This is the Ninth edition of Stable Investor’s Mid Monthly.
Great Stuff Elsewhere
It’s not necessary to be twice as good to get twice the results. Just be 1% better for a sustained period of time. In other words, just identifying small opportunities to be just 1% better can lead to outsized results, when compounded over time. This 1% Rule is the real engine driving success stories.
Does the concept of retirement lead people to retiring “with some means but very little meaning”? In Artificial Finish Line, the author suggests that the whole idea of retirement is nothing more than an “Industrial Age social experiment that… has run its course.” And very soon, the transition away from ‘traditional’ retirement will be accelerated by our increasing focus on pursuing fulfillment (as “meaningful pursuits” are supplanting “pursuing means”). Interesting read. More so for people who wish to retire early.
Do you think that holding stocks for very long is guaranteed to make you do well financially? Think again. Its not a guarantee. So don’t let a market crash hit you at the finish line.
Accurate, Precise and worth going back to every now and then. These are 25 Short Investing Rules.
JP Morgan Asset Management tries to show how much you should have saved at certain ages relative to your income level. Makes for interesting reading even if its not quite applicable to Indian scenario.
Financial media is known to look after its own interest. Don’t tell me you didn’t know that. 🙂 But here are Ten Headlines You’ll Never See in the Financial Media. For obvious reasons.
This guy needs to visit India again. He is painting a totally one-sided picture of the country. And that’s really sad. Read this article A Dust over India and you will know why.
Different fields require different amounts of deliberate practice in order for someone to become world-class. Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Oprah Winfrey all use this 5-Hour Rule.
Small Things that Make a Big Difference – Peace of Mind – even in investing.
Maybe I should try this myself. J But easier said than done. 12 lessons from Waking Up at 4:30am for 21 days.
Markets are rising and close to new highs. I have no idea when this bull market will end. And predicting the future is near impossible. But don’t attribute all your portfolio gains to your skills. Don’t confuse a bull market for increased brain power.
It requires an equal amount of effort (or even more) to watch everyone around you make easy money, while you stick to your principles and refuse to take part in the madness. Here is to the hangover of bull markets.
Do you feel guilty of taking ‘rest’? Don’t feel so because rest is not something given to you to fill in the cracks between work. Our cultural view of rest influences our relationship to rest, creating an aversion – the mistaken belief that rest is for the weak. However, this view is flawed.
How to tackle your BUSYness addiction? And how about Email vacations?
When you examine the lives of history’s most creative figures, you are immediately confronted with a paradox: They organize their lives around their work, but not their days.
Why we want things we don’t need? And what to do about this Diderot Effect?
There are numerous articles on delaying gratification and similar approaches to life. But this is an interesting article on doing small things everyday to have fewer regrets. Its similar to an advice a Chinese man gave me.
This one is ultra long but worth bookmarking and reading later. Its about innovation and how society responds to it. The pdf uses original newspaper clippings to teach us more about ourselves than we could ever learn simply by reading the news today or tomorrow. Do read (or bookmark it).
We are constantly looking for perfect systems – to do this and do that and what not. Infact, entire industries are built off of this desire to find the perfect system for anything that you have uncertainty about. So here is the Perfect System to help you out with….everything.
One man reflects on his life five years after achieving early retirement.
You can have anything in life but not everything. So you are bound to have regrets in life. But don’t beat yourself up over it. Having some regrets in life is fine. You can regret your regrets all you want. But without them, you wouldn’t have lived much of a life.
In last few weeks on Stable Investor
Are you trying to save some percentage of your salary? Is it 10% or less? Do you even know that saving 10% of your salary won’t be enough?
PPF rates have been cut to 7.9%. This is historical low for the popular debt product. But PPF is still a good option if you know how to use it.
In stock markets, don’t be the unlucky 6-feet tall person who drowned in 5-feet average depth river.
A new financial year has started. Here is one important advice that you didn’t ask for but still need. Thank me later.
Deciding between saving for future vs. spending today can be stressful. But you can be wise about it and take a balanced approach. Here is how to tackle saving vs spending questions you had.
A father once sent her daughter a small memo about portfolio management. Makes for an interesting reading.
You are invested in stocks, bonds, provident funds, real estate, etc. But aren’t these all linked to the Indian economy? So aren’t you ignoring geographical risks?
I updated the annual study of Nifty PE Ratio and Returns earned over next 3, 5, 7 and 10 years. You can read the comprehensive analysis here.
And the usual, State of Indian Stock markets at the end of March 2017.
Some Books I Read (or Re-Read) Recently
- The Aspirational Investor
- Sapiens – A brief history of humankind
- Aesop’s Fables
- Love yourself like your life depends on it
- Letters from Self-made Merchant to his son
That’s it…
I hope you enjoyed this edition of Mid-Monthly. Please leave a comment below to share your thoughts or make suggestions for articles you think I should be sharing in future editions.
Want to Read More?
There are several hundred articles on Stable Investor. If you want to deep dive, then you might find the archives section useful. Or if you are new here, then here is where you should start.
You can also stay updated about things I am writing, reading and sharing by following me on Twitter and Facebook.