Best business professional biographies according to redditors
We found 1,302 Reddit comments discussing the best business professional biographies. We ranked the 285 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 1,302 Reddit comments discussing the best business professional biographies. We ranked the 285 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
To me, this story is not just the story of a ten year revenge plot, it's really the story of all conspiracies. You know we live in this world of conspiracy theories (I happen to live in Austin, the hometown of Alex Jones) but few actual conspiracies. But any student of history knows that the world often pivots on something a few people cooked up in secret. So to me, this book was a chance to tell that larger story. The fact that Thiel was willing to go on the record and explain his process was, in my view as an author, an unprecedented chance to lay out how power really works in a way that few have been able to before. It's ironic, Gawker's informal motto was that they showed "How Things Work"--the story behind the story. But in this case, they missed what was actually happening. So did everyone in the media. What I tried to do here was step back, take judgment out of the picture, and show what went down and why. I think the book captures that, but ultimately that will be for the readers to decide.
Sounds like the "Millionaire Next Door" effect: https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
People who got rich from their own efforts tend to be very sensitive to value and ways of saving money. They have the experience of going through tough times while they were growing their business. So they do things like buy used cars because a new car loses a big chunk of value the day you drive it off the lot. The sales guy in the fancy suit driving the new BMW is likely deeply in debt trying to impress other people.
Confessions of an Economic Hitman goes into great detail about the Bechtel Corporation. Very well written story about a guy who was unwarily caught up in instituting U.S. interests abroad.
It's from his biography. The exact quote is this:
> Our lawsuit is saying, "Google, you fucking ripped off the iPhone, wholesale ripped us off." Grand theft. I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong. I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go to thermonuclear war on this. They are scared to death, because they know they are guilty. Outside of Search, Google's products—Android, Google Docs—are shit.
I typed that up; any typos are mine. The quote dates from the filing of the original HTC lawsuit in 2010.
Edit: the number of times "what a douchebag" and similar have turned up in my inbox in response to this is vaguely distressing until I recall the context.
If you're a ballsy motherfucker
If you're a straight up troll
I recommend reading "The Millionaire Next Door", it goes it to more detail about the spending/saving/investing habits of the
averagemost millionaires in America. Living in a culture that prioritizes spending it's not surprising those who do the best financially go against the grain, and are also frowned upon.As stated in comments above. The debt is technically rolled over into every year- so he didnt lose 1 billion 5 years in a row.
Another thing what its interesting, the world knows he lost a billion dollars. It came up in the 2016 election. Then came back to make higher profits than ever starting in 1995. He even says it in his old TV show... The Media even covered His 1997 book Trump: The Art of the Comeback.
​
But you know, he took risks as a business man- failed a little bit. Then profits came in. Anyone who invested in what he was doing during the slump is probably raveling in riches now.
This is how every generation feels. The Daily Show did a really good job of explaining this once (I couldn't find the video with a quick search) where they took Fox News comments about how bad things are now and how good they were in the past and they juxtaposed them with the problems that the world faced in every decade. Their point, which was powerful, was that the commentators were pining for the years when they were a kid and everything seemed easy and great.
But the truth is, the world always feels like it's on the brink. And the more you watch the news, the more you feel this way.
At which point would everything have been better?
It goes on and on.
What you're feeling is real, but every decade has seen major, major problems.
What I believe is that everything is relative. (I believe Einstein would back me up.) Because you weren't alive during all of these other times. And we're including times where nuclear war seemed practically inevitable. Some party.
You are comparing today to your previous experience. Your previous experience just happens to include when you were a kid. And when you are a kid, everything seems more simple. That's the point of The Daily Show bit.
If you want to know more about the REAL party that WAS kicking for 40 years, read up on something that is now termed "The Washington Consensus". Read about it as a first hand account in the book "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man".
It describes how the US was able to get its way around the globe for the past 50+ years (essentially beginning with Kermit Roosevelt helping to overthrow the Shah in Iran in 1953) and going forward to a post 9/11 world. It explains how the US was able to rule the world. And it also explains why that influence is (and should be, at least how they're doing it) waning.
TL:DR: You have a lack of historical perspective. Relax. If you want to feel better about things, watch this TED Talk by David Christian on Big History. It's one of my favorites.
Rich Dad Poor Dad catches a lot of flak, but it's actually really good at teaching the absolute basics in an easy-to-follow manner. Like, learn what a Cash Flow Statement is, increase your asset column, learn basic accounting language, separate emotions and money, minimize taxes. Just glean the overall principles he's teaching and don't blindly follow his specific strategies.
The Richest Man in Babylon is another great, easy to read, investing 101 book.
And The Millionaire Next Door is a research-based book on Millionaires in America and what kind of habits and mindsets got them to their current wealth. It's a wonderfully refreshing read after being brainwashed by tv and movies saying that millionaires won it or stole it and live lavish lives. Most actual millionaires are pretty frugal and hard working with modest lives.
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And here are some resources to help you learn all the new words and concepts:
-- Microeconomics
-- Macroeconomics
-- Finance
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And when you get pretty familiar with the basics and want to start messing with stuff, I've enjoyed the Think or Swim paper money route. They give you $200,000 in fake money to play around with and invest and practice your strategies. It helps you get acquainted with the research and the interface and the fees for investing. It's a wonderful tool.
And then The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham is supposed to be a pretty good comprehensive guide the advanced basics (is that a term?) of investing.
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Or if you want to skip alllll of this and just hire someone, I've read in those subreddits that you want to find a fee based financial adviser. Which you can do here.
.
I hope I've helped man! It's a lot of fun to learn about. I wish you all the best.
Well it's not like those conditions are state secret... You can read all about it in Elon's approved biography
Same old stuff... Incredibly long hours, having to put up with changing priorities in a whim, putting up with power trips, getting fired for typos, etc
False. Read up on Elon. He may not be bending the metal to build the rockets, or assembling the batteries that go into Teslas (what CEO does?), but he knows a great deal about the engineering behind all their products.
If you haven't already, I highly recommend you read this.
Jobs, OTOH, had no background in computer science or engineering and never claimed to. His thing was design, which he (obviously) did really well.
Elon Musk's [biography] (http://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/0062301233) if you don't own the book look [here] (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=37839.0):
“And then one of the key questions is can you get to the surface of Mars and back to Earth on a single stage. The answer is yes, if you reduce the return payload to approximately one-quarter of the outbound payload, which I thought made sense because you are going to want to transport a lot more to Mars than you’d want to transfer from Mars to Earth. For the spacecraft, the heat shield, the life support system, and the legs will have to be very, very light."
By that point the MCT will have dropped off 100t of payload on Mars and it might not need to be fully fueled to return back to Earth.
Why are people pretending like this is a revelation? He literally wrote a book about it in 1997, The Art of the Comeback.
From the publishers description:
> Six years ago real estate developer Trump (Trump: The Art of the Deal, LJ 2/15/88) was several billion dollars in debt, owing in part, he says, to his complacency and the Tax Reform Act of 1986. Now, thanks to some skillful negotiating, hard work, and luck, he says he is back.
That's covered in his OTHER book, "The Art of the Comeback." And no, not even joking, he really pushes that as one of his books. Also, this is legit ancient news. This was all revealed like a decade ago when he was on Apprentice. The New York Times is just re-wrapping old news to take advantage of the current news cycle to garner clicks.
>The jets and all that other crap seem like a better value renting.
Huh? $3 million in total wealth isn't much, especially for that. Please, don't do that. I strongly recommend that you read The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy. I know several that make that amount in less than 2 months, and you wouldn't know it, because they live frugally and humbly, including driving beat-up old minivans. Some of them do have nice shit (e.g. palace-sized mansions) but out in the street, they don't flex, and others live in small, modest homes in middle class neighborhoods. At best, they might have a Model 3, S, or X that they also use.
​
For the sake of argument and with some fuzzy math, if you put all $3 million into an index fund that's earning you 6%, that's $180,000/year. That is a lot of money for a 20 year old, and an obligatory Uncle Ben quote goes here. You're virtually set for life and can do anything that you want, and I'd probably use that time and money to go become a full time student in any number of mediums: Udacity, College, Trade School, Real Estate, etc. which would further your skill level for other interests, including but not limited to said rental houses. If you got licensed in trades, you'd be able to legally (well, from a liability angle - nothing is really stopping you from your own maintenance anyways) do your own repair work on your properties, which would save you even more money. I'm not saying that's the most logical option, but it's something to bear in mind.
​
To answer the relationship/cash aspect (and because I got f'd on this) you'd want a pre-nup, and as others have advised, a great attorney. Some of the relationship warning signs that I wish that I had known, and was covered in this forum yesterday. When it comes to getting serious about a relationship (and until then, if you're going to be active, use protection - child support and/or divorce rape should be a part of your threat vector) then you might want to ask an attorney about shifting assets around to where you're then an employee of yourself (e.g. form an LLC, hire yourself, and pay a meager wage, with the option for bonuses.)
I'll probably get downvoted for saying this here, but isn't this already known? Trump having huge losses has been something he has referenced in almost every book he has written and is discussed in almost every Trump documentary that has been made. Trump taking > 1 billion in losses has been known about for decades. In fact, Trump talks about his debt and losses and being upside down in those years in several of his books. He even tells a story of where he is walking with his daughter and points to a homeless man and stated that homeless man had more equity worth than him because while broke, he had no debt, whilst Trump had over a billion in debt.
But I guess maybe it's not as common knowledge because apparently everyone thinks this is a huge revelation here.
This tax story also ends 20 years before he runs for office... so maybe things can change?
If you really want to hear about this from the horse's mouth, Trump literally wrote a book about this in 1997 called The Art of the Comeback and it discusses how he was over a billion in debt, his businesses were going bankrupt, and then how he managed to turn it all around.
The funny thing is all the people in this thread that think this is somehow news that Trump crashed and burned in the late 80s and early 90s, forgetting that Trump has been a public figure for decades and that his entire resurgence was well-documented not only by his own book, but by the celebrity media who followed his resurgence in the mid to late 90s. Everyone knew this happened to him. My guess is it's younger people here who were too young when these things happened to remember them, or they weren't born yet, so they got so excited by this common knowledge story, at least common knowledge to anyone 30 years +.
What actually happens here is this story helps Trump to his base even more. He took risks, he failed, and he pulled himself back up to be successful again. Him failing and becoming successful just makes people like him more. This is not the killer story to taint Trump the people here are hoping it is.
>>The jets and all that other crap seem like a better value renting.
>
>Huh? $3 million in total wealth isn't much, especially for that. Please, don't do that. I strongly recommend that you read The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy.
Yeah, that bit made me laugh. $3m isn't even remotely close to private jet territory. Try $300m. Lol
Most people that receive a large windfall like this do not fare well OP. At all. Be extremely careful with this money and do not tell anybody. Check out the "Windfall" section in the /r/personalfinance wiki. Also check out /r/fire and /r/fatFIRE.
See: Stanley & Danko, "The Millionaire Next Door", 2010
https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1499188868&sr=8-1&keywords=the+millionaire+next+door
If you really want to appreciate what id Software (Carmack : Engine John) did for gaming, and want a pleasant read this is the book you want to check out : Masters of Doom
Yes, obviously. Perception IS reality in people's minds. And when people are acting on false and extremely negative information, it can lead to racial discrimination, attacks, fear, hate, and even war. Look at what lots of people believe.
Tibetan genocide
Uyghur cultural genocide
Eating dogs is widespread
Steals hundreds of billions in ip each year
China's state subsidies to companies are unfair [this is common among numerous Western nations]
T square massacre
OBOR Debt trap
China is a colonizer
China is just as bad as America [https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/us_atrocities.md]
Live organ harvesting
Huawei is a spying system
etc
On top of that
America is NOT an empire so we don't need to worry where it goes [http://www.amazon.com/Rogue-State-Guide-Worlds-Superpower/dp/1567513743/]
America cares about human rights so when a massacre is reported we brush it off as an isolated incident [http://www.amazon.com/Kill-Anything-That-Moves-American/dp/1250045061/]
America's debt are transparent and fair [http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081/]
American dream is alive and well [social mobility is one of the lowest of developed nations]
America does not conduct economic espionage. [yes, it does since at least 1990's]
None of these things are true yet are widely believed. They aren't believed by everyone but they are believed by enough people that it's massively harming China's reputation.
try reading this
Basically most people with a net worth of millions know the struggles of making money and saving it, so they live frugal lives. Net worth and income aren't actually that closely linked, as a lot of people with high income also have high expenditures as well. There's quite a lot of high earners who live outside their means. The research showed that most millionaires don't "keep up with the Jonses", instead opting for cheaper lifestyles and saving money. It's actually quite a good read for those interested.
Respectfully, this is covered in his
autobiography by Walter Isaacson.The doctors actually wept with relief (when the test results were concluded) because, the cells proved to be the very treatable kind of cancer (sorry I don't recall chapter & verse at the moment). Had he elected on immediate surgery & treatment to deal with the issue; his survivability would have been nearly assured.
Instead; he opted to follow hubris and put his faith in hippy fad diets (same playing field as faith healing) and eschewed his learned doctor's advice. This gave the cancer what it needed, time. Sadly the rest is history:(
As to the quote: Steve only wanted "A game" people on his team(s) - edited for spelling. If you weren't that kind of talent, you were less (in his eyes). So the philosophy of the quote reconciles with his view.
edit to add: here is an alternative source if you do not wish to read the book. But, I recommend the book, it's a good read.
how about "the art of the comeback", the book he literally wrote about losing this specific money lol
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812929640/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i6?pldnSite=1
Good next up:
http://www.amazon.com/Overthrow-Americas-Century-Regime-Change/dp/0805082409/
http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081/
http://www.amazon.com/Americas-Deadliest-Export-Democracy-Everything/dp/1783601671/
If they simply "stopped paying attention", how would you explain the CIA's orders to the Jeddah consulate to grant Al Qaeda operatives visas into the country?
How do you explain the fact that once in the country, the alleged hijackers received training at secure military installations.
It is you, sir, who needs to read some books:
Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II
Confessions of an Economic Hitman
Tragedy and Hope
Wall Street and The Bolshevik Revolution
Wall Street and The Rise of Hitler
Foundations: Their Power and Influence
Bank Control of Large Corporations in the United States
Wake up to reality my friend. These people are not, and have never been, incompetent or negligent. If they were either, they wouldn't be in the positions of power they are in today.
> Even this seems a bit too aggressive for my taste
Your job for the next month or three is to become a sponge for financial knowledge. Even though you have a CPA and a CFP, in order for you to feel comfortable with their decisions with your money, you need to have some amount of knowledge with finance.
Read:
After all that, you should feel much better about both your withdrawal rate and how aggressive your portfolio will be.
Exactly the same strategy as the other superpowers use to own other countries, a la Confessions of an Economic Hitman.
This explains it:
The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy https://www.amazon.com/dp/1589795474/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fMnJBb0GAZ99M
Essentially: the super super wealthy are less than 1% of the population. Meanwhile much of the actual top 10-1% tend to be in jobs that go along with conspicuous consumption. Think lawyer, banker, accountant, doctor. They tend to feel that they have to maintain a certain type of lifestyle to be “respectable” in their profession.
There’s also a lot of people who work in tech, many of whom are young and may not save much because they want to “enjoy life” and aren’t necessarily thinking ahead. (Although they do tend to have stocks.)
Confessions of an Economic Hitman would be relevant here.
Yup. Real millionaires are often indistinguishable from others. They didn't get that way by spending a bunch of cash, after all.
https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
Good self-help books are underappreciated. They can provide the push needed to us in critical moments of our lives, e.g. to overcome short-term pain / excessive risk-aversion when making an important decision, and let us change the fundamental frames / instill useful mantras into our lives, changing our trajectories significantly. These two self-help books definitely changed my life, providing both motivation and timeless advice:
How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life by Scott Adams
Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odd by David Goggins
I recommend these to all my friends and everybody who read them so far loved them (note that for max effect probably best to space them out and to first read Adams and then Goggins a few months later).
Ask and you shall receive. If you don't wanna buy it, I highly recommend getting it from the library; it is a fantastic book that I had to force myself to put down.
"Aid" to Africa and impoverished nations elsewhere is not an attempt to get them back on their feet in the first place:
http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
Yeah, the questions been asked before. But here's a summary.
Wish you the best.
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The book of Jobs or the book of Job?
Confessions of an Economic Hit-man by John Perkins and his follow up The Secret History of the American Empire.
What's the difference between God and Larry Ellison?
God doesn't think he is Larry Ellison.
https://www.amazon.com/Difference-Between-God-Larry-Ellison/dp/0060008768
> But if the World Bank (and let's throw in the IMF and WTO as well, if you like) never existed, global poverty would be mostly unchanged. I'm open to being wrong about this, but I haven't even seen anyone lay out the argument that these institutions are primarily responsible for the persistence of global poverty.
Well, from a geostrategic point of view, the structural purpose of the World Bank and IMF - and debatably the entire Bretton Woods economic system - was to facilitate the continuation of traditional international power inequities in the post-World War II world. For American planners at the close of World War II, their country had leapfrogged over the declining European powers to become, by far, the most wealthy and powerful country on Earth. Invariably, they wanted to supplant those traditional European powers in their respective colonies and spheres of influence to become the dominant actor themselves, but - as the American political tradition has largely frowned upon overt imperialism - they needed to do it in a way that meshed with the liberal political culture of their society, as well as with their liberal propaganda about democracy and "free" markets. Herein lies the strategic purpose of the World Bank and IMF, at least in terms of their predatory relationship to the former European colonies (what we might today call "the 3rd world"). You can get pretty specific overviews of World Bank/IMF structural adjustment programs, as well as their strategic purpose, by reading Dilemmas of Domination by Walden Bello, Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins, and Hegemony or Survival by Noam Chomsky.
I hope I've helped illuminate this issue a bit, but really, nobody here should be surprised to learn about how this works; this is very basic realpolitik.
EDIT: I should note that in recent decades, the process of globalization has ushered in a remarkably different economic and political order from that of the Bretton Woods system, but that's a rather different discussion.
It is well known that Tesla has a high turnover rate and that Elon is a tough boss. You should check out this book if you want to learn: http://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/0062301233
>He was in the right place at the right time
Incorrect, read the book on him written by Ashlee Vance and you will understand that it was not just so.
There are similarities between this and countless other international bailout and assistance programs, from the Irish Potato Famine to the Australian treatment of Aboriginal communities from 1994 to 2012. Charles Smith had a good article on it this week.
>Especially fascinating to learn that the English Government provided ‘relief’ loans to Ireland at market interest with a condition that they could not be used to do anything productive. Basically they set up a scheme to pay a small proportion of each community to build roads, but not a cent could be spent on developing alternate Irish-owned industries or businesses for fear it would upset the rich English industrialists.
>The English imported cheap American corn meal which everyone was forced to buy with the English Gov. financed wages (closing the loop of giving with one hand, taking with the other and adding in a profit to boot) after the Irish had to export all their own grain and livestock to England to pay the land rents.
http://www.oftwominds.com/blogjan15/debt-serfdom1-15.html
Similar tactics are documented extensively in Confessions of an Economic Hitman. For example, instead of financing a war they might finance "infrastructure improvements." The IMF gives several billion to a dictator, the dictator steals a large portion, and the rest is (over)spent on Western equipment (turbines, cranes, wire, etc). The country remains on the hook, left with an asset worth a fraction of debt's value.
After the new regime took power, they squandered (some legitimate spending, the rest stolen or wasted) their foreign currency and gold reserves. Now, they are being financed by European and American banks with the "condition" that that money gets spent on weapons from these same European and American countries, "closing the loop of giving with one hand, taking with the other and adding in a profit to boot." It's a tried and true tactic. The end result is an impoverished vassal state, borrowing to survive.
My recommended reading list includes One Up on Wall Street, Fail-Safe Investing, The Black Swan, How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes, and Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds. The first book talks about picking individual stocks based on what you already know, the second about structuring a portfolio for growth while still playing defense, the third about common fallacies and hubris, the fourth about basic economics, and the fifth about irrational behavior.
If your money is sitting in a US bank account, then you're making a 100% bet on the future of the US dollar. At a minimum, diversify your currency holdings by buying sovereign and high-grade corporate debt in countries with strong currencies.
Caution: Wall of text to follow.
Firstly, congrats on caring at a young age about your finances. That's something not a lot of people can say. With that being said I'll like to take each of your paragraphs in turn and answer your questions at the end.
NOTE: If you just want answers to your questions and not my advice skip ahead.
> While I believe that there are some truths behind "Money doesn't buy happiness", it is a lot easier to be happy knowing that you are well-off.
As a word to the wise from someone a little further down the road let me just say there is more truth than you yet realize in those 4 simple words. Many people don't come to see the truth till their old age looking back on a life filled with regret, so take some time now and seriously contemplate it, because the reality is in 85 very short years you'll likely be dead, and all you ever had will belong to someone else. If the only happiness you get in this life is seeing dollars in your bank account you'll miss out on a lot.
> The leading cause of divorces are because of financial issues. I mean, that has to speak for something.
In the vast majority of divorces it's not a lack of money that's the problem, it's a lack of agreeing on what to do with the money that is. Marriage can work below the poverty line, and above the 1% line. The financial issues of marriage aren't solved with just "more money!"
> I want to be able to support myself, other family members who aren't as well off, and be able to buy my kids (if I have them) a car, pay for their college funds, etc.
Supporting your own family is honorable, but beware when helping out "less fortunate" family members. There are many, many problems that can arise from that if not done properly, and enabling a family member will only make their situation worse, not help them.
> I don't want to be a doctor. Or a lawyer. . . . . who can bank at least a million in one year.
That is a very big dream, but it's not unrealistic. Big dreams are good, and as long as you can approach them level headed they help give you focus. I say that your dream is worthwhile, and although I caution against greed as it can destroy you and your life, there is nothing wrong with wanting to be a CEO making $1,000,000.
ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTIONS
> So tell me. Where do I start investing and also building my way up to becoming the CEO of a company?
You start right where you are. There is nothing stopping you from pursuing your dream now. Begin with learning. Learn what it takes to be a CEO, learn how other CEO's have done it, learn what your talents are. There will be much learning for you starting out.
I recommend the internet and a library card. Read a CEO's biography (it's as close as you'll come to getting to interview some CEO's). How is it that Donald Trump was able to go from rags to riches twice?! What would it take for you to do that? Learn all there is to learn about running a business, being a leader, and leading a successful venture.
> At what age?
NOW! Bill gates was already writing software and starting Microsoft at your age (not to say you're behind or anything like that.) There is no age limit on being a CEO, and there is certainly no age limit on learning and working hard.
> What majors in college should I be looking at?
This will be up to you and what you feel you would be good at. Do you want to be a CEO just to be a CEO, perhaps some business major then? Learn from other CEO's stories and what they majored in.
> And at what colleges?
Personally there is little impact based on what school you choose. There are CEO's that never went to college, and there are CEO's that went to Yale/Princeton.
The fact is it takes maybe $200 to start an LLC and call yourself a CEO, no college degree needed. What comes after that is actually making the money! In order to do that you have to provide a good or service that people want. The more people you make happy, the more money you'll get.
Something you should know now is that starting a company, and running a company is HARD WORK. I know some owners of start-ups that had to work 60 - 90 hours a week with little to no sleep to build their business. I know others who fell into the CEO position because their daddy owned the company, and they were lazy, and thanks to their lack of action the company collapsed.
> And of course, looking to do this in a legal way.
Welcome to America :), where hard work, sacrifice and the willingness to learn and strive can and do payoff.
One last piece of advice: Don't be a jerk. When you become the CEO of a company and you are making the millions, when you someday are the hotshot, don't look down on those around you. Remember where you came from, and those that helped you along the way, and there will be those that will help you!
People will always respond better to someone who is nice than someone who is a jerk.
Here is some recommended reading once you get that library card:
There are many more books, but that's a start.
Jon Acuff went from amateur blogger to best selling author, and is a great motivational writer. His books make me want to run a marathon, and are good for motivating you.
Dave Ramsey went from bankruptcy to running a 300 person business and earning in the %1 of earners in the nation with a national brand. His book is about being a leader in business and you'll need to lead if you want to be CEO. It's a hard job, and not nearly as cushy as you might think.
Thomas Stanley is a researcher who studies those with a net worth over $1M and his book will show you that being rich doesn't contradict with a frugal lifestyle.
The others and highly recommended in general!
The fact is you'll need to grow up, turn off the TV, and look weird to your friends. How many 15 yr olds do you know reading books about how to run a company and studying up on what it takes to be a CEO, or how to start a business? I don't know many, but I do know that at 17 years old William Gates III started a joint venture with Paul Allen (their first business). They both went on to make the top 20 richest billionaires list. Bill still holds the top spot.
If you want to be rich, you want to be a CEO, then work at it. Work at it now, work at it often, and work at it always. I have no doubt if you dedicate yourself you can do it. The fact of the matter is that most people reading this are tired just thinking of the work it takes to be CEO, and that's why they never will be.
Best of luck on your future success, and don't forget the little people.
~ Dragon J.
Edited for formatting.
I read Car Guys vs. Bean Counters, which is a surprisingly informative rant about that episode in history.
Lutz chalks it up to:
A good anecdote on the last subject is the paint on GM cars. GM had switched to a more matte finish, because it hid small bumps and imperfections. This improved metrics for paint job defects, but made the cars less attractive overall, and thus reduced sales.
Thanks for the question. Wish I was there myself but not yet ;).
The average Millionaire is not what you think.
Thomas J. Stanley wrote "The Millionaire Next Door"
He highlights critical pieces of advice for any entrepreneur.
First income doesn't equal wealth. We see this a lot on r/entrepreneur that people have a lot of revenue but their margins are slim. Net Worth is what matters.
Also, work your budget. If you don't have a budget get one. You Have to do it. It's a pain but table stakes.
He also speaks about how where you live has an enormous impact on how you spend your money. The key is to live in a neighborhood where most people earn less than you.
And here's an interesting fact: 86% percent of “prestige/luxury” cars are bought by non-millionaires. If someone looks rich they probably aren't.
In the end, save money.
As a way of background I have newsletter where I share proven case studies of successful entrepreneurs. Many of them are quiet successful. If anyone's interested let me know and I can PM you the link. (I've gotten about 10 PM's asking for the link so I thought I would include it here.)
Stock and bonds are a good way for the middle class to "keep up" with the wealthy. To catch up, you most likely have to provide a good or service in a new and unique way and build a successful company out of it. The vast majority of millionaires earned a lot of their income from a private business. They some of them invested in securities.
There is a good book on this by Thomas Stanley, a professor that researches wealth, called The Millionaire Next Door. Here is the NYT displaying the first chapter for free. It's a good read, it will tell you a great deal about how people in the United States get and stay wealthy.
Definetly check out the book
https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/0062301233
I went for the audio book on audible. Was a good commute listen. If Ashley Vance is actually a fan boy, he did a great job hiding it and I'd like to thank him for that.
Some Musk facts from the book:
-photographic memory
-intense, innate drive
-mastery of physics visualization
-loner through childhood
-rough paternal childhood
-future keystones, determined in college: internet, renewable energy, space
-thought both Tesla and SpaceX would fail
There's way more stuff, really consider the book. If there was a perfect person to become 'Elon Musk', it was Elon Musk. I'm glad we have him.
What do you define as successful?
SpaceX has won contracts to resupply the ISS (not sure if they still do this or not)
and
also won a contract to bring US crews to and from the ISS
.
Not to mention their huge progress toward re-usable rockets. Fairly recently they landed a rocket on a platform after it had been launched into orbit. I can't really go into the science because I don't understand it, but I'm pretty sure that by almost all accounts, SpaceX has been VERY successful. They entered a "market" that had zero competition and were told by everyone that they'd fail.
Read the book about Elon Musk.
SpaceX is pretty lit.
Rich Dad, Poor Dad is a scam and the author has been widely discredited.
Check out "Millionaire Next Door" for real life examples of people that have saved enough to live independently. The mindset of most of the people featured is representative of how to approach financial independence.
Honestly, it sounds like you're hoping it is illegal. :)
It's most likely not.
https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
(Old, but still very true)
https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1482883577&sr=1-1&keywords=millionaire+next+door
then this..
https://www.amazon.com/Total-Money-Makeover-Classic-Financial/dp/1595555277/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1482883314&sr=1-1&keywords=total+money+makeover
AND then this...
https://www.amazon.com/Little-Book-Common-Sense-Investing/dp/0470102101
Thanks for your service and willingness to be a cop. Tough jobs.
-Air Force Vet, So Cal native, 7 digit nest egg.
The following books:
Films/documentaries:
If I remember something else I'll edit the comment :)
> how the heck are people affording these beautiful houses with granite counter tops crown molding etc with comparable income to mine?
They aren't. Have you seen the number of foreclosures? Please read The Millionaire Next Door. Also, you might check out Dave Ramsey.
I absolutely promise you in all areas there are a significant number of people living paycheck to paycheck. One way I know this is that I have had the opportunity to buy distressed property in almost all price ranges in my city. The largest (I passed) was 9500 SF on 3 acres in one of the most desirable villages here. 50 cents on the dollar...
I'll also promise you this. If you take the trade off and buy something a little less nice but in your range you will be WAY happier than if you get something a bit nicer but have to stress about money all the time.
The Millionaire Next Door
Read it when I was 16 and completely changed how I thought about money/business/entrepreneurship
I'd recommend reading many sides/perspectives so that you can formulate an independent mind and not just be a mouthpiece of some economist's ideology. For instance, I disagree with a lot of Marx, but I think his materialist critique of history and his critique of capitalism are very useful and a lot of it is correct. His solutions/recommendations are shit, but that doesn't discount his contributions. My recommendations:
Generally Considered Right-Leaning Economics:
Henry Hazlitt, Economics in One Lesson: https://www.amazon.com/Economics-One-Lesson-Shortest-Understand/dp/0517548232/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1510274539&sr=8-1
F. A. Hayek, Road to Serfdom: https://www.amazon.com/Road-Serfdom-Documents-Definitive-Collected/dp/0226320553/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1510274634&sr=8-1
F. A. Hayek, The Fatal Conceit: https://www.amazon.com/Fatal-Conceit-Errors-Socialism-Collected/dp/0226320669/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1510274634&sr=8-3
Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations: https://www.amazon.com/Wealth-Nations-Bantam-Classics/dp/0553585975/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1510275227&sr=1-3
Frederic Bastiat, The Law: https://www.amazon.com/Law-Frederic-Bastiat/dp/1612930123/ref=pd_sim_14_5?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=31TE91RXV0Q2XPPWE81K
Also read: Thomas Sowell, Milton Friedman, and Ludwig Von Mises
Generally Considered Left-Leaning Economics:
J. M. Keynes, The General Theory: https://www.amazon.com/General-Theory-Employment-Interest-Money/dp/0156347113/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1510274943&sr=1-3
Rosa Luxemburg, The Accumulation of Capital: https://www.amazon.com/Accumulation-Capital-Rosa-Luxemburg/dp/1614277885/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1510275041&sr=1-2
Rosa Luxemburg, Reform or Revolution: https://www.amazon.com/Revolution-Writings-History-Political-Science/dp/0486447766/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1510275041&sr=1-1
Also read: Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Trotsky. Modern day Left/Keynesian economist is Paul Krugman.
Anarchism:
Emma Goldman: https://www.amazon.com/Anarchism-Other-Essays-Emma-Goldman/dp/1484116577/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1510275717&sr=8-1
> when his actions would likely do them far more good than harm.
His actions, in the context of the 2012 campaign, consists solely of standing in front of Republican audiences, and telling them stuff like we ought to end the Wars, close all our foreign bases, end the Empire and end the War on Terror and the War on Drugs, because if we don't we're going to go bankrupt.
That is, in fact, anti-Empire, anti-War. And it is also anti-Wall Street and anti-Corporate. Because Wall Street is the financial nerve center of US Big Business and the Corporate world. And it is in fact, linked to the wars and Empire.
Read e.g.:
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/imp-hsc/
Read also:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard66.html
And:
http://www.fas.org/man/smedley.htm
And:
http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/1576753018
If you're just looking to learn instead of fulfilling a degree requirement then it is a probably more useful to pickup a book and do it yourself.
Some useful subs:
Some useful books:
The takeaway is that when it comes to investing there is no secret that will make you rich overnight. Picking random stocks hoping they suddenly shoot up is no different than gambling. Even the most well paid people in finance with all of their years of schooling cannot consistently beat the market.
Investing is a long term commitment.
Athletes constitute a extreme minority, especially superstars like LeBron. While his example was a little extreme in how lucky the beginnings was, the story is by no means rare. The is a popular book called The Millionaire Next Door which goes to explain how most millionaires in the US got their wealth.
In the vast majority of cases, it's quite straightforward: spend less than you earn, and maximize tax-advantaged investing. Don't waste money on expensive cars or other forms of wasteful spending. Keep doing that for a couple of decades, and you'll be a millionaire.
Of course, the above path does come with assumptions. First is that you need to have an employable degree, and not be crippled by student debt in a way that makes you lose a big chunk of your early earnings. Second is that you need to be not unlucky and e.g. not have an expensive medical emergency. Having a spouse definitely helps (but is not required), and not having kids also helps (but they won't make anything impossible).
Bottom line is that the most millionaires in the US are not sportsmen, nor are they born to immense privilege.
https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
It's from Ashlee Vance's biography link
>Ouais enfin là en face c'est pas Madame Michu mais des États avec des moyens quasi-illimité donc pour l'intimidation on repassera...
Ces 20 dernières années, on a vu émerger des entreprises multinationales qui détiennent un pouvoir considérable et qui vont jusqu’à contester l'autorité et le pouvoir même des Etats.
Christophe De Margerie le patron de Total n'a été élu par personne, il ne répond pas devant l'Assemblée Nationale, mais il est négocie directement avec le Président Vladimir Poutin et le Président Omar Bongo. Il est allé jusqu’à se mêler de la politique étrangère de la France en exerçant des pressions sur le Quai d'Orsay pour limiter les sanctions en Ukraine.
Le journaliste américain Steve Coll a mené une enquête pendant plusieurs années sur le pouvoir de Exxon. Il en a fait un livre intitulé Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power.
Exxon est la deuxième entreprise mondiale par capitalisation boursière, elle emploie plus de 75 000 personnes. Une enquête absolument fascinante qui révèle que l'entreprise dispose de ses propres services de renseignements et d'une diplomatie parallèle dans plusieurs dizaines de pays du monde. Elle est capable de monter des opérations de manipulation médiatique sophistiqués pour éliminer des responsables politiques et est allée jusqu’a menacer directement des Ministres et des Chefs d'Etats. Un livre absolument fascinant ce qui lui a valu de remporter le prix Pullitzer, le prix le plus prestigieux du journalisme américain :
https://www.amazon.com/Private-Empire-ExxonMobil-American-Power/dp/0143123548
Tu veux un autre exemple ? Le Royaume du Danemark vient de créer un poste officiel d'ambassadeur au sein de la Silicon Valley pour négocier directement avec les GAFA.
http://www.lemonde.fr/big-browser/article/2017/02/07/le-danemark-va-envoyer-un-ambassadeur-numerique-au-pays-de-google-et-facebook_5076124_4832693.html
C'est fini depuis longtemps l’ère du riche capitaliste qui a une petite usine et qui obéit aux lois de son Etat.
Même un Jacques Attali (Major de l'Ecole Polytechnique, Énarque, Docteur en Economie) affirme que la puissance de l'argent est en train de prendre le pouvoir sur la puissance politique des nations. Ces tribunaux arbitraux ne vont encore que pousser la balance vers le pouvoir privé.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baWfd-vRIqM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYcOImJwGzU
Pour citer David Rothkopf, Professeur de relations internationales à l'Université Columbia :
>The world's largest company, Wal-Mart Stores, has revenues higher than the GDP of all but twenty-five of the world's countries. Its employees outnumber the populations of almost a hundred nations. The world's largest asset manager, a secretive New York company called Black Rock, controls assets greater than the national reserves of any country on the planet. A private philanthropy, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, spends as much worldwide on health care as the World Health Organization. The rise of private power may be the most important and least understood trend of our time.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12160843-power-inc
https://www.amazon.com/Devils-Chessboard-Dulles-Americas-Government/dp/0062276174
https://www.amazon.com/JFK-Unspeakable-Why-Died-Matters/dp/1439193886/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
https://www.amazon.com/Family-Secrets-Americas-Invisible-Government/dp/1608190064
https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
https://www.amazon.com/National-Security-Government-Michael-Glennon/dp/0190206446
Those are the books that you should read.
Here are also some good resources:
Paul Craig Roberts worked in the Reagan administration: http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/
This is a good multi-part article excerpted from one of the books above: http://whowhatwhy.org/2013/09/16/part-1-mr-george-bush-of-the-central-intelligence-agency/
Michael Glennon’s abstract about his book: http://harvardnsj.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Glennon-Final.pdf
A PDF of the “Confessions of an Economic Hitman” book if you don’t want to buy it: http://resistir.info/livros/john_perkins_confessions_of_an_economic_hit_man.pdf
This is when the reporter asked Bill Clinton about Mena: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDMktUYvC7k
Article on the coup attempt in France: http://whowhatwhy.org/2015/10/20/jfk-assassination-plot-mirrored-in-1961-france-part-1/
All of whowhatwhy.org is very good. There is probably a lot of good information there most haven’t heard of. The main guy, Russ Baker, is a Pulitzer prize winning journalist.
Bet you didn’t know that Bob Woodward was a state intelligence asset/disinformationist? https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/710466456941686784
All part of the record…. Enjoy.
Yet another example of how to move money from the state to the private sector. Where are the magic economic forecasts that would make John Perkins blush?
>The website lists Capital City Partners, a private real estate investment fund by global investors focused on investment and development and led by Emirati Mr. Mohamed Alabbar.
http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426248828&sr=8-1&keywords=economic+hitman
>Perkins writes that his economic projections cooked the books Enron-style to convince foreign governments to accept billions of dollars of loans from the World Bank and other institutions to build dams, airports, electric grids, and other infrastructure he knew they couldn't afford. The loans were given on condition that construction and engineering contracts went to U.S. companies. Often, the money would simply be transferred from one bank account in Washington, D.C., to another one in New York or San Francisco. The deals were smoothed over with bribes for foreign officials, but it was the taxpayers in the foreign countries who had to pay back the loans. When their governments couldn't do so, as was often the case, the U.S. or its henchmen at the World Bank or International Monetary Fund would step in and essentially place the country in trusteeship, dictating everything from its spending budget to security agreements and even its United Nations votes. It was, Perkins writes, a clever way for the U.S. to expand its "empire" at the expense of Third World citizens.
I guess this is just a coincidence though.
The answer, as usual is: it depends.
If you want to invest your money, then there's no better time than now. However, the implication is that when you invest that money you have to leave it sit long enough to do it's work.
At 19 and wanting to invest, you have time on your side. You need to be able to stomach volatility in the market and not get excited when your stocks rally for 30%, nor should you despair when the stocks plummet by 40%.
Traditionally speaking, the stock market averages between 6%~8% a year, which is much better than any savings account you're going to find. However, you shouldn't treat it as a savings account because volatility will almost certainly put you in a bad position to sell whenever you need the money most.
If you feel like you can stomach that volatility and turn a blind eye to both the rallies and collapses, then the stock market may certainly be for you. If you are NOT looking to place your money in good companies for a long period of time (10+ years), then it's my opinion that you are simply speculating... in which case you may as well go to the casino.
If at this point you have decided that you would like to invest in the stock market, you now need to figure out the degree of involvement you would like to dedicate.
If you're looking for a simple hands off investment, then you should just invest in an index fund such as VFINX, SWPPX, or QQQ.
Index funds closely track the performance of the market and charge minimal fees. They are pretty much totally hands off on your part, and are the Ronco of stock investing. Just set it and forget it, and enjoy your ride on the market.
A step above that are mutual funds. They actively try to beat indexes, but charge a fee to do so. There are mutual funds for any style of investing, and people tend to choose mutual funds that coincide with where they think success will lie. That means choosing foreign or domestic, stocks or bonds, and even individual sectors like technology, retail, energy, etc.
The world of mutual funds is vast, and provide an opportunity to beat the market, but it comes with a price. I'll leave the rest up to you to do your research.
Finally comes individual stock picking. Picking individual stocks is the highest risk, but also have the potential for the highest returns. Also, there are no fees except for the fee for purchasing your shares.
There is also a lot to this world, as I'm sure you know, but if this route interests you, then I would suggest you pick up a few books, beginning with The Intelligent Investor.
This book is, in my opinion, the best introduction out there to investing for long term wealth.
Finally, since you're so young and you seem to have an eye out for your personal finances, I absolutely recommend you read The Millionaire Next Door.
Good luck!
> is because my ability to focus for non-trivial stuff has been completely shot by years of doing nothing but surf the web (literally), I'm having a hard time getting anything systematically done, even basic reading.
Here's a method that doesn't work very well:
Here's a better method:
> rationalism is appealing both by virtue of the people I've been meeting and the practical effects it has been having for me on the occasions that I've managed to use it. But I'm more than a little intimidated by the SSC backlog: there's so much there! And that's just SSC. I have no idea where to begin.
It is likely a mistake to think that rationality will be a philosophy that will change your entire life by virtue of reading things. There is a lot of very interesting material to read in the "rationalsphere", but most of it is not self-help material and you may be disappointed if you expect it will all be highly applicable to your daily life.
What you will find is a lot of material that can help clarify your thinking and give you more knowledge about many intriguing domains. The "Sequences" (long series of blog posts collected into an E-book) by Yudkowsky are the standard resource that much of this community has read (or pretends to have read). If you have not studied science, probability, psychology, and philosophy, then it is pretty eye-opening stuff! Like taking a seminar course from a brilliant but highly eccentric professor. That said, some of it is boring or hard to read, so just skip around and follow the hyperlinks to the parts that interest you.
If the main thing you have done for the past two years is to browse websites, then you must already know that reading good material is compulsive and so I am not sure what is stopping you from spending all your spare time reading the entire archives of LessWrong and Slate Star Codex. Either you are enjoying it and you keep reading, or you are not enjoying it and you stop.
HOWEVER, if you are trying to force yourself to read through the annals of Rationality because you think it will fix your flaws as a person, or make you a genius, you will probably be disappointed.
If you are really looking more for a self-help book of how to change your life with logic and rational behaviour, a decent one is How To Fail At Almost Everything by Scott Adams.
Scott Adams calls this the 'Moist Robot Hypothesis'. Like a dog being trained, he views people as machines (or moist robots) responding to stimuli. Instead of fruitlessly trying to motivate yourself he advocates changing your environment to reinforce the behaviors you desire. I think this is the basic idea that Perry is advocating. And they both recognise that you act as the 'owner' setting the incentives and the 'dog' being trained.
A related idea that both Perry and Adams touch on is that it's more effective to be systems driven not goals driven. Don't focus on "I'm going to run a marathon", focus on incentivising yourself to go running four times a week. Focus on "I'll write blog posts every Tuesday and Thursday" over "I'm going to make Scott Alexander look like an amateur." Perry describes this as the difference between “getting things done” from “doing things.”
The practical implications will be different for everyone however it means acting as the owner to understand the reactions to stimuli (diet, incentives, sleep routine, emotional states, etc) and then setting up processes / systems that reinforce the positive behaviours and disincentivise the negative. The general idea Adams words:
> Take a volunteer and ask him all of his favorite sensations. This could range from the taste of his favorite food, to foot massages, to sexual stimulation, to warm baths, to his favorite song. Then spend a few weeks showing the volunteer a particular and not-too-common object whenever the positive sensations are applied. For example, you might pick a sock monkey as your object because you don’t see them often, and they don’t carry with them any sort of special association beyond generic fun. After two weeks of intensely associating sock monkeys with favorite sensations, the volunteer’s brain would make a permanent connection. Thereafter, any time he wanted to turn a bad mood into a good mood, he would look at his sock monkey and his brain would execute its happiness subroutine. It’s safer and quicker than pharmaceuticals. The only risk is that the volunteer might fall in love with his sock monkey. But I’m not judging.
This has high cross over with the ideas of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) which is considered pseudo-scientific by many. NLP practitioners call this 'anchoring'.
If you're interested Adams goes into some detail on what this practically means in his book 'How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big'.
There's a book about that. It's more common than you might expect...
The Millionaire Next Door
Irrelevant game? Maybe you've heard of a game called Doom? Pretty popular. A company named id software developed that game. Guess where they got the money to develop that? From their previous wildly successfully series, Commander Keen. Since you seem to like books, I'd recommend picking up a copy of Masters of Doom, which tells the whole story of id's success. A little history goes a long way.
Here's a short list of what I would consider the cream of the crop as far as fundamental analysis books for a beginner:
Beating the Street
One Up on Wall Street
F Wall Street
Financial Times Guide to Value Investing
Getting Started in Value Investing
And of course
The Intelligent Investor
Based on your questions and lack of knowledge, keep your money in a savings account. Spend a couple of months learning about investing, how to read financial reports, how to decipher an 8k and 10k report. I don't mean this to be condescending, but if you start investing now or in six months, there will be almost no difference in your earnings, but there could be a huge difference in your losses unless you take some time to learn about the various investing methods, theories, and the actual hows and whys.
Start reading Peter Lynch's One Up on Wall Street, Beating the Street and Learn to Earn.
Each brings different things to the table. Again, please take no offense, but Learn to Earn is probably where you should start. It's aimed at teens/young adults learning about investing for the first time.
I'd recommend hitting up the library for these. When you get to the library, you'll find shelves of books on how to invest. Some are useless and others really good. Read a few chapters in each. If you have questions, run it by this board. There are plenty of people here who are more than happy to share their mainly educated opinions. And the good thing about reddit is that if one of us says something wrong, others are quick to correct or offer their two cents.
I'd also recommend The Millionaire Next Door, The Black Swan and the Richest Man in Babylon. while these last ones aren't how to invest, they are books about why and how we invest.
I'm a Taleb groupie and read everything by the man. I loved Black Swan, and also loved Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorderso you may want to try that one when your reading pile dwindles.
Keep saving, but take your time investing. Learn the basics, stick your toe in and then take the plunge.
Price to earnings ratio, price to earnings to growth ratio, price to sales ratio, earnings per share, the cash assets of the company...
you can take ratios and compare them with competitors in the industry. P/E should reflect anticipated growth in the next year, so a PEG ratio is helpful in comparing and determining if it's priced in.
i would never, ever buy solely off the product because no matter how good it is, and how fast the company will grow, every penny of that potential could already be priced in. the only way you can win is if you have rare insight to the product's future and you're careful not to overpay.
I was a bit unclear, let me amend my statement by saying, after you have these basics down, you're just getting started. After that perhaps you can read Peter Lynch's "one up on wall street" http://www.amazon.com/One-Up-On-Wall-Street/dp/0743200403/ after which you still have to remind yourself you still don't know what you're doing, but you know a hell of a lot more than you did.
I've read a number of books about the subject so I'm summing up what I've read; but I'd recommend in particular the books Dealers Of Lightning, Fumbling The Future and Apple Confidential if you're interested to read more. Here's also an interesting article from the New Yorker about it.
I LOVE following the history of networking, awesome find!
If you end up wanting more, where wizards stay up late and dealers of lightning are great reads about the people behind the early internet.
If it interests you, pick up Isaacson's biography of Jobs. It's a bit dry but you'll get an idea of it. He was basically an unabashed, brutal perfectionist to the extent that he nearly bankrupted his blossoming company several times because of it. He was a crazy hipster who was interested in nothing but homeopathic medicine, never showered because he hated chemicals, and was an asshole to his closest friends and he belittled his coworkers for efforts he deemed unworthy of his company on a nearly daily basis.
More reading on it, if you care. I know it's gawker but at least they link to good sources.
Exactly! Check Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
The one by Ashley Vance is great. I read it for a business entrepreneurship class.
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062301233/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_1t0TCbX2J50HJ
Fair enough. What are the job prospects supposed to be from it - are there any numbers out from both "sides" that you know of?
Personally, I can empathize with the need for better immigration control and the like, but see building a huge wall as unnecessary and fairly archaic, kind of barbaric. As well, it strikes me right in the "why can't we all get along" zone which is admittedly somewhat naive, but I see construction of such a wall as sending the wrong message to the world and future. There are better ways to go about this, undoubtedly.
As an aside, have you heard of or ever read "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" by John Perkins before? It's really fascinating and informative.
Some of the critiques of it are a little dismissive, but there are just as many that corroborate it, along with historical accounts, as well as what we see today.
Basically, it talks about how we made purposefully un-pay-back-able loans to Mexico a few decades ago, when they really needed the help, with the express purpose of getting leverage on them politically, economically, and socially. Now, to be fair, many of the people associated with the loans on the Mexican side are guilty of knowing what was going on, while others that may not have known the full ramifications were of the corrupt type and ran away with a lot of the money that was to go into infrastructure, but that does not take away from the States' goal from the beginning and subsequent fallout. In summary, we're responsible for the problems in Mexico more than we realize. That is another reason I do not support the wall. All together, it's just a bad, bad idea; spiritually, economically, logistically, politically.
Edit:
USAID is a fallacy, its used to burden foreign governments with huge US dollar loans to provide leverage to the US government to controls said governments and keep their people poor. Check out Confessions of an Economic Hitman, chilling: https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485525402&sr=8-1&keywords=tales+of+an+economic+hitman
Read this book, same shit:
Confessions of an Economic Hitman
Ashlee Vance's autobiography is worth reading.
This is just from me having read 20% of a biography about him. Note that this was not a biography by him and he originally did not even want to contribute to it. He did end up contributing, but the book is based upon interviews with hundreds of people and the writer makes very clear that it is not 'Musks truth'.
He made his own rockets during his childhood, including rocket fuel.
He coded a lot of stuff, releasing a video game at age 12
The only reason he ever studied anything is because he thought it was advantageous for him. He always visited the least amount of classes necessary, and only got good grades when he needed to. At first, he sucked at school. Then someone told him you need certain grades to advance. Next time he got the best grades possible. Other examples of this is him inquiring about the highest paying job possible and ending up shoveling out boilers in a hazmat suit for 18 dollars/hour. He was one of 3/18 to keep doing it after a week.
If he has a goal, he works until he reaches it, no matter what anyone tells him. There are plenty of examples were engineers told him something is impossible, and he then went ahead and fixed the code behind their backs. With his first startup he worked 16, 18 hours a day, sleeping in front of the computer, instructing employees to kick him awake when they arrived at the office.
He apparently takes active part in the design of SpaceX and Tesla components. As in, he actually stays up to date on everything and gives his input. He is definitely not just a CEO doing buisiness stuff in the background. Read his twitter and it will be apparent that he takes active part in the engineering side of things.
In fact, he can be considered a pretty bad manager. If someone is wrong about something, using wrong equations or whatever, he is very brusque about correcting them. He expects everyone else to work as hard as he does, and is not really a charming, social, outgoing guy. It seems like the only reason people work for him is that they share his vision (to colonize mars).
Leadership is near-universally populated by wealthy ivy league oligarchs, who use the agency's power toward corporatist ends. This book is a good primer:
https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
My go to reading list,
Killing Hope, by William Blum
America's Deadliest Export Democracy, by William Blum
Who is William Blum?
Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, by Tim Weiner
Enemies: The History of the FBI, by Tim Wiener
Who is Tim Weiner?
The Secret History of the American Empire: The Truth about Economic Hitmen, Jackals, and How to Change the World by John Perkins
Confessions of an Economic Hitman, by John Perkins
Who is John Perkins?
Yeah, this is very true. We've been blackmailing foreign leaders into serving U.S. foreign policy and giving contracts to American business for over a half-century. A really good read on how this topic: Confessions of an Economic Hitman - John Perkins.
Looks like someone in China read https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
Read the book The Millionaire Next Door
Second: teach yourself to save a PERCENTAGE of your income. Don't care about the amount, care more about the percentage. If you teach yourself to save 10% (for example) and increase it with time, that will be great. We all ignore this because at the very beginning of work life the 10% is in pennies, but if you committed to it, you will keep doing it when your salary is twice as much.
the books reccomended in the faq provide abundant info. Specifically,
"The millionaire next door" -- explains the importance of defensive spending and talks about how fiscal responsibility is passed to your kids depending on your money attitude.
"I will teach you to be rich" is a good general primer.
"The boglehead's guide to investing" introduces all the options out there and explains why investing in low-cost index funds is best for the long run.
edit: "I will teach you to be rich" is a more stimulating read, followed by millionaire, and last is boglehead.
edit 2: Millionaire is more "mindset" with not many practical advice except for its section on how financial responsibility is inherited onto kids
I only know his handywork.
...and what he put in his multi-million selling, NYT-Bestsellers list topping, multiple-editions-in-many-languages printing autobiography.
fer real, dude. Try harder.
https://www.amazon.com/Snowball-Warren-Buffett-Business-Life/dp/0553384619
https://www.amazon.com/Steve-Jobs-Walter-Isaacson/dp/1451648537
There is a new book out about Thiel's secret funding of the legal action against Gawker called Conspiracy.
Peter Lynch made a shitload of money for the Magellan Fund in the 80s by investing in retail brands that his teenage daughter wouldn't stop yammering on about. He talks about it in one of his books, maybe One Up on Wallstreet.
A reckoning is coming, losing Flynn sucks for Trump and team but he is no dummy and will learn from this mistake. I'd say get yourself a copy of this and let the man do his thing.
It's called Dealers of Lightning by Michael Hiltzik. (Amazon) It was a good read, I would recommend it.
https://www.amazon.com/Steve-Jobs-Walter-Isaacson/dp/1451648537/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1521107191&sr=8-2&keywords=jobs
Conspiracies do exist, and its sad that the words "conspiracy theory" have such a negative connotation, because these things do happen. I don't believe Obama is a muslim, or that the moon landing was faked btw.
I'm not sure if I believe the US perpetuated 9/11 itself, or if it merely allowed it to happen, or maybe they were not involved at all. But my Reichstag example is still true. Conspiracies happen. To say that its impossible is naive.
Is this 4 star general also a conspiracy theorist? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7NsXFnzJGw
What about the author of this book? http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/1576753018
A few links you might like. Warning, many of these are long:
http://www.thocp.net/index.html
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7707585592627775409
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=440334862070787846
http://oreilly.com/openbook/freedom/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyJAX8F2jPg
http://www.amazon.com/The-Difference-Between-Larry-Ellison/dp/0060008768
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4hO_-TuTlo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S23yie-779k
You might be interested in reading his biography :)
It's extremely well written, I highly recommend it
http://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/0062301233
He's frequently thrown tons of his own money at his companies when they were in the early stages and struggling, even risking bankruptcy. Source: His biography.
You should probably read the biography written a year or two ago about Musk. You tag him as rich, but the reality is that he put everything on the line multiple times to save his companies. No one man can accomplish what SpaceX and Tesla do, but it is clear that Musk is a leader in the tech industry. Those were all pipe dreams, but he had the thought to make dreams reality by bringing the right people together under the right conditions.
Link
Read up on the "Project For a New American Century" (http://www.newamericancentury.org/) and the neo-con plan for the Middle East. Also, read "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" (http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081) specifically the section dealing with the Shah of Iran and how he was placed in power. I'm sure that Noam Chomsky could answer this better than most of us. http://chomsky.info/
That will get you started on the right direction as least.
You know, a lot of this aid isn't good... much of it goes to buy weapons and power for extremely corrupt governments and helps to establish the power structures that keep people poor. Sure, in cases like Somalia it is only humane to provide food aid, but I think that we have to reassess our aid policies in a lot of these countries, not just in Africa but around the world.
I'm reading Confessions of an Economic Hitman right now and he makes a pretty good case for how a lot of the aid that we give helps to impoverish the people in those countries that we "aid." I recognize that the book talks mainly about loans, not aid, but the points about how aid increases income inequality remain solid.
I highly recommend "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" by John Perkins if you're interested in learning more about how governments, NGOs, and businesses profit from developing countries.
"Perkins writes that his economic projections cooked the books Enron-style to convince foreign governments to accept billions of dollars of loans from the World Bank and other institutions to build dams, airports, electric grids, and other infrastructure he knew they couldn't afford. The loans were given on condition that construction and engineering contracts went to U.S. companies. Often, the money would simply be transferred from one bank account in Washington, D.C., to another one in New York or San Francisco. The deals were smoothed over with bribes for foreign officials, but it was the taxpayers in the foreign countries who had to pay back the loans. When their governments couldn't do so, as was often the case, the U.S. or its henchmen at the World Bank or International Monetary Fund would step in and essentially place the country in trusteeship, dictating everything from its spending budget to security agreements and even its United Nations votes. It was, Perkins writes, a clever way for the U.S. to expand its "empire" at the expense of Third World citizens. While at times he seems a little overly focused on conspiracies, perhaps that's not surprising considering the life he's led."
Me too! For a little motivation, check out Mr. Money Mustache and Early Retirement Extreme. For some really good information, check out Get Rich Slowly and The Simple Dollar - both have extensive archives on frugality, saving, investing, and debt repayment. I read all of those every day.
Here are some basics:
ERE and MMM both are into frugal lifestyles combined with established passive income streams from real estate and investment earnings. That seems like the way to go, especially given the low prices for real estate and the increase in renting.
I would also start reading on these topics. For an eye-opening motivational read, try The Millionaire Next Door - I recommend that to everyone regarless of their personal finance goals. For starters in investing, The Boglehead's Guide to Investing is great, and a lot of the information can be found free at the wiki. GRS has a great post from a while ago on the 25 Best Books About Money.
I read the following, in roughly this order:
Ich habe jedes dieser Bücher gelesen und kann es empfehlen. Ich würde jedes davon wieder kaufen und wieder lesen.
I suggest you take a couple days to read this book:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising/dp/1589795474
It's quite telling and it debunks the idea that the majority of the wealthy are what is depicted in those pictures.
Also a great book: Lights in the tunnel; : http://www.amazon.com/Lights-Tunnel-Automation-Accelerating-Technology/dp/1448659817
This one focuses specifically on how to approach post scarcity without collapsing the economy. I'm not sure that it's the approach I 100% agree with, but we have to start the conversation somewhere. I'm hoping someone picks this one up to make a documentary out of it.
I'm betting on this as well.
If you want some insight into how stupid and bureaucratic car companies can be, read Bob Lutz's Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business. He tells a great story about his time at Ford (I think). One of the models had used poor quality head gaskets that were failing after 15-20K miles (which is a $1K repair for the customer). When Lutz tried to get it fixed, he was told they couldn't fix it, because the company had already worked the revenue from the replacement parts into its annual budget.
hey OP, when i was around your age, i felt/acted quite similarly. it took me years, but now people often express complete surprise when i reveal that i am actually an introvert. so, alongside all the good advice already in this thread...
social skills can be learned. many times us INFJs don't want to make any moves until we feel that we understand the landscape. so, go learn the landscape. pick up some self-help books on conversational skills (and just about living a better life), and then put that learning to use. one of my favorites is How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big. that one is not about conversation, per se, but it's written by an ENTP and i found it wonderful.
the other side of the coin is that, when you talk more freely, you will end up saying things that come out wrong, or stupid, or whatever. that's just life. you will never be perfect. you will never put out the perfect words all the time. mistakes happen, so teach yourself through mindfulness to accept them. sure, you'll cringe for hours when trying to fall asleep one night about something you said and what if the person you said it to thinks you're a total moron now? in those moments, do some breathing exercises, distract yourself, don't wallow in it, and i promise you, you will get over it. and not only that, you'd be repeatedly proving to yourself that life goes on and not to stress the minutia so much, and you will eventually lead a freer life that revolves around who you are as a human and not the opinions of others.
there's nothing inherently wrong with you. growing into yourself is a process, so try to be cognizant of that. do your best and don't be so hard on yourself, and try to teach yourself the skills you will need to get to where you want to be. the thing that turned my social anxiety upside down was working customer service jobs. it's awful, but it's basically akin to exposure therapy. just my two.
The Millionaire Next Door is outdated when it comes to specifics, but conceptually is an excellent road map for getting and maintaining wealth.
The gist is exactly what you describe: Live below your means.
You're making claims and then confidently stating the burden of proof to prove otherwise is on people who disagree.
That's not how this works...
That's not how any of this works...
In general, responsible people with high net worth don't drive expensive, imported cars. People who tend to dive luxury automobiles are the folks who might have low or high income but basically little net worth, living paycheck to paycheck or not even that but surviving off welfare provided by wealthy parents or other relatives
Source: The Millionaire Next Door
https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
Live radically below your income level no matter what it is and invest as high a percentage as possible.
Change every habit in your life to save and invest, and not spend.
Change every habit in your life to recognize 99% of what you do is based on habit and consumption, that people have existed for 10's of thousands of years and lived on very little. Water, a bit of food and shelter. Reduce your existence to that and invest the rest.
Read "Millionaire Next Door".
Read "Habit"
It will cost you about $20. Follow them like the bible, like your compass. And in 30 days when you haven't done any of this, re-read this answer.
That's all there is to it. Follow that and you will become wealthy. There is nothing more to this, 99.9999% of humans cannot do it. And the wealthy benefit from that every day.
You're welcome.
These two books I recently read were on-topic and very good.
Green With Envy
Millionaire Next Door
This and more fun Wolfenstein facts can be found in David Kushner's Masters of Doom.
READ THE WORDS OF THE PROPHET: SCOTT ADAMS
http://blog.dilbert.com/
The best advice I can give you about not knowing what to do with your life is changing the way you look at your future, at least for now.
In his book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00COOFBA4?ie=UTF8&redirectFromSS=1&pc_redir=T1&noEncodingTag=1&fp=1
Scott talks about how he found success, not by being a goal-oriented person, but by being a systems oriented person. Even though having goal is a good thing, setting up specific goals for yourself can be very limiting. If you live your life by using systems, you give yourself more avenues and opportunities to become more successful.
A great example of this is instead of setting a goal for yourself to "lose x amount of pounds in x amount of time" you instead focus on setting up a system of continuous exercise, good diet, and good lifestyle habits. Eventually success will come to you because you instead focused on the system, not the goal. Good coaches don't focus on winning the title at the end of the season. Good coaches focus on winning each game at a time.
Focus on good mental and physical habits. Form good habits with your money. At your age it is hard trying to figure out exactly where you want to be in 10 years. It is much easier to figure out how to be the best you can be at this moment in time. Eventually you will have built up yourself to a point where you will be prepared for the opportunities that might come your way in the future. Focus on the process not the outcome.
Second GPP won these playoffs. Didn't win during regular season but developed a good cash game grind. Started in December getting my ass whooped for 30 days straight. Developed my process. Looking to get better, want to be a top DFS player. http://imgur.com/cElzZZD
Here is some helpful guides
Better decision making http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/conquering-complexity-simple-rules?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=05012016&utm_campaign=gsbbrand
Haralabos https://twitter.com/haralabob?s=09
Lowe Check out : https://twitter.com/ZachLowe_NBA?s=09
Bballbreakdown http://bballbreakdown.com/
Great book on how become a stock picker totally applies to dfs Check out
http://www.amazon.com/Beating-Street-Peter-Lynch/dp/0671891634
Team blogs
http://www.sbnation.com/blogs
This guys article http://www.fantasylabs.com/articles/charlize-theron-fantasy-debt-and-the-proper-valuation-of-designated-hitters/
Podcasts 1
http://pca.st/YuLB
Podcasts 2
http://pca.st/8dO6
Judging from the broadness of your question, I'd suggest buying (or checking out from the library) a couple of books about investing. Start with the basics like: Charles Schwab, Peter Lynch, and Burton G. Malkiel. Right now, education is probably the best investment you can make (besides enjoying your life).
Ninja edit: It's good to be thinking and asking about investing, but, if you are serious about investing a serious chunk of money, learn the basics for yourself. You'll be better prepared to make the best decision for your money and your lifestyle.
Confessions of an Economic Hitman
read up on all of central and south america..plus the middle east, southeast asia, AFRICA...Oh! The list goes on and on!
Read John Perkins book Confessions of an Economic Hitman to get a good understanding of how things work.
Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine is a good supplement.
The Only Difference Between God and Larry Ellison: God doesn't think he's Larry Elisson
Now on Amazon: https://www.amazon.ca/Difference-Between-God-Larry-Ellison/dp/0060008768
If someone wrote 'The Game' on business, Larry would be the Oracle behind it.
> Imagine SpaceX having 100 times larger budget... We probably would have already built a few bases on the Moon and flights to Mars every few months...
We tried that. It's called NASA and their machine of contractors. As it turns out, having 100 times larger budget just means you become a large political target, you get 10x increases in layers of bureaucracy, and your goals are written, changed, thrown away, and written over again every 4-8 years. In other words, if SpaceX had 100 times larger budget, it'd probably come from sources they don't control, and they'd end up getting controlled in the process.
There's a reason why Musk won't take SpaceX public, even though they'd probably receive a massive cash injection. He has a vision for SpaceX, and wants to control that vision with an iron fist. If you read the Ashlee Vance biography about Elon Musk, you'll know that he is regretful of having to take Tesla public, and the last year shows exactly why. When you're trying to change the future, you don't want to spend time, energy, and focus answering to shareholders wondering how you're going to get them a dividend in the next quarter.
As of this post, Hardcover $10.00
$29.99That's great! What were your main points or most fascinating things about him that came up in your research? I've just finished the Ashlee Vance biography on Musk and it was a very intriguing read.
Don't try to read any fundamental physics/engineering textbooks, they'll just bore you and you won't learn anything without also doing stuff like you would in a lab or for homework.
Instead read some books that inspire or entertain you. You won't have time or energy to read what you want once school starts. Here's some options:
BTW if you haven't read "Masters of Doom" then hop to it. Full of great stories about the founding/evolution of iD... and some juicy tidbits on Ion Storm too.
Masters of Doom
Some related reading
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
Well, Trump wants to bring back Reagan era policies. I'm not projecting to the future so much as I'm remembering the past. I get that you're upset by this - I am too. But my being upset doesn't change what he's saying.
Also, if you feel like reading from an authoritative, first hand source, I strongly suggest Confessions of an Economic Hitman. The ways in which we manipulated and stole from other countries makes this look like a small time smash & grab operation. Separately if you've never heard of a banana republic (not the brand) you should read about United fruit. In that case it wasn't about forcing people to buy at a given rate, it was about forcing people to sell to us at a given rate. But it's the same difference.
I'm not defending the horrific nature of the plan. I am only arguing the point that it works to create jobs. It creates lots of other things too, like war.
I had to read this book for a management class and I actually included a mention of CR in my essay. The complaints, the complements, the strategies, and more of the two gave me deja vu. Musk actually began selling the Roadster during its development, similar to pledging in SC. He even made all the "backers" pony up an extra $17 grand for the car because he miscalculated the cost of production.
It makes you think about what Musk would have made if he stayed in game design, or what CR could have made if he chose a different path.
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
Byłem inżynierem w najpotężniejszym koncernie naftowym (exxonmobil), który jest często przedstawiany jako najbardziej zła, wroga korporacja amerykańska. AMA about robienie kupy w czasie pracy etc
You might also like to read Masters of Doom -- which is a biography of the guys at Id in the early days. I think reading about how they started out would both interest and motivate you.
OpenGL will get you a Quake 2-like experience. But if you really wanted to get your hands dirty, try building a Wolfenstein or Doom style rendering engine from scratch. :-)
Read Confessions of an Economic Hitman for details
https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
This one, mentioned by LSDMDMA above...
That video is just some excerpt of John Perkins' book, Confessions of an Economic Hitman.
I have read the book some long time ago, and whether you believe it or not, the techniques are plausible and the facts check out.
For instance, Indonesia is reeling from a dictatorship (1965-2008) installed by the CIA for fear that the former President was leaning towards Moscow, and thus communism. As part of that deal, Freeport-McMoran mining company of Texas got to exploit a huge swath of Eastern Indonesia for gold and nickel, for decades, with single-digit percentage for the Indonesian people.
The projected value of the mine Is MULTIPLE times the parent company net worth.
In every single protest instigated by the CIA and American NGO's, they say the same things. "The people are rising up against tyranny. They want freedom and economic opportunity. The government is inept."
There's always some truth to the poor economic issues, because of course part of the CIA playbook is to impose economic hardship on countries whose government they want to overturn. There are many ways they do this, but I would recommend you read this book if you're skeptical that this is a thing:
https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
US economic warfare is well-documented. In another comment, I brought up the recent (1990s) US economic warfare on Iraq. Those brutal sanctions cost the lives of 1/2 million Iraqi children, with the US gov't diabolically saying that this was acceptable. And the entire basis for the sanctions were based on deliberate lies of the US gov't.
The article briefly mentions the US attack on Chile; that is surprisingly well documented now -- many books have been written on the topic.
As with many instances of US economic warfare and behind-the-scenes skulduggery, the facts do not come out until a couple of decades after the events.
But if you're wise, when you see these actions in country after country, decade after decade, any sane person is going to have a knee-jerk suspicion.
FWIW, on the general theme of US economic warfare and geo-political skulduggery, int'l banker and former NSA man John Perkins' famous book "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" is essential reading. (There are also copies of that book on audio and via BitTorrents.)
CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HITMAN
I bought this book when I was a development worker in the third world. Had great expectations, and was already living amidst the legacy of colonialisation and exploitation.
I have to be honest, I don't think I've ever been more disappointed in a book. So much of it seemed to devolve into self-indulgent diatribe, it was incredibly light on specifics, and he seemed to have the kind of romantic anti-Western "Oh my god, this culture is so much better" we Westerners are so good at exhibiting for the first few months living in exotic cultures.
I wanted some depth. I wanted specifics. The basic premise is pretty well-known, but the depth behind it unfortunately wasn't particularly present in this book.
From checking out some of the less positive reviews on Amazon I see I'm not the only one who got the same impression from this book.
"The Millionaire Next Door"
If you haven’t already, you should read The Millionaire Next Door! It’s an older book but the ideas are spot on!
Here is an Amazon link of you are interested: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1589795474/
A lot of people are answering your question, but I think i can add a different perspective on it so I'll take a stab at it, if you're interested in some automotive history. It does have a lot to do with the GOP being aligned with American business interests, but I would argue that the groundwork for the climate change denial movement was laid out in the response to the 1975 Cafe Laws This was a law that forced American Automotive manufacturers to consistently improve the average fuel economy of their fleet over time. This had the concurrent effect of forcing the American automakers to spend huge amounts of money trying to develop new engine and transmission technology that could meet the strict fuel economy standards. Meanwhile in nations like Germany and Japan where fuel was much harder to come by, their automakers had already been making reliable, fuel efficient cars. This created a catastrophe in the American markets when suddenly Toyota's and Volkswagen's started to be imported en masse as demand for fuel efficant vehicles skyrocketed. And at least at the economy car level these imports were completely superior in terms of efficiency and reliability when compared to their American counterparts; which were often sub-par products pushed to market simply to offset the low fuel economy of the gas guzzling family cars. You can see this difference in cars like the Chevy Chevette a terrible little car that has been all but forgotten, and the [Toyota Corolla](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Corolla_(E30) which was the tip of the spear in Toyota's plan to penetrate the American market, and a nameplate that still survives today.
Now at this point you might be asking what all of this has to do with climate change denial so I'll cut to the chase. Climate change laws often force manufacturers to buy expensive new equipment and make disruptive changes to their processes, not just in Auto manufacturing but in all forms of industrial production. Bob Lutz who was an executive at Chrysler and later GM, when talking about the history of American car manufacturing in his book attributes these costly changes to what would amount to a dark age for American auto manufacturing in the 70's and 80's, era's defined by bad cars, huge quantities of layoffs, and government bailouts. In a more recent (and much less articulate) example of this logic you see our old friend Donald Trump declaring that Global warming is a Chinese hoax in order to make American business less competitive; and while I've never heard the Chinese Hoax part of that before, the conspiracy to make American business non competitive is a line of logic that has been kicked around in the business world for a while, by people much smarter than Donald Trump.
So in the end the typical republican stance of denying climate change goes much deeper than just fossil fuel company bribes. A massive part of their constituency has, and would suffer immensely from climate change laws. This is further complicated by the fact that its not just business that suffer but also regular people, in the form of layoffs and tax money being spent on bailouts. And in a job market where finding a decent paying job can be a real bitch, its easy to see why this logic resonates with so many people, manufacturing jobs pay decently well, and one could argue that they built the middle class in this country once upon a time; and the people who have these jobs are going to be opposed to having their lifestyle disrupted.
Therefore in order to make people understand that climate change is a real problem that must be dealt with, we must also concoct a system that protects jobs and our economy, and that is so much easier said than done.
He did actually receive flack for it in his lifetime. He addressed it in his book 'Made in America'.
[on media attention]:
>"When you start out as an unknown quantity with just a dream and a commitment, you couldn’t buy a mention of your company in one of these publications. When you become moderately successful, they still ignore you unless something bad happens to you. Then, the more successful you become, the more suspicious they become of you. And if you ever become a large-scale success, it’s Katie bar the door. Suddenly, you make a very convenient villain because everybody seems to love shooting at who’s on top."
[on competition]
>"Business is a competitive endeavor, and job security lasts only as long as the customer is satisfied . Nobody owes anybody else a living."
Worth a read. Not only inspiring, but debunks many of the wild accusations you read online. The biggest being that Walmart is singlehandedly responsible for destroying many small businesses. When in reality, Walmart fought Kmart (and many other discount stores) hard. If Walmart didn't win, someone else would have. It's not so much the fault of one person, but the fault of the society at that time: customers were prepared to let small businesses die if it meant they could save money on their weekly groceries.
Preface: This is my first post and it ended up rather larger than I intended, but such is the nature of this subject matter. Additionally please forgive any spelling/grammar errors, I am far from perfect in this regard and have come to rely too heavily on auto correct which constantly misses "to vs too" and so on... Bellow crept into my honours thesis when it was supposed to be below, you end up reading what is in your head not what is on the page, and for that I appologise in advance. Gulp Here goes the submit button.
I am doing my PhD thesis on something in this area (I am a philosopher) and thought I would just give my $0.02... which is actually a bit steep for what its worth. There is a way out of this "pathological trap" I think but it requires a fundamental overhaul of the way we treat the social sciences as a whole. There is essentially two things going on in what we label "social science" one is immutable and unchangeable and that is science, the other is closer to a social strategy than anything else. If a theory depicts the best strategy in a social situation it is not a science, it is a strategy, it does not tell us this is how things are, only that this is something we could choose to do. A lot of people seem to be confused by the difference. A scientific theory by itself is ethically neutral, it either is or is not the case. A strategic theory is not so disinterested, it is something that may be willingly acted upon with our own free will and the fallout of those decisions is on we, the actors.
To give an example, we know thalidomide works on suppressing nausea, and there was a time we did not know it caused birth abnormalities. So a strategy was devised. Given what we know about thalidomide we should use it to treat morning sickness. Strategy worked, really well, and 9 months latter had unforeseen repercussions. We would nail a doctor to the wall for administering thalidomide in this day and age to a pregnant women, s/he could not hide behind "its science and thus ethically neutral!" the strategic decisions of the doctor make him/her morally culpable.
Now the undergrad economists out there will shout "but where are you going with this, thalidomide has side effects, there are no side effects with neoclassical economics" while the post grad economists will shake their heads at them (not in all but in some cases, most undergrad economists I know are very sure of their discipline while most post grad and lecturers are much less so). Neoclassical economics (or more precisely in this case, the self interested "rational" agent) has essentially created a gigantic prisoner's dilemma, and the mantra is "fuck less yee be fucked" (again, granted not in all cases but usually where issues like these arise)
I can imagine two opposing cries from the same field, one saying "but that's just a model to facilitate prediction!" and the other saying "you obviously are misrepresenting "self interested" it is just to facilitate an agents unknowable motives!"... but this is confusing which is it? something definite we can use for prediction or a place holder because we cannot predict humans? It cannot be both, one of these options supposes that we are going to get reliable results from it, the other that we just call whatever happens "self interest" and have no way of knowing what will happen, or that we will just confirm all the results we get after the fact. (I cut some info here about Thomas Reid and his theories on Credulity and Veracity, I will link it in the reference at the end) It is in actual fact a worst case scenario, when Adam Smith used his butcher baker brewer example it was an appeal to their self interest not because they will not respond to anything else, but because it has more chance of working in worst case scenarios as well as best case scenarios and everything in between. This is a strategy, and I must admit a rather compelling and persuasive one. Here in lies the reflexivity, which is the amount a strategy is persuasive in terms of the decisions we make in the real world, that have a direct impact on the results predicted by the strategy. (Sorry that is rather confusing... "What will really cook your noodle later is would you still have broken it if I hadn't said anything?" - The Oracle - The Matrix [sorry if that's a misquote no time to go back and watch it again])
Sandri has done experiments into this area in ultimatum games, PD games and so forth, turns out that you are more likely to follow the expected results when you know what the expected results are and why. Who would of thunk it aye? I am not suggesting that if you learn about capitalism you will instantly be transformed into a monster or even that it is a sure thing, just that the arguments/strategies generated from what you learn are now part of the internal deliberative process when it comes to decision making in the area it is concerned with... it had damn well better be or what is the point of studding it? The point I am trying to make is that the results change after people have learned about the theory and the expected results... if it was a science they would not, only game theory and strategies do this. These are better models for understanding, explaining and predicting behavior for social strategies than some idealism of absolute knowledge, luckily we kind of recognise this.
So I mentioned there was a way out?
Well as the champion of neoclassical economics (Friedman) once put it in a paper on positive economics, the predictive power of a theory is more important than the assumptions that go into it, now I disagree completely but I cannot fault his reasoning... he just has his assumptions wrong. So knowing that knowing a theory makes you more likely to pursue it (the exact amount of which varies from theory to theory, even its valance changes but I wont bother with that here) and that it is a strategy and the actors employing that strategy should be morally culpable just like the thalidomide doctor. This in turn alters the weights in the game, I could choose to fire those employees and get a pay rise and call it efficiency, oh but my science is now widely recognized as a strategy and knowing that, I am also a fuckwad for doing it. But first why would it be widely recognized as a strategy? And second why should I care if I am a fuckwad?
First: predictability, we can get more accurate results, by treating the strategies as strategies rather than sciences. Sure we also need to admit that employing these strategies makes us ethically responsible but that's a small price to pay for more accurate predictions right?
Second: Because people don't actually like to be fuckwads in general (outside of the internet and high school I mean)... it's a ghost, a boogieman, none of my friends act like the self interested rational agent to the point of being a fuckwad, well ok may be once or twice but they are usually repentant and remorseful for it (myself included). However, what about all of them out there? Just because I have overwhelming experience completely contrary to this construct does not mean that the rest of the world is not out to get me! I just happen to know the best people on the planet and the rare few. So it is ok if I am a fuckwad to those strangers out there because they would of been a fuckwad to me right? No, of course not, it is unacceptable for anyone to be a fuckwad. Fuckwad is not the norm we should strive for, no matter what the strategy tells us. But this reflex stems from the very understandable desire "not to be the chump" to take Robert Franks words.
Not all of these strategies are bad mind you some strategies are really good (even within neoclassical economics, and capitalism as a whole) for everyone and these now (after we accept them as strategies and have accounted for reflexive influence... not going into that here) have probably a greater weighting, given the new information, we may finally stop prescribing thalidomide to pregnant women.
Are there tons of holes in this argument, sure. But cut me some slack I kept it under 1000 words... well I did initially now I check it it is around 1500. Also it may sound like I am picking on neoclassical economics here and its not really my intention, it is the strategies that it generates and their persuasive nature, even then this in itself is neither good nor bad till some one actually acts on them. And all of the social sciences have some amount of strategies within them and the reflexivity entangled with that.
Some of the things/people/articles referenced not putting up a proper bibliography here as it seems to me this may be more productive in giving credit for those that lack access to JStor and the like.
http://www.amazon.com/Reflexivity-Economics-Experimental-Self-Referentiality-Contributions/dp/3790820911 Sandri (warning horrably esoteric and dry read... very informative but yeah... it's a hefty price for eye sand paper.)
http://www.amazon.com/Wealth-Nations-Bantam-Classics/dp/0553585975 Smith (also available on Project Gutenberg, I think so many people quote the bits that help them and ignore the gigantic tracts that condemn them from this)
http://www.amazon.com/Essays-Positive-Economics-Phoenix-Books/dp/0226264033 Friedman (The guy was brilliant I cannot take that from him, Samuelson disagreed and so do I and they managed to remain friends and civil. I wont reference any Samuelson here as it is not really relevant to the current discussion out side of the "scientification" of economics by the mathematisation and formalising of economics.)
http://www.amazon.com/Passions-Within-Reason-Strategic-Emotions/dp/0393960226 Frank (Cracking read)
http://www.amazon.com/Inquiry-Human-Principles-Common-Sense/dp/0271020717 Reid (Another Cracker and well ahead of its time I think, Also I have just discovered I have lost my copy.)
http://www.amazon.com/The-Matrix/dp/B000HAB4KS (For the hell of it)
*Edited Spelling/Grammar/Matrix ref
Thanks for making it this far.
Wookiee
Over at /r/ukpersonalfinance we have a small "recommended reading" list that's worth looking at.=: http://www.reddit.com/r/ukpersonalfinance/wiki/faq#wiki_recommended_reading
> Intelligent Investor - Benjamin Graham
>
> This book was written by the father of "value investing", and the mentor of Warren Buffett, who is widely accepted to be the world's most successful investor.
>
> It was originally published in 1948, but Ben Graham updated it periodically over the years, and it stands as true today as it ever has.
>
> Beating the Street - Peter Lynch
>
> Published in 1994, this is arguably showing its age more than Intelligent Investor. Either way, valuable reading from one of the best managers of money in the past few decades.
>
> Naked Trader - Robbie Burns
>
> Subtitled "How anyone can make money trading shares", this is an entertaining, tongue-in-cheek account of one financial journalist's attempt to quit his job and make £1,000,000 using a short-to-medium term trading strategy. Not very scientific, but an interesting counterpoint to the previous recommendations.
>
> Smarter Investing - Tim Hale
>
> The ultimate counterpoint to attempting to "beat the markets" - after spending 15 years working in active fund manager, Tim Hale concluded that the best outcomes for most investors in most situations would be a simple portfolio of "passive" investments (that is, funds which attempt to track a market, rather than outperform it). This style is favoured by the likes of Monevator, and many of the subscribers here.
>
> Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder letters - Warren Buffett
>
> Not a book, but a series of essays over the years from the world's most successful investor. Makes interesting reading! Notably, the 2014 letter (not published in the above link but published here in abridged form) implies that he now feels most investors would be best served by low-cost trackers.
>
> The Financial Times guide to investing - Glen Arnold
>
> A great starter guide, going from the very basics (why businesses need shareholders) to more in-depth explanations of different types of investment, and step-by-step guides on how to execute trades.
>
I'm a self made millionaire but from all the hostility and drama I see here I would NEVER do an AMA.
I've quickly learned that most people don't have the resolve to live by basic principals that have gotten me to where I am now. So in a very general nutshell here it is from me for the umpteenth time...and for the few who say these are obvious, then I counter, why the fuck aren't you guys REALLY doing this...
I STILL to this day buy groceries with coupons, wear the SAME Timex watch I did when I was in high school, drive a car from the 1960s, and RENT a small but nice house with an incredible view, most of my close friends have no idea how much I'm worth and many complain about how "cheap" I am.
I don't give a rats ass if you decide to believe me or not. The sun will rise tomorrow and I'll still never have to call anyone boss or punch another fucking clock in my life EVER. You follow the basic advice, you might stop living paycheck to paycheck.
Don't be a dick. I just gave you free legit advice. Now you're on your own. I'm not your mommy.
/retired in my 30's with liquid assets in 8 figures.
read this book then. It is probably going to be interesting for you
http://www.amazon.com/Dealers-Lightning-Xerox-PARC-Computer/dp/0887309895/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322594175&sr=8-1
...Dealers of Lightning is a fascinating journey of intellectual creation. In the 1970s and '80s, Xerox Corporation brought together a brain-trust of engineering geniuses, a group of computer eccentrics dubbed PARC. This brilliant group created several monumental innovations that triggered a technological revolution, including the first personal computer, the laser printer, and the graphical interface (one of the main precursors of the Internet), only to see these breakthroughs rejected by the corporation. Yet, instead of giving up, these determined inventors turned their ideas into empires that radically altered contemporary life and changed the world.
...
The interesting thing is that Steve Jobs saw such promise at Xerox PARC that he offered to let Xerox buy Apple out before the stock went public, just so that he could have access to the technology and engineers at PARC.
I cannot emphasize enough how good Dealers of Lightning is, but if you're interested in technology, it's a really great read.
I enjoyed this book
https://www.amazon.com/Fish-That-Ate-Whale-Americas/dp/1250033314
I think he's making reference to the fact that in Walter Isaacsons autobiography "Steve Jobs", when Jobs first got the news of the Cancer, instead of recieving medical treatment Jobs went down the root of extreme dieting in hope to cure his problem.
Very good read: Confessions of an Economic Hitman
Here's the recommended reading list on this subreddit's sidebar.
I personally started off with Peter Lynch's One Up on Wall Street. It's a good book for beginners to help you start thinking about stocks analytically. Regardless of what you start off with though, definitely follow it up with The Intelligent Investor. That is a fundamental book with some big concepts in there such as "Mr. Market" and "Margin of Safety"... but it's not an easy read until you have some foundation first.
I think this is just another example of why it sucks to be British
It was visionary, it changed personal computing, it was not successful.
>This is an undeniable truth.
No its not. You are looking at history through revisionist lenses. Even Jobs states it was a failure in his own autobiography for goodness sake. You are confusing influential with commercially successful.
>How anyone can call a Macintosh a commercial failure is beyond me.
Yeah, how Apple and Steve Jobs can call the original Macintosh a failure is beyond you.
>Also wtf is valuewalk?
How about, the L.A Times then. Heard of them? You know, who the article sourced.
And who is the LA Times sourcing? Jobs biography. Heard of it?
These incidents are mentioned in Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs and also Steve Wozniak's autobiography, iWoz. Both of these books are well worth reading.
http://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/0062301233
Absolutely astounding read. So much in there I didn't know about Musk and his companies. If you haven't read it yet, do it yesterday. If you're not already convinced he's the DaVinci of our time, this book will do it.
Steve Coll, who literally wrote the book on ExxonMobil (Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power) put it best, in his recent New Yorker article:
>The news that President-elect Donald Trump is expected to nominate Rex Tillerson, the chairman and chief executive of ExxonMobil, as his Secretary of State is astonishing on many levels. As an exercise of public diplomacy, it will certainly confirm the assumption of many people around the world that American power is best understood as a raw, neocolonial exercise in securing resources.
The good old IMF. Anyone interested in more info about the IMF and World Bank should check out:
http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
I strongly recommend reading John Perkins' Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. It details the basic modus operandi of these chaps – convince/bribe third world nations to build expensive infrastructure that they really can't afford. Finance such projects with loans from the IMF, World Bank, etc. Give fat contracts to Western (mostly American) companies to design and execute these projects. When the projects fail to generate the projected RoI and the countries can't pay back the debt, step in and dictate policy terms to their governments. That includes rights for resource exploitation, security and military agreements, etc. Fun stuff.
Of course, it is one man's perspective, and you get the feeling that he's exaggerating at times, but it does have an element of truth in it.
Nope, I imagine if there is any it's pretty well buried. Just about everything I read in Confessions of an Economic Hitman was news to me.
If that kind of thing does exist, it likely doesn't exist in any formal record and was probably hatched behind closed doors - more as a concept for policy than any concrete written policy itself.
Here's a book written by a guy on the inside.
He has many video interviews (1 2 3) on youtube.
Do you have an opinion on how China's actions compare to the actions described in the book https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081?
Yeah Wikipedia doesn't seem like the worst place. It really depends on what you enjoy! You can find a lot of free stuff on Youtube, just be really careful with what you watch.
The part of politics that interest me the most is Propaganda. If I can give you a little bit of caution before you dive to deep, I feel like I need to warn you: there are very powerful people that are trying to convince you to join their side. I've been studying how money comes into play with political ideologies...and it scares the shit out of me. Always keep in mind who is talking to you when you are learning. I, for instance, am somewhat of a Socialist-Libertarian. Keep that in mind as I recommend you resources. I learned so much about my own political beliefs by reading and watching stuff I disagreed with. For instance, I watch a ton of super hardcore alt right stuff because propaganda interests me. But even someone as far left as myself began to see my views of the world slowly change, and not in an intellectual way. The racism started to seep into me without me noticing. Some stuff out there downright is made to brainwash you (this sub is a good example). I am being 100% serious.
If you are interested in learning about who shapes political ideology, here are some recommendations.
Here's a short documentary about how the Koch brothers use their money to change ideology https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nKgKVxFjSg (By Aljazeera, a highly respected international news outlet). It's inspired by an amazing book named Dark Money, the Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right. There is also a documentary about it on Amazon Prime if you have it.
Another extremely interesting book is by John Perkins, named, Confessions of an Economic Hitman. The book is about a man who traveled the world for a company named MAIN, and made up bullshit statistics to convince developing nations to take out huge loans to hire US companies for infrastructure. The plan was to get these nations loaded with debt, making them beholden for the U.S.. If Perkin's failed, the CIA sent people into to organize a coup d'etat. Here's him explaining it in an interview
Another good book is called indivisible hands: businessmen's crusade against the new deal goes over how business interests got together and literally shaped modern political discourse around their own interests.
Noam Chomsky (perhaps the world's most respected living intelectual) goes over what he calls "The propaganda model, which I'll let him explain in an interview interview. If you like the interview, follow the rabbit hole down and see what else he has to say. It totally blew my mind some of the shit he talks about. He also has an excellent film named Requiem for the American Dream that will break down what he thinks the power structures are. Chomsky is an Anarchist BTW.
Another good resource is a website named History Commons. The website puts together newspaper articles and books in timelines that are easy to follow. Just be careful, it is amazing that they put together so much data, but some of it is kinda sloppy. Make sure you follow the links to make sure that they can back their claims up. That being said, they have timelines on all sorts of things, from terrorism to U.S. energy policy. The website is extremely critical of capitalism and U.S. imperialism BTW.
As you may be able to gather, I'm not a fan of capitalism. But the intellectual that has the best defense of capitalism, in my experience, is Steven Pinker. It's always good to get the other side.
If you want more traditional political readings, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has excellent academic articles on every political ideology you can imagine. It is a excellent way to get a good foundation on the terminology. Also, because it is academic, it will be less tainted by corporate biases.
If you want to learn about ethics, which is the basis of political philosophy, I highly recommend Michael Sandals Theory of Justice. It is full, 19 lecture course on what Justice is, by Harvard. Sandel is also a critic of unfettered capitalism btw.
I think that a mixture of History and Philosophy are the best ways to understand politics. It allows you to get an outside perspective on what is going on. The more directly political media gets, I find that it becomes less academic, and more propagandistic it becomes. If you go on Youtube and watch the first thing that pops up, you are playing Russian Roulette. You may get a good explanation, you may also get media designed to play to your hopes and fear, designed to suck you into an ideology that you never wanted. I purposely dove headfirst into Far Right Wing content on Youtube on purpose, and it made me more racist. This guy describes his indoctrination into far Right Ideology, and it is honestly reminiscent of a cult. It seems like you are more left leaning, but it is a good idea to familiarize yourself how ideology can suck you in. It happens with me and Anarchy: I became too attached to the idea of Anarchy and I stopped being critical with it. Whenever you base your identity on a political ideology, that is a huge red flag.
Good luck! If you want any more recommendations or have any questions I'm happy to help. There is so much more, but I don't want to throw too much at you. I want to teach politics one day so this shit is right up my ally.
You should read this book if you get the chance.
https://smile.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
It's how we really run things and I often think of it when I look at events like this.
We're more than a military super power, we're also an economic and cultural one.
I'm just curious, are you talking about the book Sam Walton: Made in America?
>Maybe it’s networth that makes you feel better and not necessarily the income?
Think of it like this, who is truly wealthier in this scenario the person making $60k\year and saving $15K after taxes or the person making $200k\year and only saving $5k?
I would suggest you read "the millionaire next door" by Thomas Stanley it changed my entire outlook on money. https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
It seems like you have a lot of expenses right now and at your income level you should be able to easily cut back in certain area's in order to save over a million dollars in a few short years which will probably help to alleviate those feelings of "not feeling rich." If I was at that income level I would be living like I only made $75K\year and saving the rest and within 10 years would probably never have to work again. It seems lifestyle creep is what significantly delays building true wealth and could delay your retirement.
OP & his wife should read this book
> ...the VERY rich drive old cars, because they don't see any need to get a new one as long as the old one runs fine. They wear scruffy, well-loved clothes. They live in old houses and don't worry about maintenance...
That entire theme is the subject of the book The Millionaire Next Door. The researchers found that is how most of the 'liquid' wealthy live. Never buy a brand new car. Living in a sensible 30 year old single-family home, etc.
I think that sort of forgetting about the inheritance is maybe the best thing you could have done.
most inheritance is wasted.
you knew you were over your head, so you did nothing and went about your life as normally as possible. many people wouldn't have the discipline to do what you did. they'd have bought a new BMW, flown to Cabo 8 times, etc. and now they'd have only $15k left and be kicking themselves wondering where it all went.
I think you're trying to honor your grandmother's memory, and don't want to screw it up. is so, that's the right attitude. and I think you have the right foundational skills. you also live frugally, you made wise choices with your education etc.
if you want to visit a financial adviser, I'd recommend a few things.
> She was by no means living a fancy lifestyle
most millionaires are actually very frugal. you might want to go to the library and see if they have copies of Thomas J Stanley's books. he was a professor who studied finance, specifically high-wealth people. he basically found that you can either be rich (lots of cash or investments) or you can look rich (fancy lifestyle, cars, etc). many who earn high incomes are actually broke, because they're spending all their income on status items, high-end new cars, huge houses in upscale neighborhoods, boats, etc. they're so busy trying to look rich that they don't have cash left over for savings and investing. in contrast, people like your grandmother are truly wealthy specifically because they lived modestly, didn't care about impressing anyone, didn't go to the country club, and made a priority of building wealth.
his first and maybe best known book was "The Millionaire Next Door." one of his findings was that there were more millionaires in blue collar/middle class areas than in upscale/white collar areas. why? because doctors and lawyers etc are under more pressure to live a fancy lifestyle. nobody expects a farmer or a plumber to drive a BMW and send their kids to private school. so if a farmer and a lawyer both earn good incomes, who's actually more likely to save and invest? That's right: the farmer. https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1478299059&sr=8-4&keywords=thomas+j+stanley
I also like his book Stop Acting Rich. https://www.amazon.com/Stop-Acting-Rich-Living-Millionaire/dp/1118011570/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478299059&sr=8-1&keywords=thomas+j+stanley
and stanley's website. he died only last year. http://www.thomasjstanley.com/publications/
General Greeting: I'm 34m, engaged, no kids in our plans. Have lived in Orlando for 16 years since college, and have been making websites and working in software engineering since high school. I absolutely love teaching people how to code and lucked into joining Code School (as you would easily discover looking at my post history).
What brought you to /r/fi: After my mom passed away ~11 years ago, I started reading everything I could to understand what to do with the modest inheritance. This led to reading things like The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing, The Millionaire Next Door and eventually MMM which helped refine and shape my view of investing, consumerism and the role of money in my life.
Other hobbies/interests:: I listen to a lot of audiobooks, and challenge myself to read/listen more. Recently started a site (minafi.com) to write about topics different from my day to day -- minimalism, financial independence and mindfulness. It's been fun having another avenue to write about things that are at the top of my mind, and explore something different from programming. Bunch of other common hobbies - CrossFit, board games, cocktails, eating anything and traveling anywhere.
Picture of yourself if you want: Somehow even though I'm crazy open with personal facts, sharing a photo seems quite intimate. I don't think I've done that before on Reddit, but here goes!.
Lumpy, you are spot on once again...The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealth...most rich folks spend less than they earn and live simple lives...the banks want the pretenders who think being rich is driving expensive cars and living in expensive homes decked out with expensive stuff...
The Millionaire Next Door.
On What to Read
Here are some suggestions on books and websites:
The Millionaire Next Door by Stanley and Danko - https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
If You Can by William Bernstein - http://efficientfrontier.com/ef/0adhoc/2books.htm
Free version is here - https://www.dropbox.com/s/5tj8480ji58j00f/If%20You%20Can.pdf?dl=0
The Investor's Manifesto. Preparing for Prosperity, Armageddon, and Everything in Between by William Bernstein - https://www.amazon.com/Investors-Manifesto-Prosperity-Armageddon-Everything/dp/1118073762
The Bogleheads Guide to Investing - https://www.amazon.com/Bogleheads-Guide-Investing-Taylor-Larimore/dp/1118921283
The Coffeehouse Investor - https://www.amazon.com/Coffeehouse-Investor-Wealth-Ignore-Street/dp/0976585707
The Bogleheads' Guide to Retirement Planning - https://www.amazon.com/Bogleheads-Guide-Retirement-Planning/dp/0470455578
The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio by William Bernstein - https://www.amazon.com/Four-Pillars-Investing-Building-Portfolio/dp/0071747052/
Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey - https://www.amazon.com/Total-Money-Makeover-Classic-Financial/dp/1595555277
Personal Finance for Dummies by Eric Tyson - https://www.amazon.com/Personal-Finance-Dummies-Eric-Tyson/dp/1118117859
Investing for Dummies by Eric Tyson - https://www.amazon.com/Investing-Dummies-Eric-Tyson/dp/1119320690/
The Millionaire Real Estate Investor per red-sfplus’s post (can confirm this is excellent) - https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Real-Estate-Investor/dp/0071446370/
For all the M.Ds on here and HNW individuals, you might want to check out https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/ and his blog – found it to be very useful.
https://www.irs.gov/ or your government’s tax page. If you’ve been reading, you know that millionaires know more than your average bear about the tax code.
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheRedPill/comments/7vohb3/money/
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheRedPill/comments/3hzcvn/financial_advice_from_a_financier/
https://www.artofmanliness.com/2017/09/22/4-money-tips-4-personal-finance-legends/
Personal Finance Flowchart from their wiki - https://i.imgur.com/lSoUQr2.png
Additional Lists of Books:
https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Books:_recommendations_and_reviews
https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/books-4/
Subreddits
https://www.reddit.com/r/investing/
https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/ - I would highly encourage you to spend a half hour browsing their wiki - https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/index and investing advice - https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/investing
https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/
https://www.reddit.com/r/SecurityAnalysis/
https://www.reddit.com/r/finance/
https://www.reddit.com/r/portfolios/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bogleheads/
MRP References
https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/40whjy/finally_talked_to_my_wife_about_our_finances_it/
https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/67nxdu/finances_with_a_sahm/
https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/488pa0/60_dod_week_6_finances/ (original)
https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/6a6712/60_dod_week_6_finances/ (year 2)
https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/3xw015/how_to_prepare_for_a_talk_about_finances/
https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/30z704/taking_back_the_finances/
https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/2uzukg/married_redpill_finances_and_money/
https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/3637q5/some_thoughts_on_mrp_and_finances/
https://www.reddit.com/r/askMRP/comments/8dwaqt/best_practices_for_finances_within_marriage/
https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/588e5o/gain_control_of_the_treasury/
Final Thoughts
There are already a lot of high net worth individuals on these subs (if you don’t believe me, look at the OYS for the past few months). This should be a review for most folks. The key points stay the same – have a plan, get out of the hole you are in, have a budget, do the right moves for wealth accumulation. Lead your family in your finances. Own it.
What are YOU doing to own your finances? Give some examples below.
I enjoyed the doom book that is in similar vain.
http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Culture-ebook/dp/B000FBFNL0/
If you want to find out how it all works, read Confessions of an Economic Hit Man - by John Perkins. In short, the US instigates everything from the presence of those corporations in those countries, to the wars being fought over (like bigmacd24 said) nationalization of those industries. It's a fascinating read.
> We drove the same kind of car so he was not flaunting his wealth...
There's a book called The Millionaire Next Door that goes into how very well-off people often do not show any signs of it outwardly.
> Trust me; money does not buy happiness!
I tried that. I know it's not true. :(
Here is a good article adressing the topic
and this book is a great read about saving.
I've written about this before and you may fall in the second camp of the passage below, as do most FIRE people I think.
>...the FIRE path generally come in one of two version: the first group approach FIRE by driving down their living expenses extremely low. Examples approaches are living off-the-grid tiny houses and eating rice and beans. Another low-cost tactic is living in low cost of living places (COLA) and in the extreme means moving to poorer countries ("retirement hacking"), e.g. Mexico with it's good weather and your USD goes further. MMM (build all my own stuff) and Market Timer (living in a cheap country) are two examples. I have a feeling this group is actually the minority of the two, but I don't have any surveys. I've only met two this type IRL (well, living this way by choice).
>The other type are high income earners who save a high percentages of their income. Bogleheads's survery's income (column U) has some eye-popping numbers and clearly skews towards highly educated/high income. WCI and Financial Samurai are both good examples of people who both have/had high incomes and decided to convert those incomes into wealth/FI through savings and investing. In the data that's out there(Millionaire Next Door and the little bit of self-reported data in the BH survey), this appears to be the more common path to FI. It certainly is easier to save lots when you earn a lot rather than try to squeeze every expense out of your life day in and day out for decades.
https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
Those are all things you can avoid. Stop wearing such nice suits. Stop driving such a nice car.
Check out The Millionaire Next Door. Practice some stealth wealth. As a side benefit, you'll spend less.
Your quote and mindset resonate with The Millionaire Next Door.
When assessing a purchase that I feel I shouldn't make so easily, I sometimes compare want to need. I really want to buy that iPad Pro because it has a larger screen with the stylus, but I already have an iPad Air 2 and even then I don't use it that much, therefore it doesn't look like I really need the iPad Pro. Everyone's posting cool videos of drones, I want to buy a $500 drone, but I don't really need it. It's helpful when I see all these "deals" online that I feel I should take advantage of.
lots of* electricians retire millionaires.
the millionaire next door
https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
The Millionaire Next Door is good reading for anyone serious about upwards mobility. It quashes a lot of the ideas the poor/middle class have about the rich.
You gotta stop looking at someone with a 60k car and saying "Wow! They have a 60k car!". Instead think "Wow! They spent 60k on a car."
If you dont have patience for a book. This is one of the best things I have ever read about money and I try to revisit it every few months:
https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/the-psychology-of-money/
Absolute bullshit. Go read this
The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy https://www.amazon.com/dp/1589795474/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_NX04CbRA880HF
Or this
https://www.daveramsey.com/research/the-national-study-of-millionaires
Your post sums up the book The Millionaire Next Door pretty well.
Congratulations on being wise enough with your money at such a young age to do your research and ask questions. That's exactly what you should continue doing, as it will pay off in the long run far more than any single investment you can make right now.
Along those lines I would invest a small amount of that money in some basic books about money that will help you develop a fundamental philosophy about your relationship with money and building wealth. Ebook, blogs and apps all have their benefits, but you really should have a basic financial library of physical books you can have on hand.
Your Money or Your Life:
https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780143115762
The Simple Path to Wealth: Your road map to financial independence and a rich, free life:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1533667926%5D(https://www.amazon.com/dp/1533667926/
The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing https://www.amazon.com/dp/1118921283/
The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy https://www.amazon.com/dp/1589795474/
That short list is in no way complete, but will get you started.
As far as websites/blogs/free reads here's a few to consider:
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Main_Page
https://yourmoneyoryourlife.com/book-summary/
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/blog/
https://www.thesimpledollar.com/
It's great that you have a nice little lump sum of money to invest right now, but the key to building wealth generally won't involve lump sums every now and then and finding places to put them. The key is to discipline yourself to set aside portions of any amount money that comes in and have an automatic system to invest it and let it grow without touching it.
Have a plan for every paycheck, bonus, tax refund, inheritance, bank heist money :) you come into to have a portion funneled into your investments before you're tempted to find other, unlimited, things to do with it.
This is the greatest book probably ever written on that concept:
http://www.ccsales.com/the_richest_man_in_babylon.pdf
Having a goal, a plan for getting there, and the discipline to actually execute it will make you wealthy. Wealth gives you choices, freedom, and opportunity, and the earlier you start building it, the easier it will be to have these things. If you don't appreciate how important those are to living a good life, I guarantee you will in the years ahead.
At some point you will hear the name Warren Buffett (if you haven't already). He's the single greatest investor who's ever lived and my personal favorite. Once you have the basics down, and you might have further interest in investing I would recommend studying him. Even though there are countless books and websites devoted to him, he's already left us nearly everything you need to know about investing right there on his simple company website in the form of his annual letters--basically a free master class on investing, written by a genious who also happens to have great wit:
http://berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html
In a much broader sense beyond investing, there is a book more than a hundred years old that discusses getting to wealth in a very interesting and powerful way. I've used it as inspiration from a standpoint as a business person, but I think it's worth studying seriously for anyone trying to build wealth.
I believe you can still get a free copy here:
http://scienceofgettingrich.net/subscribe.html
If you don't want to subscribe, just Google "The Science of Getting Rich".
And here's a good audio version as well:
https://archive.org/details/TheScienceofGettingRich
No matter what philosophy and path you take, I always include another personal recommendation to set aside a small portion of your portfolio into something "alternative" that interests you and might have the potential to build or at least preserve wealth. For me it's basically precious metals, and more specifically collectible silver and gold coins. I've also collected old paper money, stamps, stock certificates, rare books, and music and movie memorabilia all to a lesser degree. Keeps things interesting, and sometimes you can do pretty well with experience and a little luck.
And best of luck to you!
*Edit: Sp+fixed links, and here's my best TLDL:
Buy physical copies of some basic wealth building books. Consider :
Your Money or Your Life: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780143115762
The Simple Path to Wealth: Your road map to financial independence and a rich, free life:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1533667926/
The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing https://www.amazon.com/dp/1118921283/
Read "The Richest Man in Babylon" and follow the concept of always paying yourself first:
http://www.ccsales.com/the_richest_man_in_babylon.pdf
Warren Buffett is an investing God. If/when you're ready to learn more, just start here:
http://berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html
Read and/or listen to "The Science of Getting Rich":
http://scienceofgettingrich.net/subscribe.html
https://archive.org/details/TheScienceofGettingRich
Diversify a small portion of your wealth with physical assets you can hold and that might have a lifelong interest to you. A quick recommendation would be to start with 5% of your portfolio in precious metals, perhaps a small variety of silver bullion coins and bars. (I'd be happy to give you specific suggestions on these if wanted).
Most millionaires drive sedans that are 8+ years old.
https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
Far better: https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
Most actual millionaires drive common, paid off cars. Interesting read https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
Not to say your boss was a millionaire, he could have been a broke dumbass. But the perception that nice car = successful person was one sold to us by marketing execs. The reality for most people is nice car = big car loan.
I think anyone who seems to be against "rich people" in this thread should read "The Millionaire Next Door" or some of "Mr. Money Mustaches" blog. It'll give you a sense of what it takes to be rich, and it isn't simply being born from the right womb. 80% of millionaires are self-made, they mostly live a humble lifestyle and earn middle-class wages.
An entitlement mentality won't get you anywhere.
Read The Millionaire Next Door. It goes through the difference between inherited and earned wealth. The TL;DR of thr portion you're interested in is that those who inherit wealth squander it, those who earn it raise their children in a way that allows them to earn it as well. If you want your kids to be wealthy, teach them the value of money and give them the tools to earn kt themselves.
I am considering setting up a trust fund for my children that will make them FI once they turn 30 or 35 or something, but I'll give them very little before then. I'll also give them lots of opportunities to earn extra money so they can support themselves through school.
My parents could have paid to put me through school, but instead they only paid half. It was just enough that I could work my way through school without taking on extra debt. They also gave me a 0% loan to buy a house, but I had to pay it back on a schedule. I think this is the right approach to wealth propagation.
And you're right, I don't know any really wealthy people (well, some, but not inherited, it was earned). And I'm glad I don't.
Excellent book. I also recommend this one by Bob Lutz
Bob Lutz, who was President of Chrysler during the Neon years, wrote a book called Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business. If there was a car that represented this battle better than the Neon, I couldn't think of it.
For the most part, the Neon was fun to drive. The engineers made sure of that, especially if you got the five speed. It was lightweight, tossable, and had razor sharp cornering.
Then why was it such a piece of junk? The accountants decided that this car would be less expensive than the Japanese cars. Why? I'm not sure. The reason the Japanese cars were cheaper were due to a weak yen / strong dollar in the mid-90s as well as lower wages. But most importantly, the reason why the Japanese could sell the exact same car for less was due to lean manufacturing and good supplier relations.
Chrysler did not have lean manufacturing, good supplier relations, or a weak yen. Thus, to compete on price, they had to make the car a piece of junk. And they succeeded at this. Cut a dollar here by making the head gaskets as cheap as possibly. Cut a dollar there by making sure the weather stripping is ineffective. Cut multiple dollars by putting in a three speed automatic. Basically, Chrysler took a car that could have been a game changer and turned it into a low-price abomination that helped ruin Chrysler's reputation for the next two decades.
I can't help but wonder how different Chrysler's destiny would have been if management focused on their engineering strength instead of trying to compete on price. I always wondered if Bob Lutz was named CEO instead of President, what would have been different...
Related.
this is a pretty good book about a guy who started out average in pretty much every way and made it great: https://www.amazon.com/How-Fail-Almost-Everything-Still-ebook/dp/B00COOFBA4
the basic idea is you can never stop grinding, fail fast, fail forward, and eventually something will stick
What is it you want to study at university? I did bio, chem, physics and math and I hated every single subject. They ultimately didn't matter when I went to study law. However, I'm pretty sure I would have hated literature, history and geography too.
My point is, it's two years. If you haven't already decided what you want your career to be, I'd say suck it up and go with the subjects (which are simply a glorified way of filtering academically inclined students) which give you the most options later. Your parents are right in that A level humanities aren't as useful as sciences in terms of options, but it doesn't matter if you already want to do law and are 100% sure you won't change your mind, for example.
That said, I had no idea wtf I wanted to do at that age, so I kept my options open. It's a systems building outlook for success - you make sure you are able to exploit opportunities that come along by acquiring as many skills/options as possible. Scott Adams has written quite a good book about it.
https://www.amazon.com/How-Fail-Almost-Everything-Still-ebook/dp/B00COOFBA4
Get comfortable, I wrote you a book.
tl;dr: You want to make a quick buck and you are letting that desire cloud your thinking. You - and you alone - are responsible for yourself and for the consequences of your decisions. Do whatever you want, but recognize that your decisions now are setting up your future. Your decisions. You came here and posted this question and you got good advice. You can reject it if you want to, but own your choices. No one is impressed by "I wasn't really thinking about it." You are just starting life. Who do you admire? Who don't you want to be like? What do you want in life? How can you maximize your chances of making that happen? What do you have to do? Be sure of yourself. Then do it.
---------
I agree with the majority of what has been written. I also wonder if your mind is made up on this. It shouldn't be, but either way:
You would be doing yourself an incredibly good service by taking your motivation and sense of entrepreneurship and putting it toward something that isn't likely to ruin much of your life while simultaneously closing most of the doors which are currently open to you. (Yes, that means doing something legal. Particularly now.).
From what I'm reading, I suspect that it's important you choose something challenging. Something you think is challenging and which you actively decide to do. Put yourself on the line and work your ass off. Be responsible for your own success and be proud of it. Own your life, because - surprise - you already do. Importantly, put your work in toward something where when you fail you can talk proudly about it with anyone; you can put it on your resume, even use it to show people - yourself - that you are capable. And hell, you might succeed. You will succeed if you learn from your mistakes and keep trying. That's how entrepreneurship works -- through failure. (Reference Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything And Still Win Big. Or here, for free
I'll be straight with you: You seem to have a lot of drive and focus for things that you want to do, but your attitude surrounding that is shit. You also don't seem to have learned from your mistakes. You made some quick money with drugs and you now have none of it. (Also, you're comfortable selling drugs but not comfortable collecting a Government benefit which you would be 100% entitled to? One which probably exists for people in exactly your situation, among others? Accept yourself.)
It seems like you think you know what you want to do so you are seeing everything else as pointing you toward that decision. That's normal. But look at what people wrote here. You may think of yourself as restricted, bound, or labeled because of a charge on your record. A charge from when you were a kid, which is probably going to disappear at some point rather soon. You obviously know that school is important but you are blaming cigarettes for your absences? Dude: You control yourself and you are responsible for yourself. You smoke. There are consequences. They aren't the fault of nicotine. No one but you can change things, and that will never happen through defeatism or shifting responsibility. (I have my own addictions, btw.) I get that you don't like school. Pretty much no one loves it. But have you actually tried? Have you worked hard at something you don't like and done well? When was the last time? Have you even talked to people at your school about what you want and what you dislike? What your challenges are? Do you know what you want?
Figure that shit out, man. It's important. Take responsibility for yourself, because everyone else is going to expect that from you if they don't already. You dictate your future. View that as a huge opportunity rather than something negative and you are on the right track.
It seems like you probably know all these things. You are clearly thinking, which is a good sign and is also more than many other people your age are doing. I suggest bringing people in on your thought processes (beyond Reddit), such as a school guidance counselor or someone who you look up to because of what they have accomplished for themselves. You don't have to listen to what they say.
>I feel like I could do better applying my skills somewhere else - >namely, selling narcotics as well as keeping a job.
"Namely"? Those don't follow. It's also telling that you wrote "selling narcotics" and "keeping a job" as separate things. You are looking to make quick cash. My take - a random person on the Internet who has been successful in business and who also likes drugs (too much): the risks FAR outweigh the rewards. That's why the potential return is higher than the pay for flipping burgers. Not because it's harder, but because you don't go to jail and likely ruin the rest of your life's opportunities for flipping burgers. It's too easy to only see the rewards from where you are standing. Remember how the money you made is poof gone? There are a lot more ways in which that same story is likely to replay itself if you keep following the world it came out of.
You know that growing and selling weed is not your only option. You want to grow things? I bet you could make a solid amount of money growing and selling niche plants. Legal ones. I even know someone who does that, though I'm obviously not saying you should do that specific thing. (And be smart, if you don't know a business don't start it. Plants? Get a job at a plant nursery or something.) I honestly agree with the people who are saying "Get yourself a job." Do that. And take heed to the warnings about girlfriend. I'm sure she's great. Don't think with your dick, and don't get her pregnant any time soon.
There's something else I don't know if you see: There are a lot of ways you can improve your situation in life and improve yourself. Things which you can do to separate yourself from your personal history of rocky family stuff, smoking at a young age, drugs, shaky school, iffy decisions, etc. You can also tie yourself to your personal history - very tightly. That's an ACTIVE CHOICE and it's one you are making pretty much right now. The whole "get a legitimate job and try at life" thing? That is a strong way in which you could show yourself and everyone else that you are capable of running your life. Anything which involves intelligently trying to improve your situation is awesome and people will notice it. Get a job, learn from your mistakes, work hard, be entrepreneurial, be smarter than many people and realize that mental health and fitness is important and deserves serious time and attention, figure out school - whatever that means for you, and don't let yourself be convinced by the thought processes you wrote about here and about which no one else seems to be as convinced as you.
Most of all, accept that you are in control of yourself and your future. Fuck it up because you don't try? That's on you. No one looks down on people who try, though. You came on Reddit and posted this question and you got a lot of good advice. Consider it. Reject it if you want, but if you do that you better do it actively. Own it. Don't pretend this page of solicited advice never existed. Today, tomorrow, always - you are making decisions about yourself, your life, and your future. You are in the driver's seat. What do you value? Who do you want to be? Who don't you value? What kind of person don't you want to be? How do people get where and what you want? How can you maximize your chances of getting there? Talk to people about that and think some more. Reread this if you want to. Go.
(Or don't. Your choice.)
The Wealth of Nations
If you want to be an active investor in any way...
Beyond these, I would 100% say, get some practice buying stocks / funds. Open a Robinhood account with a very small amount of $. Buy some individual stocks and set rules about when you can or can't sell them. At the end of the sell or hold period, evaluate what went wrong or right. Learn to understand if there was an error in your process / analysis, or if it's just the nature of the market as a whole. These things will never be straightforward, but I know I personally learned a lot when I started as I tended to get caught investing in a lot of value traps. Alternative to Robinhood, you can use Investopedia, although it's probably better to learn when you actually have some skin in the game so you can understand aversion to loss.
If you don't care to be an active investor...
Just buy an index fund. You can read stuff like Boglehead's guide to investing, a Random Walk on Wall St, or any other index fund bibles, but the main conclusion to all of these books is that you are going to suck at beating the market, and you should just buy index funds. So if you don't care to try to beat the market, you can just skip most of the reading, find a passive portfolio (3 fund, all-weather, or just buying SPY since you're young) and just build up a base in a passive way and ignore returns until you're over 50 years old.
The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns (Little Books. Big Profits) - Jack Bogle - Vanguard Founder. No gimmicks. Simple, low-cost, and passive indexing for buy and hold investors.
One Up On Wall Street: How To Use What You Already Know To Make Money In The Market Peter Lynch was a fund manager of one of the most successful actively managed funds. Active investing. Buy companies that are really successful at getting you to buy their product. Observe the world around you type of investing.
I would recommend "One up on Wall Street" by Peter Lynch. It does have some formulas but it is otherwise a pretty easy ready and shows you how to value companies. Hope this helps! http://www.amazon.com/One-Up-Wall-Street-Already/dp/0743200403/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417723295&sr=8-1&keywords=one+up+on+wall+street
Securities Analysis by Graham is good too, also One up on Wall street by Lynch is another great one for investors.
"One Up on Wall Street" by Peter Lynch was a good read and pretty informative about the basics of reading financials and where to find companies to invest in.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743200403/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Não tens de agradecer, my pleasure. Assim de repente, alguns clássicos e outros livros que possam ser úteis:
- Rich Dad Poor Dad
- One Up on Wall Street
- The Intelligent Investor
- Everyday Millionaires
- Your Money, Your Life
- Side Hustle
- Motley Fool for Teens - não leves a mal ter escolhido a edição "for teens" - é só porque é um excelente guia para quem está a começar e vai investir quantias pequenas só para molhar o pé. Se quiseres algo mais completo, tudo o que é do Motley Fool (incluindo o site, newsletters e podcast) é bom.
Em português não conheço muito e o único que me vem à cabeça é este do Pedro Queiroga Carrilho.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenniferwang/2016/03/06/donald-trump-and-other-surprising-billionaire-comebacks/
"One American comeback story involves a man very much at the center of the news for the past nine months. Donald Trump, as some news stories have pointed out, emerged from four bankruptcies on his path to reality TV star and now GOP frontrunner. The Donald’s net worth was heavily in the negatives in the early 1990s after a real estate crash and the failure of ill-advised side ventures like the Trump Shuttle - an airline he purchased and renamed in 1989 and gave up on three years later. His casino, Trump Taj Mahal, filed for bankruptcy in 1991, after it racked up a reported $3 billion in debt. A year later, Trump Plaza Hotel also filed for Chapter 11 reorganization. The New York native, whose net worth reached $1.5 billion in 1989 on the Forbes Billionaires list, slid off the list completely in 1990 and did not climb back until 1997. But the trouble didn’t stop there: Trump’s casino company filed for bankruptcy two more times, in 2004 and 2009, and the New York native reduced his stake in the ventures as a part of the deal."
Quick background for those that didn't know Donald went broke then 'came back'. Around the time his Epstein video was taken (1992) he was probably still not in the black.
He wrote a follow up book "Trump: The Art of the Comeback" in 1997:
https://www.amazon.com/Trump-Art-Comeback-Donald-J/dp/0812929640
Amazon description:
"Trump's story begins when many real estate moguls went belly-up in what he calls the Great Depression of 1990. Trump reveals how he renegotiated millions of dollars in bank loans and survived the recession, paving the way for a resurgence, during which he built the most successful casino operation in Atlantic City, broke ground on one of the biggest and most lucrative development projects ever undertaken in New York City, and outsmarted one of South America's richest men for rights to the Miss Universe pageant."
> The NY Times actually ran the same story in 1995
https://www.amazon.com/Trump-Art-Comeback-Donald-J/dp/0812929640
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump:_The_Art_of_the_Comeback
if you read this book you'll see even more similar stories. Xerox hated Xerox Parc.
For a while there I'd use the Wikipedia Book Creator to aggregate a bunch of articles on a certain topic and then download it to my eInk e-Reader to peruse in bed until I fell asleep.
One such topic was early computing up through the Microcomputing era and the 1977 Trinity.
At that point of history I was reading Empires of Light about the AC/DC war, Where Wizards Stay Up Late about the birth of ARPANET, Dealers of Lightning, about PARC, Commodore: A Company on the Edge (about the rise of Commodore through the PET, slaying TI, and faltering after the C64), and Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet, which was enlightening, even though it was written for someone who couldn't tell a modem from a hub.
Tip of the hat to the pioneers... Lawrence Roberts, Vin Cerf, Bob Taylor, Ivan Sutherland, Douglas Engelbart and J.C.R. Licklider, among many others. Well worth studying up on these dudes. Some excellent reads (available at your public library, natch): "Dealers of Lightning" an excellent book about Xerox PARC; "Where Wizards Stay Up Late" fascinating book about MIT and DARPA; J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal a turgid yet compelling book about J.C.R. Licklider and his contemporaries.
I've learned that from The fish that ate the whale. Interesting read and one learns a thing or two about bananas.
This comment reminded me of another book along these lines. I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59 He talks all about what it was like to join Google early.
Now that I thought of that I'm going through my reading history and think that Steve Jobs might also be interesting to you. There is also Wozniak's book iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It but since I have not read it I can't really comment on it.
As of today, for some reason, the Steve Jobs Kindle book is more expensive than the hardcover.
Read Confessions of an Economic Hitman
There is a biography of him that is titled The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison: God Doesn't Think He's Larry Ellison
I read about it here, https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/0062301233
They would play in the offices at space x, after pulling 12+ hour days
This article text is a copy from Elon book.
https://www.amazon.ca/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/0062301233
He doesn't have a book. Ashley Vance did a biography of sort (with interviews of him): http://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/0062301233
Got the Elon bio from my wife (after putting it in the cart on Amazon).
What would be a disaster for launch reliability. Have you read https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/0062301233 ?
In that book the Shipping / Environmental harm caused to the rockets was very real.
Ishmael (and the rest of the series) by Daniel Quinn opened my eyes in my senior year of high school.
It's about a Gorilla, who has lived beside man for a number of decades and teaches a pupil through stories and analogies about how we are already at the cusp of civilization collapse. It's about a lot more than just that, namely the relationship of humans, animals, the planet, and how humans have a unique, egotistical view of themselves where we deemed ourselves rulers of the planet.
Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins is an eye opener as well.
Other great reads:
Magicians of the Gods by Graham Hancock.
Necronomicon
UFO's by Leslie Keen
Siddhartha - Herman Hesse
I also really enjoyed the Myst series by Rand & Robin Miller (the books the game is based on). It's about worlds within worlds and an ancient race of authors creating worlds through magical ink and books (sci-fi/fantasy).
Confessions of an Economic Hitman is a great read on this topic, detailing how the Washington-based IMF and World Bank would entice countries to bankrupt themselves by pursuing development projects that had no chance of actually accomplishing anything, thereby creating dependent client states that had most of their financial sovereignty gutted.
Read about United Fruit Co. They were the ones who initially lobbied for an invasion of the Guatemala after the democrats took over and didn't want them pimping their resources.
Literally the exact same situation in Iran when they kicked out the oil companies and didn't want Americans whoring out their land while keeping them in poverty. Gas/Oil companies went to the government and asked for military assistance.
Read more. Confessions Of An Economic Hitman touches things like this USA did all over the world http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
Muhammed: How he can make you extraordinary
The Productive Muslim - Where Faith Meets Productivity
Dua, Weapon of the Believers
Revive Your Heart: Putting Life in Perspective
The Art of War
Khadija: The First Muslim and Wife of the Prophet Muhammed
Muhammed: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources
Dua's for success in this world and the next, over 100 Duas
Fortress of a Muslim
Reclaim your heart
These are some of the books I have at the moment and I highly recommend them after reading them. I am waiting on a few more books but a lot are non Islamic but still really useful [:
Edit: Like this
Read Confessions of an Economic Hitman.
The game of Empire is alive and well.
Relevant: Maybe he's right!
Nope that's a Larry Ellison [book] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Difference-Between-Larry-Ellison/dp/0060008768) I can't accept that answer as a punchline.
Here are all the books with amazon links, Alphabetical order :)
---
>I had to read this book for a management class and I actually included a mention of CR in my essay. The complaints, the complements, the strategies, and more of the two gave me deja vu. Musk actually began selling the Roadster during its development, similar to pledging in SC. He even made all the "backers" pony up an extra $17 grand for the car because he miscalculated the cost of production.
>It makes you think about what Musk would have made if he stayed in game design, or what CR could have made if he chose a different path.
Oh wow. I wasn't aware of those things. I'm guessing Tesla didn't have a forum with goons stirring shit up! Yeah in an alternate reality Elon's space game is probably as close to a 1:1 space sim as a game can be and CR's rockets are more like fighter jet space shuttles!
Acá?
This one is a must-read
The rest was basically more factual stuff about how Tesla and SpaceX operate, how they get revenue, how they implement changes, what drives them, their marketing & PR, etc.
Nice!
For Musk fans I highly recommend Ashley Vance's bio of Musk: Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future. I did a review of Vance's book.
Have you read Ashlee Vance's biography of Musk? If you haven't, it's pretty interesting in this respect.
It's in this book
Elon Musk
I'm reading Elon Musk's biography right now and think it might be helpful if you're talking about career success. The dude seems like a jerk but has an incredible work ethic and drive to succeed.
You can say pretty much the same exact thing about Augustus' biography.
Outliers really helped me a lot, because it made me realize talent wasn't nearly important as skill/effort. You put in the time and effort and you will develop your skills.
If you're an introvert like me these books helped me "fake it till I make it" or just want to be more socially capable: Charisma Myth, anything by Leil Lowndes, Make People Like You in 90 Seconds. Not a book but the Ted Talk about body language by Amy Cuddy
A book on leadership I always hear good things about but haven't read yet is Start With Why.
Highly recommend his biography! (Link)
It's in his biography by Ashley Vance
I believe the author interviewed the two people who went with Musk on the trip
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062301233/
This is a good read. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0062301233/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481651437&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=elon+musk&dpPl=1&dpID=5174GQsw2oL&ref=plSrch
You can highlight a few points related to CEO's style of work by quoting facts from this book
Rex is actually a pretty damn smart and good businessman. Pulitzer Prize winning author Steve Coll wrote a whole book on ExxonMobil and Rex takes up about half of it. It's a good look at what he was like running the company.
https://www.amazon.com/Private-Empire-ExxonMobil-American-Power/dp/0143123548/
C'est sur ce point qu'on a un désaccord.
Ces 20 dernières années, on a vu émerger des entreprises multinationales qui détiennent un pouvoir considérable et qui vont jusqu’à contester l'autorité et le pouvoir des Etats.
Pour citer le remarquablement brillant David Rothkopf, Directeur Général de Foreign Policy Magazine et Professeur de relations internationales à l'Université Columbia et à l'Université Princeton :
>The world's largest company, Wal-Mart Stores, has revenues higher than the GDP of all but twenty-five of the world's countries. Its employees outnumber the populations of almost a hundred nations. The world's largest asset manager, a secretive New York company called Black Rock, controls assets greater than the national reserves of any country on the planet. A private philanthropy, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, spends as much worldwide on health care as the World Health Organization. The rise of private power may be the most important and least understood trend of our time.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12160843-power-inc
Christophe De Margerie le patron de Total n'a été élu par personne, il ne répond pas devant l'Assemblée Nationale, mais il est négocie directement avec Vladimir Poutin et Omar Bongo. Il est allé jusqu’à exercer des pressions sur le Palais de l'Elysée et sur le Quai D'Orsay pour limiter les sanctions de la France en Ukraine.
Et il y a encore plus gros que Total. Exxon est la deuxième entreprise mondiale par capitalisation boursière, elle emploie plus de 75 000 personnes. Le journaliste américain Steve Coll a mené une enquête pendant plusieurs années sur le pouvoir de Exxon. Il en a fait un livre intitulé Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power.
https://www.amazon.com/Private-Empire-ExxonMobil-American-Power/dp/0143123548
Une enquête absolument fascinante qui révèle que l'entreprise dispose de ses propres services de renseignements et d'une diplomatie parallèle dans plusieurs dizaines de pays du monde. Exxon va jusqu’au menacer des Etats-Nations et influencer la politique étrangère des Etats-Unis. Un livre absolument fascinant ce qui lui a valu de remporter le prix Pullitzer, le prix le plus prestigieux du journalisme américain.
Tu veux un autre exemple ? Le Royaume du Danemark vient de créer un poste officiel d'ambassadeur au sein de la Silicon Valley pour négocier directement avec les GAFA.
http://www.lemonde.fr/big-browser/article/2017/02/07/le-danemark-va-envoyer-un-ambassadeur-numerique-au-pays-de-google-et-facebook_5076124_4832693.html
>Le puissant ici c'est l'état italien, pas la société pétrolière.
C'est désormais les Etats qui sont faibles et les entreprises qui sont puissantes. Le rapport de force qui a pu exister dans le passé s'est totalement inversé. Même un mec libéral comme Jacques Attali (Docteur en Economie + Énarque + Major de Promotion à l'Ecole Polytechnique) affirme dans sa conférence que les entreprises risquent de prendre le pouvoir et de mettre fin à la démocratie dans un monde de plus en plus chaotique et violent. Ces tribunaux arbitraux ne vont encore que pousser la balance vers le pouvoir privé.
This is a good read: http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Culture/dp/0375505245
If you're up for reading a real-live book, [Masters of Doom] (http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Culture/dp/0375505245) by David Kushner does a good job of explaining how Doom (and its predecessor Wolfenstein 3D) were revolutionary, and what different design philosophies came into play.
Doom is a particularly good place to start, as it kickstarted a new era of gaming, and involved not just devs we'd associate with fps games, but also designers like Sandy Peterson who would play a large role in the development of the real-time strategy and, to a lesser extent, the turn-based strategy genres.
> talks about playing Doom all the time.
For his next birthday or Christmas, get him this book: http://www.amazon.ca/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Culture/dp/0375505245
https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
WHAT HAPPENED:
A lot of finance people who are talking about this feel entitled and butthurt. The owners of those firms became billionaires using third world dictatorships, heaven forbid they don't get extraordinary earnings by destroying a economy of 40 million people.
Billions of suffering, in their pockets.
"Wealth is not a zero sum game" my ass.
All while the poor workers that are actually going to work everyday suffer
Those so called "self made men" zionist bankers make millions of innocent people suffer and threaten nations, preying on the week.
Every single one of them. They should be hanged.
They should all be fucking hanged, there need to be blood. When people have nothing to lose, they will just take their fucking heads off.
Confessions of an Economic Hitman was a really great book
http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
>>The Asian countries are largely undemocratic and uncosmopolitan and thus, I believe, more prone to divisiveness along racial boundaries.
No the source you gave me yourself says that China is less diverse than the US (3% vs 20%). Also you can't possibly think that China, Cambodia, Pakistan, and Burma are more democratic than any Western nation.
>Do you write speeches for the white house? This sounds like just total nonsense. http://www.amazon.com/Rogue-State-Guide-Worlds-Superpower/dp/1567513743/ and http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081/
Well that's just about one of the best compliments I've ever received haha. Also it's a well supported theory in international relations that nations with open trade are less likely to come into conflict.
>Racially charged crimes are a big problem in all these places with any sizable minority group.
Okay it was a bit hyperbolic of me top use"post-racial" but what i meant was that European countries largely don't come into conflict at all let alone on racial lines largely due to the moderating effect of the European Union
Confessions of an Economic Hitman
So, while this book is controversial, I think it still worth the read, just with a grain of salt, because even if it's not true, it's still a nice reminder that the "truth" you're told isn't necessarily the real truth.
Si, la rama que sobredimensiona la necesidad de infraestructura en los países para hacerles invertir en cosas que no necesitan y poder enchufarles créditos a altas tasas con la condición de que las obras las hagan con las empresas que ellos recomiendan. Fuente [Confessions of an Economic Hitman] (https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081/).
Read Confessions of an Economic Hitman
It talks about the stuff the US pulled in Iran (and in other countries).
He talks about "the process"; when a ruler like Mossadegh wants to nationalize a country's natural resource, the US will send in an "economic hitman" that will try to sweet-talk and bribe him into changing his mind. When that fails, they send in "the jackals", or CIA assassins who love to kill important people in plane crashes (they tried to kill Saddam Hussein, for example but failed because he was just so paranoid). If that fails, then they send in the military.
Read Confessions of an Economic Hitman, then The Secret History of the American Empire. These killings didn't just happen in the Middle East but in Asia, the Pacific and South America. Greedy and self-motivated behavior by the Corporatocracy.
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins
Who Will Tell The People?: The Betrayal Of American Democracy by William Greider
Great book on this is Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. Written by John Perkins an ex-CIA agent who was involved. We have a lot of blood on our hands around the world and it is all for corporations. http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1457702698&sr=8-1&keywords=confessions+of+an+economic+hitman
politics as usual, vous devriez lire confessions of an economic hitman, ca parle de comment les corporations américaines forcent les pays à les laisser faire ce qu'elles veulent
>Countries willingly provide their resources and let American and European multinational corporate conglomerates pillage and rape their lands for pennies.
It is obvious that you are not objective, and it sounds like you are only half awake. US bombs everyone that says "no" to "pillage" and "rape" of their lands. US funds coups to support anyone that allows that.
Read a little, it's good for you.
Again, the point is none of them are killing globally like the Americans are killing non-Americans.
Confessions of an Economic Hitman was probably my gateway drug (followed by Zinn) and is a fairly breezy read, though I know there are a lot of questions about the accuracy of it.
https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
You might like this: http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081 If you haven't read already
Confessions of an Economic Hitman. It's a fast, simple read about a guy who deliberately sabotages the economies of second and third world countries in order to establish US economic domination.
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
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The Secret History of the American Empire: The Truth About Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and How to Change the World
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both books by John Perkins
http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374177901&sr=1-1&keywords=john+perkins+confessions+of+an+economic+hitman
http://www.amazon.com/The-Secret-History-American-Empire/dp/0452289572/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374177858&sr=8-1&keywords=john+perkins+the+secret+history+of+the+american+empire
You also might be interested in some of these books as well.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Grand-Chessboard-Geostrategic-Imperatives/dp/0465027261
http://www.amazon.com/Legacy-Ashes-The-History-CIA/dp/0307389006
http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
We've fomented a ton of violence around the world, deliberately started wars, and killed elected leaders of other countries. Other countries have done and continue to do the same sorts of things, but we're far from the gleaming beacon of justice and goodwill toward men that we imagine ourselves as.
Check out Confessions of an Economic Hitman if you're curious about the darker side of American foreign policy.
Yes, it's basically the plot behind the non-fiction book The Confessions of an Economic Hitman. Seems like it's not just the USA and western banks doing this now China is cashed-up. Predatory finance. It's a boring and dry topic, and happens in the shadows because people pay more attention to sports and Kardashian's tits.
http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1291941908&sr=8-1
Just in case Confessions of an Economic Hit Man https://www.amazon.com/dp/0452287081
John Perkins, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.
That said, I've heard the Kennedy / Federal Reserve / Executive order 11110 conspiracy. I'm unconvinced.
Pro.
Con.
> Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
for the lazy - http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
A very long time ago Andre Gunder Frank and Sue Brandford and Bernardo Kucinski showed that barely 8% of the total of IMF and World Bank loans "given" to a country actually ever reach said country. The majority is never given out at all, but stays in the West to service odious "debts" that these countries supposedly owe. The rest of the money is then given to corrupt elites who share it among themselves.
These "debts" have usually been built up by Western countries giving loans to dictators they put in power, overthrowing democratically-elected politicians who tried to stand up to these banks. These dictators usually keep that loan money in Swiss bank accounts and spend it lavishly in the West. When they are overthrown themselves, the people they were oppressing are saddled with huge bills at exhorbitant interest rates.
Finally, former "economic hit man' John Perkins details that these infrastructure projects like damns and the like usually only benefit a small percentage at the top of society, were uneconomical to begin with, and were used as a trap to get poor countries indebted to rich ones so they lost their sovereignty.
Economists are, in fact, devils. It's possible you are too constructive for membership in the brotherhood of economists (who may actually run the world).
Source: confessions of an economic hitman by john perkins.
Yea actually I agree with this, I thought about it and I think unlocking weapons is not that big of a deal.
Yesterday I was thinking maybe the good in-between solution to this grind horror would be to have at least proper essence reward scaling as it sort of was in last beta. If I get 500 essence for W2 at recruit difficulty, I should get at like 1.5X or 2X of that for normal recruit run since its longer than weave. Than it should scale up, with difficulty so Legend should do I don't know ... 3 000 - 5000 or something ? And Cata should do at least 10 000 - 20 000. Because how many players can do it... at least it would now reward you something meaningful. If boxes don't provide crap... (another failed decision btw.)
If you are at the competence level that you can do Legend/Cataclysm ... than you should get crapload of that purple juice so you don't have to farm and slog thru recruit weaves because that is basically just waste of time and nobody will enjoy that.
So you would do few Cata runs and than you could upgrade your weave equip at least for one char for max level super fast and than the key part comes !
And I will again use Path of Exile, because they again solve this kind of problem easily ! And there is no need to try playing genious and invent some crazy mechanics when others already solved the problem
(I very much doubt anyone will argue that Sam Walton had dumb approach : https://www.amazon.com/Sam-Walton-Made-America/dp/0553562835 , short book, very relevant on this topic, the guy did very well with Walmart I think)
In short POE had one league called Delve, which is basically endless dungeon where you progress from easy to harder stuff, running thru "short chunks" of maps (see... kinda like weaves !) But if you play normal game... and do let's say whole storyline, and you are at level 60-65/100 , kinda buffed by that point, you sure don't want to go and run level 30 delve "chunks", forcing players to do that would be just dumb. So what happens there is that it automatically progresses for you up to certain level. It's like up to 60 or something. Which is +- where storyline ends and final endgame mapping system starts.
So... if you are 60-70 level and you did no Delve "chunks" at all, what you do now is just start running the level 60 chunks! And it doesn't feel like complete waste of time. Even if you are L75 lets say, you can do L60 chunks fast, get possibly some nice loot and it's very easy to burst thru 15 levels of chunks to get to L75 area where it will start getting more and more dangerous and interesting!
What a crazy concept! Right ?
So they could do the same thing here, make this kind of automatic progression or just let us farm the essences properly by core game hard content much faster if we can do the hard content so we can than burst thru the boring weaves fast. But imo there should be similar system to POE, meaning if I am L35 and doing Cataclysm with my group easily, I SURE AS HELL SHOULD NOT BE FORCED TO PLAY 100 OF EASY WEAVES so I can reach the Legend/Cata weaves.
I should be able to start with the "level 60 chunks like I can in POE" which would here translate to something like spot where Legend weaves starts. All the recruit/vet/champ weave chunks would get unlocked automatically as I would complete lets say all Helmgard maps on recruit/veteran/champ !
POE Delve Chart : https://www.goldkk.com/upload/20190220/6368627945052864627267035.png (You can go anywhere in the dungeon but down = higher level, up = easier, and the middle line is the one that will just progress automatically as you level UP your character so you don't have to do the stupid easy chunks when you are high level, up to mentioned certain point - the endgame/relatively hardcontent)
You forgot the big daddy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Is_a_Racket
http://warisaracket.org/
http://archive.org/details/WarIsARacket
And the other big one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit_Man
http://www.economichitman.com/
http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/1576753018
http://www.johnperkins.org/
When insiders do turn around and try to expose them they are vilified, shamed and crucified like Bradley Manning, Daniel Ellsberg (Pentagon Papers), Thomas Drake, Jesselyn Radack, Gwyneth Todd, etc
Daniel Ellsberg was hounded and shamed just like Wikileaks, Bradley Manning and Julian Assange are being now.
You might pick up and read the book: Confessions of an Economic Hitman
For politics there's a lot of heavy heavy stuff which is good but if you want something light and more story orientated but still good try Confessions of an Economic Hitman It's about how America came to dominate and exploit the third world.
If you can handle something a little heavier I'd suggest the free on-line copy of A People's History of the United States. It's an upbeat history of ordinary people struggling for their rights against the rich - stuff you don't get told at school.
Many people will suggest George Orwell's 1984 which is also free on-line but I'd read only half way through if you want to keep it a bit lighter because the ending is pretty goddam nasty and all the buzz words that the book entered into the English language (apart from "Room 101") are in the first half of the book.
For a great book on pre-history try Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel. Famous book with ideas you'll find very useful in conversations. It answers the question as to how come it was White Europeans going and beating up on everyone else instead of vice versa?
If you're not a conservative (and why would you be) you'll enjoy Bob Altemeyer's The Authoritarians. It's his research on why some people seem to act in irrational ways and it's free on-line again. Bonus: his writing style is very easy to read and it's short.
Send them a digital copy of The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy
Basically the book is about how many millionaires, while perhaps not minimalists per se, live very low key lives where you can't tell that they're rich. They live in middle class houses with middle class cars. The money is for security and the ability to do things should they want to. And they got the money by not being extravagant. The first rule of the book is 'Live below your means'.
All that said, I'd always err on the side of over-spending when it comes to one's kids. As others here have said, we don't know your situation so it difficult for us to judge.
I'm pretty sure the research comes from this book: https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
I own the 1996 version of the book. It stated, at the time, 80% of millionaires are first generation.
If you are a US citizen, the US Constitution and your state constitution. Oh, and the ridiculously long warning list that comes with oral contraceptives. In terms of books;
Your Money or Your Life
Millionaire Next Door
If you can find a copy of John Brunner's epic sci-fi The Sheep Look Up that's not at collector's prices, it's worth a read, and you're the right age.
Thanks! I'll definitely check it out. For financial purposes my friend told me to read The Millionaire Next Door. http://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
Millionaire Next Door. I read this one back in my 20's. Have lived modestly since then and don't regret not being a conspicuous consumer.
Kinsey's Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (I found this one in the library when I was a teenager. Girls masturbate and have orgasms? Cool!
Oh, sure; I'm a huge believer that we are not a classless society, though the demarcations I would make have more to do with how individuals handle money (and the reserves available to them) which then determines socioeconomic status, autonomy, and (as I noted above) ability to speak freely without being hampered by work considerations.
Part of the problem is that these lines may not land where we traditionally think of them. Meaning in the 16th century, the lines were clear: the aristocracy owned the means of production, the peasants worked for the aristocracy, and a small (but growing) "middle class", the supposed "petite bourgeoisie", who sat in the middle. If you were in the upper aristocratic class, you were rich; the middle class remained roughly in the middle wealth wise, the peasants were poor.
And these designations (rich, middle class, poor) also were related to relative autonomy: the rich have the autonomy to pursue "work" as the saw fit, and often saw themselves as caretakers of a legacy to pass down to their children. The middle class did not answer to the aristocracy and thus had greater political autonomy (and, as the middle class grew, so did many philosophies tied to it, such as Locke's notions of the pursuit of happiness, or Hume's observations on moral sentiments). The peasants were poor and had little (if any) voice, at least until recently.
But today? Fuck, it's all a blur.
You have ostensibly "rich" people who are paid extremely well but who are ultimately beholden to an employer for employment. You have people who make a solidly average income who save for a retirement of complete independence--who may never really be able to afford a luxury car but who can afford to take a year driving around the country. You have people with all the trappings of wealth (fancy cars, expensive houses, luxury everything) who are so leveraged to the hilt the first economic headwind knocks them to poverty faster than I can complete this sentence. You have the "millionaire next store", the family who lives average lives but who lived below their means for so long they no longer work for a living but live off their investments--yet hide their wealth so as not to stand out.
And hell, you have radio personalities who are trying to help create more "millionaires next store" by helping people get out of debt and start investing through living beneath their means. You even have groups here on Reddit devoted to /r/financialindependence.
----
So the whole notion of "class" becomes difficult to nail down in this country, not just because we're ostensibly a "classless society", but there is a severe disconnect between culture, wealth, financial independence and the freedom that brings.
----
More frustratingly I predict this will be downvoted to oblivion, because we also have a fucking huge blind spot in this country to what wealth is, what it means, and what it can do. Someone will undoubtedly sing the "but you can't save to retire unless you make a gazillion dollars a year, so take your white patriarchal bullshit out of here" song, while another will sing the "but it's so expensive I can't survive living here on my measly salary (that is twice or three times the national average)" song.
Hell, most people in our country couldn't name the three types of wealth, or characterize in real terms what the "means of production" is for professions like plumber or carpenter. A lot of folks certainly have no sense when it comes to financial matters.
Instead, to them, money is something only the lucky have, freedom is the freedom to buy two Ferraris and a Porsche, and the rest of us are going to die miserable lives of wretched poverty.
And when talking about economics, it's easier just to look at anonymized tax return data, group them into quintiles, and study that instead.
There's a good book I like called The Millionaire Next Door.
It details the types of lives most millionaires have. And how so many fly under the radar. You might be surprised who you know who's secretly quite well off. :)
Even tho they drive a 10 year old car and live in a moderate home.
You're going to need about 2 million saved/invested if you don't want to eat your seed corn (so to speak) and make that money last another 40 plus years.
You can invest directly with Vanguard, Schwab or Fidelity and avoid the sleazy bankers.
Are you in the military and have a TSP? It is a very good program. If you are working for a private contractor do they have a 401K and you should be investing in a Roth IRA.
I would recommend Four books to get you started:
https://www.amazon.com/Common-Sense-Mutual-Funds-Imperatives/dp/0471392286/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1498405283&sr=1-3&keywords=Common+sense+on+Mutual+funds
https://www.amazon.com/Bogleheads-Guide-Investing-Taylor-Larimore/dp/0470067365
https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1498405326&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Millionaire++next+door
https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Mind-Thomas-J-Stanley/dp/0740718584/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0740718584&pd_rd_r=ZAD0ZV4E79MXHZDZTE2B&pd_rd_w=SlHQm&pd_rd_wg=h8174&psc=1&refRID=ZAD0ZV4E79MXHZDZTE2B
>I guess what I want to do is a study of millionaires.
Someone beat you to it.
(A worthwhile read, if you haven't read it already. Practically the bible around here.)
Also read The Millionaire Next Door. There is a section specifically on the cost of financing & owning a vehicle. There is a comparison between buying a new car every four years, ten times (over a 40 year career) versus buying a new car every ten years, four times. The comparison allows for the additional maintenance in years 5 - 10.
Hint: the cost of financing is greater than you think.
May I suggest this book - your local library probably has it. It’s great reading and got me on the right track early. https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?adgrpid=54502717365&hvadid=274698299235&hvdev=m&hvlocphy=9029555&hvnetw=g&hvpos=1t2&hvqmt=e&hvrand=2846554625065398763&hvtargid=kwd-356177503417&hydadcr=15782_10362706&keywords=book+the+millionaire+next+door&qid=1557599919&s=gateway&sr=8-1
In the book the millionaire next door the author mentions how he meets a affluent couple who makes breaks even or even makes money buying and selling used cars every few years. They are on the extreme end of the ladder and the appeared to put a lot of time and research into finding used cars that sell well in their area. (It's been a year so so since I read the book, so don't quote me)
That gave the the impression that yes, you can come out even or even make money selling your car regularly. But it's a lot of work, research, and timing. If hunting the deal and selling the car isn't something you enjoy, I'm not sure it'd be a good idea.
Hi,
One thing I'm curious about is if you're really just looking to make 6 figures or if you're looking to be come a millionaire. Interestingly, those are different things. It gets into the Millionaire-next-door paradox. The majority of millionaires in the US aren't like pro basketball players or lawyers, but people like small business owners that own 3-4 dry cleaners.
Start with http://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417741382&sr=1-1&keywords=the+millionaire+next+door
Because it has a lot of important lessons. For example, most millionaires don't just make money (play offense) they save a lot (play defense). The book goes through cases with folks with millions in the bank that still clip coupons.
For me, the short answer is I spend less money.
The long answer, though, has to do with the YNAB method, reading some key financial books and ultimately changing the way I view money. Earlier this year my soon-to-be father-in-law gifted me The Millionaire Next Door. Then I read Your Money or Your Life. Those two books, combined with being so exhausted from living paycheck to paycheck, got me started down the path of actually really caring how I handled my money.
I had been using a basic spreadsheet to track income and expense but after finding YNAB, via Reddit of course, things just started to change. I stopped buying stupid shit I didn't need. I eliminated impulse buying. I stopped buying coffee and going out to eat a few times a week. Those little things add up. I saved for things I wanted instead of putting them on credit and paying for them later.
It sounds like you've got a lot of that under control already though. Like /u/ASK_IF_IM_PENGUIN said, it's the method. The four rules. You can absolutely incorporate those four rules into your existing spreadsheet and not pay a dime for the software. But the software they've developed is so goddamn good it just makes doing it myself so unappealing.
The other thing that helps is their support system. There is so much content available on YouTube. The podcast is awesome. You can even take their online courses for free.
Give the trial a go. You can use it fully featured for 34 days I think. There's a good chance it'll drop to $15 whenever the steam sale happens in a week or two. Pick it up then if you like it. If not, no harm!
With today’s financial products it’s easy to become a millionaire with a little discipline and a lot of time.
I’d recommend this book. https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
> I want a nice car - think BMW or Corvette.
Read this and this.
Cars aren't indicators of success. They are oftentimes indicators of poverty or middle class wealth bleeds. You need an emergency fund, need to max out your 401(k) / IRA, and be responsible. Don't throw good money after bad because you're emotional right now.
Similairly, it is the first generation(s) of imigrants who historically in America are very productive and start more businesses, while their children often don't inherit that trait at all, but instead already have the wealth they need because of their parents. Read about it in The millionaire Next Door (classic)
Feels like the wealth and riches are more a product of what makes a person productive and happy, but the wealth itself doesn't necessarily create more happiness when only inherited.
Give these books a read. All have something good to learn in them. No silver bullets, but good material to think about what you want from money and life. I'll let you figure out the details after you do some reading.
You are in a good starting point, you just need get focused on your goals.
>I'm talking about the caliber of wealth that doesn't really take the train and just takes black cars or has their own personal driver, helicopter even, etc.
lollollol
read this, may be hard work but worth it: https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
Actually, a good portion of the extremely wealthy act in frugal ways. This is what helped lead to their wealth. It was explored in the book The Millionaire Next Door.
Invest $4 into the book "The Millionaires Next Door." Your young and now is the time to learn about how to view money and buying things to "impress others."
http://www.amazon.com/The-Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising/dp/1589795474
I just came across this post via I-don't-know-how (this isn't my area of subreddit), but really enjoyed your posts.
> I was being "brainwashed" into choosing this life
What society thinks it knows about successful marriages couldn't be further from the truth. Given that you play the crucial role of housemaker, you will truly appreciate, and learn from, this read:
Millionaire Next Door
Research shows how vital you are to your family's success, and so many of your details line up with the demographic in the book. You are truly an unsung hero in society today, and a blessing to your family.
> I struggle with the opinions of others frequently as my friends will make snide/rude remarks regarding my life
Haters gonna hate. They wouldn't know what a strong woman looked like if they were slapped in the face by one. (You will really enjoy MND)
Masters of Doom
It's the the story of how Carmack and Romero basically revolutionized the video game world with the foundation of id Software and the creation of the Doom and Quake series.
It was published 10 years ago so it's a bit dated, but if you can get past that, Masters of Doom is a really great read.
Any books you'd recommend?
If you're taking suggestions I'd look at this one
Yes that one sorry I did not clarify further. https://www.amazon.ca/How-Fail-Almost-Everything-Still-ebook/dp/B00COOFBA4
I've found similarities between successful and those still trying about them using a system rather than goals. My friend decided to be good at sales and uses that system to teach others in his brokerage and has made millions. Look at the franchise model vs opening 1 really good restaurant. Usually the prior will succeed (obviously with proper processes aka systems in place)
The thing you have to realize is, even if you fail at something, which everyone does, they provide invaluable learning opportunities. Your life will go on, even if it might not be the ideal field of study, and you will have gained something in the process. If you want this idea fleshed out some more, I highly recommend Scott Adams (the Dilbert guy) book on this very subject, it will definitely change you view on this matter.
This book by Scott Adams (Dilbert Cartoonist) had a lot of these revelations and is surprisingly broad. For most people I think what stands out is to think of yourself as a moist programmable robot that can change even what you think you want through relatively simple actions
One of my favorite books makes great arguments for a lot of your points. He loves the idea of systems (over goals) but also dabbles in a lot of different things. I highly recommend reading it.
How to Fail at Everything and still Win Big
Love this book. Really helped me gain some perspective and approach challenges in a different way.
Start from here. http://www.amazon.in/The-Wealth-Nations-Adam-Smith/dp/0553585975?tag=googinhydr18418-21
The original title is "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations," but it is generally referred to as "The Wealth of Nations." It is a compilation of books written by Smith and if you are interested in it you can find one here and it looks like the kindle addition is free. I'm sure you could also find free ebook versions somewhere else.
Ryan Holiday is pretty good writer about Stoicism and the inside view of media and marketing. I generally like all the stuff he writes, and he seems to be on the side of Thiel this time. And I don't think he's politically biased, because Thiel was pro-Trump and Holiday was very anti-Trump.
I think this is the book
http://www.amazon.com/One-Up-Wall-Street-Already/dp/0743200403/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396303056&sr=1-1&keywords=peter+lynch
My first read into investing was One Up On Wall Street by Peter Lynch. He did brilliantly with Fidelity's Magellan Fund and managed 29% annual return when he was the manager so I figured it'd be a good read. It's not too out there with technicalities and such so I think it's a great place to start.
These two books will cost you $20 bucks. But will help you make mad gainz in the future/prevent you from YOLO losses.
https://www.amazon.com/Intelligent-Investor-Definitive-Investing-Essentials/dp/0060555661/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1494115578&sr=8-1&keywords=investing+books
OR
https://www.amazon.com/One-Up-Wall-Street-Already/dp/0743200403/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1494115558&sr=8-1&keywords=one+up+on+wall+street
Along with The Intelligent Investor I would like to recommend One Up On Wall Street as another one I would recommend.
These are investing and trading books I'd read. Even if you don't believe their strategy, others do, and that makes them important to read.
http://www.amazon.com/Reminiscences-Stock-Operator-Investment-Classics/dp/0471770884
http://www.amazon.com/Trading-Living-Psychology-Tactics-Management/dp/0471592242/ref=pd_sim_b_27
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393315290/$%7B0%7D
http://www.amazon.com/Technical-Analysis-Financial-Markets-Comprehensive/dp/0735200661/ref=pd_sim_b_28
http://www.amazon.com/One-Up-On-Wall-Street/dp/0743200403/ref=pd_sim_b_26
I havent read "Candlestick Charting Explained", but as far as candlestick charting goes... Steve Nison's "Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques" is considered the bible. Candlesticks is really a discussion on price action... I think candlesticks can get you into a lot of trouble.
I think that Edwards and Magee "Technical Analysis of Stock trends" is looked upon more more favorably than Murphy for an overview of TA and methods. Though, IMO they both leave a lot to be desired. Really the best way to learn technical analysis is to find someone who uses these methods to execute trades and can explain the reasoning and risk-reward metrics behind their trades. If this interests you, I recommend Peter Brandt https://www.peterlbrandt.com/ He has a track record and has even written a book.
If i were to recommend a couple books
For true beginners in investing and don't want to spend time doing the "work": I recommend "4 pillars of investing" it discusses asset allocation and investing in a broad sense 4 Pillars
For beginners that want an intro to stocks: Greenblatt's "Little Book that beats the market" is the best book that I know of for an intro to stock investing. And it can be read in one sitting. Little Book
If you want to be a more active trader/investor in the market then I recommend:
Oneil's [How to make money in stocks] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00916ARYS/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1)
Minervini's [Trade like a stock market wizard]
(https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C1NKPUE/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1)
Lynch's [One Up On Wall Street]
(https://www.amazon.com/One-Up-Wall-Street-Already/dp/0743200403/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8)
Cramer's [Real Money]
(https://www.amazon.com/Jim-Cramers-Real-Money-Investing/dp/0743224906/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0743224906&pd_rd_r=156ZB32KPJ8XN7V9K1HQ&pd_rd_w=Anlpz&pd_rd_wg=aZn7O&psc=1&refRID=156ZB32KPJ8XN7V9K1HQ)
Town's [Rule 1] (https://www.amazon.com/Rule-Strategy-Getting-Rich-Minutes-ebook/dp/B000GCFCQE/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1479913887&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=rule+no+1+investing)
These picks are all different styles and have something different to offer. A lot of the advice you are going to get is going to be bent towards value investing, diversification, and asset allocation... This is good advice, and will make you a smarter investor but not a richer one.
If you are interested in day trading or swing trading then you will probably need to find some personalized training and I wish you the best because there is a ton of crap out there... I dont think that many people are willing to put in the time and effort to be sucessful at this and so I don't recommend it.
Peter Lynch argues exactly the contrary in https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0743200403/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Didn't we already know this from the interviews with Trump and Ivanka as well as the book that he wrote about the recession?
Ivanka being interviewed about Trump in debt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCer9g-fh8o
Book: https://www.amazon.com/Trump-Art-Comeback-Donald-J/dp/0812929640
>Six years ago real estate developer Trump (Trump: The Art of the Deal, LJ 2/15/88) was several billion dollars in debt, owing in part, he says, to his complacency and the Tax Reform Act of 1986. Now, thanks to some skillful negotiating, hard work, and luck, he says he is back. Trump's goal for this third book is to provide "inspiration" for almost anyone, and some of his top-ten comeback tips are to play golf, stay focused, be paranoid, get even, and always have a prenuptial agreement. He even includes investment and marital advice he has offered to friends and acquaintances, e.g., "If he doesn't lose the ballbreaker, his career will go nowhere." Trump comes across as smug, crude, and self-impressed, but one remains fascinated with his business acumen. He dislikes shaking hands because it spreads germs and even informs readers to "simply bow" if they ever meet him. Recommended for curiosity seekers.?Bellinda Wise, Nassau Community Coll. Lib., Garden City, N.Y.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
This isn't news.
That's not what I said at all. And what do article headlines have to do with this? My point stands. You don't have to read everything to have a general idea of what it's about. I don't know how he fucked up his finances, or what he did to get out of it. But I have a general idea of what the book he wrote about that shit says because lots of other people have described what it says. My original point was that this dude has not tried to hide or obscure the fact that he went bankrupt. He openly talks about it, and the book describes it. I don't quite understand what about my original statement you're trying to refute at this point. The original article by OP is not news and not a secret, so unless it shows something that we don't already know, I don't get why it's such a story.
Here are some sources to have a general idea of what the book is about.
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0812929640/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_1H10CbGYBADJH
Wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump:_The_Art_of_the_Comeback
Some random website I found on google: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/275237.Trump
These might be the kind of thing you are looking for. I have read all, and liked them:
Xerox PARC was amazing, get yourself a copy of Dealers of Lightning if you haven't already read it.
If you just want a good read, I recommend Dealers of Lightning. It does a great job covering Xerox PARC's influence on computing through its history.
Dealers of Lightning A very eye-opening look at how Xerox invented... well, pretty much everything about modern computing. Laser printers, ethernet, GUIs, video output (instead of character output) all of it came out of an amazingly open R&D environment in one lab.
Or you can check out this book which will explain so much more of where Xerox was, what they had and how they lost it all
http://www.amazon.com/Dealers-Lightning-Xerox-PARC-Computer/dp/0887309895/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269090250&sr=8-1
https://www.amazon.com/Fish-That-Ate-Whale-Americas/dp/1250033314
For the interesting and brutal history of the United Fruit Company I recommend the book The Fish that Ate the Whale.
Oh you are in for such a treat!!
Let me take you down the rabbit hole and show you who Steve Jobs really is.
-----------------------
1997.
Apple has 90 days of money left. Out of desperation, Apple requests Steve Jobs to come back to Apple and help "make apple healthy" again.
He gave a status report at Macworld Expo, just days after he returned.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEHNrqPkefI
--------------------------------------
1998.
One year after Steve Jobs proposed a plan on how he will fix apple, he returns to Macworld to show the results of his toil.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2wLzTyk9oc
---------------------------------------------
1999.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrErYJhvAFo
----------------------------------------
After this, you have the famous presentations for the introduction of the ipod, iphone and ipad.
And if you are still not satisfied after watching all these videos, then I highly recommend this book
Here is the book - took me long enough to find it!
Title: Steve Jobs
Author: Walter Isaacson
Genre: Biography
Would love to get some biographies in here, and some motivation myself to read more of them. Walter Isaacson is also a fantastic biographer; I read his biography of Albert Einstein and it was incredible as he really has an eye for taking a person and using his or her life as a prism for society.
I miss Steve!
I'm currently reading Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
a good biography.
Revolution in The Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made
Written by a member of the original Mac team
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1449316247/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?qid=1394998489&sr=8-3&pi=SY200_QL40
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
The only official biography, very in depth on the later years, but glosses over a lot of the early years when he was in my opinion a giant prick.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1451648537/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1394998612&sr=8-2&pi=SY200_QL40
What the dormouse said: How the sixties counterculture shaped the Internet
I don't have anything Atari specific to recommend but this book is excellent and covers a lot of the early people and companies that invented all of this
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0143036769/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1394998761&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40
Since we are giving unsolicited reading advice, for you I suggest:
Antony Sutton's Wall St. Triology
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4565730-wall-street-and-the-bolshevik-revolution
John Perkins' Confessions of an Economic Hitman
http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/1576753018
G. Edward Griffins The Creature from Jekyl Island
http://www.amazon.com/Creature-Jekyll-Island-Federal-Reserve/dp/0912986212
when you can discuss the cited historical facts with some authority, let me know- in the mean time, feel free to send me a sample of your reading list
Two sources of the outrage, the first is the emotional outrage people see when watching people in dirt poor areas slaving away to make a luxury good for someone in another country. That just solicits outrage from many people.
The second source is from people who see large companies use their resources to keep poor people perpetually poor for personal gain.
You are right the people have a choice to either work or not to work, but if not working means death for you and your family it is not really a choice. Many factory workers are not just working for themselves, but for their family as a whole.
I would suggest a couple of books that go into the issues you are asking about pretty thoroughly.
Nickel and Dimed:
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
Also the first episode of 30 days
The 30 days episode shows how being poor can cause people to continuously be ground down to a point where even the smart and responsible ones find themselves unable to cope.
Reading that book made me absolutely hate our position in the world. I'm sure the interview is great but definitely recommend the book as well.
http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/1576753018
> The urge surfing recording is pretty good too. I think the key is that you have to keep doing something. Whenever I was bored and had nothing to do, I just defaulted to watching porn. Just fill your day with activities that are engaging. DON'T fill your day with stuff you know you won't do (for me it's reading, english class has ruined that for me lol) but do stuff you legitimately enjoy.
Hey man, you should try reading, there are men and women who spent like 35 years of wisdom in a field, and put their entire life's wisdom in a few pages. Schools ruined it for us but there are A LOT of books out there. Take for example Sam Walton, he made billions, richest man on Earth right? He wrote, on his deathbed, a book, and for like $7 on Amazon you can have the man's lifetime of wisdom.
https://www.amazon.com/Sam-Walton-Made-America/dp/0553562835/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1540042946&sr=8-3&keywords=made+in+america
Reading is AMAZING. All fields. I hope you keep an open mind. As soon as you close down and say "I know that" it's very dangerous, you go like blind.
https://www.amazon.com/Wealth-Nations-Bantam-Classics/dp/0553585975/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497634203&sr=8-1&keywords=wealth+of+nations
> I want to stick with mutual funds though
Only you can decide what's best for you. Try to stick w/ no-load funds.
> I think individual stocks are too risky
If you're trying to time the market, then, yes, you will lose money. If you become a day trader, you will lose money. But, do not be afraid of individual stocks. The goal is to accumulate stocks without selling them and to buy more during dips. The stock went down 10%? Buy more. It went down another 5%? Buy more. You have time on your hand. Diversification is key. Think long-term and be patient. One of Buffett's idioms is: "No matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take time. You can't produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant."
If you're still convinced about Mutual Funds, I recommend you read a book by Peter Lynch, a famed Fund manager. It's Beating The Streat. It's a book written in the mid-90's, but, the info. is very much current.
You may not have been alive fifteen years ago.
But if you like to read "personal finance"....you really NEED to read these.
Peter Lynch
https://www.amazon.com/One-Up-Wall-Street-Already/dp/0743200403
https://www.amazon.com/Beating-Street-Peter-Lynch/dp/0671891634/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Andrew Tobias
https://www.amazon.com/Only-Investment-Guide-Youll-Ever/dp/0544781937/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466002617&sr=1-1&keywords=andrew+tobias
Conspiracy by Ryan Holiday
https://www.amazon.com/Conspiracy-Peter-Gawker-Anatomy-Intrigue/dp/0735217645
It's about Peter Thiel bankrolling Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against Gawker. Read it in a few sittings.
Hogan did it with a billionaire bank rolling him though.
There is an amazing book on the whole thing
https://www.amazon.com/Conspiracy-Peter-Gawker-Anatomy-Intrigue/dp/0735217645
Seriously, that story is batshit crazy.
Ronaldo can't really claim Spiegel is damaging his reputation, if they are just reporting on a crime he did years ago.
Hogan's case, he was just shagging his friends wife (like any decent guy) and didn't realize his friend was setting him up to make money off the hidden video.
a new book just came out about the whole Gawker debacle.
It looks really good. Not so much about Hogan, but more about Peter Thiel and why he helped him/backstory on that.
+ryan_holiday:
To me, this story is not just the story of a ten year revenge plot, it's really the story of all conspiracies. You know we live in this world of conspiracy theories (I happen to live in Austin, the hometown of Alex Jones) but few actual conspiracies. But any student of history knows that the world often pivots on something a few people cooked up in secret. So to me, this book was a chance to tell that larger story. The fact that Thiel was willing to go on the record and explain his process was, in my view as an author, an unprecedented chance to lay out how power really works in a way that few have been able to before. It's ironic, Gawker's informal motto was that they showed "How Things Work"--the story behind the story. But in this case, they missed what was actually happening. So did everyone in the media. What I tried to do here was step back, take judgment out of the picture, and show what went down and why. I think the book captures that, but ultimately that will be for the readers to decide.
https://www.amazon.com/One-Up-Wall-Street-Already/dp/0743200403
I'd start by reading through Investopedia Stock Basics to get the general overview.
A few good books include:
Read One Up On Wall Street You'll see how these companies are pretty much the last thing you want to invest in if you want to make real money. Huge companies have slow growth and therefore little payoff.
The real question to ask is: Are we as individual investors able to sift through the current accounting tricks that companies use to get an accurate sense of what a company is actually earnings?
I would argue that the answer is no quite often with a lot of public companies. For example, there is a rule that companies don't have to list out any assets that are rated AAA. This rule pretty much created the housing bubble, since Goldman Sachs and other large banks lobbied the credit agencies ruthlessly for the AAA ratings on so many mortgage-backed securities. The tl;dr version is that the financial crisis was created out of a single oversight by the credit agencies.
The sad fact is that the enforcers (SEC) are much less powerful than those being enforced. There was a recent article published about how the CEO of Morgan Stanley was involved with an insider trading case, and when the SEC agent called to question Mack (the CEO), Mack had someone speak to the agent's boss' boss' boss' boss (up 4 tiers). This resulted in the agent being fired. He eventually was awarded wrongful termination, but the fact remains that wall-street is above investigation.
For these reasons, I stick to companies that have a long history of responsible practices. The list of those type of practices is long, but Peter Lynch goes through the best things to look for in One Up On Wall-Street. I would categorize this book as intermediate reading.
Maybe get some books to read on Buffett, Peter Lynch, dividend investing and understanding financial statements.
https://www.amazon.com/One-Up-Wall-Street-Already/dp/0743200403
https://www.amazon.com/Single-Best-Investment-Creating-Dividend/dp/0965175081
https://www.amazon.com/How-Read-Financial-Report-Wringing/dp/1118735846
I would start with a book that appeals to you. Is there any particular trading/investing style that speaks to you? Maybe long-term investing etc?
Peter Lynch's books are great, interesting reads and based on how individuals can find things wall street overlooks: https://www.amazon.com/One-Up-Wall-Street-Already/dp/0743200403/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
Well the thing with older cars is that there's never just "one last repair". When things start breaking, there's no end to it. I'm currently wondering about replacing my wife's 2011 Peugeot 508, the only standing cost for it is insurance at about €110/year, but it has cost me about €1800 in repairs in 9 months and I can only see it going downhill from there.
​
On the subject of luxury vehicles - a surefire way to never get rich is to try and look like one from the getgo. Sure it's pointless being 100% frugal in everything and as a young man one must also has a ride the ladies would be interested to ride in. But speaking from experience if I had only known anything about money that 7-series BMW on steamroller wheels I bought at 25yo would have been better off as a decent stock portfolio by now.
​
I suggest reading this book before going into stocks, definitely an eye-opener for me: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0743200403/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_1?smid=AR4DC9FBOWIX7&psc=1
​
What are you saving up for? The more money you just bury away, the less profit you see from your investments, as inflation eats it away.
Read the book, he literally wrote a book about it
Trump: The Art of the Comeback https://www.amazon.com/dp/0812929640/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_51vpDb5NPSQX3
He wrote an entire book about it. https://www.amazon.com/Trump-Art-Comeback-Donald-J/dp/0812929640
Sorry, Art of the Comeback. I get Trump's Art Of book titles confused.
Write-offs in publicly traded companies are overseen by the SEC. Write-offs in private holdings are not overseen at all.
He wrote a book about his losses in the 90s called "the art of the comeback"
Trump: The Art of the Comeback https://www.amazon.com/dp/0812929640/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_AUW0CbCBDJYMV
I'm pretty sure it's literally called the comeback.
https://www.amazon.com/Trump-Art-Comeback-Donald-J/dp/0812929640
If anyone would like to know more about the history of Parc, I'd recommend they pick up this book
Think you mean "Triumph of the Nerds" which is the documentary based on the book Accidental Empires, How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date written by Robert Cringely. A good read, IMO. (Revenge of the Nerds was a movie with Lewis, Gilbert and Booger!)
Also worth a read are: Dealers of Lightning, Xerox parc and the Dawn of the Computer Age by Michael Hiltzik; Go To by Steve Lohr; and Hard Drive, Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire by Wallace & Erickson
one i enjoyed was computing in the middle ages by Severo Ornstein. all sorts of fun stories in the early days of computing and scheduling. i found it a lot more enjoyable than turing's cathedral (i have a dislike of dyson's writing).
another one is dealers of lightning about the Xerox PARC days of creating the GUI, mouse, etc. also looks at how PARC failed to commercialize it due to fights within xerox.
A great book on some of the actual history of this is Dealers of Lightning
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0887309895
If anyone is really interested, there is a really good book about one of the main participants of this: Sam Zemmurray. The book is called The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King. As a Honduran, it totally blew my mind learning about what these people did.
and i'd just read The Fish that ate the Whale over summer, too
http://www.amazon.com/The-Fish-That-Ate-Whale/dp/1250033314
also, everyone knows Jamaicans are the ones with the cocaine. at least quantity.
I don't buy into the idea of freedom as an all or nothing option, and I certainly don't view it in a vacuum. I'm happy to take Amazon's freedom to be given to people. We aren't talking about a mom & pop local wholesaler, Amazon is a trillion dollar company with multi-trillion dollar potential (Jeff Bezos likely wants Amazon to replace the Internet and brick & mortar retail). I don't give a fuck about their "rights."
​
Read about United Fruit on Wikipedia or this book. Unchecked companies do shit like overthrow governments, let their workers get killed with untested chemicals, and all sorts of other unsavory behavior. Amazon treats their workers like garbage and even patented a worker cage, so I have no interest in giving a company like that the authority to determine which books pass the ethical sniff test. I am 100% OK with them being treated like a utility that people are entitled to, especially as a platform for selling books with controversial ideas.
Well, his biography is coming out next month. It will probably expanded significantly around that time.
http://www.amazon.com/Steve-Jobs-Walter-Isaacson/dp/1451648537
http://www.amazon.com/Steve-Jobs-Walter-Isaacson/dp/1451648537
steve jobs was a grade a+ cunt. there are even more examples in w. isaacson's book.
i'm not condoning such cuntish behaviour but today's business environment awards that exact kind of behaviour: be a loud, aggressive, manipulative, abusive, exploitative, lying cunt! if you're a hardworking, silent, keep your head low sort of person -like your parents told you to be-, you won't even pass job interviews for the jobs you're qualified to.
Well, Steve Jobs hated the idea of a stylus.
And personally, I think he was right. "God gave us 10 styluses..." adding a stylus took away from the simplistic nature of apple products and Jobs' vision: an easy to use integrated hardware-software bundle that would connect your entire life. And he did A pretty damn good job in my opinion. and now Apple is sticking to their guns with going for simplicity, and cutting the cords on the headphones.
EDIT: In the biographical book, Steve Jobs he even told Isaacson (the author) that he had plans to revolutionize the textbook industry, because he thought it ridiculous that a 21st century society had to carry around heavy textbooks to help with learning; and wanted to make something (an iPad app? a new tablet altogether? I dunno) to make textbook buying and using altogether through apple products. I wonder what it would've looked like because, as a university student, I see a desperate need for change in the textbook industry, but I won't talk about that here.
Also, I don't sponsor the book or author, I genuinely thought it was an excellent book
... Steve Jobs viewed his father "my sperm and egg bank. That's not harsh, it's just the way it was, a sperm bank thing, nothing more". I'm not sure what you're arguing about when his father had minimal impact on his early life.
Page 14 of his autobiography.
If you want look for immigrant success stories, there are better examples than Steve Jobs.
This book confirms it.
Read The Book.
It's a pretty awesome read.
Great read
Here's his book. http://www.amazon.com/Steve-Jobs-Walter-Isaacson/dp/1451648537/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1369047209&sr=1-1&keywords=jobs
But I'll warn you, it's extremely long and boring, and hugely redundant. It goes something like this:
Rinse and repeat for literally about 600 pages. After about 3 chapters, you're bored, because you know exactly what the next event is going to be. And I mean that. I still wonder why I suffered through the entire book instead of putting it down after a few chapters, I guess I figured I'd give him a chance to change... nope. Extremely well written book, by a very reputable and amazing author.... unfortunately, the subject matter was shit.
He was a thief, a narcissist, and a sociopath.
I just finished the Steve Jobs biography. It was pretty awesome and has me occasionally questioning my worldview and what I'm willing to accept from myself as "good enough." I've been recommending it to everyone who brings up books.
The military should be solely for the defense of our country and maintaining order WITH the cooperation of our allies, not a jobs program to expand our empire around the world.
> I joined the Army during a time of war.
When? WWII? Because that has been the last time we were truly at war in the conventional sense. Since then, regardless of whether intervention may be called for or not, we have played politics around the globe, setting up governments and tearing down others. But I'm sure they don't cover that in your officers' school.
If you would like to get started, give this a try:
> It didn't pay well at first, but that just made me work HARDER.
Ah, yes, the old "work ethic" principle. Plenty of people have worked "hard" over the generations. Do you know what those people are often called? Slaves.
They were also called immigrants, the poor, or any other large group of easily exploitable people that can be leveraged for the work they provide. That is what this country is really founded on. Their efforts.
But you'll still get the old mantra of "hard work" where people are slaving away, unable to pay attention to the world around them to even best look after their own situation. So that is how their lose their homes, pensions, healthcare, or even jobs. Because no one tells them that what they really need to do is work "smart" instead, and only look after themselves, otherwise they wouldn't have this blindside.
That is something the 1% does very well, because they know there are a large pool from the 99% that they can get to do their bidding, so they are very much able to concentrate on their own well-being and that of those like them. People like you actually although you don't realize it.
> I have multiple deployments to countries you "99%" would never occupy.
And yet we have a worse Gini index than all the industrialized countries and many of the regions you might included in your countries of deployment.
"As of 2006, the United States had one of the highest levels of income inequality, as measured through the Gini index, among high income countries, comparable to that of some middle income countries such as Russia or Turkey,[8] being one of only a few developed countries where inequality has increased since 1980."
We also have regions of the US that I'm sure you won't occupy in your day-to-day life either.
> Countries who know what hardship is.
Which are also countries that support the movement of the 99% here.
Do you know why that may be? Other than feeling a general solidarity with people who they can identify with, they also know that the 1% in the US, are the ones that can bully the rest of the world. The 1% where they live who may control the resources or maintain corruptions, are those that have more in common with those in the 1% here who behave the same way.
Take a look at Confessions of an Economic Hit Man to get an idea of what I'm talking about.
> This is my $50k a year occupation.
You think that is all it costs to support you being in uniform? You have no ideal of the true costs.
Estimates put the cost of a soldier in Afghanistan at $1 million dollars a year included or not things like:
None of this denies that this country requires a good defense.
None of it what you suggest however applies to that either, nor addresses the reasons why we have an Occupy Wall Street movement in the first place.
> I know what sacrifice is.
I seriously doubt that. For starters, you are still alive, which is more than I can say for my father-in-law or my wife's best friend's husband, the former who suffered with severe trauma for the rest of his life while defending many of those who he fought with, the latter who died from cancer as a direct cause of the Agent Orange he ended up literally showered with in the line of duty.
The people of this country all sacrifice on some level to see that you are able to serve in "your occupation" as you put it. Yet, when your peers, or our citizens want to exercises or maintain the rights that you are supposedly sworn to uphold they are told to "suck it".
You are a disgrace to all of your service men and women who will be returning home to foreclosed homes, no jobs, inadequate healthcare to address all of their needs from the service they gave to their country.
> I AM THE .001%
No you aren't, but you can keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better.
You are still part of the 99% and a dishonor to the uniform to not support upholding the constitution or wanting to hold those responsible for the fraud and corruption of our government and industry.
Disclaimer: No disrespect intended for the actual servicemen and women, past and present, who served both their country and their fellow citizens not turning their back on them while claiming to be part of an elite percentage. Those people have my utmost respect, political issues aside.
Edit2: This would be a good example of the people who deserve our respect and are more likely to be part of the .001% than the OP is: More Veterans Joining Occupy Wall Street Since Scott Olsen Was Shot in the Face
Confessions of an Economic Hitmen is also a good read on the subject. If you just want a gist of the book, here's a 1 min video
Funny, my PC interview is next monday. So, check (assuming I get nominated and then invited).
I'm sort of aware of the business-like nature of international development (in fact, read a book which actually made the accusation that the field was often used as a political weapon/line people's pockets, cue IMF rants etc, except this guy was like you, someone who used to work in the field, and got pretty high up it seems: http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/1576753018 ).
However, I didn't know any of those names you mentioned. So thanks for that, I'll be looking into them.
What sort of role could having a Masters in International Development play? What about having an MBA?
Ideally my 5 year plan looks something like this: Peace Corps, get out, get grad school (not sure whether that'll be soft or engineering). I'm banking on the fact that whatever ten year plan I set will probably be severely challenged by the man at the end of my five year plan, so I'm mostly trying to investigate my various options.
From what you've said, it sounds like an MBA would still track me to project management, but would it start me in a high position? Or would I still be better off moving in laterally as a professional?
Thanks a lot for the post, candid is valuable. Pointers to that reading material would be amazing. Screw that scenario with the unpaid internships that you painted, that sounds worse than the physics academia I'm running from (grad school, post doc, post doc, shitty first position in Nebraska, then finally move to somewhere big and get on the tenure track).
Also- is there much connection between Intellectual Property Law and International Development? I was thinking about IP law for a while but honestly I don't agree with many of the ways IP Law is used, if anything I'd be fighting against the corporations that can pay. Not sure if I want to do the time in corporate sell-out land, not as a lawyer anyway.
Read "Confessions of an Economic Hitman". It will make you angry.
http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/1576753018
You should check this book out. I agree that we can't get used to playing the victim card, but I think there definitely is a predatory nature to the IMF, World Trade Organization and World Bank.
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man turned me from Republican to Democrat in a single reading.
http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/1576753018
You are right. I meant Saudi Arabia. Sorry, I was confused between the two. Thank you for calling me out, I have corrected my original post.
I read it in [Confession's of an Economic Hit](http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/1576753018 "Amazon") [Man](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit_Man "wikipedia"). Perkins states that in a conversation with a Saudi diplomat in 1974 the diplomat remarked to Perkins that goats were the Saudi answer to their trash. He later goes on to state that once the U.S. got involved, in an effort to secure an oil source, they began to use garbage trucks.
I'm questioning your premise, not bringing down the OP. Chill out and learn how to respond to criticism.
edit: I know for sure that some of your examples are objectively wrong. To call Warren Buffet an idea guy is absolutely laughable and completely impractical as an example for the OP. Buffet worked his ass off as an employee for years, saving up money and eventually became a part of several investment partnerships, where he basically picked stocks and invested in business.
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Buffett
My source re: Larry Ellison is this book, https://www.amazon.com/Difference-Between-God-Larry-Ellison/dp/0060008768 - which I read about a decade ago.
re: Notch, just Google him.
Spreading this kind of misinformation is downright destructive for people who consider themselves 'idea people,' because it perpetuates a myth that some of the greatest entrepreneurs didn't have hard skills. Don't forget that Notch, Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates were all good to great programmers. Jobs also knew hardware. Notch had made a ton of games before Minecraft.
I just looked up Dan Peña and... he started in real estate and worked in investment banking and then as a CEO-for-hire before founding a company that forced him out a decade later. He has a book about how litigation is just a business tool. Not a great role model for OP, who wants to change the world with million-dollar ideas!
OP already has some hard skills - he can program! Don't blow smoke up his ass by telling him he can just take his brilliant ideas and get good at shopping them around.
Look, I've given a ton of advice in this thread. I'm not getting down on OP. They're obviously very enthusiastic and have a lot of energy.
But this idea that there's a class elite entrepreneurs that just shop ideas around? You can't name a single entrepreneur who actually did this! Ad agencies - really? Like Don Draper is a role model for an aspiring entrepreneur? And your other examples are about philosophers and writers. You can't even back up your own advice with hard facts about it. What you wrote sounds really inspiring, but I don't see anything in it that you can back up with data.
Giving bad advice is worse than giving none at all.
Relevant
This one, the audiobook has great ratings too. I wonder if I called him to ask his opinion, /u/ElonMuskOfficial?
This one?
http://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/0062301233
South Africa not South America and he went to Canada specifically to make it easier to get into the U.S. (he had dual citizenship on his mother's side). If you read this biography about him Elon specifically talks about knowing he needed to get to America from a very young age.
If you did some research, you'd see he's one of the most hands-on CEOs in industry. A rare example of both engineering and financial acumen.
You should read the Elon Musk book that just came out. It has some real fascinating stuff about his life, and the 3 companies he owns/started. The guy is amazing.
This book talks about it pretty extensively, absolutely incredible read, really helped me increase my respect for Musk tremendously:
https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/0062301233
Of course, much of that could have changed since then. It looks like the glass door rating for SpaceX has climbed a point or so since I looked at it about a year ago, so maybe there's been some change. One of my favorite Musk passages from the book has Musk talking about how he was disappointed that barely anybody was coming into work on the weekends any longer.
Elon Musk's biography, https://www.amazon.fr/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/0062301233
Firstly, how the hell do you "buy your way to riches"? That makes no sense.
Secondly, he has never written an autobiography that I am aware of. I. Referring to this book by Ashley Vance: Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062301233/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_snFACb7TPJPSK
Lastly, your info on his companies is garbage. Look up the Tesla model 3. And selling the one share you owned of tesla is meaningless. If you have no idea about a certain company nor its mission, dont buy its stock.
I enjoyed the article, thanks for the link OP.
A lot of people are misreading into this or blowing it off as luck or circumstance. Even the article itself explains that it is his decisions that have been a major deciding factor in his life. Hard work and education can get results.
It looks like a lot of the article's source material is Ashlee Vance's biography on Elon. Looks like I'll go ahead and pick it up! link
Can you explain what you mean by 'get'? I bought the ebook from Amazon.ca a while ago so I feel like I must be misunderstanding you.
Former Head of Talent acquisition at SpaceX Dolly Singh linked to this book. Available next year though.
Sa biographie d'Ashlee Vance : https://www.amazon.fr/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/0062301233. J'ai le livre à la maison, mais je t'avouerais que j'ai la flemme de chercher le numéro de la page ;)
https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/0062301233/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1522334759&sr=8-3&keywords=elon+musk&dpID=5174GQsw2oL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch
I don't know his reasons. Personally, I like to turn it around and consider that free markets are a pressure that causes a mad competitive rush in any 'healthy' industry, and that this hasn't been occurring in space. I've worked as part of that in console game development (is this worth 80-hour weeks?), and have known others with such workloads in advertising, to put that in some perspective.. and there are plenty more industries where you can find this behavior. The fact that it hasn't been occurring as much in space is an unfortunate consequence of tough barriers to entry, cronyism, a culture of irrational risk-aversion (I call it irrational because failure to get us living in space would eventually kill us all, there's sufficient reason to try and avoid failure anyway even if just looking at cost of rockets and cargo, and there are plenty of people who are willing to face much greater risk for a worthy cause), partisan politics and 4-year terms, and other reasons. Elon's been trying to bootstrap a proper competitive industry so that we can get a more appropriate amount of capital flowing into it so that we might get closer to achieving a rate of progress in this area that's more in line with humanity's capacity - something closer to the rate of progress that he has seen first-hand in software development (he's worked on console games too actually.. the high calibre of workers and the hours:value-to-humanity ratio gets one thinking..).. and that he had come to expect is achievable based on what he had witnessed in that field.
Aside from the waitbutwhy post I linked before, Elon Musk's biography seems to help explain his perspective as well (my understanding is that although not everything's entirely accurate, it's largely right overall): https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/0062301233
For 2016 I am working on opening a second location for my IT services company in Detroit and growing my client base.
Here are a few books that I really enjoyed.
Without Their Permission by Alexis Ohanian
I found this book inspiring and really showed me the persistence that he has to keep going and the value of just reaching out to other business owners to get things going.
Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance
WOW, Elon is very driven, very focused and keeps his companies on the cutting edge by investing heavily on growth and innovation. He has a very clear vision for his companies with an exit strategy for himself that includes retirement on Mars. That sounds very far out but he has thought so far ahead and to calculate the launch schedules needed to make populating Mars viable.
Smarter Than You Think
This is a good book showcasing how technology is enabling those you who use it in new and creative ways to work and think more efficiently.
Screw Business as Usual
I am a big fan of Richard Branson and in this book he showcases how he has been disruptive to the establishment while at the same time being ethical and environmentally friendly. He touches on social issues and creative ways he has solved those issues.
The Go Giver
This short book by Bob Burg is a story driven book about a fictional character named Joe who is working hard to be more successful but seems to keep falling short. Joe is introduced to Pindar & he introduces Joe to a series of successful “go-givers”. This book showcases the power of connecting with other successful people and show their willingness to help.
I listen to a lot of podcasts mostly IT industry related but there are are good for business
The Art of Charm
They have some great topics on self growth or just ways to handle life situations. Their recent episode with Jay Samit was really good
Triangulation on Twit
I listen to this podcast based on who the guest is. Leo does a good job interviewing and keeping the conversation moving forward.
Entrepreneur on Fire
While I am not the biggest fan of the pumped up over the top style of this podcast they do have some great guests on here that share their failures and successes.
Shit man, big oil CEOs deal in things much worse than taking money from the government. They don't have to list it as an energy subsidy. They got like two lobbyists for every person in government, they write the damn laws and tax code, particularly during republican "leadership."
If you want to know more about just how corrupt the oil industry is, this is a recommended read: https://www.amazon.com/Private-Empire-ExxonMobil-American-Power/dp/0143123548/
I remember it from Masters of Doom.
Great book.
http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Culture/dp/0375505245
No, the original company went bankrupt so they asked the game's creator and he said it was fine.
You can read about it in one of the coolest books ever.
I've always wanted to read Masters of Doom. I don't have a credit card so I can't order it, and I haven't been able to find a torrent or anything of it. I would be pretty grateful if you could find it for me :)
You should read Masters of Doom or at least the first few chapters.
It details how they went about making the game and creating id software. Really engrossing stuff.
I think we've reached the point where we've each laid out what we have to say and gotten whatever clarification we can from one another. Thanks for the discussion and maybe we'll talk again.
Probably the one outstanding issue is you asked for a source to explain how the Oil Embargo (that extended to 1974, I just learned) was a major influence on US policy in the Middle East. My belief was formed by two books, Planet of Slums and Confessions of an Economic Hitman.
They're great books, and I totally recommend them, but they don't make for great proof (if that's what you're asking for) in an internet discussion. Let me know if you read either, because I'd really like to hear what you think!
Thanks again.
His book is an absolute must read.
Relevant
http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
Relevant reading: Confessions of an Economic Hitman..
I'll leave this right here for you... http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
Kinda funny you mention that. For a overall left leaning place, reddit sure has its share of multiple personalities.
I think we retain our status mostly by this and something along these lines. We really don't seem to be that awesome anymore except maybe to the infantile countries who like grandpa's war stories but aren't old enough to understand that he lives mostly alone because he molested a few children. Or the ones we pay to say we're awesome like Saudi Arabia.
Not directly related but eyeopening nonetheless... Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins
zero - The Biography of a dangerous Idea
Salt
1421
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
> An empire is where the occupying force absorbs the country it has invaded,
Such a definition ignores over a century of real-life experience with and writing and theorizing about neo-colonialism.
For Americans, neo-colonialism is best illustrated by the Philippines. We supposedly gave the Philippines "independence" after WWII.
The reality is that we installed and supported a puppet dictator in the Philippines, giving him a cut of money for the trouble of ruling the country. Meanwhile, despite "independence" the US controlled the Filipino economy directly and indirectly pulled the strings in the country.
The US was a relative late-comer to neo-colonialism. The British Empire and others were using neo-colonial tactics long before WWII.
FWIW, the book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man may be an enlightened read for you...
Confessions of an Economic Hitman is available for ONE CENT (used) on amazon...
...so is The Secret History of the American Empire
http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411930644&sr=1-3&keywords=john+perkins
http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
>I think madamebo3's comment was in reference to what you said regarding the relationship between the U.S. and China, not towards what you said about the IMF and third world nations. Those are two very distinct arguments.
NO, they are exactly the same argument. If you are indebted to another nation as extensively as we will be soon, you are enslaved. The creditors can, and will force austerity measures on the debtors and even go so far as creating a revolution if the government does not comply. We (the US) and the IMF have done that many times, and if the US continues on the path it is on then it WILL be subject to those same actions.
If you think the end result has to be "if you don't pay, we'll go over to freely rape, pillage and burn." then you need to sit down and read Perkins book "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" so you can learn how all that messy stuff has been sidestepped.
The video makes me fearful of what the idiots in Washington are doing - THEY are the ones who are selling us into slavery - and NOT fearful of the Chinese.
this sounds like something out of Confessions of an Economic Hitman
No they won't. America is the boss. Anybody who tries to mess with American exports will get bounced out of office.
who do you think you are kidding? The function of the World Bank
is to strip mine the world's poor countries of their resources, thru odious debt,
for their real clients: the West's largest banking, government
and industrial establishments, as they have managed to do now
throughout Africa and South America by making loans to assholes
who shaft their citizens on a regular basis.
http://almariam.com/2015/02/08/ethiopias-odious-debt-to-the-odious-world-bank/
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Bank#Criticism
https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
Poor World Bank, so often disappointed in their corrupt third world
dictatorships. Thank god the World Bank solders on undeterred, looking
for that one corrupt third world dictator who won't impoverish and
enslave his subjects, sell off their physical birthrights, then take the money
and run off to Switzerland.
> I mostly mean that I can go in public and say vile shit about our president, I can kiss a person of the same gender. I can also, as Steven Segal did, show obvious support for Putin and Russia. I can say obscenities, I can produce independent movies about our own country's war crimes.
That's because to those in power, gay marriage matters not. The locals can fight over it while those in power stay in power. However, you're really exaggerating gay rights in the US. There's still many states where you can get fired for being gay. And queer bashings still happen. And, just a fun fact, a higher percent of black men are in prison right now in the U.S. then during South African apartheid.
>systematic oppression of free speech, manipulation of public opinion, intentional data distortion that happens every day in Russia. Why, as an academic, would I want to be a coerced empty voice?
The media system is run by a group of 5 or 6 oligarchic companies. It's not state run like in Russia, but it's still pretty bad, IMO. Yes, you can make your own shitty blog, no you won't change the public opinion with it.
>There is a reason Russia's population has been sinking like the Titanic and their male life expectancy is pitiable. That isn't the West's fault!
Never said it is.
>Bear in mind also that Russian exploitation of Belarus and Ukraine led starving citizens to cannibalism and killed millions (~1933).
If I can bring up atrocities that the U.S. did back then... There's just so many. I'm going to ignore that and lead to the assumption that both governments have changed, and the cold war made both do some shady shit.
>They killed many more within their own borders. Again, can America be blamed for the parts they have inflicted on themselves?
Again, past. However, how many Natives has the U.S. killed? And put into reservations and then taken their resources after finding them in the tribal lands? This is all recent stuff.
>If Russia has tried to do what the US did during the Iraq War with misleading information, they have achieved only a piecemeal farce.
Maybe outside of Russia, yes. But inside? They are doing fine.
>The achilles heal of their previously-growing economy is exposed to the world.
Gas? It was not exposed, it was well known. And They are getting more and more connected to China.
>Also, don't forget how many of the internationally rich are indeed Russians themselves.
There's a few. However, the majority of them are bankers, politicians, and businessmen. And almost all are from the U.S. and Western Europe.
Want actual examples of what the U.S. does?
http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
Or go look up the Banana wars, Pinochet, Depleted Uranium in Iraq, the deals that the IMF and World Bank give nations that give it money in exchange for austerity measures that take away money from the people in governments. It doesn't matter to they whether or not gays can get married.
I'm not exactly pro-Russia. I'm Anti-U.S. And there is a long history of the U.S. forcing revolutions in regions it deems unfriendly, which is where Maiden started. And before you say I'm wrong, seriously, look up Pinochet. Look up the Bay of Pigs. Or here, just look through this list.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covert_United_States_foreign_regime_change_actions
The story of Pinoche and Chile is just one of many very important examples in history where the elites have run this EXACT same operation. Howard Zinn is a great historian at divulging many of these stories. They even made one into a graphic novel.
https://www.amazon.com/Peoples-History-American-Empire-Adaptation/dp/0805087443
Also excellent first-hand account of this tactic is John Perkins' Confessions of an Economic Hitman
https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
These 2 alone will get you pointed in the right direction for learning the true history of US/western elites/corporatocracy impirialism. You will also see the correlation between these and what they are trying to pull here and now in the US.
> It's the same thing the World Bank does..give poor countries too big a loan on purpose so Western companies can take over key resources when they default after failing to pay after a few years
Valid concern. Confessions of an Economic Hitman is a good read if you haven't checked it out yet.
It works.
"Confession of an Economic Hitman"(https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081)"
>The first link you posted is merely a PDF document from the CIA reporting on Syria.
Ha, I thought this was sarcasm, then you went on and made the most retarded argument about how official documents arent evidence because of their size (this document in particular is 28 pages). Good luck using that one in court.
What the fuck do you think intelligence agencies do? The Art of War is from 5th century BC. People have been mastering this craft for over a thousand years. Theres institutes dedicated only to writing up new ideas, from overthrowing governments to you-fucking-name-it, using memetics for population control
If a bank has been robbed, and in my bookcase, you find the plans to rob that bank in particular, no mather how old those plans are, or how thick the plan is, it is reason for suspicion to say the least. In the case of EU/USA deliberatly creating ISIS, not just this document but papertrails, pictures, emails have been released. You're just waiting for the unbiased truthspeakers CNN to cover it.
About books, here's one, go ahead and read up what the founding fathers wrote on criminal governments and militia. Or read this book about the CIA using 'Economic Hitmen'.
Or see what information has come up thanks to the Freedom of Information act..
Confession of an Economic Hitman
Worthwhile reading on this topic
http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
This is an important book for historical context: http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1422297875&sr=1-1&keywords=confessions+of+an+economic+hitman
"I care not what puppet is placed upon the throne of England to rule the Empire on which the sun never sets. The man who controls Britain's money supply controls the British Empire, and I control the British money supply." - Nathan Rothschild
The people breaking the banking/money laws are also associated with those making the laws, thus they never get in trouble. Look who is in jail for the 2008 financial crash. This kind of economic warfare is arguable more destructive. Haven't read this book myself but it gets mentioned a lot when talking about "economic warfare" http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
The book is "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" by John Perkins.
It's a very good book.
And relevant to the post yesterday about Obama's work in the 1980s for Business International Corporation as the consulting BIC did (at least officially) may be somewhat similar to the consulting Perkins did.
You do realize the CIA does/has done this with great success many times in history...
https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
Not exactly what you're looking for, but I'd like to recommend Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.
Here is a short (2 min) cartoon video that covers the main theme of the book: The Economic Hitmen
I'd also recommend The Forever War.
For everyone that 'agrees' with the sentiment of this meme, I highly recommend the book "Confessions of an Economic Hitman". It is an amazing book, and truly eye opening.
> EDITORIAL REVIEWS
>
> Amazon.com Review
> John Perkins started and stopped writing Confessions of an Economic Hit Man four times over 20 years. He says he was threatened and bribed in an effort to kill the project, but after 9/11 he finally decided to go through with this expose of his former professional life. Perkins, a former chief economist at Boston strategic-consulting firm Chas. T. Main, says he was an "economic hit man" for 10 years, helping U.S. intelligence agencies and multinationals cajole and blackmail foreign leaders into serving U.S. foreign policy and awarding lucrative contracts to American business. "Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars," Perkins writes. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man is an extraordinary and gripping tale of intrigue and dark machinations. Think John Le Carré, except it's a true story.
>
> Perkins writes that his economic projections cooked the books Enron-style to convince foreign governments to accept billions of dollars of loans from the World Bank and other institutions to build dams, airports, electric grids, and other infrastructure he knew they couldn't afford. The loans were given on condition that construction and engineering contracts went to U.S. companies. Often, the money would simply be transferred from one bank account in Washington, D.C., to another one in New York or San Francisco. The deals were smoothed over with bribes for foreign officials, but it was the taxpayers in the foreign countries who had to pay back the loans. When their governments couldn't do so, as was often the case, the U.S. or its henchmen at the World Bank or International Monetary Fund would step in and essentially place the country in trusteeship, dictating everything from its spending budget to security agreements and even its United Nations votes. It was, Perkins writes, a clever way for the U.S. to expand its "empire" at the expense of Third World citizens. While at times he seems a little overly focused on conspiracies, perhaps that's not surprising considering the life he's led. --Alex Roslin --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.
>
> From Publishers Weekly
> Perkins spent the 1970s working as an economic planner for an international consulting firm, a job that took him to exotic locales like Indonesia and Panama, helping wealthy corporations exploit developing nations as, he claims, a not entirely unwitting front for the National Security Agency. He says he was trained early in his career by a glamorous older woman as one of many "economic hit men" advancing the cause of corporate hegemony. He also says he has wanted to tell his story for the last two decades, but his shadowy masters have either bought him off or threatened him until now. The story as presented is implausible to say the least, offering so few details that Perkins often seems paranoid, and the simplistic political analysis doesn’t enhance his credibility. Despite the claim that his work left him wracked with guilt, the artless prose is emotionally flat and generally comes across as a personal crisis of conscience blown up to monstrous proportions, casting Perkins as a victim not only of his own neuroses over class and money but of dark forces beyond his control. His claim to have assisted the House of Saud in strengthening its ties to American power brokers may be timely enough to attract some attention, but the yarn he spins is ultimately unconvincing, except perhaps to conspiracy buffs.
I'm not aware of the exact details of this case, but this book is recommended reading for anyone interested in this type of Geo-Politics.
https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
Sadly, this.
Confessions of an Economic Hit man.
Welcome! Here are some resources I recommend:
Books
Films
Short videos
Subreddits
Other
Can we trust Eric Holder? Why did Obama appoint this guy as Attorney General?
“Most notorious was his role defending the food giant Chiquita Brands International, Inc., whose multimillionaire executives were facing potential charges of aiding terrorism because of their financing and arming of right-wing death squads in Colombia. Using his Justice Department connections—and taking advantage of the Bush administration's sympathy for the Colombian fascists
—Holder managed to get Chiquita off the hook with a small fine, despite overwhelming evidence that it had hired gunmen to kidnap, torture and murder Colombian workers, peasants and union officials.”
http://www.inteldaily.com/news/172/ARTICLE/9333/2009-01-20.html
According to John Perkins “Economic Hit Man” the Bush family owns a stake in Chiquita http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216085881&sr=1-1
This company used to be United Fruit who was responsible for the 1954 coup in Guatemala. The coup over threw Jacobo Arbenz Guzman. Arbenz nationalized the land in the country taking it away from United Fruit to giving it back to the poor.
http://mrxfromplanetx.com/secret-government (1987 Bill Moyers PBS Documentary)
Jesse Ventura: “Politics is like pro wrestling.” On the camera they pretend to hate each other, but when they're off the camera they're all best friends and go out to dinner together http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7bCkfXlXcM
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
Perhaps everyone should take a look at this book and then you won't be so surprised by these disclosures.
Sounds like a good read. Thanks!
EDIT: Another GREAT read on how the CIA really operates as the muscle for the NWO everybody should ready Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins.
https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
SeekFindKnockOpen: ^^original ^^reddit ^^link
Required reading for knowing about the corruption:
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
The Secret History of the American Empire: The Truth About Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and How to Change the World
23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism and the video
Actually we probably agree on most things (except the rioting, my heroes have always been pacifists Frederick Douglas, Susan Anthony, Thoreau, Gandhi and King). I have ordered the Marjorie Kelly book you recommended. You might be interested in this podcast or this book. I was suggesting we write to our representatives as a small step but most people I know are too lazy or brainwashed to even attempt any action. Good luck with the unionizing - here's some inspiration
I fail to see where I suggested that socialism is "the answer". There is no "the answer". Any and all attempts to find and then impose "the answer" are doomed to produce more misery than they may alleviate.
>There is no possible way to have socialism and still continue your lifestyle, which is growing at a constant and steady rate.
I hope that you didn't get this piece of propaganda
from that nice history class. You might like to check out the standard of living in countries like Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Denmark before you pronounce such a remarkable faith in American brand Capitalism.
My reply above was intended to help you find out that there never has been this "golden American Age" that you lamented above. I'm impressed that your teacher was able to use Zinn even in part. Nevertheless I suggest that you read the whole of it.
This isn't by chance and it's not just the CF. Sadly this is the way the rich have stolen everything from the poor countries and even bankrupted them while helping them.
Confessions of an Economic Hitman
https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1526955599&sr=8-2&keywords=confessions+of+an+economic+hitman
Sorry, you don't understand how all those are connected together? Ok, I will be more than glad to inform you.
First, imperialism and its relationship to our recent foreign policy disasters:
http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/18sirg/hubris_new_documentary_reexamines_the_iraq_war/c8hpd0t?context=3
Imperialism and its relation to Islamic terrorism:
http://www.independent.org/guncontrol/?s=twb
The economics of imperialism. What drives it, and its relation to neoliberalism:
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/imp-hsc/
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0452287081
Please feel free to ask if you have any questions.
And I hope you don't go all like "WAAAaaah! Book learnin'? I don't need no stinkin' book learnin' Rachel MadCow and MSNBC tell me everything I need to know! WaaaaAAAh!" like so many of the BlackBushsheep are wont to do.
Here is the mobile version of your link
I don't change prices very often since it just seems like it would be annoying if I were a customer. Technically I do make lots of changes to pricing and plans, just not "in production" and instead in the design phase via user studies.
Yes, I'm a technical founder. Changing pricing for me is as simple as editing some numbers in a text editor and publishing.
People responded positively because they loved the product and I priced it as low as possible. Just before I started working on my product I read Sam Walton's bio and loved the passages about pricing. I'm working on a consumer product which has a physical component, so the fulfillment and other infrastructure costs make pricing a bit more challenging than a pure software product. There's a fine line between setting prices so people from all walks of life can enjoy my product and paying my bills.
Not paranoid. I just read Confessions of an Economic Hitman
You're not arguing with my point of view, you are arguing with this guy. I just happen to believe his story.
I can't say I'm not a little bit skeptical about this book, I can say it was an eye opener and it got me interested in pursuing more information.
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
There's a book about this
Banks and advisers from organizations like WFG are essentially just sales people for products. They aren't going to help you manage your money. Luckily, there's a wealth of information out there to help you do this, mostly for free. You will be surprised to learn that managing your money really comes down to very basic principles that can be hard to stay committed to.
Try checking out some of these great subs:
r/ynab
r/personalfinance
r/startups
r/entrepreneur
Also, you can check out these books. They sound gimmicky but they really do have good information about managing your money:
Rich Dad, Poor Dad
The Millionaire Next Door
If you're looking to hire someone, as others have pointed out look for a Certified Financial Planner, not an adviser.
not true.
https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
Congratulations on your new job!
I applaud your desire to learn more about investing and finances. One of the earliest influences (and had the biggest impact) on my life in that area was my high school American History teacher, and I'll never forget what he taught me. I learned that it was important to save early, use the power of compounding, and take advantage of employer matching whenever it is offered. If you can do the same for your students, you will change their family trees forever.
You don't need a financial planner. They don't have a crystal ball that tells them how the markets are going to perform. You have what it takes to become educated in the world of finance, and are intelligent enough to choose your own investments. It's not even that complicated, what it boils down to is LBYM (living below your means), saving regularly, and investing your savings. Read about, and practice the Bogleheads investment philosophy. There is a lot of information in that link, so take your time and go through it all. If you want some reading that isn't so dry, you can check out The Wealthy Barber from your library. The Millionaire Next Door is also a great read. And if you want an inspirational read, The Millionaire In You is one of my all time favorite personal finance books.
Good luck!
www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
I apologize if someone has already mentioned this book (I tried to make sure no one hadn't), but I would suggest reading The Millionaire Next Door. It talks about the common characteristics millionaires have in common, which, shocker, normal people can have too, and it should help reinforce the ideas others have been sharing in the comments.
https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
Or you can check if your local library has it.
Your Money or Your Life was a pretty good book that explained this well. The audiobook is narrated by the author and if given the chance, I'd hold her underwater until the bubbles stopped. She had the worst voice I've ever heard.
The Millionaire Fastlane was also a readyy good read. Highly recommended.
The Millionaire Next Door was a fantastic read and the book that got me started thinking about financial independence and the concept of FIRE. It's a bit dated (late 90s I think) but still some amazing information in there.
Check us out at /r/financialindependence and /r/leanfire. If you haven't, definitely visit /r/personalfinance and check out the sidebar and wiki - there's some AMAZING information and guides for all ages and walks of life.
I wish so hard that I found out about this stuff and had the resources available now when I was 18, and not when I turned 31. But oh well, such is life.
/u/typhuslol do feel free to PM me if you want to chat! I'm happy to share the lessons I've learned in the past few years of pursuing financial independence!
maybe he's smart enough to not spend all his money on status items like expensive clothing.
https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
people who actually have actual wealth (savings and investments) are less likely to buy costly clothes, wristwatches, etc.
Buffet owns and manages businesses, not just investing in stocks. You become a business owner by either buying or starting your own business - think about that.
You will gain experience if you work in a large company, but for that you need qualifications. Maybe a business degree, accounting qualifications, MBA, or similar.
Try reading "The Millionaire Next Door". You can learn how to become a millionaire but becoming a billionaire is another proposition.
The internet can not tell you what to do. You need to make your own decisions.
eg for me
My debts are as follows:
My soon-to-be spouse has misc medical debt of about $3,000 and student loan debt of ~$40,000. We are down to one income right now and are about to get a second income going of an additional $30k+
My credit card had once reached just over $12,000. I was able to knock out $10,000 in six months.
We are using the principals outlined by NY Times best-selling author and national radio talk show host, Dave Ramsey. His book, "The Total Money Makeover" has changed the way we think about debt and money. You can listen to his radio show and podcast online by CLICKING HERE
We are using the 7 baby-steps and if all goes as planned, all the debts we have combined and our home (worth about $120k) will be paid for.
The 7 baby-steps are....
My goal is to eliminate the need to borrow money and to get my credit score from in the 800's to zero. I plan to pay cash for newer used cars going forward and to never have a car payment again. Here's a great article on how to never have a car payment again.... CLICK HERE For house payments, I will only ever mortgage a home with more a 15-yr fixed rate mortgage where the payment is at or below 25% of my monthly income.
I have put a 20 year term-life policy in place for myself equivalent to 12 times my annual income. This will cover use for 9 years of our debt free journey + 11 more years to grow our wealth. In the event of my death, my spouse will be able to be able to pay off the home and invest the remaining money to generate a replacement income.
We plan to invest money once we are debt free and start buying rental properties with cash.
Books I recommend to people to read include....
Congratulations on your winnings. If you end up spending any time at /r/personalfinanace, you'll note that one of the handfull of books they recommend in their sidebar is "The Millionaire Next Door". It's a fantastic read (great audiobook too) that really opened my eyes to money and wealth.
> Thus virtuous people will generally succeed and people with poor character will generally be poor. Weber believed that Protestantism pushed people into the striving category.
Exactly, which is outlined in this book Millionaire Next Door
This is also works on the negative: Protestant community has the lowest unemployment, and people unable to work have found that they have 40% more level of pain compared to another societies.
https://hbr.org/daily-stat/2013/08/there-really-is-such-a-thing-a.html
Test[s] the relation between Protestantism and work attitudes using a novel method, operationalizing work ethic as the effect of unemployment on individuals’ subjective well-being. Analyzing a sample of 150,000 individuals from 82 societies, we find strong support for a Protestant work ethic:
unemployment hurts Protestants more and hurts more in Protestant societies.
Whilst the results shed new light on the Protestant work ethic debate, the method has wider applicability in the analysis of attitudinal differences.
But the price of my milk isn't going to move up and down after I've bought it, how did I pay for the milk? With all of my own money or a loan etc. You can say proportionately they're the same but it doesn't really hold up, wealthy people don't look at a stadium like a bottle of milk, Warren Buffett is a billionaire and he buys his car 'hail-damaged' because it's cheaper than buying it new
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
^ Really good book on how frugal some mega wealthy people are. Not that Abramovich needs to be but let's be honest, 500m will be a considerable amount in his mind, it's not something he wants to waste or fritter away
I'm late to the game, OP, but I hope you'll see this comment. You need to read this book and then get your mom to read it too. In a nutshell, her supporting those other kids is making them weaker and hurting them in the long run. It's a fascinating study of parenting and money:
https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
I'm not going to get into an argument about the semantics living your own life, but what I will say is that you have the power to choose what you do.
I understand the job market in many sectors is difficult, but no one is forcing you to work in those areas.
Saying "my boss won't let me" isn't productive. What I'm offering is that if one saves up the money for a trip, they won't have to worry about what their boss thinks anymore.
Extend this thought out to its logical end, and you find that if you're not in debt, and have enough cash on hand, no one can tell you what to do anymore.
This is probably too big to discuss in an ongoing Reddit comment thread.
If you're interested in a bit of freedom, financially or otherwise, check out this book. It's not one of those gimmicky "I've got all the monies let me show you how to do it!" books, merely solid financial advice for those who want it.
https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474#top
>a dollar has more value to a person who is poor, and less value to someone who has plenty of money.
that's not even close to what the laws of supply and demand tell us. The laws of supply and demand tell us about how an individual responds to price changes, NOT how much one person values money over another.
your statement can easily be shown to be wrong anyway: there are plenty of wealthy people who are very careful with every dollar they spend, and poor people who dont care much for money. For example, The millionaire next door shows the lives of a bunch of rich people who continue to live extremely thriftily even when they have more money than they could possibly need. Your argument asserts that all of these people dont exist, which is an argument that 0 economists have ever made in the history of the world.
What youre doing is comparing different people's valuations of money, which is called "interpersonal utility comparison". This is something that laws of supply and demand do not tell us. you might be confusing laws of supply and demand with the concept of diminishing marginal returns, which is not always applicable to human satisfaction, and still says nothing about interpersonal utility comparison.
Power of Habit - Charles Duhigg
7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen R. Covey
The Millionaire Next Door - Thomas J. Stanley
How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie
How to Get Rich - Felix Dennis
The Lean Startup - Eric Ries
Never Split the Difference - Chris Voss
The Richest Man in Babylon - George S. Clason
The Intelligent Investor - Benjamin Graham
*****
You can look at these books if you like. The Millionaire Next Door would probably be the one I would gift him first.
you should read this- a lot of millionaires live a pretty modest life. part of "being rich" is all about being better than someone else. i don't mind everyone having a certain standard of living that most people would consider "millionaire" lifestyle of free healthcare, good housing, free higher education. that's too easy. https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
Read and listen to Dave Ramsey if you want to be "good" with personal finance.
If you want to "optimize" finance, then come hang out with us in r/financialindependence
Podcasts: ChooseFI, Afford Anything
Blogs: Mr. Money Mustache
Books: Simple Path to Wealth, Your Money or Your Life, Millionaire Next Door, The Richest Man in Babylon
​
Some pointers:
​
>really all you want is to be able to do what you want with no consequences. a childish worldview.
I never said or implied that. However I do ascribe to the idea of personal responsibility rather than a group of elected officials telling someone they need to pay more despite already paying more than everyone else. Yes people should pay taxes, but they should not pay more taxes because they can afford it.
>also you are gonna need a source for people with millions of dollars in assets mostly earning their own money. because i'd bet it's at least half of them that got started through parents money or connections. WOuldnt be shocked by 90%. Self made people are not the norm for the wealthy.
http://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0810/7-millionaire-myths.aspx
https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
http://time.com/money/3925308/rich-families-lose-wealth/
https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/real-1-percent
Happy Reading
Hood rich is buying stuff you can't afford but you can make payments. Another name is the 30K millionaire. They make 30K a year, but you would think they look like a millionaire via a new Lexus, nice ass house, designer sunglasses, etc. So Joe Blow makes 3K a month, but his house payment is $1800, his car is $600, insurance is $200, and credit card minimum payments is $400 He can't afford lunch, but he looks cool.
You should read this : http://www.amazon.com/The-Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising/dp/1589795474
For investing and money management:
And for fun:
According to The Millionaire Next Door, 80 percent of millionaires are first generation wealthy.
Other interesting notes:
"PNC Wealth Management conducted a survey of people with more than $500,000 free to invest as they like, a fair definition of “wealthy,” and possibly “millionaire” once you begin including home equity and other assets. Only 6% of those surveyed earned their money from inheritance alone. 69% earned their wealth mostly by trading time and effort for money, or by “working.”"
Source
"about 90% of people who "become millionaires" do so through gradual accrual of assets — they "earn it” — whereas only about 10% are given a million bucks by mom or dad, or inherit a business worth that much, or something."
Source
"Overall, the research revealed current millionaires are, on average, 61 years old with $3.05 million in assets."
Source
"Most Americans with $1 million or more in assets made their money on their own, according to a study by BMO Private Bank released today. Sixty-seven percent of high-net-worth Americans are self-made millionaires, according to the survey. Only 8 percent inherited their wealth."
Source
You'd be surprised - many millionaires live next door to unsuspecting neighbors. A good read: http://www.amazon.com/The-Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising/dp/1589795474
For a lot of my basic knowledge I browsed investopedia and clicked on anything blue I didn't understand and held legitimate conversations with peers both on and off of reddit.
For example, take this submission about CDOs
Just start reading. If you don't understand something that's highlighted, like "derivatives" or "defaults", click on it and read that page. This can help you understand a lot of the technical terms and see how they're all related to one another.
I don't read many investing books as much as I try to absorb things about economics itself. Understanding how an economy functions is essential to trading. A good youtube channel that talks about economics can be found here. The videos are dense in information, but the input the creator gives is very solid. Not all of what he says should be taken as fact, but really it's just an analysis by a fundamentally sound economist.
Netflix has a few documentaries that are captivating. One is called Betting on Zero
The series "Dirty Money" has some interesting content within as well.
The Big Short is a movie that has valuable content if you watch it while considering what we know in hindsight of the 2008 financial crisis.
The most important part of investing is understanding what stimulates an economy or drives one into a recession.
My father is a successful investment banker and the two books he's always recommended are:
The Intelligent Investor
The Millionaire Next Door
Documented here, great read https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
It's a book which studied how people become millionaires. Most people who earn a lot, spend a lot. rather than accumulating net worth.
https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
I recommend you read the book : https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
You can even buy it used: https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/1589795474/ref=tmm_pap_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=&sr=
Almost 3,000 reviews on Amazon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Millionaire_Next_Door
I learned early on to "pay yourself first and all others last".
My dept chair gave me this book when I was a 1st year teacher making $20k a year and it made me realize that the amount of money you make is not a predictor of your financial success.
https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
We only see the shiny car in the driveway and the gates surrounding the McMansion but most likely people who live this way are in debt up to their eyeballs.
I completely agree with your point of view! What is really sad is that politicians don't understand the significant of US debt. Our education system is failing us in a big way. You need to learn it yourself:
http://www.amazon.com/Smart-Couples-Finish-Rich-Creating/dp/0767904842/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1342529397&sr=8-6&keywords=david+bach
http://www.amazon.com/Smart-Women-Finish-Rich-Achieving/dp/076791029X/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1342529550&sr=8-5&keywords=david+bach
http://www.amazon.com/Rich-Dad-Poor-Teach-Middle/dp/1612680011/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342529578&sr=8-1&keywords=rich+dad+poor+dad
http://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342529600&sr=1-1&keywords=the+millionaire+next+door
http://www.amazon.com/How-Found-Freedom-Unfree-World/dp/0965603679
http://www.amazon.com/The-Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising/dp/1589795474
http://www.amazon.com/Mind-For-Numbers-Science-Flunked-ebook/dp/B00G3L19ZU
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1232/1232-h/1232-h.htm
This is like a super-sized version of the Globe and Mail's Financial Facelift column: Our net worth is $2M, can we afford to retire?
Personally I'd start by reviewing The Millionaire Next Door. The authors point out that most millionaires -- i.e. people with net worth of $1M or more -- basically live the same way as everyone else. It's a good perspective to keep in mind: it's a lot easier to do financial planning when you're planning for a normal lifestyle ($50,000/year, maybe up to $100,000/year), not something crazy.
They also have some useful advice about making sure your children don't become financially dependent on you. (Not sure that buying your child a house is a good idea. From the child's point of view, being able to say "I did it on my own" is worth quite a lot.)
How old are you? Planning is easier if you're older. You'll probably live to about 85; say 95, to be safe. If you're 50, you need to plan for 45 years. If you're only 30, you need to plan for the next 65 years.
Are you going to continue working? Or will you need to support yourself entirely from your capital?
Let's assume you won't be working, and that you have a long time horizon.
The usual advice is to follow the "investment pyramid" idea: have more of your money in low-risk investments (the bottom of the pyramid), with less money in higher-risk investments.
I'd suggest putting 3/4 of the money into GICs (you don't need to take big risks, so it's probably a good idea to keep most of the money safe); that'll earn about 2% at the moment, maybe 3-4% over a longer time period (expected nominal return on bonds is about 3.7%, according to the Canadian Couch Potato). At 2%, that would be $300,000/year.
Bank deposit insurance via the CDIC (covering the risk of bank failure) only guarantees $100,000 at each institution. If you're trying to make sure your entire $15M of GICs are covered, you probably want to look into provinces which have unlimited guarantees for credit union deposits.
And then I'd put the remaining 1/4 into equities. Canadian Couch Potato suggests 1/3 in the Canadian index (VCN), 2/3 in equities outside Canada (VXC). This portion will go up and down, but over the long term, expected nominal return is 7.2% (again, according to the CCP).
> Realistically, what sort of lifestyle do you think I can afford now? How much money would you spend on a house, how much would you save for a rainy day?
I'm basically saying I would put all of it away for a rainy day, and continue to live a regular lifestyle. You may be thinking, well, what do I get out of having $22M in the bank?! Two things: you don't need to work, ever (of course you can continue to work if you enjoy it), and you have ironclad financial security. You're only living off your investment income, not your principal.
What if you want a more extravagant lifestyle -- say, putting $5M into a house in Vancouver, and spending $500,000 a year?
Then I'd start looking at annuities. If you're getting closer to the margins, you want to make sure you're not going to outlive your money. You want to find an insurance company that you're pretty sure will be around 65 years from now (!), and that will sell you an annuity. Basically you give them a giant lump sum, and they pay you a fixed amount every year until you die.
I think you should also submit this question to the Globe and Mail's Financial Facelift, see if they print it.
>I really don't buy that one's wealth can indicate so much about an individual's character.
It very well may be that it's not necessarily "wealth" that indicates these tendencies, but rather these tendencies seem to correlate with a higher likelihood of attaining that higher level of wealth at some point. From the research that I've seen, these tendencies are present in the majority of the test sample.
>I have a feeling that socioeconomic status of your family is much more important than whether or not they are 'excessively educated".
It could. I think the level of education point was meant to demonstrate either:
It's not really clear, unfortunately. The research on this topic is not particularly deep or ubiquitous, and is primarily reliant on what's effectively a census -- it's not as a result of controlled experiments or peer-reviewed psychology materials. It's demographics, polling, and interviews, which can establish trends and correlations but not the full explanation of the "why" behind it.
Additionally, these tendencies are simple majority percentages, and while some show very clear trends (hours worked, age, level of education, starting economic class, etc) in the form of very high percentages, others are in the 55-60% range, which is not always indicative of a trend and could be in the margin of error for any conclusions that might be drawn.
>Have a source for all those stats?
There's a few. To be fair most of this is recalling my notes from a freelance article I did 6-7 years ago on the traits of millionaires. I used these two books and an aggregate of data I found on Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and a few others. As I stated earlier in my post, the data and the methods behind it appear to be sound, but they don't provide the amount of depth that I'd prefer.
>The rate of millionaires who are 3 generations of less removed from an immigrant has no bearing on how likely everyone else is to become one, unless you are assuming there is a fixed amount of millionaires in the U.S. or those are two separate statistics.
I may have misrepresented that one, or at least worded it poorly. The research showed that people whose grandparents or parents were immigrants to US achieved millionaire status at a higher rate than those who came from families that have been present in the US for longer than 3 generations.
Overall, even if the research isn't perfect, it still seems to clearly demonstrate to me that the incentives behind work are far more complex than what OP posited.
There is a newer version of the book uk amazon link
That isn't true at all. Read this and come back to me:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising/dp/1589795474
You have to understand that the majority of Reddit has this belief that those who are successful got there mainly because of luck.
Oh, this entrepreneur found a niche market and it exploded? How lucky, I wouldn't have that much success if I started a business.
People who are rich, and who stay rich, often work their asses off. There are a lot of intelligent people on Reddit who don't want to admit that.
</soapbox>
To anyone who believes that the rich are lucky, fat-cat type people, go read The Millionaire Next Door.
Teenage mutant ninja...
Wait... The Millionaire Next Door.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/1589795474/ref=sr_1_1_twi_1_olp?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1415646100&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=the+millionaire+next+door
Anyone wondering about wealth:
Read The Millionaire Mind
Read Rich Dad, Poor Dad
Read The Millionaire Next Door
These books highlight the differences in how people talk to their children about wealth.
$6 shipped from Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Car-Guys-vs-Bean-Counters/dp/1591846226
If you want to read a little about why some people don't put much faith into MBAs you should read this pretty short book.
Car Guys vs. Bean Counters
A lot of business majors deal with finance and as such their brains only see numbers, they tend to not be product/service focused.
This can lead to all sorts of issues if you don't at least pay a little attention to those things.
Not really compsci in the spirit of Turing, Church et al, but I think some of the olden game diaries etc might be inspirational for todays youth. Personally I enjoyed The Making of Karateka quite a bit; I have Masters of Doom on my reading list, having heard positive things about it.
Yep, can't play Doom-era FPS games for more than ~30 mins at a time because of this. Interstingly, in the "Masters of Doom" book, it's mentioned one of the guys who worked on the audio on Doom also got motion sickness from playing it.
It's not a book, but it's a really interesting YouTube documentary series I stumbled upon while in a "History of Games" class which didn't even scratch the surface of the modern businesses and games. In fact, it only talked about stupid old analog shit. I know there's value in the older counting and race games, but this stuff is more important in the present to someone looking to get traction in the industry.
The channel is called All Your History.
It was a good show until Machinema ruined it in the final season. It's just a great documentary series in general though.
Just noticed this was for a gift. In that case, "Masters of Doom" is a great book. Covers the rise of one of the first indie software companies to AAA dominance. A lot of the people that are mentioned in the book are big developers in their own right these days. It covers ID software's success through about 2003. It would be really interesting to read an updated version, but I digress.
Beyond that, hmm...
This is awesome.
I love Doom and still remember the first time I played it. It totally changed gaming for me but then it totally changed gaming - period. Fans of Doom, the time period, and gaming in general would do well to pick up Masters of Doom - excellent book!
Help charities by using this Amazon link:
Link 1: Supports The AbleGamers Foundation
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https://www.amazon.com/How-Fail-Almost-Everything-Still-ebook/dp/B00COOFBA4
I read a book recently by Scott Adams called "How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big", and the slightly unorthodox tip he has is "goals are for losers, systems are for winners".
For example, instead of setting a goal of losing ten pounds, get into a daily system of healthy activities, there is no end point, so you have no reason to stop.
The book goes into it more, I recommend you read it!
Hi I recommend reading "how to fail at everything and still win big"
https://www.amazon.com/How-Fail-Almost-Everything-Still-ebook/dp/B00COOFBA4
You are still young so you have plenty of time to suceed and you will see that what looks like failure can be useful down the road. Practice the law of attraction https://www.reddit.com/r/lawofattraction/wiki/usefulposts
enjoy :)
This book actually taught me the emotional impulse.
Don't rely on motivation, cause when you rely on it, you're gonna need it forever.
Create a system to study them on a basis, that way you won't need motivation and will actually do it without hesitation. (reference)
I got Scott Adams' book. It's got some great advice there.
dude read How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life
^^^^^^http://gen.lib.rus.ec/
He offers plenty of interesting thoughts in his book. I've read it twice now and find his thinking to be very practical and actionable.
This book is very useful in terms of finding the right mindset to deal with failure.
https://smile.amazon.com/How-Fail-Almost-Everything-Still-ebook/dp/B00COOFBA4
> Both of Sam's fundamental moral values and his criticism of Trump.
Sams Morals are freely chosen and arbitrary utilitarian constructs. You can not derive an Ought from an Is.
> Sam believes that Trump was never as successful as he pretended. This is a pretty big deal, since that was one of the major selling points of Trump.
That is demonstrably false.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2017/mar/22/donald-trump/trump-says-illegal-immigration-down-61-percent-ele/
Some estimates are up to 90%. Thus, without placing a brick or spending a single dollar, through sheer persuasion, he has decreased illegal immigration by a massive margin. If I remember correctly, Sam ignored this when this was pointed out on the podcast.
The topic of failure is interesting for a persuader, and there is a deeper conversation to have here. Remember, Scott's big book is literally,
> "How to fail at everything, and still win big".
https://www.amazon.ca/How-Fail-Almost-Everything-Still-ebook/dp/B00COOFBA4
He even jokes in the video here, that he will call his religion, "Failology". Basically the two summarized points are,
> In the podcast there were some more examples brought up, but now maybe you will have a chance to teach me something, because I don't remember Scott asking Sam about why it's bad to lie or why Trump's lies are bad, and I definitely don't remember him refusing to answer. Could you point me to that part?
I will consider it, as that will require me to listen to the podcast again, and mark the timestamps. Definitely a fair request. I will save the thread and get back to you if I do. Feel free to hang your hat up until then.
This guy is a great writer. I am reading this and it is an incredible read.
He was the first guy who brought Mr.Trump to my attention and since then I have been on the train. And I am still not sick of winning.
Goals vs Habits
Both Steve Pavlina and Scott Adams recommend skipping the whole goal-setting thing, and instead setting habits.
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2009/02/goals-into-habits/
http://www.amazon.com/How-Fail-Almost-Everything-Still-ebook/dp/B00COOFBA4
How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life by Scott Adams
This book is a short read and will get you up to speed, plus has good financial advise. Not numbers, but stuff like never buy a new car and always be looking for your next car and not on demand (when you need one).
http://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1462943661&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=the+millionaire+next+door
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/269593
https://www.fa-mag.com/news/most-millionaires-self-made--study-says-14565.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2014/10/03/two-thirds-of-billionaires-made-it-themselves.html
Read this, it will change your perspective.
https://www.amazon.com/The-Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising/dp/1589795474
Here are some books to read...
I Will Teach You to Be Rich - Ramit Sethi
or...The Millionaire Next Door
I recommend an online savings account and throw away the ATM card for it. This makes it easy to add money to. Also, if you ever think about taking money out, it will take you 48 hours to get the cash so it will really make you think about doing it.
You might enjoy the writings of Scott Adams.
Although I recommend Indexed Investing, I really enjoyed "One Up On Wall Street" by Peter Lynch. It is a different perspective than indexed investing. I plan on following the 90% Indexed funds and 10% "Peter Lynch Style" for my portfolio
Note: It is about stock picking (buy and hold - so long term, not day trading) and doesn't touch indexed funds...in the book, Peter says you should get some value by paying a higher MER otherwise it is not worth it. He has since corrected himself, and both Peter and Warren Buffet say indexed investing is best for Most investors.
https://www.amazon.ca/One-Up-Wall-Street-Already/dp/0743200403/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1487691453&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=peter+lynch
Millionaire teacher alone should be enough to start your indexed portfolio. If you enjoyed Millionaire teacher, and have a basic grasp on personal finance, you can check out Andrew Hallams recommended book page...he has some more advanced books listed
https://andrewhallam.com/books/
He is the 44th but yeah. https://www.amazon.com/Trump-Art-Comeback-Donald-J/dp/0812929640
https://www.amazon.com/Trump-Art-Comeback-Donald-J/dp/0812929640
Fun that this is the main story today.. Considering he wrote a book about this time in 1997. https://www.amazon.com/Trump-Art-Comeback-Donald-J/dp/0812929640
...You mean the ones who already read the book about this, written by, wait for it, Trump.
&#x200B;
You speak about this like it is some blockbuster revelation.
&#x200B;
https://www.amazon.com/Trump-Art-Comeback-Donald-J/dp/0812929640
Trump's story begins when many real estate moguls went belly-up in what he calls the Great Depression of 1990. Trump reveals how he renegotiated millions of dollars in bank loans and survived the recession, paving the way for a resurgence, during which he built the most successful casino operation in Atlantic City, broke ground on one of the biggest and most lucrative development projects ever undertaken in New York City, and outsmarted one of South America's richest men for rights to the Miss Universe pageant.
https://www.amazon.com/Steve-Jobs-Walter-Isaacson/dp/1451648537
https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/0062301233/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1479841323&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=elon+musk
how ironic... Jeff Bezos selling us the Biography of Elon Musk.
great book to read if you want to know about how great exxon has been for green energy and the environment
https://www.amazon.com/Private-Empire-ExxonMobil-American-Power/dp/0143123548
I read this one in a college course, and I was enthralled. It is hard to believe that it is all real. Another book that you may enjoy, a little off topic, is Confessions of an Economic Hitman.
In a similar modus operandi, there's this.
The Germans ran an ad in the New Yorker telling people that the Lusitania would be sailing (and sunk) through german military controlled waters, the captain has nothing to do with the story either. the "Official story" at the time was it was just a civilian ship, but sadly it wasnt because in order for the germans to actually want to sink it, it had to be a military ship....and lo and behold it was loaded with hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition headed to support US allies in the war.....and what is a ammunition or any military supply carrying ship considered in wartime? a military vessel.
and as for the golf of tonkin incident, just read the wiki, but you shouldnt have to since you know more about american history than most americans right?
and as for Pearl Harbor there ya go that should get ya off the "conspiracy" denial train.
as for over throwing sovereign goverments Here ya go..... and you should read this book or find a cliff notes to see how we have even used economic espionage to achieve these goals.
not to mention all the proxy wars we have been involved in, but thats prolly too "conspiracy theory" for you. so how about the fact the US helped organize train and supply groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS (btw use google if my sources arent up to your standards.)
but i mean just only facts ever. NEVER would our government lie to us.
but please prove that none of it is true. again though prove it.
relevant reading
This is relevant.
This is precisely what the book, "Confessions of an Economic Hitman," is about. These American engineering firms are pseudo-govt agencies. They go into 3rd world countries promising to fix their infrastructure, build a dam, roads, etc. The price for these projects skyrocket beyond the estimation and these poor countries find themselves in debt to the USA. That debt can be leveraged into UN votes, political influence, and exploitation of the country's citizens by American companies.
In the book, the guy's job is to oversell the positives of letting American engineering companies come in and fix/build stuff. It's only later that these countries learn the true cost.
https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/0062301233
This is the book I got as a gift. I only read the beginning when he was still working on PayPal. But it def reads like a autobiography because the "author" starts off the book with the beginning of his life.
I bet this book has a nice list of them...
I'll just assume you're a retard instead of an operative:
https://news.vice.com/story/the-u-s-is-waging-a-massive-shadow-war-in-africa-exclusive-documents-reveal
https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Aid-Working-Better-Africa/dp/0374532125
https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
legit
Only a book... Trump: The Art of the Comeback https://www.amazon.com/dp/0812929640/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_p7T0Cb6NJEXEA
http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/1576753018
http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine
International money is not designed to help. It's designed to put countries into permanent debt and forced privatizations of public infrastructure paid for by generations of that nations tax payers. Every single nation that has been on the receiving end of this has gotten fucked. Every single one. The Greeks, or any other nation, would be fools to accept the terms offered.
Read the books. Then talk.
I am born and raised in America.
>It's not offense on countries with resources we deem valuable that's just a stupid talking point that has no merit.
Has no merit? http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
>Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign "aid" organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet's natural resources. Their tools included fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization.
>I was initially recruited while I was in business school back in the late sixties by the National Security Agency, the nation’s largest and least understood spy organization; but ultimately I worked for private corporations. The first real economic hit man was back in the early 1950s, Kermit Roosevelt, Jr., the grandson of Teddy, who overthrew the government of Iran, a democratically elected government, Mossadegh’s government who was Time‘s magazine person of the year; and he was so successful at doing this without any bloodshed—well, there was a little bloodshed, but no military intervention, just spending millions of dollars and replaced Mossadegh with the Shah of Iran. At that point, we understood that this idea of economic hit man was an extremely good one. We didn’t have to worry about the threat of war with Russia when we did it this way. The problem with that was that Roosevelt was a C.I.A. agent. He was a government employee. Had he been caught, we would have been in a lot of trouble. It would have been very embarrassing. So, at that point, the decision was made to use organizations like the C.I.A. and the N.S.A. to recruit potential economic hit men like me and then send us to work for private consulting companies, engineering firms, construction companies, so that if we were caught, there would be no connection with the government.
Or how about this book? http://www.amazon.com/Dirty-Wars-The-World-Battlefield/dp/156858671X
>America's hand is exposed in this sprawling investigation of autonomous US military operations and the abuse of executive privilege that escalated global war. New York Times bestselling author Scahill (Blackwater) pulls no punches from right or left in his exposure of governments that passively authorized the use of torture in interrogation, marked an American citizen for death without due process, and empowered a military branch to conduct warfare on their terms, turning at least four countries into warzones. Interviews with U.S. army colonels, former CIA officers, Somali warlords, and a Yemeni sheik are only a few focal points in Scahill's narrative prism. Years of ground investigation are chronicled in stock terms, creating an accessible and shuddering effect: congress "asleep at the wheel;" an enemy of the state "on a collision course with history;" government officials who "cut their teeth" in the White House. Even in Scahill's most frustrated moments fact supplants editorial, adding valiancy and devastation to his brutal portrayals.
Your view of America is unrealistic.. or you haven't been paying attention.
The book millionaire next door basically shows that the single biggest predictor of whether or not you will be a millionaire is how much money your wife spends. If she’s frugal you will be rich.
edit: Downvotes because the truth hurts. Educate yourselves.
https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
> That might be true for a small minority. Almost all rich people get rich by virtue of being born rich.
That used to be more or less true, but since about the 1980s, the new rich have vastly outnumbered the old rich, especially in the USA. Now inherited wealth accounts for a really tiny percentage of the population of millionaires. Go check out the Forbes list of the richest people in America and you'll see that most of the richest people in the country are first-generation billionaires.
> If you really believe that a substantial number of rich people are rich because they saved every penny and ate beans, you're being naive.
Actually, if you believed that, you'd be not too far from the truth, though obviously simply eating beans doesn't guarantee wealth.
If you want a detailed exploration of the trends around this (based on actual research), The Millionaire Next Door is a good place to start. Most people worth over a million dollars got that way either by living frugally while running their own businesses, or via a liquidity event such as their company being bought out.
You should consider educating yourself. Here's a start.
https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
Though this should be followed by another comment: one of thanks for this community.
I remember coming here a month ago and buying a handful of stocks because I liked the company's products. The first time someone asked me about a P/E ratio, I did a 'what-sit-whosit'?
Then I started reading. I read William O'Neil in a week:
http://www.amazon.com/Money-Stocks-Complete-Investing-System/dp/0071752110/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1335244563&amp;sr=1-2
Then I read Peter Lynch:
http://www.amazon.com/One-Up-On-Wall-Street/dp/0743200403/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1335244585&amp;sr=1-1
Now I am reading a phenomenal book, Spent:
http://www.amazon.com/Spent-Sex-Evolution-Consumer-Behavior/dp/B002ZNJWHW/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1335244608&amp;sr=1-3
(I almost don't want to recommend this book, because it's a nuclear weapon in investing; we are all essentially at war, after all)
I have also subscribed to Businessweek, Investor's Business Daily, subscribed to the MarketSmith service, and subscribed to TC2000.
With some of my profits from my latest trades, I am buying myself a subscription to the Wall Street Journal, and will be joining a few other groups around the internet.
If anyone has any suggestions for other tools or services I should use, please share.
A lot of members on this board contributed to my education, and have been essential in second-guessing some of my positions with factual evidence. To those members, I am deeply indebted. Thank you.
What is less helpful, and useless, is the blanket downvoting I receive, and the snarky comments that I seem to generate.
Aren't we here to make money together?
I am still new, but I am learning at an astronomical pace. Thanks for everyone's continuing advice and support.
Step 0: Live within your means
assuming you would like to be rich one day, have a look at this study of how rich people get rich The Millionaire Next Door
A 'bombshell' first reported by Donald Trump in his book The Art of the Comeback.
>From Library Journal
>
>Six years ago real estate developer Trump (Trump: The Art of the Deal, LJ 2/15/88) was several billion dollars in debt, owing in part, he says, to his complacency and the Tax Reform Act of 1986
If you want to truly understand this latest bombshell I highly encourage you to read this book that Trump wrote over 20 years ago about being billions in debt in the 90’s.
Oh... wait
Can you post a purchasing link to amazon?
Edit: Of course, instead of answering a question down vote the shit out of it, that's helpful.
Edit 2: OP was kind enough to provide me with a link
Whoever wondered what book it is can buy it without asking a bunch of condescending pricks for help.
https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
Learn about your world, before spouting off retardation.
Wow you have demonstrated you know nothing about the situation, real estate, or the challenges developers faced during that period.
Read a fucking book sometime.
BREAKING NEWS!
Read up to know why they will sabotage your economy if you do not comply to all the big power's wishes.
https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
John Perkins started and stopped writing Confessions of an Economic Hit Man four times over 20 years. He says he was threatened and bribed in an effort to kill the project, but after 9/11 he finally decided to go through with this expose of his former professional life. Perkins, a former chief economist at Boston strategic-consulting firm Chas. T. Main, says he was an "economic hit man" for 10 years, helping U.S. intelligence agencies and multinationals cajole and blackmail foreign leaders into serving U.S. foreign policy and awarding lucrative contracts to American business. "Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars," Perkins writes. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man is an extraordinary and gripping tale of intrigue and dark machinations. Think John Le Carré, except it's a true story.
What John's book says is, there was a conspiracy to put all these countries on the hook, and that happened.
Not familiar with the way this works?- https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
Guys you can actually read about Trump being $1 billion in the red over a decade in a new book that details those years of Trump's life and chronicles it
Its called "The Art of the Comeback"
Just letting everyone know that this book has officially come out and spills the beans on the decade of Trump's real estate collapse. This is breaking news, never before seen, completely new to everyone.