Let’s waste the first day of work of the year
The new working year starts today: how are you feeling about it? Whether you love your job or can’t stand the thought of doing it for the next twenty years, it is worth thinking about your financial situation and taking meaningful action.
Or you could just waste the day clicking on interesting links 😉
Here are this week’s stories:
Countdown clocks. The first five years of running your own business you work hard and make no money. The next five years you work hard and make money. The following five you make lots of money and don’t work as hard. My wife and I are clearly not good at business…
The benefits of working remotely. I’m a huge fan of this.
9 principles to let you retire a millionaire. Don’t think buying a house is always right in Japan, and 10% is not enough to save (I recommend 20-30%), but otherwise good 😉
Millionaire doctor interview. Pretty stratospheric.
Tourists’ unpaid medical bills take toll on Japanese hospitals. I hope this doesn’t become a problem and thus affect foreign residents.
Why there is too much on your plate. I am so guilty of this.
Hunting for deceased parents’ buried treasure. My grandmother had several tins around the house crammed with cash.
Why are 40% of football players going bankrupt? Maybe we can learn what not to do.
The Fukushima nuclear accident continues to poison the nation’s finances.
The differences between us. What choices lead to abundance?
Defusing capital gains in the UK. Is there anything like this in Japan?
Another millionaire doctor interview. I clearly chose the wrong profession.
19 secrets your millionaire neighbour won’t tell you. Pretty basic stuff but worth reminding yourself of.
I enjoyed this short video of a woman eating candy floss so much that I posted it even though it has nothing to do with money. By far the most popular post this week.
What a bond bear market looks like. Not the same as stocks.
How to talk to people about money. Your goals change the optimal strategy.
How doctors die. They are more realistic about medicine.
Financial debates with no definitive answer. But some great thoughts.
Anything you liked? Any other suggestions?
Links 2, 3 and 4 are all going through to the doctor interview (for me, anyway).
Good spot, thanks! Should be working now.
The last link, “financial debates without answers,” triggered some thoughts. In his last section, Clements discusses how much to invest abroad, but there is one consideration/angle I’ve read about that he doesn’t bring up.
According to my googling just now, about 43% of the sales of S&P500 companies comes from exports, and, the argument goes, this makes buying the S&P a “world” investment–so perhaps in some ways equivalent to investing abroad.
I’m sure there are pros and cons to this. Some companies, such as the present Altria (MO) spun off Phillip Morris (PM) to separate US domestic and international biz. Financials (or certain financials) probably depend less on international revenue. Real estate, too (if it’s big enough to be in the S&P). OTOH, there are companies like Kraft/Mondelz, Caterpillar, Apple, etc., which are heavily reliant on foreign earnings (production, too, for Apple).
And an investment in US companies for their international exposure might be impacted differently than a traditional one when tariffs and a possible trade war are on the table.
So what does anyone think? Is buying the S&P500 effectively an international investment?
I’ve read once something that made sense to me: even though US companies sell a lot abroad, you might still want to have a share of out-of-us companies that sell in majority on their local markets. There are lots of those. The example mentioned was Vegemite in Australia. It’s big there, but will probably never go outside of Australia, massively. Still successful business you should be happy to own.
If something bad happens to the US, these companies would offer good diversification, I guess.
I guess there are tax (US withholding tax, estate tax) issues as well as currency risk if you only hold US companies.
I guess for a US national who is planning to return there this might not be a big deal, but for non-US citizens it might make less sense.
On the other hand, you could argue that there are major overseas companies (VW, Toyota, Philips, etc.) that do a large portion of their sales in the US and by not purchasing those companies stocks you are missing out on a part of the US market exposure.
Also, US stocks trade at a significant premium to international stocks and there is a risk that US stocks are in a speculative bubble when compared to international stocks.
No-one knows of course but I prefer to have exposure to as much of the globe as possible.
“19 Secrets Your Millionaire Neighbor Won’t Tell You” aren’t really secrets, it’s just that no one tells anyone about them, just like cooking secrets or car maintenance secrets.
#6 is what to be telling yourself and children: “He never forgets that financial freedom is a state of mind that comes from being debt free. Best of all, it can be attained regardless of your income level.” Everything else you do flows from there.