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

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

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.

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?

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/

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.

Europe on 5 Wrong Turns a Day

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