A while back I read a book titled “Business for Authors” by Joanna Penn. Though I never looked at writing as a means to a livelihood (25 years of corporate life perhaps allowed me to keep it as a hobby at best, or at worst, a vocation), for those who have the gumption to start … Read more
For writers and all kinds of professional or hobby artists, I highly recommend the book “The Practice” by Seth Godin. I read it almost a year back and it has still stayed with me. I have taken notes from the book and refer to them off and on when I need inspiration. You will find … Read more
Common Sense Investing: Sharing an excellent set of simple videos (less than 60 minutes) by Rick Van Ness. All that an average individual investor needs to know and follow. This is what the site http://www.financinglife.org/ says about these videos: “These short videos teach basic financial concepts to make it more likely that you’ll achieve common life … Read more
..and again!! That’s the title of a memo sent by the famous investor Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital to his clients recently. And it refers to how he is happiest writing when bull markets start going far, risk aversion disappears and there’s money all around inflating potential bubbles. It is quite a long memo listing … Read more
Often investors – specially those who call themselves defensive – can’t make up their mind on when to sell, as they have no particular reasons for doing so – except looking at market levels. A good answer to that comes from systematic and regular rebalancing (almost scheduled or using some similar discipline). Came across a … Read more
I was always what in India is called a “healthy boy”. And I have stayed more or less “healthy” throughout my adult life with a few minor fluctuations. I have been through some ‘before-after’ experiments over the past twenty years, but they have all been in a range. And every time I ventured down that … Read more
A slightly old-ish book (first published in 1994), I chanced upon this book and picked it up again at the library recently, though I had read it a few years back. While after so many years, it may not seem to have anything new, given that there is so much written about Buffett since 1994 … Read more
For regular investors for whom investing is not a full-time activity, the Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing is a wonderful book that asks the right questions and provides clear answers. In a single book, the authors (who also started an online forum bogleheads.org based on the investing principles of John Bogle) have explained, in a step … Read more
Over the past 6, 12 or perhaps 18 months, the Indian capital market performance has had a polarized structure. It is broadly divided into, on the one hand, a small set of wonderful companies that are grossly overvalued, whichever way you look at it, and which keep getting expensive; and on the other hand, a … Read more