by The Investor
on November 12, 2007
“Do as I do, not as I say” is a useful maxim in life. It’s one instinctively understood by children (“But daddy, you ate three packets of crisps and YOU never clean YOUR room – it’s unfair!”) and politicians (“But you, Snouty and Fatcat already have knighthoods – it’s unfair!”).
But can mimicking the wealthy really make you rich?
Richard Templar thinks so. In his The Rules of Wealth: A Personal Code for Prosperity
, a neatly packaged book that will doubtless make him millions, the best-selling author says:
“The simple truth is that wealthy people tend to understand and do things the rest of us don’t. From mindsets to actual actions, they follow behavioural rules when it comes to their wealth and these rules are what separate them from everybody else.”
Everybody else except, potentially, purchasers of The Rules of Wealth, because within its pages Templar sets out what he claims are 100 behaviours you can copy to make yourself wealthy, too.
It’s seductive: steal from the rich and you’ll become rich yourself. And it’s laudable in that Templar’s 100 Rules are often so common sensical and all-encompassing that it’s hard to argue with them. Work hard, save your money, shun debt – hear, hear, we say.
The only tricky bit is working out what’s an enriching action, and what’s a byproduct of previous money-making behaviour.
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by The Investor
on October 30, 2007
Richard Farleigh has made a lot of money via the markets – tens of millions, maybe hundreds. This book doesn’t give a precise number, though we do learn that the Australian investor’s first ambition was to be a bushranger like Ned Kelly. (Think highwayman Dick Turpin with a bucket on his head. Not so far removed from some institutional investors, a cynic might suggest…)
Farleigh has also had two recent doses of TV fame – briefly as a moneyman from Monaco in Trouble at the Top, a business show that focused on the Home House members’ club in London he helped set up, and via a stint on the thinking man’s X Factor, BBC2’s Dragon’s Den.
In the modern world, of course, the TV outings outweigh self-made millions as a reason to get a book deal; Ant and Dec could probably release a best-selling book on money, if they weren’t so busy making it. And for his part, Farleigh has the boyish looks and the charm to give the boys from Byker’s Grove a run for their money.
With its cover length shot of the smiling author and a slightly dumbed-down title (it was originally released as Taming the Lion in 2005), it’s hard to not to open Farleigh’s 100 Secret Strategies for Successful Investing
expecting day-glo stickers and a My First Investment wallchart to fall out.
But that’d be unfair, and not only because Farleigh was by far the nicest investor ever to grace the Den.
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by The Investor
on September 28, 2007
Previous posts in this high yield share investing series have argued the case for dividends, considered what makes a good high yield share, and stressed the need for diversification. Now it’s time to make yourself a cup of tea and settle down to see exactly how you can construct a high yield portfolio for yourself.
This is probably one of the most detailed (or long-winded!) run throughs of portfolio construction on the Web, but it should help your understanding to see the thought processes for yourself. I hope you enjoy it – or failing that at least stay awake…
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by The Investor
on September 26, 2007
THE SCENE: A beautiful couple – they might be models fresh from a home shopping catalogue photoshoot – relax in their sixth-floor two-bedroom, two-bathroom, new build apartment.
He is in the kitchen area, mixing up mojitos on the island unit. She is on the balcony, gazing across the city landscape (an out-of-focus backdrop of railway tracks, supermarket car parks and the back of the block next door). And unseen in these shiny advertisements is the Buy-To-Let (BTL) investor in the suburbs, tearing her hair out as she tries to make the maths work.
Welcome to the bursting edge of Britain’s housing bubble. Get out while you can.
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