July's Great Reads

Summer is, as you know, a great time for leisurely long-form reading, but if you’re looking for some smaller bites, then I’ve got just the platter for you in this month’s top reads. I start with some really great thoughts on happiness and success from Lisa Walsh, Julia Boem & Sonja Lyubomirsky. My friend Chris Enns shares some great insights on pain, rebuilding, and growth in a recent post from his own practice at Rags to Reasonable. Following that, Josh Brown has a quick-and-to-the-point summary of what we need to get used to when dealing with the markets, whether we like it or not.

If you have room for dessert, then of course there is more to sink your eyeballs into, with the psychology of passive barriers, the usefulness of procrastination, some introspective, forward-thinking about what we really want out of life, a case study of bond ETFs vs GICs, and tips on how to win any argument about the markets - if that’s really what you’re after. Happy reading!

Happiness doesn't follow success: it's the other way round 

From Lisa C Walsh, Julia K. Boehm, & Sonja Lyubomirsky

 “The philosopher Bertrand Russell in 1951 said that: ‘The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life.’ But he went on: ‘I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy; I mean that if you are happy you will be good.’ When it comes to making your mark at work, we agree. If you want to be successful, don’t hang around and wait to find happiness: start there instead.”

Read the full article here.

The Cost of Stability & The Hidden Life of Trees

From Chris Enns

“My process of learning how to be stable started as I moved out on my own. And it included a whole lot of painful mistakes...

"But that pain isn’t failure. It’s a message of what needs to be strengthened. The reframing of that is a powerful message for me, since instead of something to ignore and be ashamed of, it’s something to notice and bring into the light.”

Read the full article here.

Get used to it

From Josh Brown

“That’s how it works. It’s not meant to be intellectually satisfying. It’s meant to take money away from people who think they can explain things. Worst traders and managers I know are the guys with answers for all this stuff.”

Read the full article here.

You can read this month's entire list below:

The psychology of passive barriers | Ramit Sethi

“There's something especially annoying about comments on personal-finance blogs. On nearly every major blog post I ever made, someone left a comment that goes like this: “Ugh, not another money tip. All you need to know is: spend less than you earn.”

"Actually, it's not that simple. If that were the case, as I pointed out above, nobody would be in debt, overweight, or have relationship problems of any kind. Simply knowing a high-level fact doesn't make it useful. I studied persuasion and social influence in college and grad school, for example, but I still get persuaded all of the time.”

Celebrating an Investor’s Obituary | Gatis Roze

“We investors must choose wisely in making investments, but we should understand the reasons for doing so — why we chose what we did. An unwillingness to do so would be like living in a house without windows.”

Why procrastination is not a time management issue | Sam Kemmis-Zapier

“When we’re putting off work, we tell ourselves we’re being ‘lazy’ and that we need to ‘suck it up’ to power through the task at hand. But the research suggests that taking a softer, more compassionate view of our own behaviors may be the key to breaking out of this self-perpetuating spiral.”

GICs vs. Bond ETFs: A Case Study and Bold Adventure | Justin Bender

Ever wonder about when and why to use GICs instead of Bond ETFs or vice versa? Justin has you covered with a clear after-tax comparison of both.

How To Win Any Argument About the Markets | Ben Carlson

“You can win any argument about the markets by simply changing your start or end dates to suit your stance.”