Planning Wealth

Everyone arrives someplace. Few get there on purpose.

October 29th, 2009

Emerging Real Estate Markets: How to Find and Profit from Up-and-Coming Areas (Hardcover)

Author: David Lindahl
Publisher: Wiley
Publication Date: October 26, 2007
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN: 0470174668
Pages: 240
Price: $15.61 (USD)
Amazon Customer Rating: 4.5 Stars





Praise for

Emerging Real Estate Markets

“In this book, you’ll discover how to snatch real estate opportunities at low prices, before their value becomes common knowledge. Buy all the copies on the bookshelf before your competitor does!”
–Frank McKinney, “The Maverick Daredevil Real Estate Entrepreneur” and author of Frank McKinney’s Maverick Approach to Real Estate Success

“I’ve never seen another real estate book even come close to laying out a profit road map the way this one does. If your local economy is too hot or too cold, Lindahl’s guide will show you how to invest in the up-and-coming markets with the greatest profit potential.”
–Stacy Kellams, President, www.RealEstateCourseReviews.com

“Lindahl shows you how to look into the future and see where the next hot real estate markets will be. It’s the closest thing I’ve found to a real estate crystal ball.”
–Jeff Adams, President, www.FreeRealEstateMentoring.com

“The brilliant thing about this book is Lindahl’s approach to investing by ‘remote control.’ He has a real-world system for living in one place and making money from investments in another.”
–William Bronchick, attorney and coauthor of Flipping Properties

“In the crowded field of real estate gurus, Lindahl stands head-and-shoulders above the rest. This book is must reading for any serious investor–beginner or veteran.”
–Justin Ford, author of Seeds of Wealth and Main Street Millionaire

October 16th, 2009

The Fat Tail: The Power of Political Knowledge for Strategic Investing (Hardcover)

Author: Ian Bremmer
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Publication Date: March 09, 2009
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN: 0195328558
Pages: 272
Price: $18.45 (USD)
Amazon Customer Rating: 4.0 Stars





In recent years, investors have learned the hard truth that in the international economy, politics often matters at least as much as economic fundamentals for the performance of global markets. Too many companies and investors haven’t yet learned to read the warning signs: their expertise lies much more in economics than politics, and the temptation is to hope that highly volatile situations such as the 2008 Georgia-Russia confrontation will be few and far between. But as Ian Bremmer and Preston Keat demonstrate, these scenarios–and their catastrophic effects on business–happen much more frequently than we imagine. On the curve that charts both the frequency of these events and the power of their impact, the ‘tail’ of extreme political instability is not reassuringly thin but dangerously fat.

This groundbreaking book is the first to both identify the wide range of political risks that global firms face and show investors how to effectively manage them. Written by two of the world’s leading figures in political risk management, it reveals that while the world remains exceedingly risky for businesses, it is by no means incomprehensible. Political risk is unpredictable, but it is easier to analyze and manage than most people think. Applying the lessons of world history, Bremmer and Keat survey a vast range of contemporary risky situations, from stable markets like the United States or Japan, where politically driven regulation can still dramatically effect business, to more precarious places like Iran, China, Russia, Turkey, Mexico, and Nigeria, where private property is less secure and energy politics sparks constant volatility. The book sheds light on a wide array of political risks–risks that stem from great power rivalries, terrorist groups, government takeover of private property, weak leaders and internal strife, and even the “black swans” that defy prediction. But more importantly, the authors provide a wealth of unique methods, tools, and concepts to help corporations, money managers, and policy makers understand political risk, showing when and how political risk analysis works–and when it does not.

Authored by Ian Bremmer (author of the bestselling The J-Curve) and Preston Keat, the president and research director (respectively) of Eurasia Group, the world’s leading political risk consultancy firm, The Fat Tail is an indispensable guide for anyone involved in the international economy.

October 7th, 2009

Fisher Investments on Consumer Staples (Hardcover)

Author: Fisher Investments
Publisher: Wiley
Publication Date: July 07, 2009
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN: 0470416653
Pages: 216
Price: $19.77 (USD)
Amazon Customer Rating: Stars





The third installment of the Fisher Investments On series is a comprehensive guide to the Consumer Staples industry—which includes companies that manufacture and sell food and beverages, tobacco, prescription drugs, and household products, to name a few.

This reliable resource provides you with the tools to help you understand and analyze opportunities within today’s global Consumer Staples sector. With this book as your guide, you can quickly become familiar with how the Consumer Staples sector is segmented by industries, their respective macroeconomic drivers, and the challenges facing companies in this sector. Additionally, there are chapters dedicated to explaining many of the unique aspects of Consumer Staples products in emerging markets and security analysis techniques focused on Consumer Staples firms.

You don’t have to be a professional to learn to better invest in the Consumer Staples sector—but you do need to be prepared. Fisher Investments on Consumer Staples can help get you up to speed in this area and help you make better decisions through any market conditions.

For more information visit www. consumerstaples.fisherinvestments.com

October 6th, 2009

A Random Walk Down Wall Street: Completely Revised and Updated Edition (Paperback)

Author: Burton G. Malkiel
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.
Publication Date: January 01, 2003
Binding: Paperback
ISBN: 0393325350
Edition: Completely Revised and Updated
Pages: 416
Price: $10.89 (USD)
Amazon Customer Rating: 4.0 Stars





The million-copy bestseller, now fully up-to-date and ready for post-dot-com investors.

Using the dot-com crash as an object lesson in how not to manage your portfolio, here is the best-selling, gimmick-free, irreverent, vastly informative guide to navigating the turbulence of the market and managing investments with confidence.

A Random Walk Down Wall Street is well established as a staple of the business shelf, the first book any investor should read before taking the plunge and starting a portfolio. With its life-cycle guide to investing, it matches the needs of investors at any age bracket. Burton G. Malkiel shows how to analyze the potential returns, not only for stocks and bonds but also for the full range of investment opportunities, from money market accounts and real estate investment trusts to insurance, home ownership, and tangible assets like gold and collectibles.

Whether you want to verse yourself in the ways of the market before talking to a broker or follow Malkiel’s easy steps to managing your own portfolio, this book remains the best investing guide money can buy.

Amazon.com Review

It’s unlikely that you’ll spot many dog-eared copies of A Random Walk floating amongst the Wall Street set (although bookshelves at home may prove otherwise). After all, a “random walk”–in market terms–suggests that a “blindfolded monkey” would have as much luck selecting a portfolio as a pro. But Burton Malkiel’s classic investment book is anything but random. Since stock prices cannot be predicted in the short term, argues Malkiel, individual investors are better off buying and holding onto index funds than meddling with securities or actively managing mutual funds. Not only will a broad range of index funds outperform a professionally managed portfolio in the long run, but investors can avoid expense charges and trading costs, which decrease returns.

First published in 1973, this seventh printing of a A Random Walk looks forward and does so broadly, examining a new range of investment choices facing the turn-of-the-century investor: money-market accounts, tax-exempt funds, Roth IRAs, and equity REITs, as well as the potential benefits and pitfalls of the emerging global economy. In his updated “life-cycle guide to investing,” Malkiel offers age-related investment strategies that consider one’s capacity for risk. (A 30-year-old who can depend on wages to offset investment losses has a different risk capacity from a 60-year-old.) In his assessment of rocketing Internet stocks, Malkiel defends his “random” position well, explaining how “the market eventually corrects any irrationality–albeit in its own slow, inexorable fashion. Anomalies can crop up, markets can get irrationally optimistic, and often they attract unwary investors. But eventually, true value is recognized by the market, and this is the main lesson investors must heed.” Written for the financial layperson but bolstered by 30 years of research, A Random Walk will help individual investors take charge of their financial future. Recommended. –Rob McDonald

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