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Weekend reading: Merry Christmas everyone - Monevator
What caught my eye this week. I can’t deny the Monevator Christmas party is always a little awkward, but I look forward to it every year. It’s the anonymity that makes it tricky. Not just keeping our identities secret from the waiting staff, but also from each other. Finumus doesn’t want anybody to know who […]
Weekend reading: The best cities for saving money in the UK - Monevator
What caught my eye this week. Data from MoneySuperMarket on household disposable income was presented by This Is Money this week as a regional ranking of which city’s citizens have the most spending power: Disposable income is defined here as what you have left to spend after paying some 31 kinds of outgoings – from rent […]
Weekend reading: 50 years of higher house prices - Monevator
What caught my eye this week. With 2024’s decline in mortgage rates arrested – if not yet quite beaten-up for resisting said arrest – it is likely house prices will continue to go nowhere for a while. Especially given the higher stamp duty for buy-to-let landlords that came in with the October Budget. The now-5% […]
Weekend reading: home truths - Monevator
What caught my eye this week. There is an interesting article in the Financial Times this week that explains that new build properties aren’t as small as we’ve all been led to believe: It turns out that, rather than shrinking, new homes have become larger. The frequently used 76 sq m figure is simply wrong […]
Weekend reading: the Big Could Have Been Worse Budget - Monevator
Feel free to skip one more pundit’s view of the Budget if you’ve had enough. I’m not claiming to be John Maynard Keynes. This is just how I see things. When asked why he robbed banks, the US heist wiz Willie Sutton said: “Because that’s where the money is.” Those hit by what passes for […]
Weekend reading: Delay Repay okay - Monevator
What caught my eye this week. I was bemused to see Adrian Chiles penning a glowing paean to the Delay Repay compensation scheme in The Guardian this week. I’d always imagined such warm feelings were an Investor family quirk. As Chiles writes: After a bit of a fiddle setting up your account, you automatically, as […]
Weekend reading: If someone asks you to be Chancellor, say no thank you - Monevator
What caught my eye this week. When I wrote a few weeks ago that pre-Budget speculation had reached a fever pitch, I was wrong. Turned out that was mere pre-Budget babble. This week was the fever. I have no more speculation to add. Not least because Whitehall-based readers seem to have picked up on my […]
FIRE-side chat: secret squirrel - Monevator
Monevator reader ‘Squirrel’ is only partway through her rather rocky path towards financial independence, so today’s postcard is from the journey rather than the destination. Be warned, it’s another lengthy – yet very readable – FIRE-side chat. A place by the FIRE Hello! How do you feel about taking stock of your financial life today? […]
Weekend reading: It's the final Budget countdown - Monevator
What caught my eye this week. Just 26 sleeps to go until the new government’s first Budget on Wednesday 30 October. And I cannot recall there ever being so much pre-match jitters. I could have filled the links below with forecasts, evasive action tips, and threats to emigrate. Hardly what anyone would call a honeymoon […]
Weekend reading: Trust cost rules change, and a plug for us - Monevator
What caught my eye this week. Some good news for investment trust fans this week, as the Financial Times reports: The UK government has exempted investment trusts from onerous cost disclosures in a move analysts believe will boost the £260bn industry and could support trusts’ share prices. In a joint statement this week, the government […]
Passive investing, edge, and market efficiency: winners need losers - Monevator
A few years ago I wrote about market efficiency and investing edge – and about how you don’t have it. But let’s dig deeper into why this is true. You often hear from retail punters and professional investors alike that passive (or index) investing makes markets less efficient. Their argument is that this inefficiency is […]
Weekend reading: looking for gain from the CGT pain - Monevator
What caught my eye this week. Recent weeks have seen us debate whether you should sell ahead of – what’s still only rumoured – capital gains tax rises. But as St. Charlie liked to remind us: invert, always invert! To wit: tax-motivated sellers might create opportunities for bargain-hunting buyers. Of course every tax-fearing seller must […]