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The Sunday Best is a collection of articles I’ve curated from the furthest reaches of the internet for your reading pleasure.
Every week, I scan hundreds of headlines, read dozens of posts, and bring you the best of the best to save you time and mental energy.
Financial Independence (FI) is a primary focus, but it’s an awfully broad topic. I tend to approach FI and early retirement from a fatFIRE perspective and through the lens of a physician, so expect to see those biases in the selected articles.
Related topics that have become recurrent themes include early retirement, selective frugality, tax issues, travel, physician issues, and of course, investing.
For more great articles, take a peek at The Sunday Best Archives. Now let’s get to the best… The Sunday Best!
“Market volatility is a feature, not a bug. It is the very reason we get those 10%+ long term returns in the first place.” – Banker on FIRE. With the markets down, he’s Doubling Down.
Mr. Money Mustache posts for just the second time this year, explaining how this market downturn can be seen as healthy. Finally, a Stock Market Crash!
Michael Batnick, the Irrelevant Investor, takes a post-mortem look at the latest bull market. Twenty Lessons Learned that every investor should understand.
If the ups and downs of the stock market are freaking you out, the U.S. government is offering a guaranteed annualized return of nearly 10% for your first six months as a Series I Bond owner. Dr. James Turner and Dr. Lisha Taylor team up to put together a blog post, video and podcast on the topic. Bonus: What Porsche did The Physician Philosopher buy? And why? Learn it all at TPP 79: Bonds, I Bonds. Is it Worth the Hype?
Let’s look at another of our favorite asset classes. Site sponsor EquityMultiple examines the current landscape. Is Now a Good Time to Invest in Real Estate?
Investing in your own medical office building (MOB) puts a lot of eggs in one basket. Have you considered investing in the MOBs of others? EquityMultiple puts Medical Office Building Real Estate in Focus.
Dr. Cory S. Fawcett put his six decades of life in focus. From Financial Success MD, Reflections of a Physician Turning 60.
The cost of automobiles is cooling. Homes are appreciating at a slower pace. Barry Ritholtz, looking at The Big Picture, asks Has Inflation Peaked?
Peak or no peak, The Rent Is Now Really Too Damn High, according to Accidental FIRE. He’s got data and maps to back up his damn thesis.
Rent can really be killer if you’ve got no one to share in the costs, and that’s only the beginning. From Bitches Get Riches, Unmarried? In THIS Economy? 7 Ways Our Society Financially Punishes Single People.
Joe from Play Louder makes an excellent case for FI adding an extra, best phase to one’s life. Early Financial Independence: Living Your Life in 4 Acts (Not Just the 3 You’ve Been Told About)!
We’ve been using this extra phase to travel more, and our early 2022 travels had us spending a week in lovely Sicily. I explain why we don’t vacation anymore in Family FIRE Travels: Catania, a Sicilian City.
As one of the first millionaires interviewed, I did not imagine I’d be one of more than 300. But here we are. From ESI Money, Findings from 300 Millionaire Interviews.
What can you learn from millionaires 300 to 304? Their stories:
- Millionaire Interview #300
- Millionaire Interview #301
- Millionaire Interview #302
- Millionaire Interview #303
- Millionaire Interview #304
What Bear Market?
On Friday, 5/20, the S&P spent part of the day in an official bear market. However, a bit of a rally to finish the day left us without an official 20% drop from peak based on the end-of-day closing value.
That rally continued for a full week, and the S&P 500 gained a total of 6% over the past 5 trading days.
I’m not calling a bottom, and I have no idea what the future will bring. I do know that market timers who were on the sidelines last week missed out on some serious gains.
If I had, say, $3 million invested in the stock market, I’d be up somewhere in the $150,000 to $200,000 range on the week. Bonds were up, too, and I have no reason to believe my real estate holdings are worth any less than they were a week ago.
Might be time to go out and buy a boat. Or build a new house. Maybe both. 😉
Learn how to better manage your student loan debt, and explore refinancing to a lower rate with cash back offers up to $1,000!
Adios to All Star Money & Budgets are Sexy
I’ve been saying for years that Budgets are Not Sexy, and it seems that the Motley Fool has finally come around to accept that fact.
Several years ago, long-time blogger and entrepreneur J. Money sold his beloved website to Soapbox, a division of Motley Fool. The mohawked man behind Budgets are Sexy also partnered with them to create All Star Money, a curation site and newsletter that attempted to bring back some of the magic from the now-defunct Rockstar Finance.
Sadly, All Star Money had its final curtain call this March, and Budgets are Sexy has essentially been dormant since late March, as well.
As we often say and hear, personal finance is personal, and it may be that the Motley Fool was too “corporate” a site to seamlessly incorporate personal finance blogs into their world. I recall there being several other blogs acquired under the Soapbox brand, but now the Soapbox URL simply redirects to a stagnant All Star Money page.
It might just be that the venture wasn’t meeting monetary metrics. Business is business, after all.
One potentially exciting outcome from this could be a return of J. Money to Budgets are Sexy. He teased us about the possibility of potentially buying his site back from Motley Fool in a recent newsletter. I imagine he’d be buying at a decent discount from what he sold it for.
There is certainly precedent for such a thing happening. J.D. Roth sold and rebought Get Rich Slowly after an extended absence. Here’s hoping that J. Money hops back in the Budgets are Sexy saddle!
Ground Broken
Breaking ground >> breaking wind.
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Have an outstanding week!
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2 thoughts on “The Sunday Best (05/29/2022)”
Lots of great posts this week, but I particularly like the post on I-bonds. It’s something I’ve been considering to do with our excess funds as we sell our house and turn into homeless vagabonds.
As always, thanks for a wonderful Sunday Best PoF!!
Thanks for including me,
Dr. Cory S. Fawcett
Financial Success MD