Okay, this will be a housekeeping sort of blog for the second post of the week. First, I must apologize for being lax the last few weeks with my posts. To be honest, I have been burning the candle at both ends as it were. But I am on a better schedule now and will be posting back on my regular schedule of Tuesday and Thursday mornings. As I stated at the beginning of the year, I will try to write at least one current topic at least once every two weeks. They will be similar to this post as I will tell you what I have been doing, what I think might happen with finance, and what my future plans are as far as my writings. And as always, I welcome any and all comments from you on what you may want to read about on specific topics.
Well, my latest e-book project is coming along very well, and I hope to have it published on Amazon within the next two months. It will be about how the stock market works. At least in the United States but the premise is the same for other countries as well. The e-book is taking shape, and I think people will find it very useful. It will be a comprehensive view of the US stock market from start to finish. I am also hoping to create a Udemy course with this particular e-book as well. In that, I will go into more examples that are not covered in the book and provide students with some additional information and where to look for financial information in general. I think that the combination of the e-book and Udemy course will be extremely useful and that they will complement each other very well indeed. But the e-book is my priority in this project with the video course coming after the e-book is published both on Kindle and Createspace for those, like me, who on occasion like an actual physical book to own.
If you have any particular questions on how the markets work before I finish the book I would love to hear from you and your thoughts. Then if I can, I will incorporate them into both the e-book and the Udemy course. I strive to provide relevant information that is both current and helpful in nature.
As for why I have not been posting quite as much as in the past, there is the e-book I just mentioned as well as some other projects I am working on. I am in the process of setting up a bookkeeping side business that will specialize in small business bookkeeping as well as taxes for both small businesses and individuals. So far it has been a little time consuming getting things started but now they are settling down some, and I think I will be able to get back to posting twice a week. So if you or someone you know is in need of a bookkeeper or to have their taxes prepared, please see the KG Meyer, Inc. tab on the blogs website. It has some more information on those services.
I am also getting started in preparing financial plans for people now that I have completed my MS in Financial Planning. As of right now, I am working with some friends and family to get things smoothed out in the software that I am using, and that has proven to be extremely time-consuming as at times I must admit I am not as computer savvy as I should be. But using my friends as starters, I will be able to work through the program and get a final product that I can use for anyone else. From what I can tell the program is very thorough and will serve my future clients and me well.
While I am not certain how much I will be charging for my financial planning, it will be on a fee-only basis. I was thinking on a simple flat fee for new clients and then an hourly fee for on-going maintenance of existing clients. That way you know what your initial outlay of money will be and then the annual or semi-annual review will be based on a to be determined hourly rate. By doing this, I will be able to provide the best possible service at the best possible prices for my valued clients.
Recently, I have read several books on Exchange Traded Funds that have shown me some good ideas on how to use these extremely versatile and tax efficient investment vehicles. So I am certain I will be writing more on these in the coming months and may even write a small e-book on them as I think that they are indeed that valuable of an investment tool that everyone should consider if possible. I also read an extremely good book by David F. Swensen who manages Yale University’s endowment fund. I will also be explaining his investment philosophy and how you can use ETF’s to create your own investment portfolio based on his theory. And I must say it looks to be extremely exciting to consider using ETF’s to recreate his portfolio to a degree on your own.
I also recently read the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Report, and it was as always very insightful and full of interesting information. One area that I did like was Warren Buffett’s bet he made in 2008 that he could pick a passively managed fund, he decided on one from Vanguard, and he would beat a group of five actively managed funds selected by a professional fund manager. Well, one such manager took him up on the $500,000 bet to benefit a charity of the winner’s choice. And after reading Mr. Buffett’s section on this and seeing the returns, it seems that his charity come next January will be receiving $500,000 as the passive fund is currently beating the actively managed funds when fees are considered into the equation.
It seems Jack Bogle who founded Vanguard and introduced the world to passively managed funds that track popular indexes was really onto something back in the late 1970’s. It is too bad that money managers and individual investors did not listen to him then, and to a large degree now, when it comes to investing their hard-earned funds. Yes, a manager might get lucky for a few years in a row but to consistently beat the markets is almost impossible to do for an extended period and Mr. Bogle realized this long before anyone else did and provided the average investor the vehicles to do just that.
This May I will again be traveling to Omaha to listen to Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger at the Berkshire Hathaway shareholder’s meeting. They always are entertaining and provide some truly outstanding and valuable information to the people in attendance. And once again this year Yahoo Finance will be streaming the event for anyone who is either not a shareholder or simply did not want to travel to Omaha to listen to these two great businessmen. While I am there, I will pick up some books by Jack Bogle that they will be selling to better understand his theories and why they work so very well.
Well, that about sums up what I have been doing and what I hope to accomplish in the next few months. I look forward to producing some quality blog posts for all my followers and please if you have not joined my email list sign up today. Not only will you get the chance to preview blog posts, receive special white papers, preview my new e-books and when I get the course ready for Udemy get valuable coupons for that as well. Oh, I almost forgot, by signing up for my email list you will also get two spreadsheets that I charge for on Fiverr for free as an immediate thank you for trusting me with your email address.
As always, thank you for reading my blog and if you have any questions or if there are any topics you wish me to cover, leave a comment here or email me directly. Thank you again, and I will be in touch with those on my email list soon with a special white paper.
