Micawber’s Favorites – September 2016 Roundup

A roundup of my favorite financial articles from September:

My daughter Savannah is studying interior design in school, so last month my wife and I accompanied her in touring some of the houses in the Salt Lake Parade of Homes.  Some of the homes were in the fantasy land category.  I doubt I would buy home like that even if I could afford it, and yet I couldn’t help wondering what it would be like to live in one.  The Money Wizard house-sat in such a home for several weeks and wrote an interesting article about how living in a mansion changed (and mostly didn’t change) his life.

This travel tip is not what you are expecting, and a great reminder that simple acts of kindness make the world a better place, especially if your world for the next several hours consists of sharing a small aluminum tube with a couple hundred other people. 

Godin is one of my favorite writers.  In this post he looks at the difference between price and cost.  Short, provocative, and interesting.  In other words, a typical effort by Godin.  It will take you one minute to read but much longer to digest.

In this article Clements challenges the wisdom of seven oft repeated pieces of financial advice. 

You’ve heard of a bucket list, but how about the bucket test?  Find out what it is in this Adam Bryant interview of Lloyd Carney, the CEO of data and storage networking firm Brocade. 

I love thinking about the relationship between time and money, and I love articles that look at things from a different angle.  This article does both. 

I am a big believer that for most people investing passively in index funds is the only logical choice.  The critics of index funds point out that if everyone invested in index funds our financial markets wouldn’t operate properly.  Larry Swedroe, one of my all-time favorite financial writers, takes on this charge. 

Learning how to talk about money with your spouse is a vital tool to a happy marriage.  This article gives you a fun, non-threatening exercise to start the conversation.

Keeping score is important if you want to improve your financial performance and “Net Worth” is widely recognized as one of the most important financial scoreboards to monitor.  But what does your net worth mean?  How are you doing?  This article gives you a formula to help answer that question. 

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