Not according to Jean Chatzky, one of the most popular personal-finance experts in the country, who has advised millions through her regular Today Show appearances and her columns in Money magazine. Now she shares the good news about a groundbreaking study she did with the Roper Organization; the Happiness Assessment. Her research shows that amount of money you make has surprisingly little to do with how financially happy you are. But the happiest people in America at all incorme levels tend to use the money strategies that Chatzky calls the "Ten Commandments of Financial Happiness." For instance, they pay their bills as they come in rather than all at one and minimize credit and debt. The bottom line: you have to pay attention to your money-and Chatzky shows you how to make the most of what you've got. But you certainly don't have to be rich achieve financial happiness. 作者简介：Jean Chatsky is the financial editor for NBC's Today show, has a monthly colomn in Money magazine, and is a featu

By day he made thousands of dollars a minute. By night hespent it as fast as he could, on drugs, sex, and internationalglobe-trotting. From the binge that sank a 170-foot motor yacht,crashed a Gulfstream jet, and ran up a $700,000 hotel tab, to thewife and kids who waited for him at home, and the fast-talking,hard-partying young stockbrokers who called him king and did hisbidding, here, in his own inimitable words, is the story of theill-fated genius they called… In the 1990s Jordan Belfort, former kingpin of the notoriousinvestment firm Stratton Oakmont, became one of the most infamousnames in American finance: a brilliant, conniving stock-chopper wholed his merry mob on a wild ride out of the canyons of Wall Streetand into a massive office on Long Island. Now, in this astoundingand hilarious tell-all autobiography, Belfort narrates a story ofgreed, power, and excess no one could invent. Reputedly the prototype for the film Boiler Room, StrattonOakmont turned microcap investing into a wi

The intimate, fly-on-the wall tale of the decline and fall of anAmerica icon With one notable exception, the firms that make up what we know asWall Street have always been part of an inbred, insular culturethat most people only vaguely understand. The exception was MerrillLynch, a firm that revolutionized the stock market by bringing WallStreet to Main Street, setting up offices in far-flung cities andtowns long ignored by the giants of finance. With its “thunderingherd” of financial advisers, perhaps no other business, whether infinancial services or elsewhere, so epitomized the American spirit.Merrill Lynch was not only “bullish on America,” it was a bigreason why so many average Americans were able to grow wealthy byinvesting in the stock market. Merrill Lynch was an icon. Its sudden decline, collapse, andsale to Bank of America was a shock. How did it happen? Why did ithappen? And what does this story of greed, hubris, and incompetencetell us about the culture of Wall Street that continues to

This book was written to offer encouragement and basicinformation to the individual investor. Who knew it would gothrough thirty printings and sell more than one million copies? Asthis latest edition appears eleven years beyond the first, I'mconvinced that the same principles that helped me perform well atthe Fidelity Magellan Fund still apply to investing in stockstoday. It's been a remarkable stretch since One Up on Wall Street hit thebookstores in 1989. I left Magellan in May, 1990, and pundits saidit was a brilliant move. They congratulated me for getting out atthe right time -- just before the collapse of the great bullmarket. For the moment, the pessimists looked smart. The country'smajor banks flirted with insolvency, and a few went belly up. Byearly fall, war was brewing in Iraq. Stocks suffered one of theirworst declines in recent memory. But then the war was won, thebanking system survived, and stocks rebounded. Some rebound! The Dow is up more than fourfold since October, 1990,from the 2,400 lev

Have you ever wondered why some people attract wealth whileothers stay financially trapped? The key is learningwealth-friendly, upside-down thinking. In this New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Todaybestseller, Robert Shemin, one-time "idiot" and currently amultimillionaire, illustrates in a witty way how going against thegrain is, in fact, the surest way to gain. Learn how to: ? set only one powerful success goal—and make it a big one ? play while your money goes to work ? stop building someone else’s business and start building yourown ? live and think like a millionaire while you’re becoming one ? use the power and smarts of other Rich Idiots to help you jointhe Rich Idiot Club Spend just a few pages with Robert and his Rich Idiot friends andyou’ll be convinced that “if they could do it, I can do it.”

Diversification provides a well-known way of getting something close to a free lunch: by spreading money across different kinds of investments, investors can earn the same return with lower risk (or a much higher return for the same amount of risk). This strategy, introduced nearly fifty years ago, led to such strategies as index funds. What if we were all missing out on another free lunch that’s right under our noses? In Lifecycle Investing, Barry Nalebuff and Ian Ayres—two of the most innovative thinkers in business, law, and economics—have developed tools that will allow nearly any investor to diversify their portfolios over time. By using leveraging when young—a controversial idea that sparked hate mail when the authors first floated it in the pages of Forbes—investors of all stripes, from those just starting to plan to those getting ready to retire, can substantially reduce overall risk while improving their returns. In Lifecycle Investing, readers will learn How to figure out the level of

Before I became “Phil Town, teacher of investing principles tomore than 500,000 people a year,” I was a lot like you: someone whoviewed individual stock investing as way too hard to dosuccessfully. As a guy who barely made a living as a river guide, Iconsidered the whole process pretty impenetrable, and I wasconvinced that to do it right you had to make it a full-time job.Me, I was more interested in having full-time fun. So I was tempted to do what you’re probably doing right now:letting some mutual fund manager worry about growing your nest egg.Let me tell you why that decision could one day make you absolutelymiserable.

"This is a modern classic." —Paul A. Samuelson, First AmericanNobel Prize Winner in Economics "The best book there is about the stock market and all that goeswith it." — The New York Times Book Review "Anyone whose orientation is toward where the action is, where thehappenings happen, should buy a copy of The Money Game andread it with due diligence." — Book World " 'Adam Smith' is a veteran observer and commentator on the eventsand people of Wall Street.... His thorough knowledge of financialaffairs gives his observations a great degree of authenticity. Butthe joy of reading this book comes from his delightful sense ofhumor. He is a lively and ingeniously witty writer who never stoopsto acerbity. None of the solemn, sacred cows of Wall Street escapesdebunking." — Library Journal

Owning a home has always been the American Dream, and in The Automatic Millionaire Homeowner , David Bach shows thatbuying a home and investment properties is not only possible, it isstill the surest way to reach your seven-figure dreams on anordinary income. Whether you are a renter or already own a home,Bach’s book offers a lifelong strategy for real estate based ontimeless wisdom that is tried and true—in any market. He includeseverything you need to know, with step-by-step instructions,including phone numbers and web sites, so you can get started rightaway. As long as you’re alive, you have to live somewhere. Why notlet where you live make you financially secure and ultimately rich?David Bach will show you how.

For anyone interested in the world behind the business-pageheadlines, this is the book to read. --Publishers Weekly With the same breadth of vision and narrative élan he brought tohis monumental biographies of the great financiers, Ron Chernowexamines the forces that made dynasties like the Morgans, theWarburgs, and the Rothschilds the financial arbiters of the earlytwentieth century and then rendered them virtually obsolete by thecentury's end. As he traces the shifting balance of power among investors,borrowers, and bankers, Chernow evokes both the grand theater ofcapital and the personal dramas of its most fascinatingprotagonists. Here is Siegmund Warburg, who dropped a client in theheat of a takeover deal because the man wore monogrammed shirtcuffs, as well as the imperious J. P. Morgan, who, when faced witha federal antitrust suit, admonished Theodore Roosevelt to "sendyour man to my man and they can fix it up." And here are the menwho usurped their power, from the go-getters of the 1

Although Africa has long been known to be rich in oil,extracting it hadnt seemed worth the effort and risk untilrecently. But with the price of Middle Eastern crude oilskyrocketing and advancing technology making reserves easier totap, the region has become the scene of a competition between majorpowers that recalls the nineteenth-century scramble forcolonization there. But what does this giddy new oil boom meanforAmerica, for the world, for Africans themselves? John Ghazviniantraveled through twelve African countriesfrom Sudan to Congo toAngolatalking to warlords, industry executives, bandits, activists,priests, missionaries, oil-rig workers, scientists, and ordinarypeople whose lives have been transformednot necessarily for thebetterby the riches beneath their feet. The result is a high-octanenarrative that reveals the challenges, obstacles, reasons fordespair, and reasons for hope emerging from the worlds newestenergy hot spot.

UNTIL THE SPRING OF 2001,THE HOUSTON energy giant Enron epitomized the triumph of the new economy. Feared by rivals, worshiped by investors,Enron seemingly could do no wrong, its profits rose every quarter; its stock price surged ever upward; its leaders were hailed as visionaries. Then a young Fortune writer named Bethany McLean wrote an article posing a simple question--How, exactly, does Enron make its money?--and the company's house of cards began to collapse. Though other business scandals would follow, none has had the shattering effect of Enron's bankruptcy, which caused Americans to lose faith in a system that rewarded top insiders with millions of dollars while small investors,including many Enron employees, lost everything. Despite enormous media coverage of Enron, the definitive story of its astonishing rise and fall comes alive for the first time in this gripping narrative by McLean and her Fortune colleague Peter Elkind.Drawing on a wide range of private documents and well-placed so

In this follow-up to his bestselling book, Using Technical Analysis, Clifford Pistolese reveals how to effectively apply technical analysis in your day-to-day trading decisions in order to select stocks with the greatest profit potential. Selecting Winning Stocks Using Technical Analysis gives you practical techniques and exercises for quickly evaluating stocks using simple methods of technical analysis. Pistolese shows you how to conduct your own independent research to obtain objective data and identify investment opportunities, allowing you to shed broker fees and avoid conflicts of interest. He provides expert advice on tactical trading errors, controlling your emotions, and steering clear of the “herd mentality,” as well as how to: Locate companies with effective business models Use free technical analysis resources on the Internet. Readjust your portfolio for bull, range-bound, and bear market phases. Diversify your investments to control risk. Recognize th

“Beware of geeks bearing formulas.” --Warren Buffett In March of 2006, the world’s richest men sipped champagne in anopulent New York hotel. They were preparing to compete in apoker tournament with million-dollar stakes, but those numbersmeant nothing to them. They were accustomed to riskingbillions. At the card table that night was Peter Muller, an eccentric,whip-smart whiz kid who’d studied theoretical mathematics atPrinceton and now managed a fabulously successful hedge fund calledPDT…when he wasn’t playing his keyboard for morning commuters onthe New York subway. With him was Ken Griffin, who as anundergraduate trading convertible bonds out of his Harvard dormroom had outsmarted the Wall Street pros and made money in one ofthe worst bear markets of all time. Now he was thetough-as-nails head of Citadel Investment Group, one of the mostpowerful money machines on earth. There too were Cliff Asness, thesharp-tongued, mercurial founder of the hedge fund AQR, a man asf

THE ESSENTIAL GALBRAITH includes key selections from the mostimportant works of John Kenneth Galbraith, one of the mostdistinguished writers of our time - from THE AFFLUENT SOCIETY, thegroundbreaking book in which he conined the tern "conventionalwisdom," to THE GREAT CRASH, an unsurpassed account of the eventsthat triggered America's worst economic crisis. Galbraith's newintroductions place the works in their historical moment and makeclear their enduring relevance for the new century. THE ESSENTIALGALBRAITH will delight old admirers and introduce one of our mostbeloved writers to a new generation of readers. It is also anindispensable resource for scholars and students of economics,history, and politics, offering unparalleled access to the seminalwritings of an extraordinary thinker.

The international bestseller on the extent to which personalfreedom has been eroded by government regulations and agencieswhile personal prosperity has been undermined by governmentspending and economic controls. New Foreword by the Authors;Index.

For Making Sense of Investing Today...the Fully Revised and Expanded Edition of the Bestselling The Motley Fool Investment Guide Today, with the Internet, anyone can be an informed investor. Once you learn to tune out the hype and focus on meaningful factors, you can beat the Street. The Motley Fool Investment Guide, completely revised and updated with clear and witty explanations, deciphers all the new information -- from evaluating individual stocks to creating a diverse investment portfolio. David and Tom Gardner have investing ideas for you -- no matter how much time or money you have. This new edition of The Motley Fool Investment Guide is built for today's investor, sophisticate and novice alike, with updated information on: * Finding high-growth stocks that will beat the market over the long term * Identifying volatile young companies that traditional valuation measures may miss * Using Fool.com and the Internet to locate great sources of useful information

The classic guide to the securities markets, revised to reflectthe realities of a new millennium. In the past decade, thecomplicated world of investing has changed--dramatically. Stocks,Bonds, Options, Futures is now thoroughly revised and updated tohelp novice financial professionals as well as individualinvestors, who want a better understanding of the securitiesmarket, navigate this daunting new financial terrain withconfidence. Stuart Veale, an investment industry veteran andrespected author, provides an insider's look at the marketrealities of today and tomorrow. This reliable resource examines the impact of recentdevelopments and current trends in the various securities markets.Among the topics Veale covers and has updated in this secondedition are: Internet-based trading and analysis The adoption ofthe Euro Changes in the way OTC orders are executed The varioustypes of securities, including money market instruments, USTreasury Securities, bonds, mortgage-backed securities, and stocksReal world applic

TheclassicbestsellerbyBenjaminGraham,TheIntelligentInvestorhastaughtandinspiredhundredsofthousandsofpeopleworldwide.Sinceitsoriginalpublicationin1949,BenjaminGraham'sbookhasremainedthemostrespectedguidetoinvesting,duetohistimelessphilosophyofvalueinvesting,whichhelpsprotectinvestorsagainsttheareasofpossiblesubstantialerrorandteachesthemtodeveloplong-termstrategieswithwhichtheywillbecomfortabledowntheroad. Overtheyears,marketdevelopmentshaveborneoutthewisdomofGraham'sbasicpolicies,andintoday'svolatilemarket,TheIntelligentInvestoristhemostimportantbookyouwilleverreadonmakingtherightdecisionstoprotectyourinvestmentsandmakethemasuccess.Featuringnewchapterupdates-whichappendeverychapterofGraham'sbook,leavinghisoriginaltextuntouched-fromnotedfinancialjournalistJasonZweig,thisHarperBusinessEssentialseditionofthetimelessclassicoffersreadersanevenclearerunderstandingofGraham'swisdomasitshouldbeappliedtoday.

For more than thirty years, The Only InvestmentGuide You’ll Ever Need has been a favorite finance guide,earning the allegiance of more than a million readers across theUnited States. Now even more indispensable, this completely revisedand updated edition will show readers how to use money to theirbest advantage in the wake of epochal change on Wall Street, nomatter how much or how little they may have.

John Kenneth Galbraith has long been at the center of Americaneconomics, in key positions of responsibility during the New Deal,World War II, and since, guiding policy and debate. His trenchantnew book distills this lifetime of experience in the public andprivate sectors; it is a scathing critique of matters as they standtoday. Sounding the alarm about the increasing gap between realityand "conventional wisdom" -- a phrase he coined -- Galbraith tells,along with much else, how we have reached a point where the privatesector has unprecedented control over the public sector. We havegiven ourselves over to self-serving belief and "contrivednonsense" or, more simply, fraud. This has come at the expense ofthe economy, effective government, and the business world.Particularly noted is the central power of the corporation and theshift in authority from shareholders and board members tomanagement. In an intense exercise of fraud, the pretense ofshareholder power is still maintained, even with the immediatepart

"Home Economics" reintroduces readers to all Grandma's thriftytips, down-home know-how, honest-to-goodness advice, and deliciousrecipes. Modeled on and compiled from vintage home-ec textbooks,this adorable guide contains everything needed to whip up and keepup a happy, healthy, and - most important - economical homelife.