My Weekly Worthies: On Here, Over There (and Over To You)--27 June 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 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 27 June. 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.

I only published one new article earlier this week on my Triple 60 Challenge . However, as usual this has pulled in the most readers (though it was seriously challenged by the second place Neil Woodford article).

You will notice a lot of red down arrows this week. This is chiefly due to the fact that the two top 5 green up arrow articles had pretty hefty jumps in the number of readers therefore shunting the rest down. This was particularly true of my US brokers article. This seems to jump in and out of the Top list of articles on a fairly regular basis (following global economic trends maybe?)

We also have what I think is the first three-way tie for 10th place. The Investing by Divesting article has been helped along--of course--by being cited in the Triple 60 Challenge article.

Anyway, without any further ado, here is my breakdown for the week beginning 20 June 2015:

1. ★ The Triple 60 Challenge: Designing a Simple Daily Decluttering Regime to Minimalist Nirvana
2. ▼ The Maestro's Movers: Neil Woodford's Big Buys and Sells in May 2015
3. ▲ Shifting My Portfolio into "Retirement Gear": Primitive Proposed Plan and Timescales
4. ▼ BUY: WPP--Doubling Up on a Global Media Giant
5. ▲ 5 Cheap US Stock Brokers who accept UK-resident Account Holders
6. ▬ A Minor Miner Addition: South32 Joins My Portfolio After BHP Billiton Demerger
7. ▼ May 2015: Dividend Income, Trading Activity and Portfolio Snapshot
8. ▼ BUY: Legal & General--Growth and Income Going for a Song?
9. ▼ RAMping Up My Laptop Performance on the Cheap with a RAM Upgrade (and Other Tweaks)
10. Remarkably a three-way tie for last place (the first one, I believe):
• ▼ BUY: AstraZeneca--Healthy Future in Healthcare?
• ▼ BUY: Stock Spirits Group--Spirited Growth in Central and Eastern Europe?
• ▲ Investing by Divesting: Switching Clutter Capital for Investing Capital (UPDATED)

"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. Particularly of note--under the general investing section--is a post by Total Return Investor on things he learned from Todd Wenning. Some very interesting lessons in there. But beyond that each of the main sections are bulging with quality posts this week. So plenty for you to peruse!

Also, new for this week is the "Specific Investing Analysis/Purchases" section which has been spun-off from the "General Investing" section. I should have done this earlier, but failed to do so!

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

FIRE (Financial Independence/Retiring Early) Planning and Strategy

• UK Housing market valuation and forecast – June 2015 (UK Value Investor)--Is UK housing too expensive now after its bull run? John casts his analytical eye over the data.
• Reasons to use active funds instead of passive funds for retirement income (Monevator: The Greybeard)--Why should you use active as opposed to passive funds for a retirement income portfolio? The Greybeard explains why.
• 10 More Classic Anthems of Financial Independent (The Escape Artist)--An excellent list of FI-esque musical gems with equally excellent (and detailed) explanations of their power. Take a look.
• Top 10 Anthems of Financial Independent (The Escape Artist)--The original list from TEA. I missed it first time round (much to my amazement!). You should not miss it now!
• Escaping the Death Pledge – The Reasons (Insourcelife)--Interesting post on why you should pay off your mortgage rather than invest more capital. Thanks to the FireStarter for suggesting this.

FIRE (Financial Independence/Retiring Early) Progress

• Reasons to Retire #1 – Appraisals and Targets (Early Retirement Guy)--Guy gives a quick summary of his target-related experience. I am sure it is shared by many.
• Reasons to Retire #2 – There's a Whole Other World Out There (Early Retirement Guy)--Another quick thought of what other aspects of the pull of retirement can provide. 
• Net Worth Update: €65,719 (+2.05%) (No More Waffles)--An excellent bit of net worth progress by NMW considering the various travails in the Eurozone...

General Investing

• The Best Broker for Dividend Investors: Interactive Brokers (Dividend Growth Investor)--If you're looking for a new broker (or indeed not) take a look at DGIs review of IB. It is thorough and enlightening especially as IB is very poor at explaining its pricing on its own website.
• On Stock Price Volatility (Sure Dividend)--An excellent post on why low volatility, low beta stocks consistently outperform high volatility, high beta stocks over the long term. Well written and researched and well worth a read.
• The one lesson about Warren Buffett's success that no one wants to hear (Dividend Growth Investor)--What is Buffett's secret? DGI highlight one critical and consistent element.
• A Dozen Things I Learned from Todd Wenning About Investing (Total Return Investor)--A list of fantastic bits of investing advice. Lesson 7 is a particularly interesting one.

Specific Investing Analysis/Purchases

• Philip Morris International: A 5% Dividend Investors Can Count On (Sure Dividend)--Ben takes a at dividend stalwart and tobacco giant, PMI. I only hold one tobacco company. In my case, UK-listed Imperial Tobacco. However, as dividend investments they are highly attractive.
• Is Shoe Zone PLC a supermarket alternative? (The Firing Room)--A company I have never looked at previously. Roland provides a run-down of some of its attractive metrics. Take a look and see what you think.
• Recent Buys [Hersheys, WalMart, and Apple] (Dividend Mantra)--Jason has been on a pretty staggering buying spree in the last week. Read the three companies he pushed cash towards above.
• Marks and Spencer’s shares may disappoint investors (UK Value Investor)--An iconic British brand. But one worth investing in at current levels? John has a look. 
• Emerson Electric (EMR) Dividend Stock Analysis 2015 (Dividend Growth Investor)--58 years of dividend growth and counting. DGI takes a more in-depth look into engineering giant, Emerson Electric.

Budgeting and Frugality

• Ridiculous Spending? What Ridiculous Spending? (The Escape Artist)--Think the UK is not susceptible to ridiculous spending habits? Think again.
• Why Is It Wrong To Talk About Money? (Frugal Cottage)--Why is it that people see money as a taboo. FC asks the question and provides a little discussion. It is time for this to change, but how?
• 3 productive or frugal things i’m doing this week (The FireStarter)--Want to do something interesting other than sit in front of the TV and save money at the same time. TFS gives you some ideas.

Misc

• Being Taken for a Ride. An Uber Rant (Keeper of the Cauldron)--Do you use Uber? Cerridwen has a little discussion about the service and some of its issues.
• How to Sell a House (Mr Money Mustache)--A fascinating article which includes a huge swathe of advice on how to help sell your house (and sell it well). Very useful if this is what you are currently doing (or planning to soon!).
• Please slow down life!! (Money, Life, Happiness)--Another one suggested by the FireStarter. Is your life dominated by the rapid and ubiquitous communication channels around you? Time to rethink their position in your life.

"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