As before, this is going to include my Top 5 "On Here" (that is on The Dividend Drive) and my Top 5 "Over There" (that is, on other personal finance sites I read).
Now, for the "On Here" list it is quite straightforward. Those with the most unique page views are ranked accordingly. It is a purely quantitative ranking.
In contrast, for "Over There" it is nothing of the sort. It is qualitative through and through and is simply chosen by me from what I read (and mostly commented on) during the week. It is not really a ranking but a motley bag of (excellent) items.
("What about 'Over to You'?", you ask. Well read on and all will become clear.)
Top 5 "On Here"
I have two new additions for this week. One which cover the idea of switching from monthly to weekly saving schedules in order to boost your savings rate. Another is on my recent decision on how to handle my share of the returns from the XL acquisition of Catlin.Posts from last week's top 5 are led by my first quarter goals progress report. Also, my recent purchase of Royal Dutch Shell stays in the top 5 with my discussion of how I may plan my retirement portfolio in the future.
Anyway, without any further ado, here is my breakdown for the week beginning 11 April 2015:
- March 2015 Goals Progress Report: First Quarter
- New: Weekening Strength: Supercharge your investing by Weekly Saving
- New: Cash-in on Catlin: My Decision on the XL Group acquisition of Catlin
- BUY: Royal Dutch Shell "B"--Betting BiG on the BG Bid?
- Shifting My Portfolio into "Retirement Gear": Primitive Proposed Plan and Timescales
Top 5 "Over There"
So what about articles published elsewhere. Here is a little list of what caught my eye.Some really fascinating bits and pieces here. From the importance of loving what you do in investing to how much a dollar (or indeed pound) is worth to you today thinking to the future.
Anyway, continuing what I feel may become a habit, is my list of more than five articles I enjoyed reading this week:
- Weekend reading: Active investors need to love what they do (Monevator)
- How much is a dollar worth to you? (Dividend Life)
- Does Paying a Dividend Reduce a Company’s Value? (Dividend Growth Investor)
- How does asset-backed peer-to-peer lending work? (Money Bulldog)
- Active Versus Passive: A Dollar Isn’t A Dollar (Dividend Mantra)
- Great News – Early Retirement Doesn’t Mean You’ll Stop Working (Mr Money Mustache)
- Pay Your F#$%ing Debt (Money After Graduation)--Thanks to Gymoney for suggesting this for the list.
- The First 6 Months of Blogging – By The Numbers (Gen Y Finance Guy)--Thanks to The Finance Zombie for suggesting this for the list.
Top 5 "Over to You"
Anyway, that is it for this week. And here, as promised an age ago (or rather a few lines above), the "Over to You" bit.What did you read this week that you found really interesting related to investing, personal finance or financial independence (or anything related)?
Make a comment below and include a link. Then we can all take a look!
Hi DD,
ReplyDeleteI thought the MMM article was near poetic! Really enjoyed it. And Dividend Mantra is a really good writer as well, very motivational.
I quite enjoyed this article - http://www.genyfinanceguy.com/2015/04/13/first-6-months-blogging-numbers/ about the first few months of writing a blog.
Thanks
Mr Z
Thanks, Mr Z.
DeleteYes, like so many people I think Dividend Mantra was one of the first such blogs I bumped into. Motivational is certainly the word. He makes a good point as well.
The MMM article really covered a similar point I was writing about a while back but haven't finished yet. It is related to why I prefer the term financial independence over early retirement. I made a comment along those lines. I may retire the article for now and revive it a while down the line!
That is a really interesting blog post. Quite a nice idea to do such a detailed post-mortem of your first six months like that. I will have to take a fuller look at the blogs content when I get a moment...it looks interesting and I have never seen it before!
Thanks for that!
Took me a while but I finally added this article to the list. Thanks for suggesting it!
DeleteGreat idea for a post, do keep them coming! It's interesting, if not at all surprising to see that the posts involving goals and progress always prove to be particularly popular - despite them being of no real relevance to the reader. It seems people just genuinely like seeing how everyone else is doing whether it to be to motivate themselves, or simply give some encouraging support!
ReplyDeleteThe article that is most memorable for me this past week is http://www.moneyaftergraduation.com/2015/04/08/pay-your-fucking-debt/ . I think many people could relate to some of the points raised.
Look forward to reading more.
Thanks, Gymoney. I know what you mean. Logically you would think that personal goals/achievements posts would not be of interest and yet instinctively it is the opposite. You have it spot on though. It is the motivational power of it which is the draw. Certainly is for me! Also, being able to encourage others is a great feeling--especially when you're travelling along the same path as one another!
DeleteInteresting post. I have never come across this blog before.
Oddly enough, I have a post (already written but waiting to be published) on student debt and why I do not plan to pay it off early. Of course, I am talking about UK student debt which is a very, very different beast to US student debt.
All will become clear once it is published!
Thanks for the link and encouragement!
I'm of the same thinking with my own UK student debt. I wonder if are reasons will be similar.. i look forward to the post :)
DeleteI suspect they will be! But will be exciting to find out.
DeleteI have some time-sensitive articles to come out first though (including the WPP buy article this morning which was due to come out on Friday).
I don't envy our American cousins and their brutal student debt system. I wouldn't have had the opportunity to go to university myself under that system.
FYI: Just posted my article on UK student loans: http://bit.ly/1ySyetY.
DeleteSorry, took me a while but I have finally added the link you suggested to the list. Clean left my head to actually add it at the time!
DeleteThanks for suggesting it.