NSFW--Because They're Usually So Boring--Economics

[THE JEW (RaVeN)]

The 147 companies that control most of the world's economy:

http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/10/24 ... al-economy

[THE JEW (RaVeN)]

How people assign value to items:

http://arstechnica.com/science/news/200 ... -study.ars

http://arstechnica.com/science/news/201 ... e-rest.ars

Basically, take anything and get somebody else to say it's worth a bunch. Than triple the price..........at least.

[THE JEW (RaVeN)]

Good article on why "good enough" really is "good enough."

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2011/01/ ... scenarios/

[THE JEW (RaVeN)]

Money planning software.


Mint (works on your phone)
https://www.mint.com/

Microsoft Money Plus Sunset Deluxe
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/de ... x?id=20738

Both free.

[THE JEW (RaVeN)]

Books.

Late Bloomer Millionaires: A Financial Story and Investment Guide for Late Starters [Kindle Edition]
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ ... rbrownc-20

Building a comfortable and secure retirement is by no means only for the youthful and brilliant. Many have achieved millionaire status later in life after starting late, making gut-wrenching investing mistakes, enduring losses—then learning a strategy that makes a difference and STILL retire early! These financial newbies regroup in their 50s with a non-competitive, holistic, long-term and low-cost investment strategy that rejects Wall Street’s shenanigans and contrasting values.

This book shows how two teachers on educators’ salaries retired early with financial freedom. They discovered and rejected the unbelievable high costs of inappropriate retirement products and unethical advice.

The solution is straightforward. Their story addresses the challenging concepts of investing so you will discover and use the basics. As you learn proper asset allocation from the authors' journey and from a consumer’s point of view, you can confidently set up your plan and locate competent and ethical financial assistance to help you stay your course. Late Bloomer Millionaires is vignette and observation, reflection and investigation.

[THE JEW (RaVeN)]

Modern portfolio theory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_portfolio_theory

Modern portfolio theory (MPT) is a theory of finance that attempts to maximize portfolio expected return for a given amount of portfolio risk, or equivalently minimize risk for a given level of expected return, by carefully choosing the proportions of various assets. Although MPT is widely used in practice in the financial industry and several of its creators won a Nobel memorial prize for the theory,[1] in recent years the basic assumptions of MPT have been widely challenged by fields such as behavioral economics.
MPT is a mathematical formulation of the concept of diversification in investing, with the aim of selecting a collection of investment assets that has collectively lower risk than any individual asset. This is possible, intuitively speaking, because different types of assets often change in value in opposite ways.[2] For example, to the extent prices in the stock market move differently from prices in the bond market, a collection of both types of assets can in theory face lower overall risk than either individually. But diversification lowers risk even if assets' returns are not negatively correlated—indeed, even if they are positively correlated.[3]
More technically, MPT models an asset's return as a normally distributed function (or more generally as an elliptically distributed random variable), defines risk as the standard deviation of return, and models a portfolio as a weighted combination of assets, so that the return of a portfolio is the weighted combination of the assets' returns. By combining different assets whose returns are not perfectly positively correlated, MPT seeks to reduce the total variance of the portfolio return. MPT also assumes that investors are rational and markets are efficient.
MPT was developed in the 1950s through the early 1970s and was considered an important advance in the mathematical modeling of finance. Since then, many theoretical and practical criticisms have been leveled against it. These include the fact that financial returns do not follow a Gaussian distribution or indeed any symmetric distribution, and that correlations between asset classes are not fixed but can vary depending on external events (especially in crises). Further, there is growing evidence that investors are not rational and markets are not efficient.[4][5] Finally, the low volatility anomaly conflicts with CAPM's trade-off assumption of higher risk for higher return. It states that a portfolio consisting of low volatility equities (like blue chip stocks) reaps higher risk-adjusted returns than a portfolio with high volatility equities (like illiquid penny stocks). A study conducted by Myron Scholes, Michael Jenson, and Fischer Black in 1972 suggests that the relationship between return and beta might be flat or even negatively correlated.

Bogleheads.
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Getting_Started

Welcome to the Bogleheads®! First things first. Don't panic! There's a lot of information available to help. Take your time and get organized.
The Bogleheads® motto is Investing Advice Inspired by Jack Bogle. We are part of his crusade "to give ordinary investors a fair shake."
Bogleheads® follow a small number of simple investment principles that have been shown over time to produce risk-adjusted returns far greater than those achieved by the average investor. Their ideas come from the investing philosophy of Vanguard founder Jack Bogle. They have been further distilled and explained in thousands of posts on the Bogleheads® forum, particularly by original contributors Taylor Larimore and Mel Lindauer.
Bogleheads® emphasize regular saving, broad diversification, and sticking to one's investment plan regardless of market conditions. The Bogleheads® principles are:
Live Below Your Means
Asset Allocation (Holding Bonds) Is Essential
Buy Low Cost Funds that are Widely Diversified
Tax Efficiency Matters
Stay the Course

Overview of the markets.
https://www.credit-suisse.com/investmen ... arbook.pdf

The real value of money
With international efforts to avert recession, fears have grown about the brunt of
monetary policy and debt overhang. Sentiment fluctuates between deflationary
concerns and inflationary fears, and the demand for safe-haven assets has
surged. This article examines the dynamics and impact of inflation, and investigates how equities and bonds have performed under different inflationary conditions. We search for hedges against inflation and deflation, and draw a comparison with other assets that may provide protection against changes in the real
value of money.

What are normal stock returns?
http://canadiancouchpotato.com/2012/06/ ... t-returns/

How I live on $7,000 per year
http://earlyretirementextreme.com/how-i ... -year.html

[THE JEW (RaVeN)]

Statistical analysis of getting the most from your McDonald's $

http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/how- ... lly-broke/