My Weekly Top 5: On Here, Over There (and Over To You)--9 May 2015

This week the UK saw us all voting with our ballot slips for the next government. Happily that is now finalised and we can settle down to our new government.

However, another popularity contest must go on: our Top 5. How did you vote (with your clicks) over here at the Dividend Drive?

Last week saw great interest in many of the posts included. So hopefully you will find some of these of interest as well.

As before, 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 9 May. Enjoy!

My Weekly Top 5: On Here, Over There (and Over To You)--2 May 2015

May already! That happened far too quickly for my liking.

This week--after asking your comments last week on how to arrange this going forward--I have kept things mostly the same. I have yet to decide how to adjust the Top 5 list as I have not had much time to think on the excellent reader suggestions I received (a busy week!).

So, for now, it is largely business as usual.

As before, 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 2 May.

My Weekly Top 5: On Here, Over There (and Over To You)--25 April 2015

Another week has gone. Now is the time for my third weekly breakdown of my top articles for the week after the success those of 11 and 18 April.

As before, this is going to include my Top 5 "On Here" (that is on The Dividend Drive) and my Top 5 "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.

Also, there is a little additional question at the end for you to ponder on.

Anyway, here goes my list for 25 April.

My Weekly Top 5: On Here, Over There (and Over To You)--18 April 2015

Another week has gone. Now is the time for my second weekly breakdown of my top articles for the week after the success of my first one last week.

As before, this is going to include my Top 5 "On Here" (that is on The Dividend Drive) and my Top 5 "Over There" (that is, on other personal finance sites I read).

Now, for the "On Here" list it is quite straightforward. Those with the most unique page views are ranked accordingly. It is a purely quantitative ranking.

In contrast, for "Over There" it is nothing of the sort. 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.

("What about 'Over to You'?", you ask. Well read on and all will become clear.)

"Work Freedom Day"--A New Way to Chase Your Financial Independence "Crossover Point"?

UPDATED (22 March 2015): I have changed the linked calculator a little so that it shows the WFD for both those working from December to January and January to December. I had adjusted the text a little as a result. Enjoy!

There are two ways of being happy: We must either diminish our wants or augment our means--either may do--the result is the same and it is for each man to decide for himself and to do that which happens to be easier.... But if you are wise, you will do both at the same time.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

Those of you who--clearly not getting enough just from my blog--are also following me on Twitter may have noticed this tweet a little while back:

Love the "Work Freedom Day" over at @DividendLife. Really nice idea, read what it is here: http://t.co/oy4XMcfjhH
— Dividend Drive (@dividend_drive) March 8, 2015

The idea of "Work Freedom Day"--put forward by Dividend Life--is really rather neat. As the name suggests, it is essentially the day when your dividend income has, of sorts, freed you from needing to work.

For example, let's say that my expenses work out as £30 per day. If in three months I earn £300 in dividend income then I have earned myself 10 days of work freedom.

On the calendar this would move the needle back to 21 December in that year. In other words, in principle this means I could stop working for the last few days of the year.

Of course, it is (like all such things) not perfect for everyone. But as a general motivational tool I think it is excellent. Indeed, I am planning to start to include the new "work freedom day" date into my monthly dividend income and trading activity updates.

I also think that it can be--with a little tweaking--a powerful tool for helping motivate and track your progress towards financial independence and that all important "crossover point". More on this later.