More thoughts after reading Millionaire Teacher by Andrew Hallam

Disclaimer: I am not a financial adviser.  I work in the healthcare industry after having studied for 4 years to earn my degree.  I probably earn much less than many financial advisers who sell actively managed funds.  One of my favourite subjects during university was law and bioethics.  I doubt financial advisers who sell actively managed funds took those subjects.  If you want more information on how to get started in the investing world, read on...

My interest in investing started sometime after I started working.  I wanted my money to work as hard, if not harder.  I left the cozy and comfortable government sector after 6 year, and have been working as a contractor.  That meant I had no one else but myself to pay for those conferences and CME courses.  That meant that I had no one else but myself to ensure that I have enough funds for retirement.  Therefore, I started to read and research.

I am a slow reader.  I am too embarrassed to say how long it took me to finish reading and understanding Peter Lynch's Learn to Earn but this was my first book on investing.  That book introduced the world of investing to me and I liked what I saw.  So, I went on to buy and read Mr. Lynch's two other books before I bought John Bogle's Common Sense on Mutual Funds.  I read his books in 6 months.  I must be improving - I finished reading Andrew Hallam's book in 6 days! 

Yes, I have bought many books on investing over the years.  There are many books on investing in the market but which book would I buy and read first if I could turn back time?  Here's it is:

1. Andrew Hallam's Millionaire Teacher
2. John Bogle's Common Sense on Mutual Funds
3. Benjamin Graham's The Intelligent Investor
4. Suze Orman's The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom (& watch her weekly show)
5. Peter Lynch's Learn to Earn

Yes, Andrew's book is the first on my list.  I would read it and follow his advice.  I would also follow his blog: andrewhallam.com 

I wouldn't have bought Pring's Technical Analysis Explained.  Nothing personal, but I think my brain isn't wired to understand all those technical stuff.  I kept dozing off after reading a page or two.  The difference with Andrew's book is that he introduces the world of investing in layperson's terms, and he shows you how to get started.  No big jargon like P/E ratio, EPS, wash trade, exhaustion gaps etc. because you won't need to know all these if you invested in index funds.

I can't turn back time, and I can't undo all the investing mistakes I have done despite of having read so many book over the years.  But I can:

1. Give Andrew's book as presents
2. Spread the news about Andrew's book to as many people as possible and,
3. Hope that as more people educate themselves with Andrew's book, the world of financial advisers will be more ethical...yes, all I can do is hope.

By the way, I don't know Andrew personally.  I have not met him, although I do hope to meet Andrew over a cup of coffee, and ask him what he thinks about my portfolio.

"Live long and prosper." Spock

Thoughts on Millionaire Teacher by Andrew Hallam – Rule 1

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Recently, I purchased Andrew Hallam’s Millionaire Teacher – The Nine Rules of Wealth You Should Have Learned in School.  Maybe I should have read his book first before Peter Lynch’s Learn to Earn, John Bogle’s Common Sense on Mutual Funds or Suze Orman’s The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom.  Then again, Andrew's book was only published in 2011.  I am definitely reading this book much faster and understanding it much easier that those books.  Better late than never but my English teacher, Mr. Tan, taught me that it is “better never late". 

(You may be wondering, "What does this have to do with cooking, eating, drinking and traveling?"  Well, I want to be able to afford cooking, eating, drinking and traveling, and blogging about it, until I am 120 years old without having to work full-time until I am 70 years old.)

Below are some real-life conversations I have had over the past year.   (Names of the people have been changed because I have not obtained their consent to share their stories, but I have not changed the gist of the stories.)  I felt the need to start this new post after reading Rule 1.  Don’t know what Rule 1 is?  Buy Andrew’s book!

Adam

By right, Adam technically had 10 months to work before he could officially retire with a comfortable pension.  But by left (I love writing/saying this), he now has to work for another 4 years because he bought a brand new truck in summer and needed the money to pay for the installments.  

“What was wrong with your old truck?” I asked. 

“It wasn’t powerful enough to pull the new RV (recreational vehicle) I bought for summer.”

“Therefore, you need the money to pay for the new RV and the new truck?”

“Yes,” he answered with a smile.

Basically, he sabotaged his own retirement!

Mr. & Mrs. Donnelly

I was looking at the brand new Subaru Crosstrek with the salesperson who was trying to sell it to me when Mr. and Mrs. Donnelly walked in.  They were both retired, in their 70’s, drove a old-ish Subaru Legacy, and they wanted to buy a brand new Subaru Crosstrek.

“I don’t understand why they want to buy a brand new Crosstrek.  They are retired and their Legacy is working well,” the salesperson whispered to me. 

I was surprised by his remark.  I thought he would have been happy to sell that car to them and make some commission. 

A few days later, I met up with the salesperson again to write a cheque for my 2010 Subaru Forester.  I found out that Mr. and Mrs. Donnelly bought a 2013 Subaru Crosstrek.  I didn’t want to know if they took out a loan.

"Just because you can, doesn't mean you should."  Unknown

Thoughts about modified food - part 1

Yes, I am interested in topics related to modified food because I am a foodie.  I like to eat, and I like to know the what/where/how of the food I eat.  You could say I was first exposed to the concept of food modification when I was still a teenager, during biology class, when the teacher mentioned 'parthenocarpy'.  Honestly, it never really made an impact until recent years.

Personally, a fruit or vegetable has been modified as long as a human being dabbled with the food either via hormones, grafting and/or genetic engineering. 

Before I continue, let me say that I am not a plant biotechnologist like this professor who is "on the scientific advisory board of Mendel Biotechnology, a company that counts Monsanto as their most important customer and collaborator."  I am not a journalist, I don't own shares of some organic green company.  I am just a foodie who has questions about and I want to find out the answers.  I am also a blogger with a full-time job (not related to food) and blogging is just a hobby.  Therefore, I will probably just skim the surface of this topic on modified food.  So, let's begin...

According to Wikipedia, parthenocarpy is "the natural or artificially induced production of fruit without fertilization of ovules."(1)  Therefore, the "natural" part of the definitions means you get seedless fruits and vegetables in nature.  Mother Nature is the scientist here.  Horticulturists just take advantage of that by cultivating and propagating these seedless varietals via grafting (2).  Therefore, not all seedless fruits and vegetables have gone through artificial parthenocarpy.

Artificial parthenocarpy is the "artificially induced production" part by using hormones/phytohormones such as gibberellin, auxin or cytokinin (1).  I wonder if eating produce that have been produced via the use of phytohormones will mess with our bodies' hormones?  I don't know but guess what?

• Gibberellin was used to produce Thompson seedless grapes in the mid-1960s(3).  
• We can buy phytohormones kits online to help with fruit/vegetable production in our gardens.

I must agree with this statement taken from Wikipedia (4): "One disadvantage of most seedless crops is a significant reduction in the amount of genetic diversity in the species. As genetically identical clones, a pest or disease that affects one individual is likely to be capable of affecting every clone of that individual."

Reference:

1. Parthenocarpy.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenocarpy
2. How do seedless fruits arise and how are they propagated?
   http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-do-seedless-fruits-ar
3. Gibberellin.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibberellin
4. Seedless fruit.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seedless_fruit
5. Genetically modified organisms.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_organism