Weekend reading: Are we marching towards a State pension age of 70?

Good reads from around the Web.

Morning! We’re all too late I’m running late for today’s futile march of the damned, so I’ll just put this one out there.

According to the BBC:

An analysis for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has suggested that workers under the age of 30 may not get a pension until the age of 70.

There are two new reports that have set the bell officially tolling:

• The drier report from the Government’s Actuary department is the one that’s mooting an extreme scenario in which the State pension age is lifted to 70, as soon as 2054.

• The State Pension age independent report by John Cridland is surprisingly readable, and his proposals seem a bit less brutal.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news to anyone under 45 or so – and especially to the under-30s.

At least we’re expected to live longer! Get your own money compounding over the extra years, and try not to be reliant on the State.

Just in case.

From the blogs

Making good use of the things that we find…

Passive investing

• 10 headlines you’ll never see in the financial media – Dan Solin
• The cheapest portfolios in the world – Meb Faber
• Warning: The US stock market is an anomaly – Alpha Architect
• Diving into MSCI’s Global Investable Markets Methodology [Nerdy] – Krane Shares

Active investing

• Yet another reason it’s so hard to tough to beat the market [Graph] – Twitter
• An interview with Jim O’Shaughnessy [Podcast] – The Investor’s Field Guide
• How many defensive shares should you hold? – UK Value Investor
• The US market looks peaky. What should you do? – Meb Faber
• A Valeant update: Damaged or deeply discounted? – Musings on Markets

Other articles

• Your greatest asset is YOU – Of Dollars and Data
• Gradual improvements go unnoticed – The Irrelevant Investor
• It takes three to tango in ETF land – Abnormal Returns
• Dublin is top of the table for bankers fleeing Brexit [Data] – Movinga
• Idiots in investing echo chambers – The Psy-Fi blog
• An interesting study into cash buffers and family finances – JP Morgan
• The Intelligent Advisor podcast, with Carl Richards [Podcast] – Advisor 2.0
• Setting up a company? Thoughts on splitting the equity – Points and Figures

Product of the week: I’ve just signed up with Thriva, and have my first blood test sitting on the desk in front of me, waiting for me to get all vampiric on myself. The packaging is super elegant, like unboxing an Apple product, which does take the edge off. I’m more motivated though by the online dashboard it will create – and the fact I won’t need to badger my GP (again) after he told me a couple of years ago that a certain variable was out of whack then said “we’ll see if we need to worry in five years.” I do my worrying early! According to Thriva, if you follow my link you’ll get £10 off your first test (and I’ll get £10 to put towards my next one). But I can’t see any confirmation on the sign-up page, so keep your eyes open at checkout if that’s important to you. (Sorry to be a prick tease. Geddit? Prick? Never mind…)

Mainstream media money

Some links are Google search results – in PC/desktop view these enable you to click through to read the piece without being a paid subscriber of that site.¹

Passive investing

• Swedroe: Don’t underestimate emerging markets – ETF.com
• Great investment mistakes: The bear trap – Morningstar
• Do Smart Beta investment funds work? [Search result] – Economist
• The antidote to stock market hysteria – Forbes

Active investing

• History is no help when handicapping the bond market – Bloomberg
• Three ways the economic cycle could end [Search result] – FT
• Amazon, the world’s most remarkable firm, is just getting started – Economist
• Record number of fund managers think US stocks are overvalued – Bloomberg
• Another big hedge fund (Eton Park) throws in the towel – Dealbook

A word from a broker

• Three low-cost tracker funds for ISAs and SIPPs – Hargreaves Lansdown
• Reflation: An end to austerity? – TD Direct

Other stuff worth reading

• Are the wheels about to fall off car finance? [Search result] – FT
• Ben Carlson’s favourite (free) investing tools on the Internet – MarketWatch
• London property market ‘will resist price crash’ [Search result] – FT
• Under 40? Don’t miss this £2,050 tax-free ISA boost – Telegraph
• NIC U-turn ‘highlights benefits of self-employment’ [Search result] – FT
• How a hedge fund manager teaches his kids about money [Podcast] – Bloomberg
• An interview with Jack Bogle [Video] – CNN
• How and where buy-to-let still pays – ThisIsMoney
• New £1 coin: But should you hoard your old £1 coins? [Er…]  – Telegraph
• Tesco isn’t ready for the new £1, and will have to unlock its trolleys! – Guardian
• Brexit threat to horse racing – Business Insider  – & chocolate bars – Telegraph
• How pre-ordering coffee has turned into a nightmare [Search result] – FT
• Italy’s struggling economy has the world’s healthiest people – Bloomberg
• Surfing trendsetters can make an economic splash – Bloomberg

Groceries of the week: I’m stuck for book ideas this week, but I have noticed Amazon Pantry is running a special offer whereby if you buy four eligible items you get free delivery. Sadly I’m not really set-up to have a constant stream of Amazon delivery trucks passing my house every few hours to unload cans of beans and bottles of detergent at their whim. But maybe if you’ve got a butler or an au pair or a house miles away from opportunistic eyes so that your groceries can just be tossed over the hedge it could work for you?

Like these links? Subscribe to get them every week!

1. Note some articles can only be accessed through the search results if you’re using PC/desktop view (from mobile/tablet view they bring up the firewall/subscription page). To circumvent, switch your mobile browser to use the desktop view. On Chrome for Android: press the menu button followed by “Request Desktop Site”.

from Monevator http://monevator.com/weekend-reading-are-we-marching-towards-a-state-pension-age-of-70/