Concrete economic suggestions for staying afloat, geared toward more experienced investors.
Vanclef utilizes his expertise as a financial planner and investment strategist to offer suggestions on how to invest wisely no matter the status of one’s portfolio or the economic forecast.
Terms like REIT, asset class diversification and capital preservation don’t necessarily roll off the tongue. If these words read like Greek to you, then the book won’t be appropriate. However, those who aren’t financial novices–who have some money in the markets and are looking for a better way to ride out this rough economic time–may be able to use the book’s useful tips and research suggestions. Vanclef writes in a straightforward manner, but he packs a lot into this slight volume. Parts of The Wealth Code are rather dry, especially those involving the nitty gritty of certain classes of investments. Though he sometimes uses simple illustrations and short anecdotes for further explication, the author would have done well to include more. As with financial advice, Vanclef points out that his suggestions are not right for everyone, but still are useful as a jumping-off point. The author’s main thesis is diversification, and he likens a person’s investment portfolio to a wooden table. If it has only one leg, everything is fine, as long as nothing jars that leg. With multiple table legs, if one of goes missing, the table will still be upright. Vanclef sees similar benefits to spreading out one’s money. If you have some cash in real estate, some in stocks and some in oil or gas investments, your portfolio could still be growing even if one of your investment classes goes south. While this seems like common sense, most people have all their money tied to the stock market, creating an uneven financial foundation. The author takes the reader into the deeper definitions and explanations of investment, and that is the book’s primary value.
Concrete economic suggestions for staying afloat, geared toward more experienced investors.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2009
ISBN: 978-1439254479
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Pedestrian variations on a theme that Nanus (The Leader's Edge, 1989; coauthor, Leaders, 1985) has played before, albeit to no great effect. This time around, Nanus (Management/USC) focuses on an attractive, credible, and realizable sense of future direction as applied to organizational, institutional, and political governance. In a by-the-numbers format (that has all the earmarks—and appeal- -of a lesson plan), he provides would-be pace-setters pointers on formulating visions appropriate to their milieus, plus guidance on how such results-oriented agendas differ from goals, missions, and strategies. Getting down to business, Nanus then draws on the experience of a commercial enterprise (in this case, a pet-food manufacturer owned by a conglomerate) to offer tips on auditing, developing, understanding the implications of—and otherwise adapting one's chosen vision to—marketplace or divergent realities. Covered as well are the exigencies of providing for contingencies, enlisting the support of variant constituencies, and periodic renewal. Nanus next addresses the ins and outs of putting theory into practice in real-world contexts, and, in a concluding chapter, he tries to illustrate how his general-purpose precepts might be employed to advantage by those charged with running government agencies. A largely routine, essentially redundant primer on productive and prescient stewardship.
Pub Date: Sept. 18, 1992
ISBN: 1-55542-460-0
Page Count: 250
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1992
An engaging classic about a ``burning passion''—cigar smoking—is available here more than a decade after its original UK issue. It is passionate, indeed. This rich and juicy book by Cabrera Infante (Infante's Inferno, 1984; Mea Cuba, 1994; etc.) makes the current crop of coffee table books on the subject seem like mere ephemera. The author was born in Cuba, where Columbus first witnessed the ur- cigar being enjoyed by the locals. The brave admiral (in a fit of early political correctness) didn't partake, but a colleague did, and the stink of the stogey soon spread 'round the world. Cabrera Infante is quick on the draw, tracing the history of the habit in a playful, relaxed narrative. He discursively discourses on the growing of the leaf and the manufacture and various forms of what was first described as a ``horizontal chimney.'' Fillers, binders, and wrappers, shapes and shops, mores and manners, true Havanas, cigarettes, pipes, snuff, and ash are all covered in the pun- encrusted, addictive text. Smoked out, too, is every movie reference to the tobacco habit, with fulsome, funny references to performers from W.C. Fields to Wallace Ford, Groucho Marx (of course) to Percy Kilbride. The movie allusions give way to literary allusions with a miscellany that includes Hammett's Continental Op, the great Myles na gCopaleen, Baron Corvo, Sherlock Holmes (of course) and (of course) Kipling. Written in the days when Castro still smoked and Orson Welles still walked among us, this text refers to a Davidoff as ``the most expensive cigar in the world . . . around ten dollars each.'' Alas, even that awful price has been far surpassed in recent years. But no matter. Cabrera Infante's pyrotechnics have not yet been equaled. Take a leaf from this book and have some robusto fun.
Pub Date: June 12, 1997
ISBN: 0-87951-765-4
Page Count: 329
Publisher: Overlook
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1997
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