Wednesdays are all about personal finance here at Abnormal Returns. You can check out last week’s links including a look at THE true goal of tax planning.
Quote of the Day
"Essentially, it is both true and untrue to say money can buy happiness. Money, when used appropriately, creates opportunities to build a happier life. However, money is not the most important contributor to a happy life."
(Jacob Schroeder)
Chart of the Day

Investors increasingly get their information online. (image via @visualcap)
Investing
- There's never a bad time to revisit your portfolio allocations and rebalance if necessary. (morningstar.com)
- What a really simple portfolio looks like in practice. (fwpwealth.com)
- What investors in their 40's should focus on including 'saving for college.' (peterlazaroff.com)
- How a 'fun money' account can help prevent you from doing too much damage to your overall portfolio. (finance.yahoo.com)
- Seriously, don't borrow to invest money in a stock. (blog.validea.com)
Housing
- What else could you do with your money if you don't pay down your mortgage early? (bloomberg.com)
- Wait, why are realtors still charging 6%? (nytimes.com)
- How the pandemic has helped accelerate the digitization of the home sales process. (nytimes.com)
Behavior
- Investing always look different in the rearview mirror vs. the windshield. (retirementfieldguide.com)
- Why lump sums can look so attractive to retirees. (humbledollar.com)
- It's hard to get 'lucky' if your thinking remains stuck in a prior regime. (indeedably.com)
- Why we need to have sympathy for our future selves. (humbledollar.com)
Career
- What to do when you come to a fork in a career road? (humbledollar.com)
- What to think about when funding a career/life pivot. (randykaufman.com)
Personal finance
- Tony Isola, "The markets couldn’t care less about your financial goals. Fate is a financial mercenary." (tonyisola.com)
- Four steps to help get organized for tax season including "Determine if you'll be itemizing or taking the standard deduction." (morningstar.com)
- Why you should focus on the things that really move the needle. (thomaskopelman.com)
- Don't let the 'indexed annuity' name fool you: they differ greatly from plain vanilla index funds. (morningstar.com)
- Why you may want to call your auto insurer to update your annual mileage. (latimes.com)
- Giving unequal inheritances can be the right thing to do, but everyone needs to be on the same page. (nytimes.com)
- Fidelity Charitable reported a 24% boost in donations in 2020. (seattletimes.com)