A collection of news and articles that I’ve found interesting over the last week.
News
Lots of articles about the FIRE movement in the news this week! TheEscapeArtist was featured in The Times, which seemed to kick it all off:
- How to retire in your FORTIES without earning a fortune! – Daily Mail
Suitably over the top clickbait headline from the Daily Mail. The article itself isn’t too bad, but those comments! Unreal.
- A culture of radical saving shows how powerful it is to spend less and invest – Telegraph (requires registration)
This is a much tamer, more realistic article. It almost gets away without any criticism from me, but it’s closing remarks of “many more of us aren’t interested in living like monks in a bid to escape the rat race early but it still makes sense to Invest savings for the long term, to save as much as you Can, and to start saving as Early as possible,” (emphasis my own) irked me somewhat. Still, any article that highlights the importance of saving and investing as early as possible is overall a good thing!
- Woman shares the simple saving plan that helped her pay off £16,000 debt and buy a fancy holiday – Metro
Turns out, a lot of strategies that people in the FI community use to reach their FI number quicker also enable you to pay off debt quicker as well. Useful article for anyone struggling to pay off debt.
- Why a stocks and shares ISA beats buy-to-let every time – MotleyFool
Interesting article in the Motley Fool; buy-to-let is often seen in the UK as an easy get-rich-quick scheme. Understandable in some ways, as house prices over here have jumped enormously over the last 20-30 years and the UK as a whole has an obsession with owning property. However, the article concludes that not only does investing in an index typically beat income from BTL, but it’s much less effort!
Blogs
- Finally: British Citizenship Ceremony – Gentleman’sFamilyFinances
An eye-opening post on how difficult and costly it is to move to the UK, even if your spouse is British. This is especially relevant to me as my girlfriend is American, so we will be going through this process over the next few years. I can’t say I’m looking forward to all of the paperwork and effort required, but it will be worth it in the end.
- A paper on field theory delivers a wake-up call to academics – PhysicsToday
Another topic close to me at the moment – the stress of academia! Very sad to read that in this case it resulted in suicide; hopefully this helps to serves as a wake-up call about the importance of mental-health and stability in academia.
- Lonely – CheesyFinance
A common topic amongst FI blogs that have retired early – being social is much harder when you aren’t working 9-5, 5 days a week, whilst the rest of your friends still are.
- The Bizarro World of UK Financial Advice – YoungFIGuy
I’ve been really enjoying YFG’s insightful posts (I believe he is a qualified chartered accountant). This is yet another one, discussing why financial advice doesn’t really seem to exist for those who need it the most – people with less than £50,000 to hand, or who earn up to the median UK wage.
That’s it for this week. I hope everyone reading has had a good weekend!
1 reply on “Weekend Roundup: Volume 4”
Thanks for the link.