The Full English Accompaniment – Beginner’s guides to investing

What’s piqued my interest this week?

Over the last few weeks, in the breaks between sanding, painting, filling, sawing, strimming and all the other fun that comes with a new house, I’ve been reading lots of basic investment guides. Not the ‘you should invest here’ type, but general overviews of the mechanisms. Tim Hale’s Smarter Investing is of course in my reading pile (second, behind an exam textbook), but blogs and videos are excellent for five minute tea (or beer) stops.

My attempts at being more frugal, and aiming for some sort of FI life, started by lurking on the UKpersonalfinance subreddit. A long forgotten post pointed me to Monevator. The Investing for beginners guides there got me started (1). I was pointed to the MoneyMustache, and Weenie’s Quietly Saving. DiyInvestorUK and UK Value Investor have taught me more in depth about passive and active options.

Monevator’s weekend reading this week highlights a millenial-focussed investing and financial advice series from the FT (2,3). A more cynical person than I would say that millenials are more finance savvy out of necessity rather than choice.

Lately I’ve been really enjoying The Plain Bagel, a YouTube series by a young guy called Richard Coffin (4). As he’s based in Canada, a lot of the tax-reducing products discussed are Canadian or American, however it’s great for the basics. His ‘fundamental series’ consists of 13 <10 minute videos covering investment mechanisms, vehicles and psychology. Here’s a little sample:

Hopefully he gets support to keep producing great videos.

Have a great weekend,

The Shrink

Side Orders

News:

• Countrywide (the company behind Taylors, Hamptons and Gascoigne-Pees) seeks funding due to falling demand (5)
• Moneywise round up of rising savings rates (6)
• Torygraph – Savings crisis as UK households increasingly in debt (7)
• Moneywise – Japanese knotweed ruling could lead to more claims for homeowners (8)

Opinion/ Blogs:

• DIY Investor UK reflects on Brexit (9)
• Moneywise – But-to-let the elephant in the room (10)
• How cheap bacon has let our farmers down (11)
• Schroders – Five famous market gaffes (12)
• The Hector Bellerin interview which prompted the last Full English on footballers money (13)
• Musing on markets muses on Teslas twists and turns (14)
• UK Value Investor – UK property market to remain flat for years to come (15)
• Monevator – does the passive label put people off funds (16)
• Motley Fool – the potential for dividend income stream from the FTSE 250 (17)
• Ermine on why financial freedom is unattainable for most (18)
• Martin Lewis – 7 reasons you’re better off married (19)

What I’m reading:

Eric by Terry Pratchett – light relief

Religio Medici by Sir Thomas Browne – the theological and psychological reflections of a C17th doctor

Enchiridion by Epictetus – Bedside reading for a bad day

References:

1. http://monevator.com/investing-for-beginners-why-do-we-invest/
2. http://monevator.com/weekend-reading-thrifty-business
3. https://bit.ly/2m07LHQ
4. https://youtu.be/I81xqr8HzBE
5. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jun/25/countrywide-property-sales-uk-estate-agency-profit
6. https://www.moneywise.co.uk/news/2018-07-03/savings-update-rates-the-rise
7. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2018/07/04/savings-crisis-uk-households-8bn-red
8. https://www.moneywise.co.uk/news/2018-07-06/japanese-knotweed-ruling-could-lead-to-more-claims
9. http://diyinvestoruk.blogspot.com/2018/06/brexit-vote-revisited.html
10. https://www.moneywise.co.uk/news/2018-06-25/buy-to-let-the-elephant-the-room-the-housing-crisis
11. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jun/27/gestation-crates-farming-cheap-bacon-how-shops-and-shoppers-let-down-our-pigs
12. http://www.schroders.com/en/uk/the-value-perspective/blog/all-blogs/five-famous-market-gaffes/
13. https://www.wealthsimple.com/en-gb/magazine/money-diary-hector-bellerin
14. http://aswathdamodaran.blogspot.com/2018/06/twists-and-turns-in-tesla-story-boring.html
15. https://www.ukvalueinvestor.com/2018/06/uk-shares-uk-property-better-value.html/
16. http://monevator.com/does-the-passive-label-put-people-off-index-funds/
17. https://www.fool.co.uk/investing/2018/06/23/why-there-could-be-huge-opportunity-to-build-an-income-stream-with-ftse-250-dividend-stocks/
18. https://simplelivingsomerset.wordpress.com/2018/06/22/the-concept-of-financial-freedom-is-an-unattainable-chimera/
19. https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/money-saving-expert-martin-lewis-12766455.amp