Fail-Safe Investing

There are a couple premises in this book. One is that nobody can predict the future. Even advisors that have a stellar track record could fall flat tomorrow. Speculative investing should be avoided, or limited to money you are not afraid to lose. Instead, a four part investment technique can keep you gaining over the long haul with minimal risk.

Browne thinks you should split your investment into complementary areas such as gold, treasury bills, stocks, and bonds. Any one of those could be falling. But usually the complementary ones would be rising at that time. And vice versa. You can take advantage of occasional big gains from any one of those categories. These are holdings you can acquire and forget.

Browne also has some side notes. You should keep some funds in a foreign account. Don't make any money overseas so you don't have to report the earnings. Don't leave a trail or link that account to your other current accounts. And don't get any regular correspondence from the foreign bank holding your funds.

Lessons From a Third Grade Dropout

I saw a video of a college commencement ceremony. It was by Rick Rigsby. Previously I had never heard of this guy. But he was very inspirational. So I decided to buy his book. Rigsby explains the philosophy of his late father. While his dad only made it to the third grade, he had wisdom.

There were several useful ideas from Rigsby's dad. One of them was to always be an hour early. Another was to always do the very best job. A theme of his actions was to always be helping people. These are all signs of great integrity.

Rigsby needed the lessons from his dad as his wife died and left him with two young sons. His dad had little to say to him - "Just stand." Rigsby's father passed away shortly after his wife. I am not sure if I wholeheartedly recommend this book. You should definitely look up his commencement video on YoutTube.