Wednesday, May 25, 2005

I love humping

Need a camel say more?

I will anyway.

I'm virtually drowning in financial information at the moment; I'm reading four different books about personal finance, investment and money management:

Rich Dad Poor Dad: Cash Flow Quadrant -- Robert Kiyosaki's second cash grab is cut from the same cloth as Rich Dad Poor Dad. Repetitive, clunkily written, and absolutely fucking brilliant. You have to wade through a lot of minor stuff to turn the lights on, but once you do it'll change the way you think about money, your job, your friends, even life itself. This book focuses on the differences between four types of people: Employees, Self-employed people, Business owners and Investors.

Smart Couples Finish Rich -- David Bach has written Smart _______ Finish Rich books for Women, Men, Teens and now Couples. This one just gets you to talk about money with your partner, something that most of us don't like to do. It suggests ways to do this that are constructive, rather than destructive. It also gives some organisational advice -- a couple of these, like the Value Circle and goal-setting exercises, I've presented to the Skinny Camel group already.

S&P's Guide for the New Investor -- If you've seen the vocabulary list I presented at our second meeting, or read any Finance 101 stuff on the yahoo mailing list, you've had a taste of this one. Standard & Poor's is probably the world's best-known market analysis company, so the S&P's on the cover carries huge cache. It explains finance and stock terminology and situations basically enough for a money dummy like me to understand, but with enough sophistication to avoid being boring.

Hot Tips for Read Estate Investors -- Aqlim Barlas is an immigrant living in Surrey who has financed a dozen homes with minimal down payments since she arrived in Canada. She manages them all herself, rents them out to trusted tenants, and takes home enough profit from resales and rental fees to claim millionaire status. She got into Surrey before SkyTrain jacked up prices across the bridge, but it's still proof it can be done.

It's a little bit much, but I'm understanding a little bit more of the business section of the paper every day; that is, I suppose, the reason we're doing this, yah?

Anyone else having luck with their readings?

Sunday, May 15, 2005

test

first test