I plan to do a few things differently next year. Sort of. Nothing drastic, though.
As it stands, the plan is to update the tables – the asset class, sector, etc – with the 2015 full year returns. I’ve already had a few people asking when – so expect it the first week of January.
After that, things are a bit fluid because I haven’t quite figured it all out.
When I started this experiment years ago, I quickly realized I needed to relearn a lot of stuff I had forgotten since I left the industry. Back then, I was knee deep in the value philosophy thanks to books by Graham and others. That was all I cared to learn about really.
But like a lot of sales jobs back then, the company force fed you it’s version of personal finance that just happened to fit with their products. Lucky for me, the value philosophy stuck. Time and common sense deprogrammed the rest.
That meant I had to relearn the basics all over again. And not just on investing either, but retirement, taxes, and more because it was all necessary for a clear understanding of things. Plus some things changed, new stuff has popped up since – like indexing, ETFs, smart beta, factors, etc. – which only added to the pile.
I know I didn’t cover all of the basics here and it’s unlikely I’ll fill in the gaps. I could backtrack and cover the myriad ways to save money or get out of debt. Except, I find it boring. There are only so many ways to say – spend less, save more, and avoid high interest/excessive debt – before my eyes start to glaze over. So I refuse to repeat it ad nauseam.
I could continue to dive into the topics of taxes and retirement, but again, my interest isn’t there. Truthfully, there are great sites that cover those topics better than I ever will. I’d rather send you there than waste your time with it here.
Anyways, my point, assuming I have one, is that this journey was always about picking up where I left off years ago – being knee deep in the value philosophy and progressing from there. I just took the scenic route to get here.
As I travel further down the investing rabbit hole, the plan is to continue with bite-sized chunks of information via blog posts. I know a lot of people, myself included, prefer skimmable, quick reads. So that won’t change.
However, I have a growing collection of books, papers, letters, interviews, notes, and other files that I’ve saved to read later. It’s ridiculous really. Later has arrived.
I started going through it already – that would be the recently posted podcast and video notes – so expect more. Books will be a bigger source going forward. (I read more books this year than last and I plan to read even more next year.)
So I’ll be adding a new section to the site for anyone who wants to dive in head first with me. Whenever possible, I’ll have the actual files – papers, letters, interviews, data, etc. – available. If not, my complete notes or a summary will be.
This is the fluid part I mentioned early. I haven’t finalized all the details yet and there are some technical issues I still need to work through. I’ll have more information in the near future. Stay tuned!
Last Call
- The Biggest Financial Stories of 2015 – Morningstar
- The World’s Smartest Bad Investors – N. Smith
- Don’t Assume a Fed Action Will Move the Market – R. Shiller
- Here are the odds that U.S. stocks will rise in 2016 – M. Hulbert
- Jason Zweig on Wall Street’s Big Lie – Quartz
- How to Give Financial Advice – M. Housel
- Howard Marks On Catching Falling Knives, FANG, And More – Valuewalk
- GMO Quarterly Letter: Just How Bad Is Emerging, and How Good Is the U.S.? (pdf) – GMO
- Philip Tetlock on The Art and Science of Prediction (podcast) – Farnam Street
- Richard Thaler: The Behavioralizing of Economics (video) – Talks at Google
