My Weekly Worthies: On Here, Over There (and Over To You)--11 July 2015

It is that time again. Another week, another round-up of weekly worthies. This time, I have given it a bit of a facelift after suggestions from readers (thanks!).

Time to settle down with a nice well-brewed drink (tea, coffee, beer...whatever your fancy) and maybe a biscuit, cake or two and catch up with what has been published during the week related to financial independence, early retirement, frugality and personal finance more generally (with a little of other bits and pieces thrown in).

As usual, last week's bumper post pulled in a mighty amount of interest from you all. Hopefully there is plenty in here to catch your interest again.

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 11 July. Enjoy!

PS: If you want to look at the archive of previous weekly round-up articles then head over to my Every(ish) Posts page. Here you will find all the articles (except portfolio purchase-related ones) published on the Dividend Drive as well as every weekly round-up to date. Take a look.

"On Here"

NOTE: The "On Here" list is purely quantitative. It is the posts with the most unique reads that week (not including other weekly round-up lists). Here's a little legend for you to explain the symbols: ★ = newly published; ▲ = moved-up list since last week; ▼ = moved down list since last week; ▬ = same place as last week.


An unusual one this week. First, three fresh posts were published this week which has dramatically altered the look of the Top 10 list. Also, we have another three-way tied 10th place.We also have a number of massive jumps up the list.

Notable in the "green" is my March 2014 first quarter goals progress post. This suggests that many of you out there are eagerly(?) awaiting my goals report for the first half. It is coming. I have just not had time to polish it off yet!

A less surprising returner to the Top 10 is my original purchase post for AstraZeneca. Obviously, a combination of a continued low share price and my recent fresh AZN purchase helped it claw its way back onto the list.

Anyway, without any further ado, here is my breakdown for the week beginning 4 July 2015:

1. ★ Taxing Times: Dividend Tax Changes in the UK Government's June 2015 Budget
2. ★ BUY: AstraZeneca (AZN)--Further into Pharma?
3. ★ BUY: Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR)--Preparing to Power Future Earnings?
4. ▬ June 2015: Dividend Income, Trading Activity and Portfolio Snapshot
5. ▲ March 2015 Goals Progress Report: First Quarter
6. ▼ The Maestro's Movers: Neil Woodford's Big Buys and Sells in May 2015
7. ▲ A Minor Miner Addition: South32 Joins My Portfolio After BHP Billiton Demerger
8. ▬ BUY: Legal & General--Growth and Income Going for a Song?
9. ▲ BUY: AstraZeneca (AZN)--Healthy Future in Healthcare?
10. Another tied 10th place this week:
1. ▲ Investing by Divesting: Switching Clutter Capital for Investing Capital (UPDATED)
2. ▬ 5 Cheap US Stock Brokers who accept UK-resident Account Holders
3. ▼ The Triple 60 Challenge: Designing a Simple Daily Decluttering Regime to Minimalist Nirvana

"Over There"

NOTE: The "Over There" is 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 and high-quality articles. Like last week, I actually found it quite a challenge to keep up with the sheer volume of articles.

Plenty of choice picks here (should I include an editor's picks list in future lists do you think?) but you will note that, unsurprisingly, we see a very heft number of monthly reviews. Also, this week I have included a separate UK budget section. After all, if you're interested in personal finance in the UK, the UK budget is not a little important.

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

FIRE (Financial Independence/Retiring Early) Planning and Strategy

• Extreme Investing - Blood Sports and Hoarders (Keeper of the Cauldron)--When does wealth accumulation become hoarding and what ill-effects does this have? Cerridwen has a ponder.
• Weekend investing links: How to invest like an alchemist (UK Value Investor)--What should alchemists, bakers and investors share in common. John has a quick thought and provides some nice links.
• Dividend Growth Investing – a great strategy for long term investors (Dividend Growth Investor)--DGI gives a cogent list of 7 reasons why dividend growth investing is such a valuable tool for you to build a healthy financial future. Very good indeed.
• Do I need an emergency fund? (Dividend Growth Investor)--A thought-provoking post on the role and status of an emergency fund in your plan. Should you think about slimming it down?
• How Can I Overcome Fear? (The Escape Artist)--Fear (both rational and irrational) dictates our everyday lives. TEA takes a look at some from the investing perspective.

FIRE (Financial Independence/Retiring Early) Progress

• Bert’s Quarterly Goals Review – Q2 2015 (Dividend Diplomats)--Bert has made good progress with his investing goals so far. The other goals are lagging a bit. Plenty of time to change that though.
• Dividend Income for June 2015 (No More Waffles)--NMW is making excellent progress towards his income goals for the year. Very impressive.
• Dividend Update: June 2015 (My Dividend Growth)--Ryan is a little behind on his targets at the moment. However, with the massive flow of capital recently this should change rapidly!
• 2015 Goals: June Update (Finance Zombie)--Mr Z has put together some pretty solid results across the board here considering the various economic and personal headwinds!
• Dividend Income Update – June 2015 (Dividend Mantra)--Half-way through the year and Jason is just off 50% from his income target. Not bad at all. And what a list of June dividend payments!
• My investment returns in June ’15 (Fire v London)--Needless to say, the Greek crisis has hit FvLs investments as much as anyone else.
• Portfolio Update June 2015 (Redeemed Finance)--Solid progress from Rich here. The fresh capital is really starting to make itself felt.
• Is The First $100K The Hardest? (Dividend Mantra)--An inspiring post for an inspiring story. Well worth a read.
• Net Worth & Freedom Fund - June 2015 (Financially Free by Forty)--Huw continues to make excellent progress in his freedom fund and net worth goals for the year.
• Dividend Income Update – June 2015 (DivHut)--Keith marks up a 21% year on year increase in dividends. Excellent progress.
• UKVI Portfolio review for 2015 Q2 (UK Value Investor)--John gives us a thorough breakdown of how he constructs his portfolio and why as well as how it has performed so far this year.
• Dividend Income - June 2015 (Dividend Legion)--Although early days, DL is making excellent progress so far!

General Investing

• Dividend Companies I am Considering this Month (Dividend Growth Investor)--An interesting list of potential purchases this month. Well worth a look at.
• China doesn’t really seem to get this stock market thing (Simple Living in Suffolk)--Nice little post on the recent events in China. I find it hard to disagree with the title!

Specific Investing Analysis/Purchases

• W.W. Grainger’s 15%+ Total Return Potential Starts Now (Sure Dividend)--A solid company with what appears to be a very effective strategy. Well worth looking at.
• Recent Buy [W. P. Carey] (Dividend Mantra)--Jason adds to his holding in this REIT after the price continues to slide.
• This Unloved Cigarette Stock is a Dividend Growth Machine (Sure Dividend)--Ben takes a quick look at Altria. The tobacco industry continues to be undervalued from an income perspective. 
• GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Will Receive $140B+ Bid in Q4, From Suitors Including Pfizer (PFE) and AstraZeneca PLC (AZN): Poll (BioSpace)--This site did a poll of over 400 industry insiders. Apparently only 12% felt that no bid was forthcoming. GSK is my biggest single holding and I maintain it is better as an independent entity. However, if a big bid does come I suspect it will go through.
• SABMiller shares are close to my estimate of fair value (UK Value Investor)--John thinks that the mega-cap brewer is within 250p of its fair value price. I agree with him entirely. Fascinating and thorough analysis.
• ACE is Acquiring Chubb… What Should You Do? (Sure Dividend)--As insurers start consuming one another. Ben asks what you should do after the announcement that Chubb is being bought by ACE. 

Budgeting and Frugality

• How Much Our Pets Cost Us + Why They’re Worth It! (Frugal Cottage)--Pets are expensive. But should you avoid them when living on a budget. Certainly not.

Misc

• One Year Closer to Financial Independence (Early Retirement Guy)--Guy celebrates his first bloggin anniversary and muses on the place of the personal finance community in the UK. 

UK Budget-related

• Osborne’s dividend tax wedge hits FIRE (FIRE v London)--An excellent summary of the effect of the UK budget on FIRE seekers.
• Is it Possible to Finish University Debt Free? (Early Retirement Guy)--It certainly is and Guy runs the numbers to prove it. Obviously, after the recent UK budget changes this of particular interest to many.
• How to Earn £34,000 Tax Free (Under the Money Tree)--A readable look at some of the changes wrought by the recent budget and some issues. Take a look.

"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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Creative Commons image reproduced from Flickr user Ruz