Dollar Street
GapMinder
I’ve maybe spent a little too much time on this website over the last couple of days.
This is fascinating! This website has gathered information and photos from hundreds of families around the world to show how they live at different income levels. Yeah, it’s voyeuristic…no doubt. But it’s also a great learning experience.
How do people live in other countries? What does $1000/month look like in Thailand vs the US vs Columbia? Does “poor” in one country look the same in other countries, or is poor as relative as income is?
I’m not going to answer those questions for you, because I want you to check it out for yourself. Take a few minutes to click through some of the families and see how others live.
Stop Worshiping Vanguard Funds Already!
Road To A Tesla – April 25, 2018
I’ve talked before about how I think the personal finance community gives a little too much credit to Vanguard funds – specifically VTSAX. It’s a great investment, don’t get me wrong. But everybody acts like it is special. It’s not. Its specialness is literally in that it is not special, actually. It’s not unique. That’s a big part of what makes it good!
When I bring this up in conversation, one or maybe two people will say “Vanguard index funds” is code for any low price broad-based index fund. They’ll say that nobody really means it literally, that it’s like saying Kleenex instead of tissue. Then 27 people behind them will specify a particular Vanguard fund (usually VTSAX) as the “right” one and completely derail the point.
Let’s face it – those one or two people are right that “Vanguard index funds” are often used by personal finance influencers to indicate a broader group of funds, but if the listeners aren’t able to distinguish when they are being literal and when they are not, we end up with thousands of people who think it’s VTSAX or bust.
This post goes through why exactly Vanguard index funds are not the end-all-be-all of ideal index funds. And hopefully, it gets you to think about why you’ve chosen your investments and what you are really looking for.
FIology lessons
FIology
This is a relatively new website created by a blogger friend. It approaches learning about financial independence through a very logical method. Instead of haphazardly introducing topics (as some of us are wont to do…guilty!) they step through the things you need to know one by one, building on previous lessons. Think of it as an online course in financial independence.
If you’ve been overwhelmed by learning about personal finance and financial independence, this is probably a good website to bookmark! Or sign up for the email list and then you won’t even have to remember to check 😉
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