What I have been reading - 18th March 2019

A selection of the interesting things I have read, and heard, in the last week:

PODCAST: Luck, Risk and Avoiding Losers:  This conversation between Shane Parrish of Farnam Street, and Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital should be required listening for every human.  It partly inspired my writing this week but there is so much more to this conversation.

PODCAST: The Map of Misunderstanding:  This is a conversation between Sam Harris and Daniel Kahneman.  It will make you laugh and cry.  It's a fascinating insight into our minds.

Saving Regret:  This is a fascinating summary of a study that was done into 'saving regret', that is, 'the wish in hindsight to have saved more earlier in life'.   It talks about why people have saving regret and how to avoid it.  Interestingly most regret comes from economic shocks (unemployment, sickness, divorce etc), but it's not the shock itself, it's the failure to anticipate the shock that causes the problems.  The biggest takeaway for me: 'very few people regret saving money.  In fact, these researchers found that only 1.7% of respondents would have saved less if they could re-do their earlier life'.

The twenty craziest investing facts ever:  I love this little collection of market data.

US stock-market returns:  Scroll a third of the way down this page and watch the animation of US stock market returns over a year, five years, ten years and twenty years.  See the red disappear?  This is why we invest for the long-term.

AND FINALLY:

The people who eat the same meal every day:  Oh gosh, this is me.  I also order the same food in restaurants.  

ENJOY!

Georgie

Georgie Loxton, CFA