Synopses & Reviews
Trading either commodities or foreign currencies might sound exciting. But if you haven't mastered even the basics of money managementestablishing an emergency fund, maintaining a budget, and setting money aside for your children's education and your retirementcan you honestly say you're on the path to perfecting the art of personal finance?
In Financial Jiu-Jitsu: A Fighter's Guide to Conquering Your Finances, financial advisor and Jiu-Jitsu enthusiast Scott Ford shows how mastering your financeslike mastering a martial arthas nothing to do with perfecting thousands of exotic, technically challenging moves. Rather, mastery is as simple as performing a handful of basic moves thousands of times. These basic financial moves include:
- Prepare to Win: Paying yourself first, maintaining a cash safety net, managing credit wisely, and never procrastinating
- Balance and Base: Determining your specific financial goals, and developing a vision for your life
- Closing the Gap: Overcoming your fear of the unknown by creating a personal balance sheet and using it to analyze your current financial situation
- The Power of Respect: Choosing and working with a financial advisor
- Timing: Taking advantage of tax-deferred investments, maxing out 401(k) contributions, and contributing to IRAs
- Gain Control: The basics of an estate plan, living trust, pourover will, and power of attorney
- Position Before Submission: Protecting yourself with insurance
- Attitude: Planning for your retirement
Learning Jiu-Jitsu taught Scott Ford to face both personal and professional challenges head onto anticipate problems, to be open to new ideas, and to seize opportunities. Now, in Financial Jiu-Jitsu, he teaches you how to use the guiding principles of finance to build a solid financial foundation that can then be leveraged to help you achieve your long-term financial goals, while building lasting wealth for you and your family.
You can't plan for everything life and the economy might throw at you. But after reading Financial Jiu-Jitsu, you'll be prepared for almost anything.
Review
"This a riveting account of a tenacious investor, incompetent/apathetic regulators & analysts and a company that hid information, deceived investors and used every connection it had in its attempts to silence him. At points this reads like a John Grisham novel … except it actually happened. For me, this is the best of the ‘melt down’ books to date … hands down."
— Todd Sullivan, valueplays.net, April 2010
" ... Ackman’s pursuit of MBIA spanned the two major crises of capitalism of the last decade, from the earlier era of corporate fraud prosecutions epitomized by Enron and its off-balance-sheet special purpose vehicles (SPVs), to the late credit debacle stemming from the collapse of the CDO house of cards."
—The Hedge Fund Law Report, May 2010
Synopsis
Financial Jiu-Jitsu is based on taking care of the basics first, using straightforward, easy-to-understand principles and strategies as a platform and springboard to future success. Of course your financial plan will adapt and evolve as economic conditions change and you move through your life - but the guiding principles will never change.
Author Scott Ford is ranked in the top 1% of all financial advisors and practices Jiu Jitsu. In this book, he compares the patience and practice of the martial art to investing. In Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, our biggest enemies are our emotions and our state of mind. In investing and personal finance, our biggest enemies are - that's right - our emotions and our state of mind. It's not the market, it's not the economy - it's us. Along the way, the book teaches you fundamental skills such as giving back, automating your savings and investments, the importance of paying yourself first, and managing credit wisely.
Synopsis
A unique approach to personal finance that tackles money like a jiu-jitsu fighter would tackle an opponentIn martial arts and personal finance, fundamentals are important. But while failing in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu may be disappointing, it's nothing compared to failing to build wealth and creating a better future for your family.
Nobody understands this better than Scott Ford, a top-ranked financial advisor and Jiu-Jitsu enthusiast. Now, in Financial Jiu-Jitsu, he shows you how to overcome your emotions and state of mind to excel at your investing endeavors. Along the way, Ford teaches you fundamental skills such as automating your savings and investments, the importance of paying yourself first, and managing credit wisely.
- Compares the patience and practice of the martial arts, specifically Jiu-Jitsu, to investing
- Offers an approach to adapting to financial change as you move through life, while maintaining the same guiding principles
- Author Scott Ford is ranked in the top one percent of all financial advisors
The guiding principles in this book are the foundation of your financial fight plan and the keys to reaching your financial dreams. No matter what punches the market or the economy throws at you, if you follow these principles you'll always react well in the face of adversity.
Synopsis
What is mind over market?
The financial market is like an adversary that's bigger, faster, and stronger than you as an individual investor could ever hope to be. Financial Jiu-Jitsu: A Fighter's Guide to Conquering Your Finances evens the playing field, showing you how to be a smarter fighter in the battle for financial freedom.
From year to year and even minute to minute, financial markets change, sometimes dramatically. The average investor grapples with this fact in one of two ways: fear everything and do nothing, or get emotionally caught up in Wall Street's every move, reacting impulsively and irrationally to each up or down. There's a third option. And if it's your hope to achieve a firm financial footing, it's your only optionmaster the guiding principles of finance to achieve mind over market, expertly and effortlessly adapting to and overcoming market swings. Financial Jiu-Jitsu shows you how to master the basic principles of finance to:
- Overcome fear
- Set aside emotions
- Build a financial foundation that can be leveraged to build real wealth regardless of what the market throws at you
Everyone's fighting a battle for financial freedom. Most are losing. Financial Jiu-Jitsu shows you how to win.
Synopsis
An expose on the delusion, greed, and arrogance that led to America's credit crisisThe collapse of America's credit markets in 2008 is quite possibly the biggest financial disaster in U.S. history. Confidence Game: How a Hedge Fund Manager Called Wall Street's Bluff is the story of Bill Ackman's six-year campaign to warn that the $2.5 trillion bond insurance business was a catastrophe waiting to happen. Branded a fraud by the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, and investigated by Eliot Spitzer and the Securities and Exchange Commission, Ackman later made his investors more than $1 billion when bond insurers kicked off the collapse of the credit markets.
- Unravels the story of the credit crisis through an engaging and human drama
- Draws on unprecedented access to one of Wall Street's best-known investors
- Shows how excessive leverage, dangerous financial models, and a blind reliance on triple-A credit ratings sent Wall Street careening toward disaster
Confidence Game is a real world "Emperor's New Clothes," a tale of widespread delusion, and one dissenting voice in the era leading up to the worst financial disaster since the Great Depression.
Synopsis
The Warning and the WinningsConfidence Game is a real-world "Emperor's New Clothes," a tale of widespread delusion and one dissenting voice in the era leading up to the worst financial disaster since the Great Depression. Wall Street appeared to have found the secret for turning everything from risky mortgages to credit card bills into super-safe, triple-A-rated securities. Behind the facade of safety, the financial system had become dangerously fragile. Few had anything to gain from pointing out the risk.
Bill Ackman did. In 2002, the hedge fund manager issued a critical research report on MBIA Inc., the owner of a triple-A-rated bond insurer that played a central role in the financial alchemy on Wall Street. "This company will spiral downward," Ackman warned, and he placed a bet against MBIA that would earn his investors billions of dollars if it did.
The backlash was swift. Ackman was branded a fraud in the press and investigated by Eliot Spitzer and the SEC. Despite the scrutiny, he spent years telling anyone who would listen why MBIA was a catastrophe waiting to happen. With the onset of the credit crisis, the problems exposed turned out to be bigger than MBIA. An unquestioning acceptance of credit ratings, a blind eye to leverage, a dangerous reliance on financial models, and the abandonment of common sense had become part of a deeply flawed financial system. The collapse humbled nearly every large financial institution and plunged the country into recession.
Ackman's story captures an era of delusional confidence, when debt exploded yet risk appeared to vanish. Told by award-winning bond market reporter Christine Richard, Confidence Game is a behind-the-scenes look at how warnings went unheeded as Wall Street careened toward disaster.
Synopsis
The No-Loss IllusionConfidence Game—the inside story of how an investor made more than $1 billion betting against the flaws that toppled the financial system—is a window into all that went wrong on Wall Street.
"Christine Richard's Confidence Game is an insightful, timely, and fascinating high-speed drive into the often difficult-to-penetrate world of short sellers, with its particular focus on Bill Ackman and his campaign against monoline insurance giant MBIA."
—Scott B. MacDonald, Senior Managing Director, Aladdin Capital LLC and coauthor of Separating Fools from Their Money
"How to head off the next crash? Listen to the dissidents now. Christine Richard's deeply researched and deftly written account of Bill Ackman's high-stakes struggle with a leading pillar of a now-collapsed system is the right book at the right time, and a mesmerizing read."
—Dean Starkman, Editor of the Columbia Journalism Review business section
"Bill Ackman's battle with MBIA will be remembered as one of the great epics of Wall Street history, and no one followed the story more closely than Christine Richard."
—Bethany McLean, coauthor of The Smartest Guys in the Room
"Finally, a financial crisis book with a hero. It's a compelling morality tale of how one man uncovered a massive fraud and then fought tenaciously to show the world he was right. Richard weaves the threads of complex financial shenanigans into a page-turning narrative. Ackman emerges as the Don Quixote of financial markets: you will root for him and a happy ending."
—Frank Partnoy, author of F.I.A.S.C.O., Infectious Greed, and The Match King
"Confidence Game is a lesson for all investors on the value of independent and exhaustive research. It's also a riveting story."
—Todd Sullivan, creator of valueplays.net and a regular contributor to the Stocktwits blog network and Seeking Alpha
About the Author
SCOTT FORD is President and founder of Cornerstone Wealth Management Group. Named one of 2008's "20 Rising Stars of Wealth Management" by Private Asset Management magazine, he provides proactive investment and wealth management advice based upon his trademarked system Way2Wealth to a limited number of business owners, entrepreneurs, and affluent families. Ford has been a guest on NBC and Fox affiliates and has contributed to the Today show. Additionally, he has been featured in the New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Wall Street Journal and, InvestmentNews. Ford studies Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at Clinch Academy in Maryland.
Table of Contents
Foreword.Acknowledgments.
Introduction.
Chapter 1 Prepare to Win —Now and Forever.
Give Back.
Pay Yourself First.
Automate!
Maintain a Cash Safety Net.
Manage Credit Wisely.
Get Time on Your Side.
Never Procrastinate.
Make Reality Your Perception.
Follow a Simple and Comprehensive Strategy.
Chapter 2 Balance and Base: What Is True Wealth to You?
Step 1: Forget Financial Goals (At Least for Now).
Step 2: Develop Your Vision for Your Life.
Step 3: Determine Your Specifi c Goals.
Chapter 3 Closing the Gap: Analyze your Current Situation.
Before You Close the Gap: Overcome Your.
Fear of the Unknown.
Step 1: Forget about Budgets.
Step 2: Make Sure You Have Positive Cash Flow.
Step 3: Create a Personal Balance Sheet.
Step 4: Keep in Mind the Total Financial Picture.
Chapter 4 Family: Your Family Benchmark.
Your Family Benchmark: An Introduction.
The Family Benchmark in Action.
Time and the Power of Compounding.
Tie the Steps Together.
Starting Point.
Chapter 5 Your Team of Advisors: Two Is Better Than One: The Power of Respect.
Types of Advisors.
All Those Initials: Professional Designations.
How Financial Professionals Earn Their Keep.
Choosing an Advisor.
Interview!
Trust—But Verify.
Chapter 6 Timing: What Is Your Investment Strategy?
Stage 1: Build an Emergency Fund.
Stage 2: Own Your Home.
Stage 3: Take Advantage of Tax-Deferred Investments.
Stage 4: Max Out 401(k) Match Contributions.
Stage 5: Contribute to Traditional and Roth IRAs.
Stage 6: Determine How to Invest Your Funds.
Stage 7: Diversify into Other Investments.
Chapter 7 Gain Control: Your Estate Plan.
Estate Plans: The Basics.
Revocable Living Trust.
Pourover Will.
Health-Care Power of Attorney.
HIPAA Power of Attorney.
Property Power of Attorney.
Family Retirement Preservation Trust.
Estate Planning Letter.
But Don't Simply File Your Plan Away!
Pay Attention to Benefi ciaries.
Chapter 8 Position Before Submission: Analyze Insurance Needs.
Protect Yourself—But Not to the Extreme.
Life Insurance.
Auto Insurance.
Property Insurance.
Health Insurance.
Disability Insurance.
Chapter 9 Attitude: Life in Retirement.
How Much Money Will You Need?
Current Spending Estimate.
10-10-4 Rule.
Chapter 10 Leverage: Establish Your Tax Plan.
Tax Savings: Homeowners.
Tax Savings: Students and Their Parents.
Tax Savings: Retirement.
Chapter 11 Love, Discipline, and Dedication: Have Your Plan Updated.
Conclusion.
Afterword.
Appendix.
About the Author.
Index.