needs to be more discussion – not least on our own site – as to how to guard against the potential downsides of poor decision-making in our later years. Children should be involved before they’re needed if they’re around, capable, and willing. If they’re not all three, there’s a role for trusted friends or professionals.
Many of us may aspire to remain mentally agile Warren Buffett types at 90 – that’s long been my goal [5] – but it’s not in our gift to make it so, however many crosswords we do and new languages we try to learn.
“I’m mismanaging my own money”
Incidentally, this decline also has a potential impact on asset allocation decisions and other aspects of portfolio management that you rarely see referenced in the literature.
At the least it’s a tick in the box for underwriting your minimum income requirements with a simple annuity [6].
I also wonder if I should better incorporate it into my arsenal in my on-running guerrilla war against the “Screw income, total return is all that matters, sell capital each year!” passive orthodoxy.2 [7]
I’ve noted in previous skirmishes that calculating how much to withdraw and selling down your capital each year might seem a fine plan at 45, but it could be terrifying prospect for a mentally slipping and frightened 80-year old.
Monevator contributor The Greybeard has pondered [8] this quandary, too.
Perhaps relying on a portfolio of income generating funds dumping cash into a current account (i.e. not even bucketing [9]) would also be beyond me in that state but it seems intuitively to be a lower hurdle.
Again, what a shame (most) financial professionals don’t have the same reputation as say doctors. There’s an obvious need here. But not an all-encompassing obvious solution.
Enjoy the weekend, whatever age you are!
*A drag on your returns. Geddit grandpa? What, you’re only 26? Oh, it’s sort of a pun [10].
p.s. I’ve closed the poll in our great debate [11] about whether to include your house in your net worth number. In the end 54% of you voted yes and 46% said no, with nearly 1,200 readers voting. The comments on that article were excellent, too – well worth a read if you’ve only seen the post over email. Thanks to everyone who chipped in!
From Monevator
Possibly more than you ever wanted to know about bond index funds – Monevator [12]
We updated our broker table, and there’s a couple of new entries – Monevator [13]
From the archive-ator: Gold as an asset class – Monevator [14]
News
Note: Some links are Google search results – in PC/desktop view you can click to read the piece without being a paid subscriber. Try privacy/incognito mode to avoid cookies. Consider subscribing if you read them a lot!3 [15]
Did grandad have it easier? FCA to study financial divergences between generations – FCA [16]
Bank of England raises growth forecast; warns more rate rises probably needed – BBC [17]
Fresh HMRC tax crackdown on freelance contractors [Search result] – FT [18]
First-time buyers benefit from weak house price growth – Guardian [19]
Millionaires flee the politics of their homelands [3,000 left Britain last year] – Bloomberg [20]
UK call centre to trial four-day week for hundreds of staff – Guardian [21]
The world’s richest institutional investors, ranked – Institutional Investor [22]
Universal credit regulations ruled unlawful by High Court – Guardian [23]
[24]
There’s a premium nowadays on professionals who’ll be available 24/7 – New York Times [25]
Products and services
Equity release: how to squeeze money out of your home [Search result] – FT [26]
Future of 1p and 2p coins secured ‘for years to come’ – BBC [27]
Ratesetter will pay you £100 [and me a cash bonus] if you invest £1,000 for a year – Ratesetter [28]
Track your portfolio with Rebo [In Beta, the creation of a UK money blogger] – Liberate Life [29]
Checking out the UK’s first till-free grocery store [Search result] – FT [30]
Out of the ordinary houses for sale [Gallery] – Guardian [31]
The inside story of Amazon Prime – Vox [32]
Comment and opinion
Wrong approach – Humble Dollar [33]
Lars Kroijer interviewed by Meaningful Money on how to invest [Video] – via YouTube [34]
Is ‘direct indexing’ set to disrupt the ETF market? – Wealth Management [35]
How to invest given that investing is a commodity – Bone Fide Wealth [36]
Useful and overlooked skills – Morgan Housel [37]
Should we tax frequent flyers more heavily? – Simon Lambert [38]
Becoming a financial advisor could be a great career move for will-be mums – The Belle Curve [39]
Are investors paying lower – or just different – fees? – Morningstar [40]
Psst! Wanna buy a wind farm? – DIY Investor (UK) [41]
Glass half-empty becomes glass half-full – Investing Caffeine [42]
Brexit
Brexit has drained £30bn from UK-domiciled funds, says Morningstar – Investment Week [43]
The local elections looked like a kick against Leaving, but media not sure – via Twitter [44]
Theresa May also claims people voting for non-Brexit parties is a mandate for Brexit – BBC [45]
Remain Voter website aims to help Remainers vote tactically in Euro elections – Remain Voter [46]
Get Voting app should get you on the electoral roll with minimum fuss – Get Voting [47]
Buy a £1.7m villa in Cyprus and qualify for a Golden Visa to stay an EU citizen – ThisIsMoney [48]
Kindle book bargains
So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport – £0.99 on Kindle [49]
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness by Richard Thaler – £1.99 on Kindle [50]
Zero to One: Notes on Startups by Blake Masters and Peter Thiel – £1.99 on Kindle [51]
The Personal MBA: A World Class Business Education in a Single Volume by Josh Kaufman – £1.99 on Kindle [52]
Off our beat
The minimizing coin – Seth Godin [53]
The gambler who cracked the horse race betting code – Bloomberg [54]
The $70bn quest for a good night’s sleep – Fast Company [55]
The story of London’s tech start-up scene, as told by those who built it – Wired [56]
Fancy graphs showing how the world’s population is changing – Visual Capitalist [57]
She was “the queen of the mommy bloggers”. Then her life fell apart – Vox [58]
The errors that I don’t see – Of Dollars and Data [59]
Turns out coffee pod machines are [sort of] good for the environment – Wired [60]
Let sleeping co-workers lie – Slate [61]
How Uber changed Silicon Valley [Search result] – FT [62]
Scientists find cocaine in river shrimps in Suffolk – BBC [63]
And finally…
“When I was a kid my father told me there were two kinds of people in the world: smart people and wise people. Smart people learn from their mistakes. Wise people learn from somebody else’s mistakes.”
Brendan Moynihan, What I Learned Losing A Million Dollars [64]
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- No, not every young person. No, not every old person. But a valid generalisation. See: https://twitter.com/SkyData/status/746700869656256512 [↩ [70]]
- Which includes my own co-blogger, who I have immense respect for so obviously I’m teasing a bit with my language here. Also as I’ve said many times, living off income is a richer retiree’s game, and it leaves a lot of cash on the table when you die. [↩ [71]]
- Note some 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”. [↩ [72]]