The Monday Read

Happy Holidays Edition

Merry Christmas and all that ๐Ÿ™‚

I cooked Christmas dinner again this year, and for the first time everything went so smoothly I had the chance to live-tweet it. If you’re really bored you may care to check it out (lots of photos). About as interesting as my hospital food post…

Speaking of hospitals, my wife needs to have a minor operation, so she scheduled it over the new year period to minimize work disruption. She’ll hopefully only be in for just over a week. This means that I’ll be largely on my own during the holidays though, as my daughter, her husband, and the grandkids will be spending New Years’ with his parents in Tokyo.

Except that I am informed that it is my duty to go and spend Dec 31-Jan 1 with my wife’s parents. Normally we would all go but this year I am the only one available.

Don’t be surprised if there are an unusually high number of blog posts in January ๐Ÿ˜‰

The Forum

The Forum is doing well (18,219 posts to date). Here are the latest active threads:

This week’s books

I just started The Anomaly, by Herve Le Tellier, and so far I’m enjoying it very much (kind of regretting not reading it in French though).

Amazon tells me I have finished 38 books this year, quite a bit short of my 50 book goal:

Next year I want to make a lot more time for reading. Any good books to get me started?

This week’s links

  1. We’ll be setting some goals next month. Just need to remember to make them big ones: Big Goals
  2. Some interesting background here: Are 5 Stocks Really Carrying the Entire Stock Market?
  3. A nice problem to have: What it’s all about
  4. This is really good: 9 Things I Learned About Productivity This Year
  5. Haven’t noticed much change in prices in the 21 years I have been here: Would Japan’s Real Deflation Rate Please Stand Up?!
  6. Worth keeping in mind: Psychology and the Good Life
  7. I usually enjoy Arnold’s emails, and he only sends a few so doesn’t outstay his welcome
  8. Peter Thiel is an interesting character: Why Peter Thiel Searches for Reality-Bending ‘Secrets’
  9. I’m considering this one. Would be quite a tough challenge! Analog January: The No Twitter Challenge
  10. Lots of interesting information in here: Should You Vaccinate Your Kids?
  11. This was the best Christmas present this year. Surprisingly fun to play with: Toy Drone
  12. Really enjoy listening to Guy Richie. Really want to watch Lock Stock and Snatch again now: Guy Ritchie talking about โ€œSnatchโ€ twenty years later
  13. Really recommend upgrading your insulation and windows if they are not excellent already: Japan to Extend Tax Relief on Energy Efficient Home Renovations
  14. Favorite rediscovered track this week -I’ve been listening to it on repeat: F.E.A.R by Ian Brown
  15. The Mad Fientist and The Escape Artist joint podcast -interesting chat.
  16. The ‘early retirement at 45’ guy posted his 2021 income -3.2% on a 103m portfolio: 2021ๅนดใฎ้‹็”จๆˆ็ธพใ‚’ๆŒฏใ‚Š่ฟ”ใฃใฆ

What do you think? Anything good in there?

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7 Responses

  1. Always look forward to more blog posts. ๐Ÿ™‚

    #16 — I’ll just say that this person’s asset allocation is really different than mine. (I don’t own any bonds, corporate or sovereign, and the one REIT I have is less than 1% of my portfolio.)

    Today’s exercise was some snow shoveling.

    1. I think we’ve discussed their (#16) unusually heavy REIT and concentrated bond asset allocation before. I went back to their total asset reported amount from January 2019 when it was reported as 10,027ไธ‡ๅ†† and compared to this December where it’s 11,729ไธ‡ๅ††. That’s a pretty low return over what have been three unusually high returning years for markets (even though it seemed like they made some nice moves into REITs during the COVID REIT dip). The high bond allocation will of course buffer the portfolio if (when) the stock market next crashes but if the crash is accompanied by inflation the bonds become a handicap.

  2. I made 40 books this year – was also aiming for 50! Currently reading Breath by James Nestor – just started but really interesting so far on how so many of us breathe so badly!

    1. Enjoyed that one earlier in the year!

      Also I just realised I read a bunch of paper books while I was in the hospital, so things are perhaps not as bad as they seem ^-^

      1. Just sought out your mention of it and I feel the same as you – that it is already having some benefit after just a day or two of trying to adjust my breathing. I’m just starting the section about chewing but for years my wife has been telling me to eat more slowly and chew more!

        1. I kind of fell out of the habit -might need to reread it next year. That’s the problem with self-help books -they take much longer to implement than they do to read ๐Ÿ˜‰