tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81543271476914884382024-03-12T19:55:06.100-07:00Money ConversationsGreat ideas about making money from investing, selling stuff, and doing other crazy things.Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13873767509843587749noreply@blogger.comBlogger50125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154327147691488438.post-87489772517884319592009-03-09T16:57:00.000-07:002009-03-09T16:59:39.339-07:00steps to handle inflation?it's not a guarantee that we'll see some serious inflation in 2009, but it's looking more and more probable. what can one do to combat or at least get ready for inflation?Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02183151278260645476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154327147691488438.post-28304373112052545592009-02-26T04:31:00.001-08:002009-02-26T04:38:40.727-08:00What TheMany it's painful to watch my favorite benchmark DODGX move down to $61, down from $70 last week. It's kind of nice to have a way to gadge overall portfolio performance by watching the same number each week.<br /><br />Other thought about psychology:<br /> Before recently, I read "the best time to buy is the point of highest pessimism" I read it and thought "yea, I can handle that, I'd increase my contributions" But right now, I am so dam pessimistic, I just want to sell it all. I mean, if I had gone all cash last week, I would have saved losing like 10K! or something crazy like that. I don't want to even think about how if I had sold last September before everything went down 30%.<br /><br />I hate psychology.Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13873767509843587749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154327147691488438.post-41794033741918575252009-02-08T15:15:00.000-08:002009-02-08T15:19:23.564-08:00How to take advantage of green sense<cite><a href="http://citizensbank.com/greensense"><b>www.citizensbank</b>.com/</a><b><a href="http://citizensbank.com/greensense">greensense</a><br /><br /></b>So, here's what the deal is, every time you use your citizen's bank atm card, you get 10 cents in your account. There is a cap of $120 per year you can earn this way. That's 1200 transactions!!! So... <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">How do we take advantage of this?<br /></span></b><br />I think we should make a web site that will make 1200 small purchases throughout the year. In exchange the web site will take 2 cents out of every 10 cents you should get back. So for zero effort, you could make about $100.<br /><br />Nice.<br /><b><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></b></cite>Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13873767509843587749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154327147691488438.post-81183723802665389012009-02-04T05:27:00.001-08:002009-02-04T05:32:11.297-08:00I made tons of m$ney<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_r2BSrCqaadQ/SYmYQ3b9q_I/AAAAAAAAAE0/W_cL6WbS9Js/s1600-h/top.bmp"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 138px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_r2BSrCqaadQ/SYmYQ3b9q_I/AAAAAAAAAE0/W_cL6WbS9Js/s320/top.bmp" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298933852104666098" border="0" /></a><br />On 11-20-2008, my 401k purchased about 3 shares of DODGX at 60.190 each.<br />That's a total of $180<br /><br />now those 3 shares are worth 68.22 each or 204.66, sweet that's a gain of PLUS 13% <img src="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/gmilette/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot.jpg" alt="" /><br /><br />Now consider that at one point not too long ago those shares were worth like $120 each, so if those numbers return, my shares will some day be worth: $360. That's a 100% gain. How long until then? who knows.Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13873767509843587749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154327147691488438.post-11277120629564528452008-12-13T14:15:00.000-08:002008-12-13T14:17:34.181-08:00http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2008/12/historical-distribution-of-annual-us-market-returns-from-1825-present-how-bad-was-2008.html<br /><br />based on the diagram in this post, 2008 is 'once-maybe-twice-in-a-lifetime' type of a year, as far as investing is concerned. interesting, huh? wonder where 2009 will end up...Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02183151278260645476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154327147691488438.post-17168047119054283292008-11-18T12:39:00.001-08:002008-11-18T12:43:41.661-08:00Making myself feel better. A chart!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_r2BSrCqaadQ/SSMonjzF-6I/AAAAAAAAAEU/gyPZgP9uALQ/s1600-h/positiveTrend.PNG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 219px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_r2BSrCqaadQ/SSMonjzF-6I/AAAAAAAAAEU/gyPZgP9uALQ/s320/positiveTrend.PNG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5270100649043164066" border="0" /></a><br /><br />As you can see from this chart, this market is great! Each dollar I spend is buying more and more shares of DODGX!!Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13873767509843587749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154327147691488438.post-10000523781992670472008-11-17T10:53:00.000-08:002008-11-17T10:56:20.341-08:00WTFHi, what the hell, my 401k is down like 50%. Here is what I have to say to all those bone heads who are saying "stay the course"<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_r2BSrCqaadQ/SSG-K30jRaI/AAAAAAAAAEE/ehlum-LaGE8/s1600-h/images.jpeg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 122px; height: 124px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_r2BSrCqaadQ/SSG-K30jRaI/AAAAAAAAAEE/ehlum-LaGE8/s320/images.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269702132992525730" border="0" /></a>Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13873767509843587749noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154327147691488438.post-72404215165018728052008-09-09T07:27:00.001-07:002008-09-09T07:27:43.064-07:00the market - a ponzi scheme?http://www.blogmaverick.com/2008/09/08/talking-stocks-and-money/<br /><br />good stuff by Mark CubanTimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02183151278260645476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154327147691488438.post-67561082526847092602008-08-12T12:23:00.000-07:002008-08-12T12:30:19.747-07:00another money-making ideainspired by: <a set="yes" linkindex="64" href="http://www.diet-blog.com/archives/2008/07/23/human-powered_floating_gym.php">http://www.diet<wbr>-blog.com/archi<wbr>ves/2008/07/23/<wbr>human-powered_f<wbr>loating_gym.php</a><br /><br />create (rather, modify existing designs of) gym machines that generate electricity, sell to metropolis gyms. treadmills, stationary bikes, elliptical trainers and stair-masters are easy; what's slightly harder is the weight-machines. how would you have the user generate more electricity, as the resistance is increased? in other words, how do you make sure the increase in resistance is achieved by generating more electricity, rather that by adding more weights?<br /><br />starting point: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamo<br /><br />makes all the sense in the world, right?Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02183151278260645476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154327147691488438.post-88210166267118282222008-07-25T04:59:00.000-07:002008-07-25T05:03:23.037-07:00Deep thought about Mickey MouseAs suggested by: http://k1teacher.blogspot.com/<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">don't you think that a Disney trip should count as a deduction? I mean its job related after all...seriously, i work with very young children ya know, and it is important for my professional success to be up on the latest characters.... so its ummm research...yeah thats it</span><br /><br />So what do you think? Since she is a teacher, would a Disney vacation be a tax deduction?<br /><br />After all, to effectively do her job she needs to know about the latest characters. A Disney trip is really just her keeping her education up to date. It's not that different from attending a conference or taking a graduate course. Except of course grad courses don't usually involve standing in line for 2 hours to shake hands and have you picture taken with Mickey Mouse.Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13873767509843587749noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154327147691488438.post-8246670155594633812008-07-20T13:40:00.000-07:002008-07-20T14:03:19.416-07:00More about poop (sorry if this is gross)I just learned that people are willing to pay 12.95 per week to have someone come to their house and pick up their dog's poop. Wow.<br /><br />This has implications for my bio reactor plan, which I wrote about previously.<br /><ol><li>I could run such a business to collect material for my plan</li><li>I could contact existing businesses and collect the poop from them, thus saving their disposal costs and providing me with fuel</li></ol>What still remains for this business idea is to do analyze the costs and smell producing characteristics of constructing a bio reactor and harnessing the methane for electricity. Then I need to do a pay-off analysis to see when any costs would start paying for themselves.<br /><br />Any feedback from you?<br /><br />more links:<br />http://www.rebelwolf.com/essn.html<br />http://biorealis.com/wwwroot/digester_revised.html<br />http://www.eere.energy.gov/consumer/your_workplace/farms_ranches/index.cfm/mytopic=30004<br /><br />"A biodigester usually requires manure from more than 150 large animals to cost effectively generate electricity." that means I need like 300 dogs pooping like crazy. ewww.Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13873767509843587749noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154327147691488438.post-63792457676476250052008-07-20T13:28:00.000-07:002008-07-20T13:40:46.330-07:00A better way to track fund performanceI am sick of watching the value of my portfolio go down and down. It's depressing. I know I know, people like <a href="http://www.mymoneyblog.com">www.mymoneyblog.com</a> and <a href="http://www.simpledollar.com">www.simpledollar.com</a> and just about every other money dude would state the <span style="font-weight: bold;">"buy and hold" mantra</span> as well as the <span style="font-weight: bold;">"you are buying it cheap"</span> dollar cost averaging thing.<br /><br />They'd also probably tell me not to check my mutual fund balances every day, but that's like asking a kid to sit quietly at an ice cream store/petting zoo/big ball pit/buzz lightyear superstore. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Yeah right, of course I am going to look.</span><br /><br />Even though I know these things, <span style="font-weight: bold;">I still freak out.</span> So my new plan has these features:<br /><ul><li>I will still get to look obsessively at something.<br /></li><li>The values will always go up.</li><li>When the market is doing terrible, the values will go up even faster, making me happier when the market is bad not depressed.</li></ul>Here is the plan:<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>monitor the number of shares I own not the cash value of the funds. </span>When the market is cheap, I will buy shares at a faster rate, which will cause the values to increase. That will make me happy, which is the right emotion to feel when the market is slumping.<br /><br />Additionally, <span style="font-weight: bold;">I can estimate what the value of the fund will be in 40</span> years by compounding it by 8%. <span style="font-weight: bold;">So if I want a cash value I can still have it.</span> I can use this cash value to know when to rebalance.Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13873767509843587749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154327147691488438.post-76619730080947586692008-07-06T17:01:00.000-07:002008-07-06T17:17:29.348-07:00The best (but not best smelling) money making idea everHere it is, plain and simple:<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Collect dog poop and then burn methane from it to produce electricity<br /><br /></span>What you don't believe me? If people on a farm that have 2000 cows can produce $2000 of electricity per month, then I can produce $40 per month easy.<br /><br />Given the number of dogs which pass by my house each day, a simple poop collector outside my house would easily collect enough dodo to make my meter move backwards.<br /><br />Don't believe me?<br />Check out these links:<br /><br />http://newanimalcontrol.org/wastetogas.shtml<br />http://www.ruralcostarica.com/biogas.html<br />http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/BioFuel/biofuels.htmGreghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13873767509843587749noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154327147691488438.post-5405915077865269702008-06-30T17:29:00.000-07:002008-06-30T17:32:37.633-07:00I failed you, my audience, please do not go away :(Although it was fun to hate the government and pretend my financial life was like a video game, it turns out the system is actually fair.<br /><br />I was wrong about this post:<br />http://moneyconversations.blogspot.com/2008/03/gaming-taxable-income.html<br /><br />As evidence by these other sites:<br /><br />http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Common/Taxes/2007TaxBrackets.aspx<br /><br />http://taxes.about.com/od/2008taxes/qt/2008_tax_rates.htm<br /><br />There may be other taxes or "phase outs" that you can game, but the savings would only be minimal.Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13873767509843587749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154327147691488438.post-79731439992043455842008-06-03T06:31:00.001-07:002008-06-03T06:31:22.830-07:00Planting trees for your retirement.I ran across this comment on the simple dollar (see below)<span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"> http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2008/06/02/planning-for-the-long-haul-my-familys-lifetime-financial-plan/</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">I am sure you may have thought of this, but maybe some of your reader’s are less familiar with buying land.</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Forested land can often make you money back. Selling the lumber on premise can often pay back a significant amount of the purchase price. Just be sure to use a logger who would respect your desire to keep the mess in your woods to a minimum.</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">A significantly aged forest for example can get up to $2,000 a acre in lumber. Wait twenty years and repeat.</span><br /><br />I wonder if you could buy up 10 acres for $10,000 if that is the case, you could sell the lumber on it and get the acres for free.<br />Then you plant trees, cost: $2000 or so, wait 20 years, pay 20 years of taxes... maybe that is high like $500 per year.<br /><br />Seems like you wouldn't make much money and you'd only make the money like twice in your life. That is unless you own like 1000 acres.<br /><br />for example:<br />http://www.maineland4sale.com/,, I found 100 acres for $175,000. If it all had trees, the profit would be $200,000.<br />Then you spend 2 years straight with a staff of 10 workers and replant the whole thing with trees and in 20 years, you have another $200,000 ready there. I'll be age 48, that sounds like about the right time for paying for my kids' college. Then I'll plant another forest. When I am 68, I'll need to buy my retirement home. So I'll just cut down my trees, build a small house on 1 acre of it, and then ask the grand kids to plant another 100 acres of forest, when I am 88, I'll die, and my kids will inherit a nice cash cow.<br /><br />This place has a bunch of listings:<br />http://www.landforless.com/cgi-local/search_p_new.cgi?region=1&Northern+Maine=0&Central+Maine=0&Southern+Maine=0&Acreage=3&Amt_from=1&Amt_to=7&Search=Click+Here+to+Search+For+Properties+<br /><br />Here's an example of a piece of land that would easily be profitable:<br />it is 100% trees.<br />If you cut down half of them (35 acres), you could make $70,000 which would pay for the land. The other half of the cut down would be pure profit.<br /><br />Property ID: <br /><br />Click here to zoom in on this property<br />POR_8<br />Lot: 8<br />Town: Portage<br />Location: Northern Maine<br />Area/Subdivision: Portage Lake<br />Price Was: $92,900<br />Price: $69,900<br />Size: 70.3 Acres<br />Other Details: No Mobile Homes, Power/phone Near by, Lake Front<br />Landscape: Trees: 100% Fields:<br />Financing Options:<br /> $505 Per Month with 30% Down (20 Years, 11 % APR)<br /> $739 Per Month with 15% Down (20 years, 14% APR)<br /><br />Open questions:<br />- how long and how much would it cost to replant your land so that a forest will be there 20 years from now?<br />- is there a machine you can buy that will go replant everything?<br />- how easy is it to hire up a logging company? Do you need special permissions from the town you buy the land from?<br />- do you have any ethical problems with destroying a forest and its wild life?<br /><br />-GregGreghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13873767509843587749noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154327147691488438.post-90452108338071921382008-03-15T11:20:00.003-07:002008-03-15T11:20:39.923-07:00DirectiveGo buy tons of stuff from here:<br />http://astore.amazon.com/vegonama-20Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13873767509843587749noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154327147691488438.post-36676395196564545692008-03-15T11:20:00.001-07:002008-03-15T11:20:32.440-07:00DirectiveGo buy tons of stuff from hereGreghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13873767509843587749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154327147691488438.post-5543880979907396322008-03-05T05:26:00.001-08:002008-03-09T16:07:21.819-07:00Gaming the Taxable Income<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.taxguru.org/incometax/Rates/1040-08.htm"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_r2BSrCqaadQ/R86gMLEjXyI/AAAAAAAAACw/ih-4z2VTpng/s320/taxBrack.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5174249152886038306" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Hey all.<br /><br />The truth is out. I have learned what those those mysterious things called "tax brackets" are. They are shown here. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Bring on the gaming of the tax system.</span><br />Here's the issue:<br /><br />Imagine if you and your spouse make 130,000 combined. Then you get a huge raise and next year make 134020.<br /><br />This means that the government will tax you an extra 3% and then you'd be back to making only 130,000 again.<br /><br />If there was nothing you can do, it would be fine to just accept it. However, there is something you can do.<br /><br />You have a several buttons on our game pad you can press throughout the year to change your "Taxable Income." The game you are playing is like Sonic the Hedgehog and the little shiny rings are % of your money you take back from the government. If you don't grab enough rings, it's game over. If you get enough you get a 1Up and free extended play. Only 50 rings is worthless, but 100 gets you something.<br /><br />There are many buttons your can press. They include:<br />- Contribute more to a 401k.<br />- Contribute more to charity.<br />- Flex spending<br />- Health planGreghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13873767509843587749noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154327147691488438.post-63444353125418088902008-02-22T14:15:00.000-08:002008-02-22T14:16:10.863-08:00a little bit of language here, but this presentation does a very good job of succinctly explaining the subprime crisis: http://docs.google.com/TeamPresent?docid=ddp4zq7n_0cdjsr4fn&skipauth=true&pli=1Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02183151278260645476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154327147691488438.post-70583366995579770242008-01-24T17:03:00.000-08:002008-01-24T17:12:24.506-08:00Here we goI don't know about you, but I am <span style="font-family: verdana; color: rgb(51, 0, 51);">PSYCHED</span> that the stock market is going down. Why? because there is going to be another year where the stock market goes waaaaay up and when that happens life will be good.<br /><br />Here's my evidence. Every single one of these mutual funds has only had one negative year between 2000 and 2006, and then the next year there were some huge gains.<br />http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=DODGX (lost 10% then gained 32%)<br />http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=NVSOX (lost 18% then gained 36%)<br />http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=CRIMX (lost 16% then gained 41%)<br /><br />If history repeats itself, we will be out of this quagmire and into soaring profits once again!<br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Just for completeness here are some that had more than 1 negative year :<br />http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=FDIVX<br /></span><span style="font-size:78%;">http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=VINIX<br /></span><span style="font-size:78%;">http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=VEXAX</span>Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13873767509843587749noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154327147691488438.post-20816461192647340132008-01-07T16:32:00.000-08:002008-01-07T16:37:46.238-08:00Joke of the dayHere's the joke. I hope it makes you chuckle.<br /><br />Here is where my company automatically put my funds when we switched management companies:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_r2BSrCqaadQ/R4LFI6RGbOI/AAAAAAAAACE/3Yn0qhJMIxM/s1600-h/timesSquareRating.GIF"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_r2BSrCqaadQ/R4LFI6RGbOI/AAAAAAAAACE/3Yn0qhJMIxM/s320/timesSquareRating.GIF" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5152897680535874786" border="0" /></a><br />Notice, no morning start rating, no historical performance either. Great, so maybe I will look at the prospectus:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_r2BSrCqaadQ/R4LFeKRGbPI/AAAAAAAAACM/wnKbX741VPw/s1600-h/timesSquareProspectus.GIF"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_r2BSrCqaadQ/R4LFeKRGbPI/AAAAAAAAACM/wnKbX741VPw/s320/timesSquareProspectus.GIF" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5152898045608094962" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Here is the screen I found. Notice the footnote: "Fund prospectus not requires for this fund" Ha!<br />What the hell!Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13873767509843587749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154327147691488438.post-13592508749396457822008-01-03T21:47:00.001-08:002008-01-03T21:52:34.225-08:00New Year - New Challenge!Gents, I wish you all a Happy New Year and in this year I also issue forth a challenge!<br /><br />http://ppx.popsci.com/<br /><br />We all start on January 12th to allow enough time for preliminary research (or throwing enough dice to get a statistically satisfactory set of data results).<br /><br />We all start with the same amount, but let us see where we are 1, 3, 6, and 12 months.<br /><br />Should fun, time consuming, and hopefully educational.<br /><br />This is my challenge to you all.Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04942102685952859245noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154327147691488438.post-27636873355686068402007-12-23T05:31:00.000-08:002007-12-23T05:44:27.682-08:00So many cures<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_r2BSrCqaadQ/R25kT6RGbMI/AAAAAAAAAB0/jxHSK9yGmkk/s1600-h/debtcures.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_r2BSrCqaadQ/R25kT6RGbMI/AAAAAAAAAB0/jxHSK9yGmkk/s320/debtcures.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5147161717352328386" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Every once in a while I think, why should I even bother writing a money blog, I'm not a professional, I have no CFP certification. All I can do is quote Suzie Orman in my sleep. Well, today I am rejuvinated and so am writting another post. The reason is the book that Kevin Trudeau published called "debt cures".<br />Most of you probably recognize Kevin from his other book "Natural Cures".<br /><br />Kevin backs up his books with those paid tv spots where he talks about all the secrets he reveals in the books.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_r2BSrCqaadQ/R25keaRGbNI/AAAAAAAAAB8/zCaa8ru_r0c/s1600-h/naturalcures.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_r2BSrCqaadQ/R25keaRGbNI/AAAAAAAAAB8/zCaa8ru_r0c/s320/naturalcures.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5147161897740954834" border="0" /></a><br />Now, I looked at Natural Cures, and it was a long list of all the natural remedies that exist and he recommends the all. Overall though, after flipping through the page I felt like I was going to die any second now because I don't see my chiropractor every month and have never done a "cleansing"<br /><br />But fine, the book is ok as just a big list of things you could do for yourself. But here is what I am amazed at.<br /><br />Now he has come out with a book about debt! He went from an expert in natural remedies to being an expert in debt. (in between he also actually published a book on weight loss) What this means is that this guy is just a marketing genious.<br /><br />For me it proves once again that anyone can become a money guru. Look for my next book tour!Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13873767509843587749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154327147691488438.post-15284710187613944382007-12-11T16:33:00.000-08:002007-12-11T16:42:49.509-08:00Random Personal Productivity IdeaHere it is, short and simple:<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Break down huge scary task into really, really small tasks so that you can do each in 5 minutes.</span><br /><br />That way, in a year you can complete a whole project if you work 5 minutes a day. Without the list, the task may appear too daunting, or you might spend your 5 minutes just figuring out what to do.<br /><br />With this plan, you just get your 5 minutes, and do whatever the next task is.<br /><br />Ok, now take this idea and go make a million!Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13873767509843587749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8154327147691488438.post-82097854256303349682007-12-03T15:56:00.000-08:002007-12-08T14:21:19.597-08:00Financial Wisdom Might Be Part of an Information Cascade. BEWARE!!Here's a fact:<br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;">When CNBC mentions a stock with good news or bad, its price goes up. Effectively making an excellent stock trading strategy.<br /><br /></span>The assumption people are making is:<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">If CNBC thinks it is good, it must be good.</span><br />But wait, that implies the listener actually heard more than the ticker symbol and would not explain why bad news also causes the stock to go up. So the real assumption people are making is:<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">If you see or hear a stock mentioned on CNBC, BUY IT!!!!</span><br /><br />That's right, there are millions of people just watching CNBC and then calling their stock brokers. The question I ask here is: <span style="font-style: italic;">Are you one of those millions?</span><br /><br />But even if you don't buy stocks the behavior I described should cause you to evaluate your own decisions. Before I get to that, let me explain what might be causing the CNBC listeners to behave the way they do.<br /><br />Wisdom of Crowds says the CNBC phenomenon is a kind of "information cascade." An "information cascade" is a kind of "group think" where people follow the group's decision without evaluating the facts for themselves. For example, I buy a stock because you think it's good, and my friend buys a stock because he sees me buying it, and my friend's friend sees my friend buying the stock so he buys it, and on and on. This can result in a group that does not have diverse points of view and thus makes some really bad decisions.<br /><br />Alright, now this is all very interesting, so here's a fact that might really disturb you:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The most effective way to maximize your portfolio return is to diversify your investments among many loosely correlated asset classes.</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>I could have easily said "<span style="font-weight: bold;">Save 15% to 20% for retirement" </span>or<span style="font-weight: bold;"> "If you have 5-7 years to invest, do not worry about fluctuations in stock prices because the average return over the time period will be greater" </span><span>or even</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> "Don't save, invest in real estate!"<br /><br /></span>Admit it, how many times have you heard these statements? Have you analyzed the data yourself? Have you thought about these concepts? Have you considered alternative strategies?<br /><br />Are you just participating in a long standing information cascade or is the wisdom really correct?Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13873767509843587749noreply@blogger.com0