A post on negative gearing in Australia – I’ve noticed attitudes there about real estate seem to be similar to the way millenials in the US view real estate. Whatever happens in Australia might be a good leading indicator. Lots of good points from John here, I think another factor that influences people is the assumption that real estate values will continue to appreciate in excess of interest rates.
Good post on timing the bottom (or the fiendish difficulty thereof) from Ben Carlson. Bull markets tend to start hard and fast, but there can be lots of head fakes during a bear market.
Spending in retirement – Wade Pfau gives some thoughts on sustainable draws and a welcome refresher on the 4% rule, something that has become such a well-known guideline that many professionals don’t remember where it came from or how it should or shouldn’t be applied.
Coordinating work & leisure has value – this is one of those second level ideas that seems obvious once it’s brought up. I wonder what sorts of implications this has on the ‘gig economy’ and work-from-home jobs that are becoming more common.
Tariffs and unintended consequences – fun read on some of the accidents of history that affect the goods and services (mostly goods) that we have available today.
No pay-wall paper on the value of financial advisors – I’m not sure there’s much here that doesn’t fall into the self-selection category (where people who hire advisors are already much more likely to have better outcomes), but some interesting differences found between people who call themselves advisors but do no actual planning and those who are more comprehensive.
Children who start school later perform better in the labor market.
Zappos’ holacracy – I’ve been a fan of Zappos for a while, I really liked their famous policy of offering new trainees a bunch of money (I think it was 2-3 months salary or something) to quit. This article was fascinating and extremely confusing. I can’t help but feel like they are onto something, but think they are onto something totally different and are just sprinting down the rabbit hole at full speed. I can’t imagine working there.