My Weekly Worthies: On Here, Over There (and Over To You)--18 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 18 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, the new posts published this week--predictably--tops the list. We also have a couple of joint places again this week.

Notable in the "green" is my first purchase of HSBC back in May 2014. This has shot into the top 10 after Stalflare asked some questions in the comments section which put it onto the front page of the site as well (in the recent comments widget) and seem to have caught the eye of many of you.

Another big jumper has been my most recent RDSB purchase. This is no doubt due to the fact that it is currently attracting a lot of buyer interest at its current price (well below my original purchase price).

Anyway, without any further ado, here is my breakdown for the week beginning 11 July 2015:

1. ★ June 2015 Goals Progress Report: First Half
2. ▬ Taxing Times: Dividend Tax Changes in the UK Government's June 2015 Budget
3. ▲ BUY: Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR)--Preparing to Power Future Earnings?
4. Joint 4th place this week:
• ▲ BUY: HSBC--A Rare Chance to Tap into its Dividend and Growth Value?
• ▲ The Maestro's Movers: Neil Woodford's Big Buys and Sells in May 2015
5. ▼ BUY: AstraZeneca (AZN)--Further into Pharma?
6. ▲ A Minor Miner Addition: South32 Joins My Portfolio After BHP Billiton Demerger
7. ▼ June 2015: Dividend Income, Trading Activity and Portfolio Snapshot
8. ▲ BUY: Royal Dutch Shell "B" (RDSB)--Betting BiG on the BG Bid?
9. ▬ BUY: Legal & General--Growth and Income Going for a Song?
10. And another joint position down at number 10:
• ▲ 5 Cheap US Stock Brokers who accept UK-resident Account Holders
• ▲ Investing by Divesting: Switching Clutter Capital for Investing Capital (UPDATED)
• ▲ BUY: Britvic (BVIC)--Taking a Sip of a Soft Drinks Giant

"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. A really diverse mix indeed. It was extremely hard to keep up this week as work has been hectic as a long-term project begin the intense final stretch. So, as usual, any I have missed but you think I shouldn't have put in the comment section below.

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

FIRE (Financial Independence/Retiring Early) Planning and Strategy

• How to Quit Your Job: The Jump (The Escape Artist)--What do Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and financial independence share with one another? TEA provides a fascinating post to explain why!
• What does it take to be a Successful Investor? (DIY Investor UK)--What makes a successful investor? John provides a list of 6 as well as a nice review. well worth a read. 
• The biggest investing sin exposed - part II (Dividend Growth Investor)--DGI explains another sin of investing: constant strategy switching.
• Forget pensions, aim for 'salary independence' (Citywire)--I was surprised to bump into this article on Citywire. Quite a good one actually!
• What is the ideal number of holdings? Diversification (200+) vs concentration (<20) (Fire v London)--How many companies do you have in your portfolio? FvL explains the number he has and what his plans are for the future.

FIRE (Financial Independence/Retiring Early) Progress

• HYP Mid-Year Update including Purchase 14 (Retirement Investing Today)--Why does RIT have a HYP portfolio alongside a passive, tracker one? This post explains why and also outlines why National Grid is the latest portfolio addition.
• Savings Rate for June 2015 (No More Waffles)--Still an excellent month savings rate wise for NMW despite the fact there has been a slip behind in the 70% goal for the year.
• Mid-Year Goals Review For 2015 (Dividend Mantra)--Jason is making some excellent progress on his goals for the year. Online income is absolutely amazing!
• Two years down the track + june goals report (The FireStarter)--TFS offers a review of what 
• Net Worth Update: €66,903 (+1.80%) (No More Waffles)--Despite troubled markets NMW continues to see a net worth growth!

General Investing

• The Long, Long Term For Oil (Conservative Income Investor)--A pretty good post on why the oil companies really do still look good even for the very long term where most people see their fate as sealed.
• July Dividend Stocks Watch List (There's Value)--M passes her analytical eye over Dividend Life's Dividend Champions list and pull out some companies that catch her eye. Take a look at them.

Specific Investing Analysis/Purchases

• Recent Buy [National Oilwell Varco] (Dividend Mantra)--Jason pushes more capital into the oil industry during this tough time. There are--as he says--many compelling companies int eh sector for the long-term investor.
• Are Rolls Royce shares worth buying after their 40% decline? (UK Value Investor)--John turns his critical eye to the engineering giant to see at what point they would count as "good value". Very interesting. I opened a position in RR earlier this month.
• General Mills: Safety, Growth, & 3%+ Dividend Yield All in One Tasty Investment (Sure Dividend)--Food companies are very attractive long-term investments. Ben gives us a little breakdown of why General Mills, in particular, is very much in that camp.
• Recent Buy: July 13th, 2015 [Eaton Corp] (My Dividend Growth)--Ryan picks up some shares in the industrial conglomerate.
• Recent Buy CVX – Averaging Down (Pollies Dividend)--PD bulks up on oil-major Chevron.

Budgeting and Frugality

• How To Effectively Manage Your Credit Card Debt (First Quarter Finance)--Have credit card debt? Will offers some advice on how to manage it.

Misc

•  Keep on swimming (Finance Zombie)--Is there a link between financial independence and Iron Cowboy's epic 50 ironman races in 50 days challenge? Mr Z explains why there is.
• Weenie's Monkey Stocks League Challenge! (Quietly Saving)--Weenie has had a wicked wheeze of an idea: letting luck entirely dictate a handful of investments. You can join in (for real of virtually) if you like. 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!

Like what you have read?
Sign up to receive FREE email updates when new content is published:

---

Why not also follow me on Twitter and like me on Facebook?

---

Creative Commons image reproduced from Flickr user Ruz