What caught my eye this week. I have always loved the end of things. A closing down sale. A silent office over Christmas when everyone else is away. The last days of school. The siesta of working through your notice period, when however conscientiously you try to keep at it, the pressure has all gone. Perhaps Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt feel the same way. They certainly seemed to enjoy themselves with Wednesday’s Autumn Statement. The Prime Minister chortling, and Hunt showing unexpected comic timing as he shared his purported 110 supply-side reforms to unlock economic growth. This is the Bra ..read more

I’m pleased to welcome one of Monevator’s many silent female readers into the Den this month! Using a pseudonym, Financial Dragon becomes the first woman in our regular series to talk about FIRE. Together with her husband, she’s aiming for a pretty FatFIRE, with homes in London and Australia and the pleasure of seeing an extended family make good use of them. A place by the FIRE Hello! Why did you agree to take stock of your financial life today? Part of my motivation is the stigma around talking about money. Perhaps it’s seen as gloating if you’ve found a path that brings financial security ..read more

What caught my eye this week. The Financial Times has a piece about a Morgan Stanley piece (still with me?) about where we’re at in the three-year old tussle between working from home and returning to the office. Its most striking graph shows that of the four major economies surveyed, the UK’s employees worked the fewest days at home pre-Covid – and yet now they work at home the most: They’d do even more if they could, too. (Dark green bar.) It’s such a striking turnaround. Did UK workers not appreciate how miserable their remorseless schlep to the office was before the pandemic showed them ..read more

Today we are introducing a new Monevator investing experiment – a live trial of a retirement portfolio and its accompanying withdrawal strategy. We’ve been updating our model Slow & Steady accumulation portfolio for nearly 13 years now. Our new experiment – the No Cat Food portfolio – will be its decumulation equivalent.  The purpose: to help us track and discuss the adventures and dilemmas of living off a portfolio in retirement.  Consider this post the origin story for what will hopefully become a useful feature for Monevator members for years to come. The hardest problem ..read more

What caught my eye this week. Last week we lamented how much poorer we feel than a few years ago. Inflation has watered down the real terms value of our investment portfolios like a cheap nightclub barman diluting away our drinks. It’s reduced the potency of every pound we spend. Nevertheless it was still quite a bender we went on. So we knocked back higher rates to sober us up. But that in turn has given us an almighty hangover. The typically steadier bond market has looked particularly sickly. Watching bonds puke for the past 18 months has been akin to learning the day after a wedding why y ..read more

Active investing is just one damn thing after another. This article can be read by selected Monevator members. Please see our membership plans and consider joining! Already a member? Sign in here. The post When growth goes wrong [Members] appeared first on Monevator ..read more

What caught my eye this week. I enjoyed Fire V London’s post this week, although given the title – Feeling Broke – it sounds sort of cruel to say so. Schadenfreude isn’t really my thing – unless it’s just the whimsically-named accompaniment to a pork schnitzel at the Munich Octoberfest. No, on the contrary I felt seen. Fire V London’s article captures a mood I’ve felt too, but I haven’t really shared as much as I might have on Monevator. Which is that while the tiny violins are definitely called for given the genuine hardship so many are suffering in the UK nowadays – let alone in Ukrain ..read more

It’s hard not to feel a little head-rush when thinking about gold as an asset class. The yellow metal’s mythical status and cultural cachet is enough to trigger a reflexive “I WANTSSS IT” from your inner Gollum. But then – after briefly checking your eyes have stopped bulging – your rational side wins back control and asks: is gold a good investment?  Well, is it? The barbarous relic? Beloved of conquistadores, James Bond villains, and pirates with dodgy accents. Moreover given virtually all the information out there is US-focussed, is gold a good investment for UK investors?  The In ..read more

What caught my eye this week. With Storm Babet tap-dancing across the flat roof of my extension, I wondered how I’d spend the windfall afternoon a cancelled trip to the provinces had gifted me. (Broken British trains, as usual. Flooded, this time). Obviously I chose to indulge myself by reading the new IFS Green Budget 2023 with a latte whipped up with my infamous espresso machine. Yes, I know how to party. Here are five interesting charts from the report, with a few thoughts on each. 1. First some good news: lots of jobs Two defining images from the TV broadcasts of my childhood are the AID ..read more

Bertie ‘The Investor’ Wooster settled into his comfy and ever-motivating armchair at the aptly-named Drones Club and began one of his infamous monologues… Alright Biffy? How about a tale from mine youth? From back when I learned the great unwashed were all agog over Premium Bonds, the state-sponsored gambling racket run by National Savings & Investments (NS&I). Now, you know I’m a contrary so-and-so. But even as a pallid stripling in my third decade I was aghast to discover I’d been eschewing Britain’s most popular savings product. Had I missed a trick? Am I missing one now? Well that ..read more