Welcome to another edition of weekly reading with a selection of articles from the personal finance and investing world. The markets were kind of up and down this week, but those are times you can really enjoy the fact you’re well-diversified. Not having to worry about the daily or weekly fluctuations in asset prices and other holdings can remove a lot of stress from your life.
Speaking of removing stress, the first article this week offers up some great points around what makes us happy as individuals and some ideas on how we might improve our perceived happiness.
On the other hand, if you want to add some stress to your life, you could always try gambling! The relatively new world of NFT’s is now offering digital racehorses that you can purchase, breed and of course, race! Throw betting into the mix along with buying and selling the horses, and you’ve got yourself a gambling addiction!
Finally, if you’d like to add even more stress to your life – have a baby and cut your career short! Okay, I’m half-joking – while kids can definitely add a lot of stress to your life, there are infinite positives to having little ones. The last article discusses how having kids can derail your career plans and how planning ahead can help mitigate some of those lost earnings.
Here are this weeks’ reads below!
Money Lessons from the World Happiness Report | Physician on Fire
The COVID-19 pandemic has left a lot of us housebound, removed from friends, neighbours and colleagues. This social disconnect has inevitably weighed on our overall happiness as human beings, but just how important is socialization in contributing to our moods? I found this article to be a great analysis of the factors that make us happy as individuals and as a society overall. It also presents statistics examining how wealth and power affect a country’s overall perceived happiness. The results might surprise you.
People are Breeding Digital Horses & Spending Real Money | Sportico
NFT’s (non-fungible tokens), likely to the pleasure of collectors and gamblers alike, have found their way to another digital form – horses! To me, this incarnation of digital tokens is both fascinating and frightening, although not totally surprising. Gambling on horse racing has been around for centuries, so why not digitize it and do it from the comfort of your own home? People can both buy and breed their own horses, all of which have unique attributes. They can then be entered into virtual races for a chance at real prize money. I have to admit, this is rather ingenious and at the same time, sounds highly addictive – and for that reason alone, I’ll stick to watching this from the grandstand.
How to Fight Back Against the Motherhood Penalty | Gen Y Money
So you’ve got your career path planned out, how you’re going to rise up through the ranks and collect some pay increases along the way. Then it happens – you’re blessed with a little one in your life, who now occupies all of your free time and energy. The result is a prolonged absence from the working world, reduced pay, and these uncontrollable factors can derail your career goals. This article is an insightful examination of how motherhood can penalize your career aspirations and ways you can keep yourself on a path towards success. (This happens to stay-at-home dads too, by the way!)
Check out my latest piece – “Investment Musings: Why I Wish I Planted a Lemon Tree” along with the latest articles on the homepage and have a great week!
I’m sure you can relate to a lot of my post, being a stay at home parent is a lot of work. Do you get a break during the day?
It depends on the day really, our schedules vary slightly every single week. There’s at least one day per week with zero breaks, usually two. Otherwise, we are usually swapping duties depending on who’s working their actual job that day. COVID has made it ridiculous. You’ll probably agree that once we have vaccinations and some herd immunity, things will be a tad easier. 🙂