My Weekly Top 5: On Here, Over There (and Over To You)--23 May 2015

Another week has gone and it is time for my weekly round up of various posts around the web that caught my eye as well as the most read here on The Dividend Drive

As usual, the summary last week saw a lot of interest from you and was updated as some of you offered suggestions for additions. Hopefully there is plenty in here to catch your interest again and please do suggest anything interesting you bumped into which I have not included.

Just a reminder about my separate Top 5 section in my page which includes Every(ish) Post on this site. So, if you want to look at past ones, have a trot over to that page.

As always, this is going to include your favourite articles "On Here" (that is on The Dividend Drive) and my favourite articles "Over There" (that is, on other personal finance sites I read).

And "Over To You"? Well that is an invite for you to highlight any articles you came across that you found interesting and not included in the list below.

Anyway, here goes my list for 23 May. Enjoy!

"On Here"

NOTE: The "On Here" list is purely quantitative. It is the posts with the most unique reads that week (not including other Top 5 lists).When marked "New" it means they were not on last week's list not necessarily that were published this week.

As is invariably the case, the two new articles on the Dividend Drive take prominent spots. This week--like last week--is a little unusual in that they both are related to new additions to the portfolio. And again, like last week and unusually(!) one is a new purchase and the other is related to a new addition thanks to a corporate action (a demerger in this case)

Outside of these new posts my post on 5 cheap US brokers which accept UK residents remains in the top 5 after entering for the first time last week. Also, the two new articles from last week hold on in the top spots with the review of April still pulling in interested readers.

Anyway, without any further ado, here is my breakdown for the week beginning 16 May 2015:

1. New: A Minor Miner Addition: South32 Joins My Portfolio After BHP Billiton Demerger
2. New: BUY: Legal & General--Growth and Income Going for a Song?
3. 5 Cheap US Stock Brokers who accept UK-resident Account Holders
4. BUY: AstraZeneca--Healthy Future in Healthcare?
5. Maybe this joint place malarky is not so special after all. This week 5th place is tied between:
1. April 2015: Dividend Income and Trading Activity
2. I'm Exposed in the US! XL Group Joins My Portfolio After Catlin Acquisition

"Over There"

NOTE: The "Over There" nothing like the "On Here" list. 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.

So what about articles published elsewhere? Here is a little list of what caught my eye.

This again is a wonderful mix of fascinating articles. However, this week has seen a huge number of articles related to FIRE planning. Lots of food for thought in there.

Hopefully you enjoy reading them as much as I did.

Budgeting and Frugality

• 5 Ways To Live For Less [Guest Post] (The Frugal Cottage)--Some interesting and simple tips on how to make your money go a little further.
• Spending habits – luxury spending (The FireStarter)--Are you lured into a bit of luxury spending which costs more but doesn't add anything more (or maybe less)? Have a quick look here.

FIRE (Financial Independence/Retiring Early) Planning and Strategy

• “I Want to Create Passive Income, But I Don’t Know Where to Start” — Part I (Afford Anything)--Nice introduction to the idea (and value) of passive income for anyone who has not discovered it yet. Mostly focused on property rental.
• Investment trusts for deaccumulating income investors (Monevator--The GreyBeard)--Interest post on The GreyBeard's shift towards ITs as part of his move towards living off dividend income in retirement. I have previously written on how this is likely to be a policy I follow down the line.
• Sector Allocation As It Pertains To Dividend Growth Investing (Dividend Mantra)--Very thorough discussion about sector allocation. This is something I have been thinking about more intensely recently and this was very interesting.
• Common replies to the Financial Independence Closet Exit (Early Retirement Guy)--Are you out of the FI closet yet?
• Front Loading Savings for Successful Dividend Retirement (Dividend Growth Investor)--Another timely reminder to start saving and investing as early as possible...even if you have little to do so!
• How important is a steady income flow to retirees? (Simple Living in Suffolk)--A thorough and fascinating discussion on the place of volatility in a retirement income situation. Well worth a read and a ponder.

FIRE (Financial Independence/Retiring Early) Progress

• Defining Yield on Cost (The YOC!) (Dividend Diplomats)--Interesting write up on YoC and why the Dividend Diplomats track it. I do (sort of). However, another question this raises: do you treat reinvested dividends as a new cost/investment or not?
• A letter to the future Mr Z (Finance Zombie)--Fear your FI journey may run out of steam in the future? Mr Z may not have an app for that, but a letter will do.

Investing

• Vanguard LifeStrategy - New Portfolio Purchase (DIY Investor UK)--We are really seeing the shift away from individual stock holdings in DIY INvestor UKs portfolio now. 

General Personal Finance

• What I’m Teaching my Son about Money (Mr Money Mustache)--I find these sort of articles fascinating: how best to teach children about money. And this is a particularly good one. 

Misc (who doesn't like a good "Misc" category?)

• How to Cycle a Medium Sized Country (The Escape Artist)--This has a FI element to it which is worth reading. Very inspiring.
• A Year Isn’t A Year (Dividend Mantra)--Know the Time Value of Money? Good. This is about something even more important: the Time Value of Time. Take a read.

"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?

Make a comment below and include a link. Then we can all take a look!

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