Live Truly

The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb is one of those books that can completely change the way you see the world. It talks about the unknown unknown, the black swan, the highly improbable unpredictable event that changes the world and which we will we later try to explain away.

You believe all swans are white. Each time you see a white swan, it’s just confirmation of your belief. People can see millions of white swans, but it only takes one black swan to prove everything wrong.

I first heard of this book on Talk of the Nation’s Interview with Taleb, it stayed in my mind throughout my adventures in Thailand, and upon my return I finally got my hands on a copy and fell in love with it.

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John Stone Fitness

This is a really cool website. This guy decided to get in shape, but unlike most people, he kept at it and documented every single day. For like five years! He’s still at it. His site has monthly, weekly, and even daily picture updates (johnstonefitness.com/php/pictures.php). Really impressive.

John Stone Fitness: johnstonefitness.com

Blog Theme and Site Updates

In between classes, holidays/fam events, flu, and workouts, I’m working on updating and cleaning up most of my sites, including this one. The theme update is the first step. I think it’s nice and clean.

I’ve changed the blog theme to the Zinmag Futura. However, I don’t need most of the flashy gizmos, and so I disabled them. But I love the thumbs and the rotating front page featured and slide/glide menu. The only issue I’ve had was with the thumbnails links not working correctly (discussion thread), but hopefully that gets cleaned up soon. Also, I just found out that Zinmag Redox had exactly the things I wanted without the extra features (for anyone that wants to save an hour or two in setting things up).
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The 4-Hour Workweek

I found out about The 4-Hour Workweek while reading a random Men’s Journal article. So far it has been fantastic. It has Q&A (Questions and Actions and expands on many concepts from Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

I especially appreciate the sheets you can download from his website (fourhourworkweek.com) and high speed push toward efficiency and figuring out what you really want… ie. not a sum of money… but what you’d actually do with it. It was really surprising when I asked quite a few people what they would do if they had all the money and time they wanted that they really had no clue. They never thought beyond the money/time part. What Timothy Ferriss does is make you ask the right questions and take the necessary steps before it’s too late. Lifestyle design should be a required subject.

ADRE vs. VWO

As far as emerging markets go, which is the best bet? This post looks at two exchange: traded funds ADRE and VWO.

BLDRS Emerging Markets 50 ADR Index ETF (ADRE) follows the Bank of New York’s Emerging Markets ADR Index.

American Deposit Receipts (ADR) represent ownership in the shares of foreign companies trading on US markets. This is how many foreign company stocks trade on US exchanges. ADR’s enable US investors to buy non-US shares without without going international and without switching currencies. The Bank of New York is the biggest issuer of ADR’s.

Vanguard Emerging Markets ETF (VWO) (VIPERs) follows the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. Maybe it’s the investing style or the turnover rate (3% for ADRE vs. 26% for Vanguard!) or the countries covered, but ADRE beat VWO over the last couple years. Vanguard is definitely more diversified (866 stocks) vs. 50, yet offers the same low expense ratio (.3%).

It’s a tough choice, the safety of (VWO) 866 stocks vs. the low turnover of BLDRS. Between the two, I’m leaning more towards ADRE, just because I like to hold onto good finds. Maybe I’m wrong, still new to this. Feel free to comment.

Index Funds vs. ETF’s

I’ve really been looking into ETF’s and Index Funds. If these guys can beat most professional investors, and do so at lower fees, why wouldn’t someone choose them? There are some index funds for real estate, international value stocks, and all sorts of domestic stocks.

My biggest question is whether to invest via mutual funds (index funds) or as a stock (ETF – exchage traded fund).

Taxes and commission fees are the greatest issues: index funds automatically reinvest dividends into the fund. Not sure if ETF’s do so. Other issue is taxes; does one have an advantage over the other? Not sure.

A few I’m looking at: JKL, JKF, JKI, EFV, ITF, VGSIX, and the DFA value group (like DTMIX)

Ideally I’m thinking of a split ratio of real estate, domestic value, and international value stocks. A bit aggressive? Maybe. I’d also like to put in a portion using the little blue book method as well. The two companies I chose 10 months ago, (fdg, and dlx), are up 50% so far. Running a few more sets over this month, to be sure.

Any answers/comments?