As usual, the summary last week saw a lot of interest from you all. 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 there.
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 30 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.Only one new article was published this week but it attracted a lot of interest which is good. It was specifically relating to ShareGift and how it is a charity which allows you to--free of charge--donate shares which then go on to help charity. However, it was also a post on the bigger question of how you combine investing and charity (if you do).
Outside of this new post the rest of the top 5 has remained pretty similar to last week as last week's top 5 continued to pull in the reads.
Anyway, without any further ado, here is my breakdown for the week beginning 23 May 2015:
- New: Shareholding Too Small to Sell? How Others Can Benefit from Your Tiny Unwanted Shares
- A Minor Miner Addition: South32 Joins My Portfolio After BHP Billiton Demerger
- BUY: Legal & General--Growth and Income Going for a Song?
- BUY: AstraZeneca--Healthy Future in Healthcare?
- 5 Cheap US Stock Brokers who accept UK-resident Account Holders
"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--unlike last week where FIRE articles predominated--this week saw the broader theme of investing taking the lion's share.
FIRE progress updates was low on the ground. However, I strongly suspect next week being the start of a new month will be bursting at the seams with that content.
Anyway, hopefully you enjoy reading these as much as I did.
FIRE (Financial Independence/Retiring Early) Planning and Strategy
- Asset Allocation 2: Allocate Harder (Finance Zombie)--How do you put together a perfectly parsimonious and practical asset allocation for the long term? Mr Z has a quick look.
- Microfinancing - a good way to donate? (Finance Zombie)--Linked to my post earlier on possible ways to link charity to your investing. This covers Deki. It's a great scheme. I have signed up a little and will soon integrate it more firmly into the DD Donation Drive.
FIRE (Financial Independence/Retiring Early) Progress
- Monthly Goal Update: April 2015 (Financially Free by Forty)--A nice update on the solid performance FFB40 is making towards his huge array of personal and financial goals.
Investing
- Valuing the UK Equities Market (FTSE 100) - May 2015 (Retirement Early Today)--RIT takes another look at the long-term value of the FTSE 100 and how it affects his allocation.
- Calculating dividend growth length (Dividend Life)--DL maintains the excellent UK Dividend Champions list. Here he asks for an opinion on how best to maintain the list. Do chip in your thoughts. They will be invaluable.
- The Priceless Art of Not Caring (Motley Fool US: Morgan Housel)--A nice little on article on why not caring (at least, not caring as much) is the way to succeed in investing. Pretty solid advice I believe! Can we follow it though?
- An Investment Lifeboat Drill Now Can Help Weather Future Disaster (New York Times: Carl Richards)--How to make some effort--of sorts--to prepare you for a market crash.
- Portfolio construction is an underrated skill (Financially Integrated)--How much do you invest in mid caps and small caps? Here is a little post on how to balance them in your portfolio.
- Simple Investing Principles to Follow (Dividend Growth Investor)--A nice little run down of some basic principles every private investor should follow. Always worth reminding yourself of these from time to time!
Budgeting and Frugality
- Middle-Class inflation – it’s big, it’s bad, and it’s eating your lifestyle (Simple Living in Suffolk)--Fascinating dismantling of the plight of the (upper) middle class who aren't helping themselves.
- 3 Paths to Spending Like a Jedi (The Escape Artist)--Do you follow the path of the student? Do you like your budgeting in the flavour of cold turkey? Or do you prefer a little deflation in you life? Take a look here.
General Personal Finance
- Gifting the Inheritance Away (Keeper of the Cauldron)--Personal finance is nothing if not personal. Cerridwen us a little insight into this.
- Are Regular Savers worth the faff? (Finance Zombie)--Thinking about opening a Regular Savings account for the higher interest? Fair enough. Read this first though.
Misc (who doesn't like a good "Misc" category?)
- The ultimate detox? Woman who lives a ‘zero waste’ lifestyle can fit two years of rubbish in a jar (The Stylist)--Quite an impressive story. She has a blog over at Trash is for Tossers. May be of interest.
"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!
Hi DD
ReplyDeleteThanks for this - I particularly found the 'Priceless Art of Not Caring' article very interesting.
Fortunately, I already don't care about a lot of those things but the "perfect portfolio" is one I should stop caring about.
I've been stressing about my share portfolio in trying to achieve 'optimum diversification' to the point where I found myself spending too much time looking at particular shares in particular sectors. As you know, there are so many good shares to buy! But this meant a lot of reading, analysis and on my part, stressing!
I have a shortlist of shares and investment trusts to invest in. The next one I go for will be decided on the roll of a dice or something like that - I already know they are all good companies to invest in, otherwise they wouldn't be in my shortlist!
My portfolio is pretty much represented in most if not all sectors, so I need to stop worrying!
Yes, I thought it was pretty good as well. It is easier said that done, however, when it is your money. That is probably the advantage that professional investment managers have. Being able to "not care" is much easier (unless their capital is entirely in the investment vehicle they run, of course!).
DeleteI know what you mean. You can become a bit fixated about diversification. For instance, I read one comment somewhere--couldn't tell you where--where someone was buying gilts right now just because they felt they needed it for a perfect portfolio. The thing is they were aware it was not a great time and were clearly not comfortable with the idea. But getting closer to diversification perfection was overruling this!
I think that seems a good idea in many ways. Get a well-researched short list and--unless something dramatically changes--allowing lady luck to have hand in the process. In reality, lady luck has a huge amount of influence after that point anyway. Why not get her involved earlier! The key thing is researching the short list carefully beforehand!
Mine is pretty nicely spread as well. However, the technology sector is filled with companies I would not--now--invest in. They were amongst my early purchases testing the "growth" world of shares. Not my type of investment I don't think!
I am pushing a little bit more towards healthcare and consumer defensive stocks currently though. Industrials as well, it must be said.
I too have a couple of shares that I wouldn't invest in now, where dividends have been reduced but I'll continue to hold them as that is my strategy and I don't want to make a loss by selling them now. I have been looking at healthcare, consumer defensive and industrials but I think I will let Lady Luck decide my next one haha!
DeleteMine were not even dividend payers to begin with. When I first started out seriously investing I thought I would experiment with a couple of technology growth stocks. This was to see what i was comfortable with. Turns out, not comfortable with it at all. It confirmed that dividend investing was the way for me!
DeleteI am happy to hold them for however long is required. I may decide it is time to cut my losses sometime. However, it is not there yet (at all in fact). Both companies I think are sound. They are just not in my orbit anymore!
I am going to spend some time today having a look at my next likely purchase. I have some ideas after looking around a little while ago. Hopefully something will jump out so obviously that lady luck will not even have to step in! You never know!
I look forward to seeing what you--and LL--decide upon next!
Phew just went through that list of articles that you posted. Thanks for sharing. I definitely fell behind on my reading this week.
ReplyDeletei know what you mean! Very easy to fall behind. So much interesting stuff is posted it is hard to keep track of on top of everything else. Glad you found it interesting. Any one of them really catch your eye?
Delete