Quote for the day

Travel is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of the familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things – air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky – all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it. (Cesare Pavese)

How cool is this thing?

I'm too sexy for my pants

How to get rich quick

"A $1,000 investment in Berkshire Hathaway in 1965 was worth $4.3m at the end of last year. However, on a hedge fund model, $4m would have gone to Buffett and only $300,000 to the investor."

Terry Smith, a senior City figure, has investigated the effect of the "2 & 20" fee structure used by private equity firms and hedge funds around the world. The long-term effect of this on investment returns is staggering.

I've long believed that the only people who really get rich in the private equity and hedge fund industries are the owners and not the investors. Diversification and uncorrelated investment returns are the popular reasons that fund managers like to throw around when they want your money. And it is a good reason, but does it have to cost so much?

I'm a big fan of low-cost index trackers. Most active fund managers are unable to beat their benchmark indexes over the long-term in both rising and falling markets so why pay more?