Well, here we go. By the time this post goes up, we’ll be just hours away from ushering in the new year. These days, there seems to be a certain rhyme and rhythm to the vast majority of the “year in review” posts. Following […]
You will have noticed that over the past few weeks, I have really dialed back on the number of “quantitative” posts. Gone are the rates of return, expected probabilities, and asset class comparisons. There’s plenty of time for those topics throughout the year. Instead, […]
When it comes to building wealth, the first £100k is a critical stepping stone. But it is crossing the one million mark that makes you realize you are well on your way – at least in financial terms. […]
As my workload finally eased up over the past few weeks, I have been able to spend a fair bit of time catching up with friends and family members. Many people in my social circle also have young kids and demanding jobs. Between all […]
Nothing in life is easy. But it’s fair to say that building wealth has got to be one of the most challenging tasks you can set for yourself. A big underlying issue here is incentives. Think about losing weight or learning a new language. […]
Over the past few days, the lead-up to Christmas is finally proving to be a reprieve from what has been a very busy 2020. Thus, I have finally gotten around to doing something I’ve long had in mind – publishing a summary of what […]
One of the fundamental truths of being a personal finance blogger is that it invariably involves telling readers what you think. The internet, however, is a funny, opaque place. Things are not always what they seem. And for all you know, I could be […]
Bonds or equities? US or international? Large cap or small cap? What about value? Gold, commodities, crypto, individual stocks, sectors and subsectors, investing styles – the personal finance community is bursting at the seams with discussions on where to put your money. And yet, […]
When it comes to New Year resolutions, so many people fail at keeping them that it’s a surprise that anyone still bothers to make them in the first place. According to research, 80% of people give up on their New Year resolutions by February. […]
The other day, I got a frantic call from the commercial tenant at one of our rental properties. There was a pretty significant leak coming in from above which caused a mini-flood in the restaurant below. Luckily, the place was closed to customers at […]
Last Friday was a long day for me. The first Zoom call of the day started at 7 am, courtesy of a demanding continental client with a penchant for early starts. A year ago, my secretary would have punted the meeting by a couple […]
The absence of role models has long been one of the biggest obstacles to building wealth. After all, the easiest way to become successful is to find someone who is already successful – and replicate what they have done. However, money isn’t like fitness […]
Back in my 20s, when I was still working my somewhat boring corporate job, I had a few friends who managed to “break into” investment banking immediately post undergrad. The lead-up to Christmas was always an exciting time for them – not least because […]
In what is becoming a recurring theme, a long-time reader (let’s call him Bob) sent me a link to an article about passive investing the other day – and asked for my views. The article itself was unremarkable, a thinly veiled shill for an […]
It may not seem like it, but as of today, we are just four weeks away from Christmas. One of the most eventful years of the past few decades is beginning the countdown toward its logical conclusion. It’s fair to say that 2020 has […]
On Saturday morning, I woke up to an email from a long-time reader of this blog. To preserve anonymity, let’s call him Carl. Carl sent me a link to this story from the Sunday Times and asked for my views. I was still in […]
Back in February, when a very prescient colleague of mine was busy liquidating his equity portfolio, a good friend of mine was going in the opposite direction. He and I had discussed investing in the past – and he had fully signed on to […]
Almost twelve years ago to the day, it felt like the world was on the verge of collapsing. Venerable financial institutions have gone bankrupt, while others were teetering on the brink. Real estate values plunged in an unprecedented way, leaving millions of overleveraged homeowners […]
Yesterday’s news of the Pfizer Covid vaccine may well be the emotional highlight of 2020. It certainly put a big smile on my face, notwithstanding an otherwise challenging day at work. A triumph of good over evil. Of human ingenuity over a nasty, deadly […]
Of the many conceptual arguments playing out in the personal finance space, buying versus renting has got to be one of the longest-running ones. Based on what I have seen over the past couple of years, the “buyers” represent a solid majority. After all, […]
The two boys wouldn’t stop taunting me. I was in Grade 9, and it was my third day of high school. An experience equal parts novelty and anxiety. Having just immigrated to a new country didn’t make things easier. Our parents, busy with a […]
About ten years ago, I attended an investment conference that brought together students and faculty from a number of MBA programs on the East Coast. Eugene Fama was one of the keynote speakers at the event. This was a few years before he won […]
One of the most enduring lessons I’ve taken away from my MBA degree is the concept of a “pre-mortem”. Applied in a managerial / finance context, the idea is quite simple. Let’s say you are about to kick off a big project. It can […]
Ahh, the sweet promise of early retirement. The date is January 31, 2020. The news outlets are slowly picking up coverage of the strange pandemic that’s shutting down Chinese cities and seems to be spreading beyond the country’s borders. I have zero time to […]
After seven and a half months of working from home, I have finally had enough. Driven by a desire to insert a bit more separation between work and life, I put on my mask, boarded the Jubilee line, and headed for the office. To […]
A lifetime ago (i.e. back in my teenage days), I had a very short but highly memorable stint working for a moving company. The set-up was simple. The owner of the company, who doubled up as the CEO, CFO, driver, and mover, had offered […]
Want to learn a guaranteed way to never, ever lose money in the stock market? Then today’s post is for you. Those who have read about the magic money machine will remember this graph: It’s a good representation of the random walk the stock […]
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