As a creative person inhabiting an engineer’s mind, I’m often a walking contradiction of organization. On the one hand, a messy desk does not bother me at all and I like having lots of information in front of me to draw from when I work. But on the other, eventually the collection of stuff reaches a critical mass where I can no longer find what I’m looking for, at which point I decide it’s time to clean up and organize. That tension between chaos and order is just part of how I think.
Along those lines, while I very intentionally keep Portfolio Charts simple and intuitive in the Assets, Portfolios, and Calculators I realize I’ve reached the point in the Commentary where the old system really isn’t doing the site justice and relevant posts are a bit too difficult to identify and track down. The logical next step would be to roll out a typical blog archive sorted by date or topic, but keeping with the spirit of designing the site primarily as a set of practical tools I’ve decided to build something a bit more comprehensive. As you may have already noticed up top, there’s now an entire new section called the Library.
The Library is a compilation not only of my own posts but also of a wide variety of books, links, and any other resources I can get my hands on related to a specific investing topic. It is broken into six sections:
Basic Concepts — Everything a new investor might need to get started and to understand how asset allocation works
Goals & Milestones — Practical advice with a special focus not simply on maximizing returns but on why we all invest
Investing Psychology — Articles and resources on how to not be your own worst financial enemy
Portfolio Theory — More detailed portfolio analysis and intellectual theories for how to solve asset allocation problems
Retirement Income — Everything pertaining to living off of your portfolio when work is a luxury rather than a requirement
Tools and Data — Calculator explanations and a collection of data sources for your own research
In conjunction with introducing the Library, I’ve also greatly simplified the Commentary page and transformed it into a running chronological feed of posts that is formatted in a way to make it easy to browse. So while the Library is designed for people searching for a specific topic, the Commentary is optimized for casual window shoppers and binge readers. By being a bit more attentive to the different ways people consume content, hopefully the new design will be more user friendly than before.
As a side note, it’s possible that if you normally read this using an RSS feed that the link may have been broken in the migration process. If that’s the case, please redirect your reader to the new Commentary page and that should fix the issue.
One of the fun things about the Library is the potential for a bit of group participation in the sharing process. So if you ever run across a book, article, tool, or anything else on the topic of asset allocation that inspires you and you think belongs on the list, please let me know. By working together, I feel like we can create a truly dynamic resource that everyone will benefit from. Let’s team up and build something great!
Overall, my goal for the Library is to make it another information-driven tool on par with the Assets, Portfolios, and Calculators to help everyday investors find simple and intelligent portfolios to support their financial and emotional needs. So don’t just treat it like a pile of books gathering dust in the corner — dive in and see what you think. Whether you’re an investing rookie just getting your bearings or an experienced professional looking to expand your set of investing tools, wise investing is not just about growing your bank account but also your mind.
So take a break from the raw charts and numbers for a moment and take a stroll to the Library. Here’s to learning something new!