Tuesday, August 31, 2021

Links for August 2021

Free books from financial educator Paul Merriman and his co-author Richard Buck: http://paulmerriman.com/freebooks/
    Note that this now includes their latest from 2020, We're Talking Millions: 12 Simple Ways to Supercharge Your Retirement. Generous indeed! And I should take the opportunity to plug my interview with Mr. Merriman.

A candid assessment of owning real-estate vs. index funds, from an investor in Singapore: https://www.firepathlion.com/buy-property-to-rent-out-or-invest-in-index-funds/

Apparently, the market's last 3 years have been crazier than we realized: https://www.mindfullyinvesting.com/three-years-of-investing-insanity/

Learn from this mistake: https://www.mouthymoney.co.uk/saving/how-my-father-lost-his-life-savings-by-making-one-fatal-investment-mistake/

Abigail Disney pulls back the curtain on how the ultra-wealthy think: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/06/abigail-disney-rich-protect-dynastic-wealth-propublica-tax/619212/

A 10-year performance record is still basically random: https://www.evidenceinvestor.com/a-ten-year-record-is-random-noise/

A great review of historical data on stocks vs. bonds: https://www.mindfullyinvesting.com/articles/6-what-to-invest-in/6-1-historical-returns-and-risks/

"Endless desire is one of the pitfalls of human nature, and one of the first things you need to cure if you want to get ahead more quickly."
-Mr. Money Mustache, in the Foreword to the revised and updated 2018 edition of Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez's classic Your Money Or Your Life

Sunday, August 15, 2021

Dr. North and Dr. South – A Case Study on Wealth

Dr. North and Dr. South – A Case Study on Wealth

As many observers have noted, Americans tend to confuse income with wealth. If you have a high income, that makes you wealthy, right?

Let’s ask this another way: if you earn $500,000 a year, you’re rich, right?

Not necessarily, no. Even with such a high salary, if you spend $500,000 or more per year, you’re not rich. You’re broke.

Enter the story of Dr. North and Dr. South.