Beating The Index: Weekend Edition

Welcome to the weekend edition, a small collection of links to interesting personal finance related articles and news from around the web.

The market reacted to 2 things this week, earnings and Greece. I’m looking forward to how the market will behave once we are over with earnings.  Greece is still out there taking all the attention. It’s nice of Greece to “worry” investors from time to time because it provides me with an opportunity to buy undervalued stocks.

Here’s a list of interesting readings for the weekend:

#1  Have a Lump Sum? Should You Pay Off the Mortgage Faster or Invest It Instead?

Yet another mortgage vs. investing article but this one is special, it includes graphs and numbers. I still prefer killing the mortgage in a short period of time. Of course, living in Quebec makes it possible, had I been a resident of Vancouver that would have been different!

#2  Timing The Stock Market

Mike wrote an interesting article on market timing. As you’ve seen from my trading activity, I either suck in timing or timing the market is just not possible. Fortunately, Mike believes it is not possible which makes the article a great read since I whole heartedly agree with him!

#3 Money, Stress, and Your Health

Yes, Money can be stressful, whether you have a lot or not enough of it. Get Rich Slowly provides some tips on reducing this stress.

#4 Is it now too late to save Greece?

Here’s an interesting article by Reuters about the Greek saga. Does lending money to Greece at this point still make sense? Keep a stash of cash ready to be deployed if we go through another “crash”.

#5 The hidden skills of successful real estate investing

Thicken my Wallet discusses the skills it takes to be successful in real estate investing. Real estate investing is not about flipping houses and getting rich quick, this article provides an in depth look at what it takes.

The  monthly portfolio update is scheduled for Monday. I am looking forward to seeing those numbers since April has been a great month for trading.  On that note, have a great week end!