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Friday, April 20, 2012
Man on the run
Title: Hit and Run
Author: Lawrence Block
Bookmark: the flattened cardboard sleeve from a Hydroflask. Get one! they're great!
It was a moment of weakness at a library book sale. I'm a sucker for library book sales.
I've said it before: Block is a great writer, but you don't usually read Block for the mystery--you just go along because you know it will be a fun ride. That said, this isn't his best work. It's still engaging, and has a fun premise (framing a hitman for an assassination he didn't commit by hiring him for an unrelated kill in the same town), and features Keller, the wistful, stamp-collecting killer-for-hire, but this feels more like a retirement party than a new adventure. After explaining the set-up, and how very thoroughly Keller has been screwed, we are treated to a few chapters of life on the lam, then the obligatory love interest, and the (it's not really a spoiler if you can see it coming) triumph of our hero.
Ok, this is the spoiler.
After Keller wins out, as we knew he would (he's Keller, after all, not just some thug with a gun), he returns to his lady love and a quiet life of manual labor. It suits him, he's happy, and I'm happy for him, but it's clear that unless Block really wants to pull this character out of retirement, he's done whacking moles.Labels: investing, mid-life crisis, murder
posted by reyn at
1:42 PM
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Thursday, February 28, 2008
Title: The Random Walk Guide to Investing
Author: Burton G. Malkiel
Bookmark: Scrap paper on which to jot down useful info from the book.
I am on a huge personal finance kick these days. I finally have a decent amount of extra income left over after bills and such, so I decided I need to do something with it. This book was highly recommended by a number of blogs I read, so I thought I'd give it a try. Boy, was it worth it!
Malkiel is a Professor of Economics at Princeton, so I suspect he really knows his stuff. Luckily, this book is written for the beginner, and is dumbed down enough that I can understand it.
He starts off with an explanation of different investment options - cash, stocks, bonds, and real estate. Then he enumerates his 10 rules:
1. Start saving now, not later. This one is by far the most important. Compound interest favors the young. Some of the blogs I've read have crunched the numbers and the difference between saving now and saving later is alarming. Here's a good and realistic example.
2. Save regularly. Keep on a consistent savings path. Even if you can only put away a little a month, do it EVERY month. One of the best ways to do this is to pay yourself first. Have a certain percentage of your paycheck automatically put into some sort of savings - retirement, investing, whatever. Put it away before you can get your paws on it.
3. Have an emergency fund and insurance. Create an fund for the emergencies that will inevitably arise. It needs to be some place where you can access it quickly - money-market mutual fund, CD, internet bank (like ING direct, which I am using), etc.
4. Find tax-advantaged options. Traditional IRAs allow you to deposit money pre-tax and pay tax in retirement when you withdraw. Take advantage of your employers pension plans (401k, 403b, etc)
5. Allocate your assets according to: time before you will withdraw (the shorter the time, the less you should have in stocks and the more in cash or other), your financial circumstances (how much you have leftover after meeting your standard of living), and your temperament (don't create a risky portfolio if you aren't a risk-taker).
6. Diversify your portfolio: More diversification = less risk. When one stock plummets, you still have others doing just fine. Also diversify by investing over time. This helps you avoid putting a ton of money into the market right before stocks plummet (like I did in May of 2000. Well, it wasn't a ton of money, but it was still money!).
7. Pay yourself, not others: Pay off your high interest debt, find mutual funds with low expense ratios, etc.
8. Recognize that no one can predict the stock market. You are far far better off finding a low expense mutual fund than trying to follow some "expert" who picks the "top stocks." Previous performance is not a predictor of future performance.
9. Invest in index funds. They are simple, cost-efficient, predictable, and don't generate a lot of taxable gains. Find a Total Stock Market fund - one that "buys and holds virtually all the stocks in the market" (p. 139).
10. Avoid: Being overconfident about your investing skills, jumping on "hot tips", feeling like you have control over your investing and can predict the market, and more.
All in all, an absolutely fantastic intro to investing. Everything is explained clearly, it's short and a quick read (only about 180 pages), and I now have a much better sense of what I should be working towards.Labels: investing, non-fiction, personal finance
posted by Kate at
8:58 AM
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