Hi there
For those of you with kids, I hope you’re having a good holiday. I went to Franschhoek with my family for a few days. It was great to get away from the house and our normal routine.
Following on from last week, my friend Andy Hart has released a podcast episode with audio from his time in Cape Town for the Humans Under Management. You can listen to that here.
Reader’s Digest
WeWork Lessons That Apply To Lots of Stuff [4 minutes]
“Things that can thrive while the wind is at their back outnumber those that can endure the complete wrath of the real world 100 to 1, at least. Something that’s only viable when everything’s moving in the right direction can – for a while – look the most impressive, because growth during boom times is often amplified by leverage, luck, and obliviousness that can be mistaken for optimism and vision. But markets survive on a steady diet of fragile ignorance, chewing it up and spitting it out whenever it’s exposed. Save your biggest applause for stuff that’s made it through at least one feast.”
There Are No Secrets [5 minutes]
“Unfortunately, investing isn’t a solved game. There are no true secrets to be learned. And if there were any, everyone else would already know them. This is why there will never be a quick or easy way to get rich. Because if getting rich were easy, everyone would be rich by now.”
“You don’t tend to find these on CV’s or on “skills of the future” lists – which focus on trendy things like data scientist and AI specialists. But they should be.”
Every purchase has an opportunity cost [4 minutes]
“Good news. You can afford the top-of-the-range sedan you’ve had your eye on. You have enough in savings to take that tour of China’s Tea Road next year. And if the bank says there’s no hurdle to taking out a bigger mortgage, who are you to argue?
Now the reality check. All those things may well be correct when you look at “sticker price” of the item in front of you, given your income and your savings. But there’s another cost you almost certainly won’t have factored in.”
We need to talk about risk in investing [5 minutes]
Focusing on the daily ups and downs of the investment market is a bit like measuring the distance between your home and place of work with a ruler. Behavioural finance expert Daniel Crosby describes investment volatility as “the means by which the behavioural investor receives an outsized reward for having a modicum of courage and patience”.
Young People Are Going to Save Us All From Office Life [10 minutes]
“Today’s young workers have been called lazy and entitled. Could they, instead, be among the first to understand the proper role of work in life — and end up remaking work for everyone else?”
5 Ways to Destroy Your Wealth [2 minutes]
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions,” goes a proverb. The road to investing hell is paved with bad behaviors, and here are the five roads which initially look like paved with gold, but which often take us towards wealth destruction.”
How to Win At Investing (And At Anything in Life) [2 minutes]
“Of course, most of us simply aren’t wired to be equanimous at most of the times, and it’s terribly difficult to rid ourself of the emotions of ecstasy (when things are looking up) and misery (when things are looking down).
And that’s why ensuring that we avoid all of those ways that can cause us wealth destruction – trading, timing, high fee, inadequate diversification, and leverage – is paramount.
Everything, including our triumphs and disasters, anyways shall pass. But the equanimity with which we allow them to pass will keep us sane always.”
Podcast
🎙️ Humans Under Management South Africa 2019 [41 minutes]
In this episode of the Maven Money Personal Finance Podcast… Andy presents the journey of creating HUM SA 2019 in the form of a narrative podcast.
The easiest way to access the podcasts I share is to subscribe to the Simple Wealth Newsletter Curated Podcast Playlist in your podcast app of choice. Copy the link below and paste it into your podcast player to subscribe to my playlist.
https://www.listennotes.com/listen/simple-wealth-newsletter-curated-podcast-o2D_073OiBn/rss/
What I’m Reading
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
The War of Art identifies the enemy that every one of us must face, outlines a battle plan to conquer this internal foe, then pinpoints just how to achieve the greatest success. Although it was written for writers, it has been embraced by business entrepreneurs, actors, dancers, painters, photographers, filmmakers, military service members and thousands of others around the world.
Infographic
The Game of Life: Visualizing China’s Social Credit System
In an attempt to imbue trust, China has announced a plan to implement a national ranking system for its citizens and companies. Currently in pilot mode, the new system will be rolled out in 2020, and go through numerous iterations before becoming official.
Social
Video
Until next week,
Pierre
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