Lessons from a $200K mistake; Early retirement extreme; Too poor for our houses; Women in finance; "No strippers please, we're economists"

By Amanda Morrall (email)

1) The $200K mistake

It's been awhile since I checked in on Mr.Money Moustache.  Love his blogs. Although I got a laugh out of his latest talking about how he made his own air-con on a long, hot road trip by spritzing cold water in front of the air vents, I found myself more engaged by an older post that I came across detailing his most expensive financial lesson.  It relates to a home building business he undertook with a friend as a way to get ahead and how it all went to custard because he ignored early warning signs of a bum partnership. A bit long winded but poignant, philosophical, and funny too.

2) Compounding interest

Earlyretirementextreme.com - is similarly themed around "simple living, anti-consumerism, DIY ethics, self reliance and applied capitalism."  The latest guest blog profiles a few different spending archetypes and their starkly different financial outcomes illustrated by an awesome spreadsheet. It drives home the powerful effect of compound interest. Thanks Neil for drawing my attention to it.

3) Women in finance - a retrospective

I just about choked on my coffee after reading about Melissa Fisher's retrospective on women in finance, fragments of which were published in the Guardian by reporter Joris Luyendijk who writes a banking blog for the U.K. paper.  The piece, which looks at the trajectory of women in banking from the '50s, opens with a bleak portrait:

This was life on Wall Street only 50 years ago: "The secretaries all had to wear hats and gloves. In the bathrooms, they had light bulbs with the partner's [boss's] name. The partner would ring you up. If you were in the bathroom, you had to run out immediately."

One question on an entrance exam paper for a trainee programme at Merrill Lynch in 1972 read: "When you meet a woman, what interests you most about her?" The correct answer was beauty. Low scores were given for those who answered intelligence. There was, of course, no question about what to be interested in when meeting a man.

4) Too poor for our houses 

Another affirmation that our housing market is over the top. The Economist, in its latest housing report, ranks New Zealand the sixth least affordable as measured by income to house price ratio.  The New Zealand Herald carries the details.  Get a load of the house pictured at the top of the story,  a two-bedroom weatherboard dollhouse that sold in Sandringham for $1.1 million at auction. Ridiculous.

5) Puritanical economists?

Roving economist Marina Adshade, in her latest Dollars and Sex blog, reports on the redistribution of wealth set to take place in Tampa Bay as part of the upcoming Republican National Convention. The sex industry there is ramping up its numbers in anticipation, the New York Times has reported. Adshade takes a closer look at the economic ups, and downs, and whose driving it. Apparently not economists. Too funny.

To read other Take Fives by Amanda Morrall click here. You can also follow Amanda on Twitter @amandamorrall