My Weekly Top 5: On Here, Over There (and Over To You)--6 June 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 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 6 June. 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.

Again this week has seen the newly published articles--as usual--take the top spots. This time it includes my monthly review and my newest consumer goods purchase: Stock Spirits.

A surprise this week, however, is the emergence of two articles published months ago. One on green utility, Infinis Energy, was published about a year ago. The other regarding my investment in fellow (yet completely different) utility company, National Grid, also was popular again 4 months after it was originally published.

Anyway, without any further ado, here is my breakdown for the week beginning 30 May 2015:

1. New: May 2015: Dividend Income, Trading Activity and Portfolio Snapshot
2. New: BUY: Stock Spirits Group--Spirited Growth in Central and Eastern Europe?
3. A Minor Miner Addition: South32 Joins My Portfolio After BHP Billiton Demerger
4. We also have two older articles re-enter the top 5 in joint 4th position:
1. New: BUY: National Grid--Electrifying income with an (ultra) Defensive Utility
2. New: THOUGHTS: Infinis Energy--An Excellent Green Opportunity?
5. BUY: Legal & General--Growth and Income Going for a Song?

"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. Unsurprisingly for the first week in June, we see a vast number of May FI updates dominate the list. However, there is a vast array of other fascinating stuff especially in the investing section.

Anyway, hopefully you enjoy reading these as much as I did.

FIRE (Financial Independence/Retiring Early) Planning and Strategy

• Dividend Investors have an advantage over everyone else on Wall Street (Dividend Growth Investor)--What advantages do private investors have over the professionals. Here's a little run down of the most prominent.
• How to become a successful dividend investor (Dividend Growth Investor)--Slow, steady growth from price makers is better than the rocky growth of price takers?

FIRE (Financial Independence/Retiring Early) Progress

• Dividend Income for May 2015 (No More Waffles)--Another €100+ month for NMW. Great progress.
• May 2015 Savings, plus other updates (Quietly Saving)--Wennie's strongest month so far. All around, she is making very good progress indeed!
• May 2015 Income/Expenses (Early Retirement Guy)--A savings rate above 50% again. 
• May 2015 Update (Keeper of the Cauldron)--A different sort of portfolio update this month. 
• 2015 Goals: May Update (Finance Zombie)--Another solid month progress (except with cycling goals!)
• Dividend Income - May 2015 (plus some other bits and bobs) (Financially Free by Forty)--A pretty important update this one. Definitely read on!
• Portfolio update – May 2015 (Dutch Dividend)--An excellent year on year growth!
• May 2015 – Dividend income and portfolio update (Dividend Life)--An excellent year-on-year growth and a confession!
• Dividend Income Update – May 2015 (Dividend Hut)--Another excellent month .

Investing

• How Worried Are You? (Total Return Investor)--Excellent little article on how worried you are about a potential crash as an investor. Includes an excellent Buffett quote. Worth a read.
• Review: Infinis Energy (DIY Income Investor)--Is this renewable energy provider a high-yielding opportunity?
• International Investing is Easy (The Escape Artist)--Should you invest beyond your home countries shores? How best to do it? TEA has a quick ponder on this.
• UK Dividend Champions June 2015 Update (Dividend Life)--DL gives us a little run down on the movements in his invaluable UK dividend champions list. Well worth a mooch around!
• UK Historical Asset Class Returns (Monevator: The Investor)--Fascinating run down of the relative performance of key asset classes in the UK. Well worth a read. For US readers see the US equivalent.
• The defensive sectors most at risk from a bond market sell-off (UK Value Investor)--John takes a quick look at why and which defensive sectors are most at capital risk from rising interest rates and bond yield. 

Budgeting and Frugality

• Ways to Save Money by not Doing Something (Early Retirement Guy)--Shopping. Bottled Water. Speeding and more. Plenty of ways to cut back on wasteful things with money and time!

General Personal Finance

• Thoughts on Remortgaging and Credit Scores (Early Retirement Guy)--A timely reminder on why you should and how you can keep your financial life in good health.
• Peer to Peer Lending - 12 Month Review (Quietly Saving)--A brief overview of Weenie's experience of peer-to-peer lending. RateSetter, Funding Circle and Lending Works get a look in.

"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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