Over at the NYTimes Bucks Blog, people are angry that a bank might actually charge you for the services they supply. This reminds me of people who think they shouldn’t have to pay for investment advice either. Why would someone invest their time, resources and set up the required infrastructure for [running a bank account / giving investment advice] unless they thought they would make a living doing it? They need to get paid somehow too, and the question is, how?

Holidays and vacations are wonderful. They give use a break from the stress and monotony of the workplace, a time to catch up with friends and family, and a chance to see new and exciting places. And part of the enjoyment of a holiday is looking forward to it. Knowing that you have something good coming up lets you enjoy that experience before you even have it, and can change your well-being long before you actual experience it.

Last week saw a couple in Scotland win the £161 million Euro-millions lottery, a truly enormous amount for any individual to suddenly have in the bank. Research indicates that they need to approach their new-found wealth as a source of potential danger as well as happiness. What do we know about the effect of winning the lottery (or unexpectedly inheriting a significant sum)? Obviously, they are now freed from the worries and stresses that come with not having enough money.

From the department of “No, really?”, a new paper showing that we are happier on weekends: This paper exploits the richness and large sample size of the Gallup/Healthways US daily poll to illustrate significant differences in the dynamics of two key measures of subjective well-being: emotions and life evaluations. We find that there is no day-of-week effect for life evaluations, represented here by the Cantril Ladder, but significantly more happiness, enjoyment, and laughter, and significantly less worry, sadness, and anger on weekends (including public holidays) than on weekdays.

“Alpha”, most commonly known as beating the market on a risk-adjusted basis, in laymans terms means doing better than a passive strategy, better than most other dollars or pounds in the market. While obviously alpha is a good thing, there is no guarantee of achieving it – it is a risky prospect itself, but the fees associated with active management are a sure thing. So taking on manager risk as well as market risk implies that there is significant value to active management.