A quick introduction to this week’s suggested articles, as I’m keen to get outside — the sun is shining and it looks like the Great British Indian Summer of 2009 is underway.
It’s therefore time to dust off the BBQ, which I’ve barely used since the Great British Heatwave back in May.
Since then it’s been the Usual Great British ‘Meh’ Summer of Cloud and Intermittent Showers. It’s almost painful to contemplate that we’re nearly into September.
New motivation to invest: Creating an escape fund. 🙂
I was drinking with a friend last week when he congratulated me on my purchasing Lloyds shares.
Lloyds was up over 40% in just a few weeks. Result!
My friend had read about the initial trade on Monevator. Generally I don’t discuss share trades in real life because:
Sure enough, my friend decided I could afford to buy him an extra round.
Stock picking is hard — as I’ve said before, you’re usually much better off investing through index trackers. (I do with much of my money.)
Adding peer pressure or social chit chat brings new awkwardness to a difficult task.
Even when your trades go right, you can delude yourself you’re doing much better than you really are — especially when your friends are congratulating you.
I have already read a couple of books by panelists from Dragon’s Den, the BBC TV show that puts would-be entrepreneurs in front of self-made millionaires for their money or their ridicule.
On Saturday I picked up another — Theo Paphitis’ Enter the Dragon
Perhaps I’ve become a Dragon’s Den groupie? I’m certainly not reading these books for their literary qualities.
100 Secret Strategies for Successful Investing by Richard Farleigh is like the brain dump of a share bulletin board poster with verbal diarrhea. There wasn’t much takeaway value, though Farleigh’s rags-to-riches tale was heartening.
Duncan Bannatyne meanwhile took time off from snarling at the inventors of dog treadmills and revolutionary shower caps to write Anyone Can Do It.
Bannatyne wasn’t promising much more than a pep talk, but his book worked better than Farleigh’s, perhaps because Duncan made his initial money selling ice creams, whereas Fairleigh earned his wodge investing other people’s billions — not really an option for most of us.
So what about Theo Paphitis? The Dragons are famously competitive: Does Theo measure up?
Enter The Dragon: How I Transformed My Life and You Can Too is at least snappier to read than its title.
This week we saw more signs that the world was moving out of recession. Well, that France and Germany were moving out of recession.
Both countries posted +0.3% GDP growth figures for the second quarter, causing economists to splutter their croissants and sausages all over Le Monde and Der Spiegel.
In difficult times one has to put aside one’s Little Englander mentality and be grateful for good news, even if it falls at the feet of the Germans and the French.
After all, what happens across the Channel will surely soon follow here (leather shorts, saying ‘Ciao!’ and a sensible attitude towards alcohol excepted).
