Book review - The Rules of Wealth

Just finished a rather good book:

Rules of Wealth

It only gets 3 stars on Amazon which is surprising as it contains loads of little nuggets of good information regarding money, money creating and money management.

It's basically a list of rules (around 110) regarding how to treat money, retain it, earn it and make it grow. All very practical and simple advice but I did get a few lightbulb moments. The best thing about the book is that it is easy to read - each 'rule' is only 2 pages long so you can pick it up whenever you want or even read a page or two a day.

It's by a guy called Richard Templar which I gather is a pen-name and he has a whole series of these 'rules' books. I've ordered one or two more as I enjoyed that one.

It won't change your life and it's not about getting rich - it's more practical, everyday advice that we should all know but don't often follow.

Currently reading this one:

Gross Misconduct: My Year of Excess in the City


It's basically about a girl who gets a job in the City in with the male dominated culture just before the boom ended, and she goes along with the drinking, the spending and all the rest of it - before getting fired. So far so good although I'm only about a quarter of the way in. 

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The S&P500 index took a bit of a dive yesterday and now trades around 1493. It's hard to say what way it will go in the medium term - I think it will continue to hover around 1500 for a bit although direction could change either way after tomorrow's non-farm payrolls in the US (which are always big news).  Explanation from Forex Live:

Nonfarm Payrolls measures the change in the number of people employed during the previous month, excluding the farming industry. Job creation is the foremost indicator of consumer spending, which accounts for the majority of economic activity.

A higher than expected reading should be taken as positive/bullish for the USD, while a lower than expected reading should be taken as negative/bearish for the USD.

I was having a look around for some trades this morning but nothing is coming up so I think I'll leave the financials alone today and just watch how the markets go. 

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I didn't get out for a run this morning - I went up to the graveyard to visit my father's grave instead. He's 7 years gone today - people say time flies and it sure does. Feels like only yesterday I was up in the local with him having a pint and backing a few horses. I miss those days sorely. He was only 53 when he died and he died from smoking.  On his dying bed, my old man would have gave anything to have an extra couple of years with his family and young grand-daughter but you can't turn back the clock and it was too late to undo the damage. That must be so frustrating, knowing it could have been prevented. I miss him every day and I sincerely hope they have Channel 4 up in heaven so he can watch the racing on a Saturday.
If you are a smoker, consider giving them up - it's a horrendous way to die and often at a fairly young age.

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 On the racing front, it was a blank day yesterday with Zamdy Man being a non-runner. I've one bet for today although the price is going to be around 4/6. Looks well-in under a penalty though. Here's Timeform's comment:

2.30 Lingfield - Secret MillionaireTook advantage of tumbling mark when landing a gamble over C&D last week (Sherjawy behind) and remains very well treated on previous form carrying a 6 lb penalty for that success.

Enjoy the day, looks sunny out there at the moment :-)

Wayne