The Coffeehouse Investor How to Build Wealth Ignore Wall Street and Get On With Your Life

The Coffeehouse Investor How to Build Wealth Ignore Wall Street and Get On With Your Life

In “The Coffeehouse Investor,” Bill Schultheis shows readers that by focusing more on their passions and creativity, and less on money and the hype and hysteria of Wall Street, they will actually build more wealth—and improve the quality of their lives at the same time. The prose may be charming, but the investment advice is powerful and timely. Successful investing has nothing to do with “hot” stocks and “cool” mutual funds, but is achieved by adhering to the three simple steps set forth in “The Coffeehouse Investor.”

There are ways to simplify investment decisions when building a sophisticated portfolio. With just a minimum of effort investors can learn to implement these steps and begin the gratifying process of building wealth, ignoring Wall Street, and getting on with life.

User Ratings and Reviews

3 Stars Love it or hate it
I agree with other reviews that point out that this book could be reduced to be basically a pamphlet with the main points. In fact, the web site for the coffee house investor pretty much does just that. What is it that fills the pages you ask? Stories of climing mountains, baking pumpkin pies and life in Seattle. Now, I’m not saying that’s bad, but I am saying it tends to get pretty off topic in several parts of the book. It’s not a wonder why it took the author so long to find a publisher. That being said, the author makes good, clear, understandable points that anyone can follow. He is not trying to teach anyone how to get rich quickly or beat the market, just the opposite. His approach is to create a balanced portfolio made up of mostly index funds and keep putting money into the account regularly. He also makes a good point in the book about why working with financial advisors is a huge drain on your earnings, I loved his charts on this. Bottom line, if you can match the market’s returns year after year on your own by investing in low cost (expenses) index mutual/bond funds why hire someone to do this work for you who will put you into loaded funds with high expenses and fees plus pay them a commission on top of that? The answer really is 1) you hope they can beat the market (which only 20% of mutual funds have done historically) and 2) that they’ll prevent you from doing something incredibly stupid that could cause you to lose even more than you would lose through fees paid.

2 Stars Short Book to Whet Your Appetite on Indexing
This book could work if the goal is to introduce an investor to the concept of efficient markets and index investing. However it is a little too laid back and short on content. It is easily skimmed, and summarizes the major points of how you can’t beat the market, how indexing and low expenses work. However I doubt that someone serious about revamping their portfolio or changing their investing style would be convinced from this short book to do the overhaul. I would say that at the minimum, this book would whet your appetite to explore further. Three books I would recommend are Bernstein’s Four Pillars of Investing, Rick Ferri’s All About Asset Allocation, and John Bogle’s The Little Book of Common Sense Investing. These books furnish the investor with the education, the rationale, the evidence, studies and statistics, as well as the practical how-to’s of assembling a personal portfolio and sticking to it. Otherwise, someone reading the Coffeehouse Investor would just treat Indexing as another investment fad, and abandon it when the next bear market hits, not understanding risk/reward, diversification, correlation, asset allocation and rebalancing.

4 Stars The Coffeehouse Investor
After five years of honing skills as an individual stock investor, I realized there’s got to be a better way. And this book is a simple guide to a stress free, but strategic method. With the gyrations of the market currently, Bill’s philosophy is a remedy for riding the waves and sleeping easier. Thanks, Bill.

5 Stars Calming your investor emotions
This is an excellent, short book that puts an individual’s emotion in perspective. It illustrates the simple principles to basic investments that will not consume much of your noncareer working hours.

5 Stars The right way to make money in the stock market
Wish I had read this a long time ago.

First read this three years ago. Have made a bundle using this method of investing.

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Collecting and Investing Strategies for United States Gold Coins

Collecting and Investing Strategies for United States Gold Coins

As one of the industry s most highly trained numismatic scholars, Jeff Ambio brings first-hand experience and expertise together to offer exclusive insider tips for the collector and investor: What do I look for? Which coin should I buy next? Is the coin available on the market? How much can I expect to pay? And how do I make the most of my investment?

This book covers regular-issue gold series from 1795 through 1933 and informs the reader on a number of investing strategies, including collecting by type, variety, or rarer issues. The book includes over 150 high resolution gold coin images, graphs, and vital pricing data. Each chapter begins with a brief history of a gold type, then goes on to describe various tactics or game plans to help the investor build his or her collection.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars what you want to know
Maloney has written the book that newcomers to gold and silver investing

should read before they sink their money in these metals. There are great pitfalls and Maloney reveals them more clearly than any sales pitch hacked out by other writers.

5 Stars An indispensable manual
The price of gold just hit $1,000 an ounce. With the decreasing value of the dollar, the emergence of significant inflation, the unpredictability of the stock market, and the expanding recession within the general American economy, gold and precious metals has resumed its traditional role as a place that capital is being invested to protect it from the instability of the national and global economies. Part of the Zyrus Press ‘Official Strategy Guide Series’, Jeff Ambio’s “Collecting And Investing Strategies For U.S. Gold Coins” is a premier instruction guide to understanding the specialty investments in, and collections of, rare American gold coins. From gold dollars, quarter eagles, gold pieces, gold stellas, half eagles, and double eagles, each variety and sub-variety of gold coin is identified, illustrated, described, backgrounded, and provided with investment tips. An indispensable manual, “Collecting And Investing Strategies For U.S. Gold Coins” is a core and essential addition to personal, professional, academic, and community library gold coin collection and investment reference shelves.

4 Stars Easy to read, without being so darned dry
I found this book to offer all of the basic information on coins without being overly dry and dull, as often books of this type can be. The format is easy to follow and skim. Overall a good book worth the money.

2 Stars Nothing New Here
You would be better off buying the Encyclopedia of U.S. Gold Coins. It gives much more information in much greater detail. If you already own the Encyclopedia of U.S. Gold Coins or a similar book, you definately don’t need this one, as it contains only redundant information.

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Stock Investing For Dummies For Dummies Business and Personal Finance

Stock Investing For Dummies For Dummies Business and Personal Finance

Stock Investing For Dummies, 2^nd Edition covers all the proven tactics and strategies for picking the right stocks. Packed with savvy tips on today’s best investment opportunities, this book provides a down-to-earth, straightforward approach to making money on the market without the fancy lingo. Soon you’ll have the power to optimize your returns by:

• Recognizing and minimizing the risks
• Gathering information about potential stocks
• Dissecting annual reports and other company documents
• Analyzing the growth and demand of industries
• Playing with the politicians
• Approaching uncertain markets
• Using corporate stock buybacks to boost earnings
• Handling the IRS and other obligations

With a different strategy for every investor—from recent college grad to married with children to recently retired—this valuable reference is a must-have. It also features tips and tricks on how to tell when a stock is on the verge of declining or increasing, how to protect yourself from fraud, and common challenges that every investor must go through, along with resources and financial ratios.

User Ratings and Reviews

3 Stars page 84
i know this book is for dummies like me but there are so many errors in this book, for example look at page 84 under P/E 2nd paragraph it talk about P/E but it quotes the yld for SHC

4 Stars A good place to start
I doubt that anyone would buy a “Dummies” book expecting to find an in-depth, comprehensive treatment of the topic, but instead is looking for a simple and straightforward introduction to stock investing. This book definitely serves its purpose. “Stock Investing for Dummies” provides the reader with very basic instruction on stocks and investing.

You cannot expect that it will teach you to be a solid investor, or even that you will be able to differentiate between good stocks and those that are about to crash, but it will give you the basic knowledge that you need to understand the stock market and further your financial management abilities.

5 Stars A Really, really Good Book!
I usually am not too fond of these “dummy books” but this one has really, really been done right! This is a book that will take a beginner value investor right up to making smart choices in stock investing. Paul Mladjenovic (the author) has given us one of the finest books on the stock market, and stock investing that I have read and I’ve got most. For the beginner, or the person who has been investing for a while and wants to learn more this is the ultimate book to get to start with. For those persons I rate this book a high five as others do. I constantly return to this book to remember something. This book is a source you will never disgard.

4 Stars A now wiser dummy! Soon to be rich?
A very good book. Makes that mysterious ’stock market’ less mysterious. Now on to make money with my new found knowledge!

5 Stars Brilliant!
Time is an important asset. Invest your time in this excelent masterpiece, it will be your first good investment of many.

Two considerations:

Specalutors are not welcome here, this is pure investment for dummies. Aggresive tactics only in a conservative macro-enviroment.

Investment could be very hard if you like, but like all things in life, it is best to keep it simple. Paul’s book will be always in your hands when your strategies became too complex, heping advanced investors return to the basics.

(Sorry for my english, is not my primary language)

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Mobile Home Wealth How to Make Money Buying Selling and Renting Mobile Homes

Mobile Home Wealth How to Make Money Buying Selling and Renting Mobile Homes

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Finally - a book with the real nuts and bolts about how to invest
If you’re looking for a ‘cheerleading’ book about how great real estate investing is or how easy it is to do no-money-down deals, there are plenty of choices. If, like me, you want to see a book that gives real, practical advice on how to invest: finding and evaluating good deals, checking out the property, getting it financed and managing it, buy this one.

This is not a light read, but it is easy to follow and it lays out one of the clearest and most complete paths to investing I’ve seen anywhere. I read it quickly, but will also use it as a reference as I begin investing in mobile homes. If you plan to invest in mobile homes, any one of about fifty tips in this book is going to save you way more than the book’s cost. I wish there was a book like this for every real estate investing sector.

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You Can Be a Stock Market Genius Uncover the Secret Hiding Places of Stock Market Profits

You Can Be a Stock Market Genius Uncover the Secret Hiding Places of Stock Market Profits

Fund manager Joel Greenblatt has been beating the Dow (with returns of 50 percent a year) for more than a decade. And now, in this highly accessible guide, he’s going to show you how to do it, too. You’re about to discover investment opportunities that portfolio managers, business-school professors, and top investment experts regularly miss — uncharted areas where the individual investor has a huge advantage over the Wall Street wizards. Here is your personal treasure map to special situations in which big profits are possible, including:

* Spin-offs * Restructurings * Merger Securities
* Mergers * Rights Offerings * Recapitalizations
* Bankruptcies * Risk Arbitrage

This is a practical and easy-to-use investment reference, filled with case studies, important background information, and all the tools you’ll need. All it takes is a little extra time and effort — and you can be a stock market genius.

User Ratings and Reviews

1 Star You can be a Stock Market Genius
This book was copyright 1997! Old information, very confusing for 2008 (old references, which are in my opinion, now irrelevant). B. Hodgson

3 Stars Look Before You LEAP
I get up in the morning and walk my dog on the walking path just off the beach (Pacific Ocean adjacent). On my walk I always say hello to Mrs. Rothchild who is reading the Investor’s Business Daily while sitting on her polished teakwood patio set. I jibe her that she should switch to the Wall Street Journal and get a real job investing like I do. After a quick but nutritious breakfast, I settle down to my state of the art computer where I E-trade my way to this lavish lifestyle I currently enjoy (takes no more than an hour!). After my “investing”, I’ll cruise PCH in my new convertible BMW and work on that driving tan. Thanks Joel Greenblatt!

What the heck? Oh drat, the alarm went off. I was having that dream again; now I must get ready for the drive to Pomona in my ‘98 Daewoo. So kick me, I am not yet a stock market genius. Can I be if I apply the lessons of this book? Maybe… but I have neither the time nor the money. For the person with both it might still be a great idea to have a stock market genius walk them through the paces for a few months.

On the merits of readability, Greenblatt dishes out the drudgery in a well presented and entertaining style. You get case studies, nifty chapter summaries, advice not to run through dynamite factories with lit matches, and a Gilligan’s Island hit in the glossary (not bad for fourteen Yankee Dollars).

P.S. All you reviewers and review readers out there, have any of you struck pay dirt following the advice in this book?

4 Stars Awful title, Excellent book
1999 Fireside reissue of 1st edition (1997), 299 pages (of which 261 pages form the main body of the book).

Despite the awful title, I really enjoyed `You can be a Stock Market Genius’. Greenblatt laces his (excellent) content with plenty of jokes, which I always think of as a somewhat risky approach: some readers who would otherwise appreciate the content will not like the delivery.

By the time of publication, Greenblatt’s investment firm had already achieved 50% compound annual growth for 10 years, so could write his book however he pleased. I like it when people don’t need to write books for financial reasons - you get a better look at the author.

Greenblatt’s book reminds me strongly of Mohnish Pabrai’s `The Dhandho Investor’, which I read a few months ago. I don’t think one should be particularly surprised, as they both belong in that tiny group of investors who have not just beaten the stock market, but have absolutely smashed it. The following summary points for `You can be a Stock Market Genius’ could be used for either book:

1. Concentrate your efforts on areas where bargains are likely to occur (”If you preselect investment areas that put you ahead of the game even before you start … the most important work is already done.”)

2. Limit downside risk (”If you don’t lose money, most of the remaining alternatives are good ones.”)

3. Load up on only a few best ideas (”…don’t screw up a perfectly good stock-market strategy by diversifying your way into mediocre returns.”)

The second point, which is the same as the concept of `margin of safety,’ works because it - unlike the world of analyst earnings forecasts - acknowledges the severe uncertainty that is reality. I particularly enjoyed Nassim Taleb’s `The Black Swan’, partly because the world he reveals ties in so well with the `value’ approach to investing. Both good and bad large, unpredictable events occur more frequently than we expect. If you organise your investing (and your life) so that you are protected from some of the negative shocks, but left exposed to the positive ones, this is likely to serve you well.

Pabrai focuses on distressed situations (what he calls `high uncertainty, low risk’) and Greenblatt likes special situations (spin-offs, merger securities, etc). But the theme is the same: in order to get really good results you’ve got to be looking in areas other people are not.

Greenblatt is willing to concentrate more than Pabrai, who simply limits his positions to a maximum 10%, to protect himself against error. But these are differences in style rather than substance. They both look for promising situations/ideas and only then do the necessary work. Both profess to avoid use of Excel spreadsheets (In 2006 Greenblatt was asked if he used spreadsheets: “I really don’t know how to build spreadsheet models. But the good news is that you don’t need spreadsheets to make money.”) In other words, they keep it simple.

Before he gets into the specifics of special situation investing, Greenblatt spends a chapter going over `some basics’. This short section of the book is either an excellent primer or reminder of the general requirements of a successful investment strategy - and I commend it to you without reservation.

His book also contains some excellent advice about selling. It is something I have been thinking about a lot recently after reading Pabrai’s `The Dhandho Investor’ and Katsenelson’s `Active Value Investing’ - both of which make a strong case for the need to learn to sell in order to get significantly above market returns. The problem with this advice is that selling well is somewhere between extremely difficult and impossible (as various super investors, such as Greenblatt, Marty Whitman, Munger, etc. have said).

Greenblatt’s advice is very simple:

“The bargain created or unmasked by the special corporate event - that’s what draws me in. The quality and nature of the business - that’s what usually determines how long I stay. So trade the bad ones, invest in the good ones.”

(You may note that this is essentially the same as Buffett’s counsel, who wrote: “when we own portions of outstanding businesses with outstanding managements, our favourite holding period is forever.”)

I was struck by how often Greenblatt rammed home the importance of incentives throughout his book:

“Insider participation is one of the key areas to look for when picking and choosing between spinoffs - for me, the most important area.”

His understanding of the critical importance of incentives is very wise and is surely one of the key reasons for his outstanding success (although I wonder if he still holds stock options in such high regard, now it is clearer that the lack of downside risk can encourage excessively risky behaviour?). Charlie Munger said this about incentives in `The Psychology of Human Misjudgement’:

“…almost everyone thinks he fully recognizes how important incentives and disincentives are in changing cognition and behaviour. But this is not often so. I think I’ve been in the top five percent of my age cohort almost all my adult life in understanding the power of incentives, and yet I’ve always underestimated that power. Never a year passes but I get some surprise that pushes a little further my appreciation of incentive super-power.”

It’s also one of the reasons why I like Karen Pryor’s book, `Don’t Shoot the Dog,’ so much. Munger pointed out in the same talk I quoted him from above, that what economists call `incentives’ is the same as what psychologists call `reinforcement’. Reading an excellent book on training using positive reinforcement (like Pryor’s) is thus extremely useful in improving your understanding and critically, practice of making use of incentives.

So long as you’re not the type who objects to a light-hearted approach, you’re likely to find Greenblatt’s book a lot better than the title suggests. Highly recommended.

5 Stars Practical information for all investors
Don’t make my mistake. I avoided this book because of its title which makes it seem cheap and superficial. I finally decided to give it a try and I’m very glad that I did. Greenblatt is funny, direct, and easy to understand. His advice is practical that can be put to use immediately by investors at all levels. He actually “spoon feeds” a lot of this info to the reader which is rare. Of course no how-to book can completely do this and effort and time by the reader is absolutely required and essential to fully take advantage of this book from a financial standpoint. As Greenblatt points out this is good otherwise if investing were easy then there would be too many people competing with you and the profits would disappear.

At the end of the book he also lists many other sources (newspapers, magazines, book, publications) where the reader can gain further knowledge. Even if you do not benefit financially from Geenblatt’s book, it is still worth reading due to it entertainment value. It is delightful. From a practical standpoint this book is far better than The Little Book That Beats the Market also by the same author.

4 Stars Very Valuable Book
I don’t think you can find the information and ideas presented in this book anywhere else. These ideas can come only from a smart investor with a long experience like Greenblatt.

The book teaches you how to utilize special corporate events like spinoffs, mergers, and bankrupcies to make big profits in the stock markets. The ideas are very useful and supported by many real life examples.

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