My roundup of the five must-read articles this week. (Drum-roll, please!)

1. After the bust. Here’s what you really should have learned. The Lehman Brothers collapse a year ago set off the global financial meltdown. On its anniversary there’s been no shortage of experts summing up the lessons learned. I think these nine from the Canadian Capitalist blog are the most useful for the average Joe.

2. Pay off your mortgage or invest? Which should you do first?Like the chicken and egg argument, people can’t seem to agree. But this articlein the Globe and Mail makes a superb case for eliminating the house debt first.

3. Don’t listen to this kind of advice. Investment industry veteran David West has good advice on how to avoid bad advice when buying stocks this fall. Click here.

4. To paraphrase Jack Nicholson, “You CAN’T HANDLE the truth about stocks!” Except in this case the part of Jack Nicholson is played by Zvi Bodie, author of Worry-Free Investing. Check out this enjoyable Q&A here.

5. A zippy recovery after all? As the recession plods onward, many have concluded that what we’re in for is not a quick bounce-back, but a dreary, slow recovery. Yet history shows there’s room for optimism, says James Grant. Click here.