If someone handed you forty dollars and told you to spend it on something that would make you happier, what would you buy? That was, more or less, the question a team of researchers put to people in a study published in 2017. The answer they found has stayed with me ever since, partly because
The Richest Thing You Can Buy Is an Hour Read More »
The boring basket, explained properly Nine out of ten. That is roughly how many actively managed UK equity funds failed to beat their benchmark last year, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. An index fund does not try to beat the benchmark. It simply is the benchmark, and in 2025 that was enough to finish
How to Invest in Index Funds Read More »
Most of what we call laziness is not laziness at all. It is a mood problem wearing laziness as a disguise. I say that as someone who has very little patience for real idleness. I have a strong work ethic for the right kind of work, and slothfulness is one of the few things that
Laziness Is Not What You Think It Is Read More »
There is an estate agent’s window on my local high street that I walk past most days, and over the summer I started noticing a small change. The boards had not changed much. The little strips across the corners had. Reduced. Reduced. New price. By the end of August it looked less like a shop
Asking Prices Rose. Selling Prices Are Another Story. Read More »
When was the last time you waited to get your money back before selling something? If the answer is recently, you are about to become very interesting to the Bitcoin market. On 21 September, bitcoin rose above 87,000 dollars, its highest level in eight months. On the way, it crossed a line that matters more
Bitcoin’s Average ETF Buyer Is Back in Profit Read More »
I had Tuesday, 15 September circled for weeks. Cloture vote, the moment the crypto industry would finally find out where it stood in Washington. I treated it like a verdict. It turned out to be more of a footnote, and I was wrong about how much it would matter. When I wrote about the Digital
The CLARITY Act Stalled. The Rules Did Not. Read More »
I watched a line of ants in my garden one morning this summer, from a gap by the back door to a crumb that one of my children had generously left under the table. I should have reached for the cloth straight away. Instead I stood there with my tea and watched them. What struck
Go to the Ant: An Old Proverb for Modern Life Read More »
What happens to a currency when its central bank raises interest rates? If you answered that it should strengthen, you are in good company, and last week you were wrong. On 18 September, the Bank of Japan raised its policy rate by a quarter of a point to 1.25 per cent, the highest level since
Japan Raised Rates, and the Yen Still Fell Read More »
The man at the next pump was staring at the display as though it had insulted his family. I knew the feeling. By the time the nozzle clicked off, I had paid noticeably more for the same tank than I would have in the spring, and the official figures published the following morning explained exactly
Inflation Hit 3.1%, The Bank of England Held Anyway. Read More »
The most important number from the Federal Reserve last week was not the new interest rate. It was twelve, the number of voting members who agreed with it. On 16 September, the Federal Open Market Committee raised its benchmark rate by a quarter of a percentage point, to a range of 3.75 to 4 per
The Fed Just Raised Rates. Here Is Who Pays. Read More »
