Apr
06
2012

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The College Investor Interview

Robert, at the college investor, published an interview with me about wealth, investing and my high school personal finance class. 

I hope you find it interesting. 

9 Questions from The College Investor

Permanent link to this article: http://andrewhallam.com/2012/04/the-college-investor-interview/

Apr
05
2012

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Daily Money Shot Offering Free Copies of Millionaire Teacher

Jana, at Daily Money Shot, has written a cool review of Millionaire Teacher, and she’s giving away some free copies

 

Check out her full review and the giveaway

Permanent link to this article: http://andrewhallam.com/2012/04/daily-money-shot-offering-free-copies-of-millionaire-teacher/

Apr
04
2012

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Investment Mistakes Even Smart Investors Make – Part 1 of 3

As a high school teacher, I’ve done plenty of reading on educational theory. 

How do kids learn, and how can you make it stick?  If given free reign, I’d like to teach a humanities class with Larry Swedroe and RC Balaban’s latest book, Investment Mistakes Even Smart Investors Make as my core text.

With it, I believe I could blend lessons in psychology, history, literature, mathematics, marketing/business, the stock market and investing.  Best of all, the lessons would all have applicable benefits to the kids, years after they leave the classroom. 

Sound like a tall order? 

I don’t think it is.  And I believe any teacher could do it.

School subjects have been taught in isolation for far too long.  We teach history, isolated from English, isolated from math.  Little crossover occurs in the world of academia, and (although I’m embarrassed to admit it) much of what we teach in schools isn’t practical.

Read the rest of this entry »

Permanent link to this article: http://andrewhallam.com/2012/04/investment-mistakes-even-smart-investors-make-part-1-of-3/

Apr
03
2012

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Emerging economies don’t always produce the best equity opportunities

Brad Pitt didn’t win the Oscar for his turn as baseball general manager Billy Beane, but the movie adaptation of Moneyball did result in renewed attention to Michael Lewis’s excellent 2003 book. In it, he traces how Beane’s Oakland A’s rejected decades of received wisdom about what made baseball players successful— how their bodies looked, how they carried themselves on the field—and instead won by analyzing statistics and focusing on quantifiable results.

I think Beane’s approach can work for investors, too.

Read My Article at Canadian Business.com

Permanent link to this article: http://andrewhallam.com/2012/04/emerging-economies-dont-always-produce-the-best-equity-opportunities/

Apr
02
2012

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Great Option For British Investors: HSBC’s Tracker Index Funds

If you haven’t figured this out by now, let me share one of the most important things everybody should know:

The world is full of people who would sell you toe nail clippings and magic cat dung…if they could get away with it.

Unfortunately, the financial service industry breeds more of those opportunists than any other sales field.  And they can skillfully disguise feline faeces to look (and smell) sweeter than a bouquet of spring flowers.

As a young investor, you can’t afford to put some of these products on your dinner plate — not if you eventually want to grow wealthy.  I’m a high school personal finance teacher who built a million dollar investment portfolio by the time I was 38 years old.

Read The Full Article at SavetheStudent.org

Permanent link to this article: http://andrewhallam.com/2012/04/great-option-for-british-investors-hsbcs-tracker-index-funds/

Mar
29
2012

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Making Money With Nuts and Bolts

© AssetBuilder

Just before my book, Millionaire Teacher, was released late last year my publisher, John Wiley & Sons, hired a reviewer to assess the manuscript.

I was a first time author, and my contract suggested that if the book wasn’t worthy, the publisher had the right to terminate the contract. For some reason, I had a bad feeling about this anonymous reviewer.

And I was right. He hated the book, suggesting that Wiley should ditch it.

Read More

Permanent link to this article: http://andrewhallam.com/2012/03/making-money-with-nuts-and-bolts/

Mar
27
2012

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Big Money Failure

Many people believe that the smartest money managers of all are those operating hedge funds. 

These are mutual fund-like products which have much more flexibility than regular mutual funds.  And they’re marketed to the rich.   Fees tend to be really high, and the funds tend to be….exclusive.  You generally need a lot of money if you want to invest in hedge funds.

Warren Buffett views hedge funds as products allowing the rich to steal from the rich. 

Hedge funds, he suggests, are anchored with atrocious fees that erode returns.  And in 2008, he bet $1 million that that nobody could pick ten hedge funds that, as an aggregate, would beat the simple S&P 500 index over the following ten years.

Many people are sold on the idea that hedge funds make reams of money for their investors because of their flexibility.  Fund managers can make bets that the markets are going to fall, and if the markets do, they can collect on those bets and make money.  Hedge fund managers can do the same thing with currencies—betting that a specific currency will rise or fall, and eventually collect on the bet.

But they can also lose a lot of money. 

Read the rest of this entry »

Permanent link to this article: http://andrewhallam.com/2012/03/big-money-failure/

Mar
23
2012

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Investors—Don’t Forget That You’re Getting Older

None of us want reminders that we’re getting older. 

Hairs poke out where we don’t want them, and wrinkles start making subtle road maps of our faces.  Then we have our investments to think of.  As we age, they need to become slightly more conservative.

If you’ve been with the same investment advisor for the past five years and he or she hasn’t adjusted your portfolio’s risk levels to reflect your age, then you have yourself an “asset gatherer” instead of a real investment advisor. 

Asset gatherers probably outnumber investment advisors 100 to one.  They operate like hungry squirrels that run around, trying to stockpile as many goodies as they can before winter.  But there is no winter for a human asset gatherer.  They may call themselves “Financial Advisors” (and they’re likely certified) but they care more about increasing their numbers of clients.

In fact, a great advisor could be the man or woman who says, “Sorry, I can’t accept more clients.”   That’s golden.  After all, a financial advisor usually makes more money when they add more assets under their management.  Meeting that person who says, “I have enough clients” is a great sign.  Lean squirrels, after all, move around a lot better than fat ones.

Sadly, few people go into the money management business to help others. 

Read the rest of this entry »

Permanent link to this article: http://andrewhallam.com/2012/03/investors-dont-forget-that-youre-getting-older/

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