The other day, a friend of mine was slightly amused after I bombarded him with reasons why he should always check management fees before selecting a Mutual Fund or (even better) an ETF. His words: “C’mon, what difference does a management fee…
Executive Summary: Haidt poses several “Great Ideas” on happiness espoused by thinkers of the past—Plato, Buddha, Jesus, and others—and examines them in the light of contemporary psychological research, extracting from them any lessons that still apply to our modern lives. …
52 years old, three teenage kids, one wife, home since 1997: Singapore After completing my A-levels in Germany, I started on the traditional path in acquiring some skills to earn money. I did an Industrial Apprenticeship with Siemens. Then worked, and…
1) They say no to smaller expenses which can add up to big savings. For example, replace an expensive dinner in a fancy restaurant with a potluck dinner with friends, or meet up with friends for a walk in the park instead…
Schwager takes aim at the most perniciously pervasive academic precepts, money management canards, market myths, and investor errors. Like so many ducks in a shooting gallery, Schwager picks them off, one at a time, revealing the truth about many of…
The tendency to find order to ambiguous stimuli is built into the cognitive machinery we use to understand the world. That predisposition to impose order can be so automatic and so unchecked that we often end up believing in the…
Two main subjects: Why markets for goods and services tend toward equilibrium, but financial markets do not. Why central banks are useful and what they should do (which they currently don’t). Breaking the 170 page book into nine chapters, Cooper…
Wall Street Analysts are bad at stock picking: Analysis of all sell and buy recommendations in 2003 showed that the portfolio with negatively viewed stocks gained 53.5% (over two years), more than 75 percentage points better than the market. Investing, contrary…
Science journalist Ridley believes there is a reason to be optimistic about the human race and he defies the unprecedented economic pessimism he observes. The book is about the rapid and continuous change that human society experiences, unlike any other…
Why having too little means so much. By scarcity, we mean having less than you feel you need. It forms a common chord across so many of society’s problems. The science of scarcity is not new. It is called Economics—which…