How is Bermuda doing this morning?

Today, Moneywise keeping things light, given that so many have spent time, money, physical and mental energy cleaning up after two hurricanes back to back.

Readers often ask me where do I get my ideas. How can I possibly find enough topics to write about that aren’t the same old thing. You’d be surprised at the amazing, amazing trove (treasure, really) out there in cyberspace. My Google website bookmark section is very lengthy, far more than I realised — in excess of two thousand websites.

Here are a few that you may find interesting, useful as well as applicable to your life.

Must reads daily

The Reformed Broker by Josh Brown. A serious, sometimes quite funny financial website written by Joshua Brown — who is not afraid to discount investment hype and tell it like it really is. http://thereformedbroker.com/

New York Times. Favourites are Dealbook by Andrew Ross Sorkin and Health / Exercise Section.

http://www.nytimes.com/

Wall Street Journal — not the paper it used to be, just a personal perspective — appears to have more fluffy articles interjected now. Serious journalists do contribute, though, such as Laura Saunders whose articles on tax-related issues are excellent.

http://online.wsj.com/home-page

Bloomberg — always, cutting edge information and news. A big favourite, always has been, and no, I do not know Michael Bloomberg, personally. I’ve never met him. http://www.bloomberg.com/

The Financial Times — have to keep up with involvement with the rest of the world. http://www.ft.com/home/uk

The Economist. Still, the absolute best paper for in-depth research and seriously articulated articles. http://www.economist.com/

The Globe and Mail, Canada. Usually a quick perusal, but the Globe has an excellent finance section for Canadian mutual funds, if you happen to have those investments. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Finance Websites for research and help applicable to personal situations.

A Wealth of Common Sense by Ben Carlson. Helps you to keep your investing perspective in understanding today’s investment world. Quoting Ben Carlson, “The thing I enjoy the most about finance is the fact that you are forced to continuously learn to keep up. The financial markets can be overwhelming to outside observers, but I’ve found that most of the simple common sense stuff still gets the best results. Less is more is one of my guiding principles.

Albert Einstein once said, “If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.”

The best investors that I have followed in my career can do just that. They make the complex more understandable and put difficult concepts into common sense language. That is what I strive to do here as well.” ~ Ben Carlson.

http://awealthofcommonsense.com/about/

360 Degrees of Financial Literacy. LIFE STAGES. Make Sound Financial Decisions at every stage of your life. This is a free website funded by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants to help individuals and their families with their personal finances. Has modules for every life stage. My personal mission — to develop a Bermuda website that reflects Bermuda finances for Bermuda residents.

http://www.360financialliteracy.org/

Khan Academy. Free, for everyone. Free. It evolved inadvertently when Sal Khan who simply wanted to help his niece learn math concepts, posted up hundreds of little short webcast videos explaining just one math concept at a time (five minutes or less).

Suddenly, strangers were picking up on his work and reporting them to friends and relatives. Mr. Khan was featured on 60 minutes after Bill Gates’ Foundation provided funds to the Academy. And the rest is history.

“You can learn anything.” If you’ve forgotten even basic math, or never really knew how to solve some math problems, or your child wants you to help her with her homework, this is an extraordinary website. It currently offers more than 3,000 little 5-minute webcasts on all things financial from math, debt, economics, statistics, physics, Khan Academy’s reach extends across the globe., and now, Khan Academy has platformed with Bank of America in a new site aimed to help families manage their finances. https://www.khanacademy.org/

Yahoo Finance. One of the very best ever — an excellent finance website for US (and some global inclusions) investments, including the most detailed comprehensive evaluations of mutual funds, individual securities, you have ever seen. Still free. http://finance.yahoo.com/

Investopedia. Educating the world about finance. An unparalleled learning and educational investment website. Articles and mini-courses written by some of the best investment minds in the business. Still free. http://www.investopedia.com/

OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development). Better Policies for Better Lives. Alerts, white papers, and information feeds. I am an OCED approved journalist, and keep informed on a current basis about OECD initiatives on financial education and global taxation exchange of information platforms

http://www.oecd.org/finance/financial-education/financialeducationinschools.htm

Politics, Statistics, Corruption

Greenhouse Politics. Some are red. Some are blue. All are green. “A free browser extension for Chrome, Safari, and Firefox that exposes the role money plays in Congress and highlights key election races.

Displays on any web page detailed campaign contribution data for every Senator and Representative, including total amount received and breakdown by industry and by size of donation. Puts vital data where it’s most relevant so you can discover the real impact of money on our political system.”

The application, created by 16-year old Nicholas Rubin (not even old-enough to vote) highlights a politician’s name and instantly reflects all political contributions (and lobbyists) and sectors that contributed to their campaigns. Would that every jurisdiction has that same access. Well, we have PATI, don’t we — at some point.

http://allaregreen.us/

538. Nate Silver. According to Wikipedia, “FiveThirtyEight launched its ESPN webpage on March 17, 2014. The lead story by Nate Silver explained that “FiveThirtyEight is a data journalism organisation ... We’ve expanded our staff from two full-time journalists to 20 and counting. Few of them will focus on politics exclusively; instead, our coverage will span five major subject areas — politics, economics, science, life and sports. Our team also has a broad set of skills and experience in methods that fall under the rubric of data journalism. These include statistical analysis, but also data visualisation, computer programming and data-literate reporting. So in addition to written stories, we’ll have interactive graphics and features.”

Sport statistics have become very important to the viewer and the participants and was also made very popular with the book by Michael Lewis: “Moneyball: The Art of Winning An Unfair Game (2003). The true story documents the manager of the baseball team, Oakland As. Mr. Billy Beane’s use a style of baseball management in an area of baseball research called sabermetrics, in which statistics are used for decision-making in terms of trades, rosters and the like, instead of players’ star status or recent success. You have to like sports and political machinations to visit this site.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/sports/

International Consortium of Investigative Journalism. Corruption never ends, it seems. Visit this website to understand the sheer magnitude of individuals and entities committing money laundering, hiding assets, avoiding or evading taxes, illicit trading, environmental pollution, political malfeasance, and so on. Read about the committed journalist efforts to highlight egregious activities and promote transparency on a global basis. http://www.icij.org/

Fitness, Nutrition and Health.

Kimi Werner Patagonia Surfing Ambassador. An interesting website if you love the sea. The video of Kimi swimming and holding the fin of a Great White Shark for minutes is breath taking. Kimi is a free diver in Hawaii, living off the land and the sea — and as an artist / photographer and outdoor sports clothing ambassador. http://vimeo.com/62831314 http://www.patagonia.com/us/ambassadors/surfing/kimi-werner/71100

Nutrition websites provides the detailed nutrient (and lack thereof with some so-called foods) package listing of just about every food available to man.

There is reservoir of valuable information for those who want to be healthy and those who have dietary challenges. http://www.nutrition.gov/whats-food

CrossFit. If you are fascinated by doing CrossFit (not me) or watching the contests, this site provides inspiration.

CrossFit has become a global phenomenon — anything that encourages us all to get off the couch and do something to maintain fitness is good motivation.

http://www.crossfit.com/

Run Hundred. Workout music and running songs. Each month 40,000 folks submit their favourite workout songs and vote on others submitted. The most popular top ten voted-on work out tapes are then compiled by the web host for those who need motivation to work out and those who just like music. You’d be surprised at some of the favourites. http://www.runhundred.com/

New Hampshire Garden Solutions. Many Bermudians visit New Hampshire and other places in the Northeast. If you like nature surroundings, hiking, organic environments, and forestral beauty, this website is a weekly delight. The pictures are stunning. Sign up for the weekly feed. http://nhgardensolutions.wordpress.com/author/allennorcross/

For times when business situations are hard to comprehend, co-workers or bosses are perceived to be indifferent or insensitive, Dilbert is good for a laugh and a reset of rationality. Remember much of his work stems from real situations as reported by real situations. http://www.dilbert.com/

Finally, for some reflections on serenity in our crazy electronically intrusive world, and caring words of calming influence, try the Happiness website.

Happiness in This World, Reflections of a Buddhist Physician — Alex Lickerman, MD.

You may enjoy reading two favourites, How To Be Nice To The Ones You Love Most, Why Be Honest.

http://www.happinessinthisworld.com/

Martha Harris Myron CPA CFP JSM Masters of Law: International Tax and Financial Services,

Appointed to the Professional Tax Advisory Council, American Citizens Abroad, Geneva, Switzerland

President: The Pondstraddler* Life™ Consultancy: international financial planning, publications, presentations for the challenging lifestyles of multinational individuals and their families residing, working, crossing borders, and straddling ponds in the North Atlantic Quadrangle. Specific focus for residents of Bermuda, the premier international finance centre. Contact: martha@pondstraddler.com

* Pondstraddler. A person with one foot on each shore whose heart resides in both countries*