Wednesday Reads: Dawn of the Final Day

A round up of interesting or cool stuff I’ve read.

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Image from Know Your Meme 

 

That election

Dare I comment on this divisive election?

It looks like we’ll be waiting at least a week before all the votes are counted, and even then, one side or the other may decide to dispute the result. Fun!

I guess we can take a little bit of solace in knowing that, regardless of who wins, our portfolios are unlikely to see any difference:

• The stock market doesn’t care who wins – Reformed Broker
• What does the stock market do around election day? – Of Dollars and Data

 

Lockdown 2.0

Meanwhile, over on this side of the pond… After deciding against a two-week “circuit breaker” lockdown that was recommended mid-October, the government has been forced into a four-week lockdown instead, in a bid to get infections under control before everyone starts travelling for Christmas.

This all seems a little too much, too late.

Too much, because I think a full lockdown is unnecessary; why shut down, for example, all hairdressers, if they aren’t a particularly high source of infection. And that goes for anything else that follows rules of reduced occupancy.

Too late, because it’s very close to Christmas. What will the government do if infections are still rampant mid-December? Hold firm and tell everyone to do their part? Or relax everything, only to have a third spike and presumably another lockdown in January/February.

I’m lucky enough that my job is going to be unaffected for the time being. I’ve been working from home since March anyway. But man, do I feel sorry for all the workers and business owners working in retail and hospitality.

Whilst the stock market doesn’t seem to care about who wins the presidency, I suspect the FTSE 100 will care that more businesses in the UK are restricted once again.

Still, I’ll just keep calm and carry on investing throughout this bumpy ride.

 

Other interesting links that caught my eye this week:

• Why I’ve changed my mind about the FI/RE ‘movement’. I really liked this post by Ad Otium. It echoes other posts that occasionally crop up in the FIRE blogosphere, saying that the middle section of working towards financial independence is long and dull. Better to not worry about perfectly optimising the journey, and instead make sure you enjoy the ride!

 

• Who Cares? by the Irrelevant Investor. If you’re worried about the recent dip in the stock market, maybe you’ve taken on too much risk?

 

• Following on from Mrs Saving Ninja’s recent post on her experiences moving to Sweden, Indeedably shares his Migration Experience.

 

• The Evidence Based Investor with a parable illustrating the effectiveness of simply buying an index fund, rather than trying to pick the few stocks that will outperform the market – Plenty of fish in the sea.

 

• Banker on FIRE on the benefits of standing up for yourself in the workplace and managing conflict – Itching for a fight.

 

• Accidental FIRE tells us to focus on yourself, not your competitors. After all,  as the Stoics would say, we can’t control what anyone else does, but we can control what we do.

 

• Not remotely finance related, but a very good short story by Garth Nix, The Necessary Arthur.

 

• Sign up to Trading212 via this link and we both receive a free share.

 

Thanks for reading. Hope you’re all having a good week.