A round up of interesting or cool stuff I’ve read.
Image by bluartpapelaria from Pixabay
Merry Christmas
What a year it’s been, eh? You don’t need me to list all the craziness. Now seems like a good time to take a breather before we plough on into the new year. Whilst I hope 2021 is far better than 2020, I’ve a sneaking suspicion it will at least start as 2020 ends – Brexit chaos mingled with a Covid-spike, leading to a third lockdown. Joy! But, with the announcement and subsequent roll-out of a vaccine, I’m hopeful that by this time next year things will be on the up.
It’s a quiet Christmas for us this year. Usually we’d stay with family for a week, and then travel to meet some friends for New Year’s Eve. Not so this time. Even before the latest Government restrictions, we had decided not to take the risk. With the aforementioned vaccines on the horizon, it seems unnecessary for us to risk catching or spreading the virus now.
This will be the final post in 2020. I’m going to take a break to gorge myself on food and videogames, in the true spirit of Christmas. I’ll be back on the first Wednesday of January with the next edition of Wednesday Reads.
In the meantime, if you’re hankering for something more, you may have missed my post on Sunday – Six Lessons from ‘How I Invest My Money’.
Alternatively, here are what I think are my best posts from this past year:
- Double Down, Pivot, or Start Over
- The Long Tail
- Stoicism: Lessons for Financial Independence
- Building Wealth in my 20s: Successes and Failures
Before leaving you to peruse this week’s links, all that’s left is to say a huge thank you to everyone who has read, commented, or shared something I’ve written. It’s been a pleasure to interact with everyone, and I look forward to continuing to do so.
I hope everyone has a great Christmas break and can use the time to recharge and have some fun.
Here’s to 2021!
Interesting links that caught my eye this week:
Blogs
- Mr MedFI – Ho Oh No
This one gave me a chuckle. An excellent festive FI poem from Mr MedFI.
- The Twenty Percent – Money lessons from your favourite Christmas songs
Following on from above, Katie looks into what some Christmas classics can teach us about money.
- Indeedably – Hope
An optimistic one from Indeedably, as well as a round up of other bloggers who compile weekly curation posts.
- Banker on Wheels – How to Choose a Safe Stock Broker
If you’re striving to achieve financial independence, chances are you will end up with a lot of money invested via a few brokers. BoW provides a very detailed post outlining what you should consider when choosing one.
- Quietly Saving – “Vaccinated” Dogs of the FTSE
Weenie shares the progress of her Dogs of the FTSE portfolio.
- Gentleman’s Family Finances – My super secret side hustle: buy to let pets.
A funny read from GFF.
- Ad Otium – The Size of the Fight in the Dog.
“If we subscribe to a FI/RE lifestyle there comes a point at which we are surely happy with our lot, and there is no reason why this can’t be reached before we hit a magic number.”
- A Chat With Kat – Premium Bond Millionaire: On Saving, Splurging and Donating
Kathrin ponders what she would do if she won £1 million. I answered that question myself a few years ago, along with several other bloggers – The Million Pound Question.
- Blair duQuesnay – 2020: Good, Bad, and Ugly
“If you told me in April, that the market would be up double digits by mid-December, I would have laughed in your face. I was prepared to guide my clients through a multi-year downturn. I knew staying the course was the right advice, I just never imagined the reversal would happen so quickly.”
- Banker on FIRE – Money Identity
“Give yourself permission to be happy today, not when you finally hit your number.”
- Cash 4 Kat – Investing 1,000 Dollars a Month Made Easy
- Incognito Money Scribe – Supercharging Your Financial Bullshit Detector
“If someone is unable to express an idea in clear, simple language, and can only regurgitate technically rote definitions and statements out of context, then they are likely full of shit.”
- A Wealth of Common Sense – What If You Only Invested at Market Peaks?
An insightful video from Ben Carlson.
News
- What happen to FSCS protection for savings after Brexit – ThisIsMoney
Other
- Sign up to Trading212 via this link and we both receive a free share.
Thanks for reading. Hope you all have a good Christmas holiday. See you in the New Year!