The Full English Accompaniment – Switching energy suppliers

What’s piqued my interest this week?

The Shrink household is currently switching energy suppliers. If you’re here, then you’re probably smart enough to already be doing the same on a regular basis. I’m not going to go into how much you can save, MoneySavingExpert does it much better (1). On moving into casa-del-Shrink we had a number of problems with the existing supplier, particularly surrounding pre-existing debt on the pre-payment meters. We switched to British Gas. Big mistake, as we continued to have problems paying off the previous tenants debts, and found out how bad British Gas complaints procedure is. Cue hours of interminable hold music, patronising ‘we’re listening letters’ and complaints being closed unresolved (2, 3). The actual staff we spoke to were helpful, but appeared constrained by a draconian “computer says no” system. We weren’t the only ones having problems with British Gas this year, who’ve been fined £2.65m for overcharging customers (4). When they put their prices up in August we voted with our feet and left to avoid exit fees (5).

We’ve gone back to Bulb, one of the smaller energy companies outside of the ‘Big Six’ who buy from entirely renewable energy sources and who we’ve had excellent service from before. We considered using the MSE Credit Club, but I get a little tin-foil-hat about giving out my personal info willy-nilly (6). In the same way we avoided Flipper, an app touted on Moneybox which automatically switches you onto your cheapest supplier (7). Sadly we’ve been told we’ll also be having an immediate price rise (8, 9), which takes Bulb out of the MoneySavingExpert’s cheapest list. The government via Ofgen recently implemented a cap on energy prices to protect vulnerable customers (10, 11). But despite this it looks like most peoples energy prices will go up, with suppliers citing increased wholesale prices (12, 13, 14). Time to break out the coal braziers and pile up the logs, we’ve got a long winter ahead!

Have a great week,

The Shrink

Side Orders

Other News

Opinion/ blogs:

What I’m reading:

Smarter Investing by Tim Hale – essential reading

Religio Medici by Sir Thomas Browne – the theological and psychological reflections of a C17th doctor. This is turning out to be real heavy-going so has been ignored a bit.

Enchiridion by Epictetus – Bedside reading for a bad day

References:

The Full English Accompaniment – On Brexit, social psychology and market timing

What’s piqued my interest this week?

I’ve been reading Tim Hales Smarter Investing over the last couple of weeks, which appears considered essential reading by most FI/ passive investment sources (1). It has prompted me to write down a philosophy and a draft set of goals for my investment plans. One of the cautions is against market timing, because it’s very statistically difficult to be good at it, incorporating not a small amount of luck. Much better to go Bogle, and buy then hold a low cost tracker (2). So far, so sold.

There’s another section of the book which documents how one of the most important, most overlooked parts to a portfolio decision is target country allocation. This is where I’m currently stuck, as Brexit presents a big hit of unknown outcomes, and is turning my market timing milk sour. Oh look, another r/UKPersonalFinance post triggered me (I’ll cut out all the Reddit relevant-only bits)…

Everyone, put on your tin-foil hats and join me on a journey considering a Brexit scenario…

I’ve personally suspected that Brexit is being pushed along despite it outwardly, appearing to be in no-one’s interests perhaps as a textbook example of Naomi Klein’s ‘Disaster Capitalism’ but maybe just as a way for massive money to be made from the lurches in exchange rate and FTSE etc.

So one outcome I suspect is that the pound will stay relatively weak to the EUR/USD etc, keeping the FTSE reasonably high, until we suddenly hit a point where it gets revealed we’ll basically stay in the EU (or EEA), perhaps after a 2nd referendum, so…

If the timeline of this is the next 6 months, how will the politicians and their chums be looking to maximise the person financial benefit to themselves? Assuming a, say, 15% increase in the value of the pound, and 10% drop in the FTSE 100, would they be looking to sell most investments, have cash and then be ready to re-invest after the correction?

What would you do in this scenario if you had this inside information? (3)

This is a little tinfoil hat brigade, although the murmuring the Nigel Farage shorted the value of the £ when he found out the result of Brexit before it was officially released could provide some evidence (4). An ex-investment banker wouldn’t call up his mates still in the industry with privy information would he? The main issue I have with the above is that it appears to go against the political wind and public opinion polls. The Conservatives and Labour are both loath to go back on the stated plan to exit (would be seen as weak?), and YouGov’s last poll in July found that a fraction greater percentage thought Brexit was the wrong decision than didn’t (5). Opinion polls may be a pretty poor judge, but they’re not so bad as to miss half the nation suddenly decided they do want to stay in the EU, after all (6).

Brexit therefore represents a challenge to the efficient market hypothesis (7). Pre-Brexit vote, a commentator in Forbes discussed how the referendum would represent an excellent testbed for efficient markets (8). It truly did, as the unexpected (to the city) voter decision was integrated into share prices in a number of hours. The fact that the referendum result was unexpected and therefore prompted such a dramatic shift in the markets challenges the efficient market hypothesis, and specifically what makes it efficient. The efficiency relies upon the sum of all the traders individual access to information. To bring it round to psychological terms, it is a form of social Gestalt theory, where the individual chaotic pieces of information/ action contributes to a total pattern (9, 10). Market traders were unaware of the depth of feeling in favour of Brexit prior to the vote (those pesky polls again), and were suddenly exposed to it and integrated it into the markets on referendum day.

But why were market traders so unaware? I wonder that the possibility of a Leave vote did not comply with the collective conscience of market traders and ‘the city’ and therefore was not appropriately considered by the markets (11). To go back to Durkheim’s original use of collective consciousness (very separate from Jungian collective unconsciousness), it is the ‘general feeling’ towards a position, experienced and perceived by the individuals in the collective (11). A shared unconscious understanding of social norms. In the city, it was a social norm to be pro-EU. In the general populace, not so much. Therefore the true risk of a Leave vote to the markets was a Rumsfeldian ‘unknown unknown’. To be pro-Leave in London pre-Brexit went against social norms, it didn’t fit with the social reality constructed in that environment, even if it did fit with the social norms and social reality of the wider UK (12).

Which brings me to my market timing and allocation conundrum. The market is efficient when it is integrating information which makes sense within it’s system; IPOs, sales data, quarterly returns etc. It appears less efficient at integrating popular opinion and behaviour. The market is vulnerable to collective psychological effects (herd behaviour etc), and changes in the market are made by people. The people who change the market (traders etc) operate in a different social world (‘social reality’) to the general populace, by nature of their social interactions. Yours is visible in day-to-day life in your twitter or social media sphere, which may differ from general public opinion. The markets will therefore be generally running on the market traders social reality, whilst the rest of us live in a slightly different social reality. Politicians span the divide, but take their lauded mandate from the general populace’s social reality. The difference comes to the fore when the market has to integrate decisions which are made by the wider populace that didn’t fit with it’s reality, e.g. Brexit. The reddit comment quoted above appears to sit well within the market reality bubble; we’ll stay in the EU in the end, it’s all a sideshow. My concern is that the general populace appears fairly relaxed about a ‘No-deal’ Brexit. Knowing that we’re a few short months out of formal Brexit, do I choose allocations based on that worry which insulate against this outcome. Does even thinking about this represent market-timing, and I should just bung my cash ‘somewhere’ and sit it out. Your opinion welcome here…

Have a great week,

The Shrink

Side Orders

Other News

Opinion/ blogs:

What I’m reading:

Smarter Investing by Tim Hale – essential reading

Religio Medici by Sir Thomas Browne – the theological and psychological reflections of a C17th doctor. This is turning out to be real heavy-going.

Enchiridion by Epictetus – Bedside reading for a bad day

References:

The Full English Accompaniment – Diversification is sustainability stupid

Dear Readers,

A bit of a late Full English Accompaniment this week, as I’m working so typing away at posts in between seeing patients. MrsShrink and I have been for a holiday, a break from IT and a pause for reflection. I’ve finally been reading Tim Hale’s Smarter Investing (1), and this has prompted me to make some changes to my blogging process. One of the key points in the early chapters of the book is to turn down the volume; that most media reports, opinions and news about the market are confusing senseless noise and to make smarter investments you need to tune out the static. In a conscious effort to decrease my own contribution to that noise I’m going to reduce the quantity of my posts, and aim to maintain a high quality. This means that the Full English will become an as-and-when type affair, for thoughts that aren’t significant enough to warrant a full Musing on… post. I’ll still aggregate other posts I’m reading each time, and other categories will continue at their current frequency. For now…

What’s piqued my interest this week?

Part of our recent holiday was spent in an AirBnB on a rural farm. Coming from a country background I was to be found discussing the owners business strategy and farming approach. Their (relatively) small acreage struggled under intensive farming methods to produce a profitable crop; the soil would need continuous improvement for arable, the setting meant high winds were common with minimal cover and they lacked the scale required to make cattle or similar sustainable. To make ends meet they had diversified. The farm now had a small sheep herd, a deer herd and a small number of hardy cattle. The owners had also converted farm buildings to cottages and flats for AirBnB, and worked a part time job for the local government. For many small farmers this is the only way to survive. Big farms in areas of poor fertility also struggle to find profits, as this fantastic comment piece in the Guardian outlines (2). As consumers, diversification of our food intake is healthier too. In agriculture, just as in finance, diversification brings sustainable profits.

Have a great week,

The Shrink

Side OrdersOther News

Opinion/ blogs:

What I’m reading:

Smarter Investing by Tim Hale – essential reading

Religio Medici by Sir Thomas Browne – the theological and psychological reflections of a C17th doctor. This is turning out to be real heavy-going.

Enchiridion by Epictetus – Bedside reading for a bad day

References:

The Full English Accompaniment – The neuroscience of a frugal mindset

What’s piqued my interest this week?

In a throwaway conversation this week MrsShrink said something which I’ve subsequently been ruminating on. In running our household I do most of the shopping, but MrsShrink does the toiletries. She remarked that she actively enjoyed going to browse in Savers, Home Bargains etc, as she enjoyed spending money she knows she has to. She’s learnt to be frugal, to penny-pinch, and spending is a treat. She gets a hit out of buying things most of us wouldn’t think twice about because to her it’s a forbidden joy.

Attitudes and behaviour towards money are learnt in childhood by observing your parents. On a structural level, the dopaminergic mesolimbic ‘reward’ pathway develops through your childhood and adolescence (1). This is the time when your brain is most sensitive to it’s reward system, and is setting down the pathways for a lifetimes use (2). The way I explain behavioural modelling to patients is to think of it as a parallel to learning your first language. As a toddler you observe your parents using sounds as language, try it out, see what works, gradually accumulating your understanding without consciously being aware of the process. Other behavioural processes also follow this unconscious accumulation process, including financial attitude. If you model your child’s behaviour at this time (consciously and unconsciously) you lay down the pathways for a lifetime of reward processing.

Hundreds of websites and blogs have signed onto this, offering to teach us the ways we can consciously train our children to be better financially. This doesn’t have to be as intense as paying your child through an investment account, or making them buy fractional shares in Netflix as some would recommend (3). The piggy bank, pocket money, weekend job development path will work just fine (4). I clearly remember learning the value of money calculating how many penny sweets I could buy with my 50p pocket money. The pre-frontal and frontal cortex projections of these pathways continue to develop into your teens and early 20s, forming your conscious awareness of pleasurable responses as you grow into adulthood.

The unconscious processes are far harder to model, alter or change. These are the deep cortex projections close to the archaic midbrain structures, projections which develop during early childhood through modelling. These are learnt through observation of those around you. This is why teaching your child to be a spendthrift can only go so far if your own approach is spending all you have to keep up with the Joneses. This is also why, in my opinion, people such as Little Miss Fire struggle with her Shop Floor Mentality (5). If you have grown up in an environment of thrift as a necessity of poverty the rewards from saving, investing and watching wealth grow are not hard-wired in your cortex. There is no unconscious drive for these goals. The Stanford Marshmallow experiment on delayed gratification is a case in point example, and potentially a way of teaching your child the benefits of patience (6).

Which is where I bring things full circle. Many rich people are innately frugal; look at Warren Buffett (7, 8). These winners derive their pleasure from the process not the outcome. MrsShrink is innately frugal as she was brought up in an environment where frugality was a necessity. She observed her mother being able to afford the things they wanted by saving wherever possible. I secretly suspect she is much more likely to become FI than I because of this innate drive, but will be hampered by her mistrust of investment vehicles. She has no desire and gains no pleasure from making non-frugal choices. Consciously training thought processes to be the same way is far harder.

Have a great week,

The Shrink

N.B. There won’t be a Full English Accompaniment next week as I’m on holiday AFK.

Side Orders

Other News:

Opinion/ blogs:

Mining in the UK sees a resurgence (15) – I find the mining industry fascinating and will do a piece on this at some point in the future
The Fire Starter runs the maths on an electric car (16)
BBC – Why are people not saving? (17)
UKVI – Is Ted Baker a perfect dividend stock? (18)
IG market analyst – Is investment in renewable energy drying up (19)
Larry Swedroe – Determining ESG’s nature (20)
Firevlondon – a high-value investor adjusts his portfolio (21)
Firevlondon – a high-value investor’s July returns (22)
Ermine at Simple Living in Somerset, being Ermine (23)
A new blog to me, Eagles Fear to Perch (24)
Monevator’s weekend reading (25)
And a piece from this week on the intricacies of risk and reward (26)
Wephway at Deliberate Living reconsiders savings rates (27)
Weenie challenges our phone addiction (28)
MMM – The 20 dollar swim (29)
Monevator linked this fantastic article on cognitive bias from The Atlantic (30) – I’ll be doing a few pieces of cognitive bias in the future, but a great starter for 10.

What I’m reading:

An exam textbook

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:

The Full English Accompaniment – Are regular savings accounts dead in the water?

What’s piqued my interest this week?

After last weeks relative quiet from FIRE bloggers (if not the BoE), this week the Side Orders section has a bountiful glut. Many of the topics I considered covering this week have been covered by others including Monevator’s weekend reading post around the bull market (1), linked to the irrelevant investor’s post on the same topic (2), and Monevator’s post covering Fidelity’s US market 0% fee tracking fund (3).

Monevator mentioned the focus of this post in his weekend reading only in passing; that outgoing Monetary Policy Committee member Ian McCafferty predicted interest rates will stay below 5% for the next 20 years, and wages will increase by 4% (4). I take all opinions with a pinch of salt, especially when they concern future predictions. We’ll assume that this is a man with a finger on the nation’s economic pulse, and leave aside how he’s actually made this prediction, which could just be a big fat whopping guess. What this ‘prediction’ does is stick a massive pin in the savings account whoopee cushion.

This week has also seen the fallout of the BoE base rate rise. Whilst 28% of mortgage rates have risen, only one in ten banks have increased the interest rates on their savings accounts (5). The biggest boost came from smaller building societies, particularly Beverley and Monmouthshire Building Society (5). Moneysavingexpert’s page of best easy access savings accounts is currently also topped by building societies, Coventry Building Society and Birmingham Midshires, offering 1.4% variable and 1.35% variable respectively (6). Fixing for one-year with Atom or Investec with get you 2.05%, steadily increasing out to 2.68% for five years fixed with Charter Savings Bank (6). These barely beat inflation. If interest rates are unlikely to rise to historic norms in the next 10 years, the pressure comes on to invest either in equities or other vehicles, from P2P or fine wine.

The rise of high interest current accounts also threatens mainstream savings accounts. Nationwide and TSB are both offering 5% interest on their current accounts (up to £2.5k and £1.5k respectively), while Tesco Bank offers 3% (up to £3k) (7). The Bank Account Savings website allows you to calculate your best rate of return for minimum moving about, and combined with switching cash offers and perks, can kick savings accounts into touch (8). There will always remain an argument for larger cash sums to be held for liquidity (using the £85k FSCS guarantee). But for now high street savings aren’t competitive for returns and don’t beat inflation.

Have a great week,

The Shrink

Side Orders

Other News:

Opinion/ blogs:

What I’m reading:

An exam textbook

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:

The Full English Accompaniment – A nation of preppers?

What’s piqued my interest this week?

This week that bulwark of British strength Theresa May advised us all we should start prepping for a “no-deal” Brexit, just as the Government had by stockpiling food and medication. We should “take comfort” in the Government’s actions (1). “It’s right to prepare for all eventualities” (2). Unfortunately the actual understanding of how they’re going to do this is lacking (3). Currently the EU supplies 31% of the UK’s food, and Brexit will have huge implications across the supply chain (4, 5 ).

This led to lots of media outlets running pieces on ‘what to stockpile’. The Guardian recommended olive oil, pasta, pepper, rice, spices (6). The BBC warned of the threat to our sandwiches (7). Heavens! Anything but the sandwiches! Even The New Scientist got in on the act (8). Plenty of organisations are piling on the warning bandwagon. The UK dairy industry has warned that butter, yoghurt and cheese will be occaisional luxuries (9).

My solution to this problem is to gradually move my consumption to more local suppliers. Coming from a farming family I’ve always tried to support UK growers. For at least the past few years I’ve only bought UK grown seasonal veg, and cooked based on what is in season. Very middle class yes, but healthier, more varied, and often cheaper. This year I’ve tried to take this further, using a local butcher and market garden co-operative (feel free to roll your eyes) delivery. It appears I’m not alone. We all saw Blue Planet 2, the anti-plastic movement gains traction, and people are finding ways of reducing their packaging usage. One of these ways is going back to the local milkman with his bottles. Milkmen are seeing a surge in demand throughout the country (10). Fresh local milk served in retro glass bottles delivered by an electric van does sound pretty ‘now’. Expansion has not been without it’s problems for the national Milk&More, but these appear to be teething problems (11). The traditional local trader milkmen are doing better (12). We’ve come full circle with convenient deliveries from local producers. Everything old is new again.

Have a great weekend,

The Shrink

Side Orders

Other News:

Opinion/ blogs:

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:

The Full English Accompaniment – UK bloggers I follow

What’s piqued my interest this week?

As the glorious summer of Brexit discontent and trade wars continues, I’ve mainly ignored the press in favour of my new garden and unpacking.

Last week a few people commented about the extensive list of links I put up. I’ve got into the habit of reading financial blogs in my spare time at lunch. I thought therefore this week I’d make a list of those I follow. The first ten or so I check every couple of days, other I may look at fortnightly, saving up posts for a stack of reading. I favour UK bloggers, those that write informed (evidenced) guides and experiences, those that share their numbers and those that don’t preach opinions. If a blog starts giving me their own theories based only on anecdotes I quickly switch off and diagnose quackery. I’m aware others have made similar lists, but hopefully I’ll bring to light someone you’ve not read before. Without further ado:

http://monevator.com/ – started me down this path, full of useful tools (1)
http://quietlysaving.co.uk/ – Weenie is active and open in her experiences, reasons and experiments with investing, this week looking at her Dogs of the FTSE portfolio (2)
http://thefirestarter.co.uk/ – TFS – again financially open, but with a very different strategy to myself (3)
https://firevlondon.com/ – Firevlondon – been around for a relatively long time, and on a different level financially, fascinating as an insight (4)
https://simplelivingsomerset.wordpress.com/ – The ermine is an erudite wordsmith, with a wealth of experience and a sharp tongue (5)
https://youngfiguy.com/ – YFG’s a relative newcomer like myself, but writes with professional experience and includes many guides to complex products. MrsYFG also writes the odd post for counterbalance, such as this weeks (6, 7)
http://thefireeng.com/ – Another newcomer, in my line of work, prompting curiosity on my part (8)
http://diyinvestoruk.blogspot.com/ – DIYInvestorUK also takes a very different approach to my own. The reviews and analyses have been really informative for my market choices, even if our political opinions sometimes differ (9, 10)
https://www.ukvalueinvestor.com/ – More finance than FIRE, John Kingham does fantastic analyses of potential investment options (11)
http://financiallyfreeby40.com/ – another big name on the blogging circuit, but one I’ve only recently started reading regularly (12)
http://www.thefrugalcottage.com/ – More about frugality the finance, opinions over guides, but with lessons to be learnt. I went through a period of reading this a lot, but it’s not fallen down the list a bit (13)
https://littlemissfireblog.wordpress.com/ – Another new face, LMF writes as someone just learning the financial ropes (14)
http://www.msziyou.com/ – Starting around the same time as myself, MsZiYou posts frequently about her experiences as a feminist FIRE blogger. This month on inflation and her housing experiences (15, 16, 17)
http://fiukmoney.co.uk/ – Experiences of aiming for FI with a big family (18)
https://3652daysblog.wordpress.com/ – Another longstanding FI blogger I’ve recently started reading (19)
https://firethe9to5.com/ – Another blogging sharing their worth (20)
https://tuppennysfireplace.com/ – Very active blogger, with a mix of finance, frugality and lots of opinion pieces (21)
http://www.earlyretirementguy.com/ – More UK FIRE aspirations (22)
https://sexhealthmoneydeath.com/ – Another longstanding UK blogger I’ve recently started to catch up on (23)
http://financialindependenceuk.com/ – FIUK recently achieved FIRE, so nice to hear from the other side (24)
https://makesaveinvestmoney.com/blog-page/ – A new one to me, I’ve just started reading (25)
https://theescapeartist.me/ – a busy UK FIRE blog (26)
http://www.retirementinvestingtoday.com/ – Staunch mainstay (27)

Non-UK:

https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ – The MMM, need I say more? (28)
http://thecannycontractor.com/ – a new one to me, I’ve just started reading (29)
http://diversifiedfinances.com/ – an active US blog on ways to make money (30)
https://www.physicianonfire.com/ – theoretically should be perfect for me, but can I get the website at work? Can I bollocks (31)

Anyone obvious I’ve missed? Get in touch.

Have a great week,

The Shrink

Side Orders

Other News:

Opinion/ blogs:

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: