I have created a new Facebook ‘fan page’ for this blog; it would be GREAT if as many of my readers as can be bothered, clicked on this Facebook widget then clicked the “Like” button on the Welcome! page that it will direct you to.
Oh, you can also sign up for the new $7 Million 7 Years monthly newsletter … these two simple steps will keep you in touch with EVERYTHING that I am doing both on and off this blog AND give you access to lots of free stuff that I don’t get the space to cover on this blog.
Once you’ve done that, come back here to find out why I’m angry …
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It’s funny, I’m an enthusiastic-about-life-and-all-of-its-opportunities type of guy with a fun/happy demeanour …
… yet, apparently, I am angry.
In fact, I am angry … it’s just that I didn’t realize it!
Let me explain …
I’m exploring the options of publishing v self-publishing our first book (‘our’ as in me and Debbie, my co-author), and John T Reed (who makes a VERY good financial argument for self-publishing) says [emphasis per John T Reed’s original text]:
I once read that all good non-fiction books are written in anger. At first I was taken aback by that, then I realized it was true.
Think about it. There are generally already a bunch of books on any topic that you would choose. If the subject has been covered adequately and correctly, why write a book about it?
If you do write a book,you are implicitly saying that the world needs this book. Implicit in that is the accusation that the existing books are either incorrect or incomplete or both.
Think about it, indeed!
Look at how many books Amazon lists for the topics that I write about:
Finance – 23,637
Investing – 19,615
Personal Finance – 36,613
Real-Estate – 9,716
Small Business & Entrepreneurship – 23,172
That’s a helluvalottabooks 🙂
Now, take a look at how many personal finance blogs there are:
– Technorati lists 586 for finance, 163 for real-estate, and 1581 for small business
– DMOZ (the open directory project) lists 761 for personal finance, alone!
– But, I think the real number is in the tens of thousands, I just don’t know how to find them all!
My point being, why would I – of all people – write a personal finance book and blog? Remember, I don’t need the money!
When I read John T Reed’s comments, I knew he was right … I am angry!
I’m angry at all of those personal finance authors and bloggers who have absolutely no idea what they are talking about … particularly the ones who purport to tell you their methods to make you rich.
Their sub-text (weakly disguised as ‘advice’) really says: “start as poor as your audience, so start a blog, write a book and make millions for giving others advice on some THEORY of how to make millions”.
And, the frugal authors and bloggers of this world have a lot to answer for; convincing people to sign up to a life of self-imposed slavery for a retirement that’s only a little better than ‘do nothing’.
So, this does sound like I am angry …
… but, it doesn’t make me wrong 😉
“And, the frugal authors and bloggers of this world have a lot to answer for; convincing people to sign up to a life of self-imposed slavery for a retirement that’s only a little better than ‘do nothing’.”
Haha, well I believe there is value in being frugal, there is a point where you should draw the line. The line is different for everyone, but I personally don’t want to live in a cheap apartment and drive a beater car for the next 30 years.
So what is it that you suggest? If it is possible to get returns of 20% or more then why aren’t more people doing it? I think my personal number was 13% or 15% which isn’t so bad at all, but even achieving this, I think I would have to have incredible foresight about something (or just get lucky), since if it was easy to do it then everyone would be doing it already, thus driving down the returns…
What do you think?
thanks for the ideas! sell people an idea/theory of how to make money! awesome! I meet my number in a year?
Adrian, You are just realizing this now?
he’s just now realizing how angry he is
done. Now i’m going to figure out why you’re so angry.
I agree that most people that are out there with their extreme frugality ideas are off the deep end.
People who have no track record in making money should not give advice to others on the matter.
Then however, among those who HAVE made money, and maybe even a lot of it, you still have to watch out for the “Hundreth Idiot” effect (read Matter by I. Banks or if lazy here: http://bit.ly/8ZMhku). How do you tell true genius from the idiot who got it right? There were a lot of hundreth idiots in Silicon Valley in the heyday, and I wouldn’t listen to vast majority of those guys for money advice.
AJ – how do we weed out the hundreth idiots?
Thanks to everybody who has commented (so far) … I feel MUCH better, now, having let this out 🙂
@ Kevin – There’s a HUGE chasm between 0% to 5% returns (after inflation) and – x% (if you’re stupid) and +50%+ (if you’re extremely lucky) returns if you are an entrepreneur and/or true investor; start with Michael Masterson’s guidelines:
http://7million7years.com/2008/09/30/its-the-gradient-of-the-curve/
@ Jake – Start by deleting my blog, then you only have 99 other idiots to worry about 😛
But, I think common-sense is always the best filter: if it sounds too good to be true it probably is; but, don’t forget the corollary (or is it axiom? maxim? oh, heck …?!) if it rings true, it just might be …
Pingback: Keeping the Hounds at Bay | Invest It Wisely
Adrian,
“if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is”; that’s what I think when I see 15-30% returns and beyond 🙂
I checked out that post and I saw that stocks were rated higher than index funds; this might be true for some stocks that were picked well in hindsight, but are you taking variance into consideration? Not everyone has been lucky in picking stocks.
As for real-estate, how does it drive the returns from 15% to 30%+? I can only assume this means a serious amount of leverage, which might work well in a rising market but this is no longer 2002…
I AM curious, but I am still looking for the hard details. 🙂
@ Kevin – 15% to 30% returns in R/E? Easy – or, impossible – for a real-estate developer.
Easy in most markets (flat markets are just fine), hard-to-impossible in down-markets and GFC’s!
BTW: Thanks for the link [ http://www.investitwisely.com/keeping-the-hounds-at-bay/ ] … I’m not angry at you 🙂
Greece 2 year bonds jumped up to 18% per annum, is that a guaranteed return or a big risk (default plus the chance of the Euro falling in the next 2 years…)?
-Mike
@ Mike – What’s ‘guaranteed’ is that the price of gyros at Dimitri’s Taverna is NOT going down 😛
No problem!
Anger directed wisely can sometimes be a good thing… 🙂