Monday, December 24, 2012

Rich Woman

a book on investing for women
Because I hate being told what to do!
by Kim Kiyosaki
isbn: ?

Notes:

Quote by Katherine Hepburn, "Women, if you're given a choice between money and sex appeal, take the money. As you get older, the money will become your sex appeal."

Why women must become investors
  • statistics; 47% of women over 50 are single, less retirement income, divorce, live longer, has to work longer, living in poverty
  • avoid dependency
  • no glass ceiling
  • no income limits
  • increased self-esteem
  • control your time
see p. 75 to determine your "Why"

Financial independence formula- buy and create assets that generate cash flow.

analyzing assets
cash flow
ROI (return on investment)

see glossary of recommended books at www.richwoman.com

gain financial education by reading books, listening to audiotapes & CDs, investing in educational seminars, workshops and conferences, read financial newspapers and magazines (wall street journal, investor's business daily, barrons. Wall Streets Journal's guide to understanding money and investing), local business journal newspaper, talk with real estate, stock and business brokers, talk with other investors, join a women's investment club focused toward education not pooling money to invest, join cash flow club, use internet, drive around town, watch financial news on TB, subscribe to financial newsletters, ask questions. Look up words you don't understand

Investing is a process. The process is more important then the end goal itself.

How wealthy are you?
  1. What are your monthly expenses
  2. How much money (cash, assets, stocks..., cash flow) you have not including salary from your job or work
  3. divide how much money you have by monthly expenses
  4. Wealth number is savings (or available cash) + passive income = your wealth
Some alternative methods for financing your investments as your investing experience grows
seller financing, finance out of cash flow, lender financing, assumable loans, other investors, family & friends.

Pay yourself first! 10% to each of these; investing, savings and charity

what do you do if you want to start investing but your partner's not interested.
  • invest with her partner as a team (ideal)
  • invest on her own with her partner's support (next best thing)
  • invest on her own without her partner's support (not easy but your partner may come around)
  • don't invest
What is your quality of your relationship in relation to money?

What makes women great investors
  • not afraid to say I don't know
  • willing to ask for help
  • great shoppers
  • do their homework
  • risk-averse
  • less ego
  • nurturers (establish good relationships)
  •  learn well from other women
Why invest for financial freedom?
  • Your reason why
  • where are you today
  • your plan-where you want to go and how to get there
When creating your plan
  • Determine your goal
  • What will by your primary investment vehicle
  • What type of product will you focus on
  • What is time frame for accomplishing your goal
An active investor manages their own investments
A passive investor turns it over to someone else to invest for them

4 keys to being a successful investor
  • education
  • start small
  • put a little money down
  • stay close to home
  • set yourself up to win
  • choose your circle wisely (surround yourself with people who will sincerely support you and encourage you to reach your goals)
  • investing is a process
  • always keep learning
  • have fun!
Be is your beingness, who you are
do is the doingness, what you do
have is your havingness, what you have
Who you are, and what you do determines what you have

Concentrate on what you want to have and what you have to do will ahppen

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Talking Back to Facebook

The common sense guide to raising kids in the digital age
by james p. steyer
isbn: 978-1-4516-5734-0
www.commonsense.org

Notes:
In Facebook; go to privacy settings and opt in under privacy settings to approve tagged pictures (this is not the default setting)

Privacy issues are a huge growing concern for us. Large corporations... feel empowered to collect and use your personal information as they see fit.

Do not track kids bill is stalled in congress... Would ban behavioral marketing and geolocation monitoring of youngsters without a formal and explicit opt-in by their parents... In addition would require technology giants to create and distribute and eraser button for kids, teens and hopefully all consumers.... No thirteen year old should have to live the rest of his or her life with the consequences of some poor, impulsive decision that was shared online.

The universal industry standard for all privacy decision by consumers should be opt in - as opposed to the confusing opt out.

Benefits of digital media; improving educational opportunities, social connectedness, democracy and civic engagement.

To the guys who run silicon valley and the tech industry, data is virtuous...golden...king.... lets you analyzed and predict human behavior more efficiently....Engineers solve math problems, yet they often don't recognize the human consequences of their work.

research shows that watching 2 dimensional videos, programs and dvds distracts kis under two from the way their brains really learn - by physically interacting with you and other loving three-dimensional human beings...Infant learning requires social interaction.

Parents need to limit media, do their homework and choose age appropriate media, be aware that marketers are aggressively targeting your child, not let your preschooler thing your smartphone or ipad is a toy, don't share names if you post pictures and check your privacy setttings.

research suggest that when kids spend more than two hours a day in front of a screen.... they are at greater risk for attention, learning and behavior problems.

Friday, December 21, 2012

The Acid Reflux Solution

A cookbook and lifestyle guide for healing heartburn naturally
by Jorge E. Rodriguez, MD with Susan Wyler, MPH, RD
isbn: 978-1-60774-227-2

Friday, December 14, 2012

The Little Book that Beats the Market

by Joel Greenblatt
isbn: 0-471-73306-7
2006
website: http://www.magicformulainvesting.com/

Notes:
Your investment needs to do better than the U.S. government bond that matures after 10 years (which earned 6% when this book was written?)

Buying a share in a business means you are purchasing a portion (% interest) of that business and are then entitled to a portion of that business's future earnings. Figuring out what a business is worth involves estimating/guessing how much the business will earn in the future.

Stock prices move around wildly over short periods of time but doesn't mean that the values of the underlying companies have changes. Buy shares at huge discount to your estimated value of those shares.

purchase a business that earns more relative to the price you are paying. (higher earnings yield)
buy a share of a good business (earn a high return on capital)

Start with a list of largest 3,500 companies available for trading
Rank companies based on their return of capital (highest return is best) 1 best - 3,500 worst
Rank companies using earning yield (highest is best) 1 best - 3,500 worst
Combine rankings and look for the companies that have best combined rankings

If you truly understand the business that you own and have a high degree of confidence in your normalized earnings estimates, owning 5-8 bargain-priced stocks in different industries can be a safe and effective investment strategy

However they recommend holding 20-30 stocks at one time as magic formula works on average. They had 30 stocks held for one year in tax free accounts. If held in taxable accounts sell stocks that are showing a lost from initial purchase price a few days before year is up. For stocks showing a gain, sell a day or two after one year is up so gains receive advantages of lower tax rate affored to long-term capital gains and losses receive short-term tax treatment.

Probably don't want to buy all 30 stocks at once. Add 5-7 stocks every few months until reach 20-30 stocks in portfolio. Than as stocks reach one-year holding mark replace the ones that have been held for one year.

General screening instructions:
Option 1:
  1. go to magicformulainvesting.com
  2. choose company size. for most people companies with market capitalization above $50-100 million should be of sufficient size
  3. obtain list of top-ranked magiv formula companies.
  4. Buy 5-7 top ranked companies. To start, invest only 20-33% of money you intend to invest during the first year.
  5. repeat step 4 every 2-3 months until you have invested all of the money you have chosen to allocate to your magic formula portfolio. After 9-10 months this should result in a portfolio of 20-30 stocks. (5-6 stocks every 2 months)
  6. Sell each stock after holding it one year. Use the proceed from any sale and any additional investment money to replace the sold companies with an equal number of new magic formula selections
  7. Continue this process for a minimum of 3-5 years regardless of results.
Option 2: using other screening options
  1. Use Return on Assets (ROA) set a 25% minimum as a screening criterion. (This takes the place of return on capital)
  2. From the resulting group of high ROA stocks, screen for those stocks with the lowest Price/Earning (P/E) ratios (This takes the place of earnings yield)
  3. Eliminate all utilities and financial stocks (mutual funds, banks, insurance companies)
  4. Eliminate all foreign companies from list (In most cases these have suffix "ADR" for American Depository Receipt" after name of stock)
  5. If stock has a very low P/E ratio (<5 also="also" and="and" announced="announced" any="any" are="are" being="being" company="company" data.="data." data="data" earnings="earnings" eliminate="eliminate" from="from" has="has" help="help" in="in" incidence="incidence" incorrect="incorrect" indicate="indicate" last="last" li="li" list.="list." may="may" minimize="minimize" of="of" or="or" previous="previous" some="some" stocks="stocks" that="that" the="the" these="these" to="to" untimely="untimely" unusual="unusual" used="used" want="want" way="way" week="week" year="year" you="you" your="your">
  6. Follow steps 4-8 from above

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Survival Investing

How to prosper amid thieving banks and corrupt governments
by John R. Talbott
isbn: 978-0-230-34122-7
website: stopthelying.com

notes:
Basic premise is that global banks and world governments have been corrupted and are lying,cheating, and stealing from people. However bankers haven't been arrested because they write the laws, act as their own police force, banks are not transparent (very complex financial statements), traders occupy senior management positions (traders and trading rules dominate)

Teach investors how to deal with inflation.

Why stocks, bonds and money markets won't cut it.

Why diversification won't help; limits both up & downsides, assumes you don't have to do any financial analysis because all markets are inefficient

don't buy and hold

invest in real assets such as gold, commodities, land houses, office buildings, apartment buildings, small businesses which you can manage yourself which perform better relative to inflation

Traditional financial assets like stocks, bonds and treasury bonds do poorly relative to inflation.

Start thinking about measuring things in ounces of gold and you will get a much clearer picture of both the economy and your own financial position.

He believes that almost all of our economic, banking, education, environmental and health care problems result from world governments being more receptive to corporate and banking ideas than to the will of their people. They've been bought off by the highest bidder. Control corporate power in Washington by eliminating lobbyists and making corporate campaign contributions illegal.

Need to regain control of our government, break up big banks, place strict limit on the amount of leverage that banks can incorporate in their lending. What do we do with trade with low-wage countries such as China and India. The more freedom and liberty you give your people the more economic choices they have. As they control their economic and political lives, the more the developed the country, the greater the growth and the greater the prosperity.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Rich Dad's Retire Young, Retire Rich

How to get rich and stay rich
by Robert T. Kiyosaki
isbn: 978-1-61268-040-8

Some notes:

Reflect 1 hour/ month on your life.

Who gets paid first and who gets paid the most - This makes sense. Need to invest in asset first to keep it strong and growing. The people who get paid first get paid the least.
1. Asset
2. Employees
3. Specialists
4. Investors
5. Business owner

3 piggy bank system: 1 dollar a day to Savings, Investing, Tithing

Reasons to have a book keeper:
  • All professional B's & I's have bookkeepers
  • You want a disinterested 3rd part to look objectively at your money and spending habits
  • Bring financial challenges out into the light where you can deal with them.
  • Cost about $100-200/month or can trade services
  • reaffirms that you are taking your personal financial life seriously
  • sit down at least once month, held accountable and learn, correct and redirect financial future of your life.

"Everyone has financial problems. What determines if someone is to be rich or poor is simply how well he or she handles those problems. Poor people are poor simply because they handle their noney problems poorly." "No one person can know everything. If you want to win the game ofmoney, you want the best and smartest people on your team"

Possible team members: bookkeeper, banker, accountant, attorney, stockbroker, real estate broker, insurance broker.

Habits:
  1. hire a bookkeeper
  2. create a winning team
  3. constantly expand your context and content. In the information age your greatest asset is the info in you head and the age of your info. Not stocks, bonds, mutual funds, businesses or real estate.
  4. keep growing up. Be willing to be more and more responsible for yourself, your actions, your continueing education and your maturity. Grow up and awy from the old industrial age ideas of expecting someone else to be responsible for our job security and financial security.
  5. be willing to fail more. Dream big, try things, make small mistakes. Keeps you humble. In real life there is more than one right answer.
  6. Listen to yourself. be specific with what you want. What am I afraid of, what do I want instead, and what do I need to do to get what I want. Notice thoughts and feelings you don't want and change to thoughts and feelings about things you want. Take action, and keep going, correcting if necessary until you get what you want.
keep your money moving.

sell shares to recoup initial investment. Cut losses when stock drops 10%

shopping for property. analyze 100 properties, make offers on 10, have 3 sellers say yes, then buy one.

hedge funds versus investing naked. invest with financial positions covered. saver vs investor vs trader. fundamental vs technical investor. average vs sophisticated investor. trends, moving averages, stop orders, call options, put options, straddles or collars, shorts.

bull market- uptrending
bear market- downward
sideways trending market
moving averages
how do you know if a trend is changing? double top, double bottom

rich people don't like to own things

winner's context. How do I win if I lose?

buying options to protect assets.
read a book on options trading, attend a seminar, find a stockbroker who will teach & guide you through process. Play cashflow 101 at least 12 times so you learn the mindset of fundamental investing. then play cashflow 202 which teaches you to think in multiple directions.

4 basic classes of assets: real estate, paper, business, commodities

Retirement Exit strategy
Poor <25k p="p" year="year">Middle class 25k - 100k /yr
Affluent 100k - 1 million/ yr
Rich > 1 million/ yr
Ultra-rich >1 million/ month

B-I triangle
Team, Leadership, Mission
Product, Legal, Systems, Communications, Cash flow

Change your reality to a world without a steady paycheck or job. People who need a paycheck are slaves to money. If you want to be free, you must never need a paycheck or a job. How can I get rich without a paycheck of a steady job? academic success does not necessarily equate to financial success.

What kind of income do you want?
ordinary 50% money
portfolio 20% money
passive 0% money

Residual, dividend, interest, royalty, financial instrument income

Hot tips
  1. Begin to see yourself in a world or reality where you will never ever need a paycheck or job again.
  2. What kind of income do you want? Research the possibilities
  3. Tell lies about your bright future
  4. Decide to live as a person with a rich context where I need to increase my financial IQ so I can work less and make more money
  5. find a friend or loved who wants to go on the journey with you.
  6. seek competent advice and begin building your own team of financial and legal advisors
  7. set a retirement date
  8. write down a plan on a piece of paper once you have set a date for retirement
  9. plan your retirement party
  10. look at a deal a day. Do something 10 minutes a day to improve your financial intelligence.
  11. remember all markets follow 3 main trends; up, down and sideways. Need 3 different strategies for 3 different trends
  12. words are free; content and context words. How can I learn it?
  13. talk about money, business, investing, successes and problems
  14. make a million dollars starting with nothing. bureaucrat only knows how to make money if it is given to him. an entrepreneur can make money out of nothing.
What kind of life do you want to live?

What would you do if there were no risk, and it required no money to become rich?

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

The $100 Startup

Reinvent the way you make a living, do what you love, and create a new future.
by Chris Guillebeau
isbn: 978-0-307-95152-6

http://100startup.com/

Sunday, December 9, 2012

The New Depression

The breakdown of the paper money economony
by Richard Duncan
isbn: 978-1-118-15779-4
website: http://www.richardduncaneconomics.com/

I like his solution on pp 143-145 "where the government spends on investment programs that would quickly pay for itself"... such as "the president announcing that the U.S. economy would be entirely fueled by domestically generated solar energy by 2025"..."the goal would be not only to develop a cheap, limitless energy source for the future but also to stimulate the economy now."

notes:
Future government policy can not be foretold with any degree of precision.

Diversified portfolio: Commodities (including gold & silver), stocks (preferably with good dividend yield), bonds, rental property and fixed-interest-rate debt. In combination form a broadly diversified portfolio capable of preserving a significant amount of wealth in practically any conceivable economic environment.
  • Commodities, perform well in inflation, suffer with disinflation or deflation. Gold & silver benefit most from quantitative easing which undermines public confidence in nationa currency
  • Stocks tend to rise in 1. healthy economic environment 2. when central banks creat money and pump into financial markets (as long as don't cause too much inflation) 3. when government runs a budget surplus and crowds in the private sector, and 4. when trade deficit is larger than the budget deficit. Stocks tend to perform badly when inflation at the CPI level exceed 4%, in a weak economic environment and during a severe period of debt deflation.
  • Bonds benefit from disinflation or mild deflation and suffer when there is inflation.
  • Rental property can provide a relatively steady stream of income although capital value of property can fluctuate widely. 
  • Financing rental properties with fixed-interest-rate debt provides a hedge against inflation. However in severe debt-deflation, rents would fall so much that the rental income would be insufficient to service mortgage. A prudent loan-to-value ratio mitigates that danger.
During a period of high inflation rates, value of bonds and stocks would fall, but price of commodities would appreciate. Meanwhile, rental property would continue to generate cash flow and inflation-adjusted debt burden would decline.

During deflation, commodity prices would fall. Stock prices would also fall, but decline would be offset to some extent by dividend income. Value of bonds would rise. Rental income would continue to generate cash flow, although in lower amounts if rents adjust downward. Mortgage payments would remain unchanged.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Europe on 5 Wrong Turns a Day

One Man, Eight countries, One Vintage Travel Guide
by Doug Mack
isbn: 978-0-399-53732-5