Our Unmissable TOP 10 in 2024 – Did You Catch Them All?
As we prepare our pipeline of articles and ideas for 2025 it’s time to summarise what you liked in the prior 12 months.
Here are some of our most-read posts of the past 12 months.
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Get Wise The Most Relevant Independent Weekly Insights For Individual Investors
If you’ve enjoyed our high-quality guides, you will love Europe’s best Wise Investing newsletter even more. Join tens of thousands of individual investors who trust us.
☕ Every Saturday morning with your coffee, enjoy FREE:
✅ Investing guides & tools
✅ Curated insights on investing strategies, ETFs, brokers, early retirement & lifestyle
✅ Exclusive articles crafted for wise investors like you
📩 Bonus: FREE Portfolio Checklist! Sign up today and receive a FREE 2-page checklist to:
- Build & monitor an efficient portfolio
- Clean up your personal finances.
🔒 We respect your privacy and never spam. Try it. Feel free to unsubscribe at any time.
Written in 2024 But already Classics. Our Top Investment & Lifestyle writings.
1. The Stock Market Just Hit All-Time High: Is It A Good Time To Invest?
Before I became a Portfolio Manager 15 years ago, I briefly went into a glamourous field of finance – Mergers & Acquisitions. After my degree in Financial Engineering, I was eager to tackle some complex models and intellectual challenges. Oh boy, how I was disappointed! The models turned out much simpler than I imagined. But here is the great part. You will understand basic stock market valuation in the next 10 minutes.
2. VWCE & Chill: Investors Are Cooling Off on Vanguard. Should You Still Invest?
In August 2024, the Vanguard FTSE-All World ETF became the most expensive Irish-domiciled Global ETF, marking a significant departure from the values of the firm’s founder, John Bogle. We examine Vanguard’s current positioning and whether the firm has the economic incentives to reduce its fees—or if it might be time to consider allocating your future savings to another ETF issuer.
3. How Much Equity Risk Should You Take?
Three Tests Are Needed In Order To Determine An Equity Allocation – an investor needs to understands her ability, willingness and need to take risk. When Conflicts Arise – choices may be more difficult. A suggestion may be to take the lowest equity allocation derived from the three tests. Otherwise, if the risks show up the plan will fail.
4. Should You Invest 100% In Equities?
Academic insights like the recent paper ‘Beyond the Status Quo: A Critical Assessment of Lifecycle Investment Advice’, which challenges traditional asset allocation are not just noted – they’re often implemented by individual investors. As we dissect new research, we urge investors to tread carefully, avoiding rash shifts in strategy spurred by any one study, however novel, that contradicts decades of established evidence.
5. A Robust Retirement Portfolio: A Data-Driven Approach
Retirement is a time when financial planning becomes critical—there’s less room for error once you’re no longer earning a paycheck. While mistakes during your working years can often be addressed with higher savings, wage growth, or delaying retirement, the stakes are much higher in retirement. Let’s dives into how Monte Carlo simulations work.
6. Why Does Wall Street Want You To Care About Factors?
Previsouly we talked about why some portfolio managers and most risk departments care about factors. But, if you’re reading this article, you are probably not working on Wall Street.
So, why does Wall Street want you to care about factors?
7. The Truth About €1 Million Broker Guarantees
In our ultimate guide to choosing a Stock Broker, we explained why in the EU, Broker protections are inadequate. Certain brokers subscribe to a private insurance to provide a higher protection level.
Let’s look at what these protections are really worth.
8. How To Make Difficult Life Decisions: Easy Decisions, Hard Life. Hard Decisions, Easy Life.
Whenever I catch up with friends in London or Paris, many confess they feel trapped on the hamster wheel, longing to live life to the fullest. Here’s how one simple exercise in 2018 changed everything for me. My life took a dramatic turn when I applied this framework. Here’s why this might be exactly what you need, too.
9. Why Early Retirement May Back-FIRE
Some of our readers target Early Retirement. They may be part of the Financial Independence, Retire Early Movement (known as “FIRE”). But beware, as the plan may back-FIRE (pun intended). Today, Romain – who as a Banker and a Management Consultant – was tempted by FIRE gives his fresh perspective. Here is Romain’s story. We hope it makes your journey easier.
10. Becoming FREE – An Alternative To FIRE
Target a lower savings amount, and go ‘Partially Retired’ Earlier – You can reduce the time waiting for Early Retirement by 50%. Remain active in your ‘trained job’ or related after retirement – but just to a minium degree of 1 to 2 days to pay the rest of the bills. Engage in a passion project the rest of the time – with an asymmetric payoff and more fulfilment.
Good Luck and Keep’em* Rolling!
(* Wheels & Dividends)
