MAKING MONEY MADE SIMPLE
IN AUDIO

At last, we have finally completed a major new project – Making Money Made Simple in audio.

It is narrated by Australian actor Carol Burns, who became a household name for her award winning performance in the TV program Prisoner, in which she played tough lesbian bikie, Franky Doyle.  Carol and I have been friends since we worked in the Bank of New South Wales together in 1962.

Everybody involved in the production has done a superb job – we have even managed to fit the entire 10 hours onto just two CDs, with a separate track for each chapter.  This makes it easy to listen to any track of your choice, and go back and revise if necessary.  I’m a great fan of audio books, but I get extremely frustrated when the producers run all the tracks together without spaces between them.  It makes it impossible to go back and listen to something again.

The audio version on CD is available from my website at just $29.95.  

For those who think CDs are yesterday’s technology, there are MP3 versions available for download.  There is also a facility for online buyers to buy to just buy one single track and have a listen.

This is the perfect introduction to finance and would make a great Christmas present for anybody.  It is the book which has sold more than two million copies, and changed the lives of many who have read it

FoFA

FoFA stands for the Future of Financial Advice, although I think a better term should be Failure of Financial Advice.

For starters keep in mind that financial loss is nothing new. In fact, Edinburgh in Scotland has a Library of Mistakes which contains more than 6000 volumes that chronicle a whole litany of financial misfortunes. There is even a copy of the front page of a Chicago newspaper dated July 14, 1928 announcing that “Ponzi will not reveal his secrets”.

Whether it be the alchemist making gold, or the sellers of tulips in Holland, there is always someone with an angle and someone who is going to be ripped off.

What is new is the growing tendency for governments to believe you can protect consumers by simply increasing layers of red tape. At best, it gives investors false feelings of confidence – at worst it creates mountains of non-productive paperwork.

The current goings on in Canberra, which revolve around the much publicised FoFA rules are a case in point...

ADVICE DOES WORK

I was delighted to receive the following email, which is self explanatory.

Dear Noel, a brief email to thank you for being the instigator of our initial interest in investing.  It started with my purchase of Making Money Made Simple in 1991, and onto More Money, and Living Well in Retirement.  My wife and I started investing in the share market around 1992 when we bought NAB, AFI, CMA (in conjunction with reading Ian Huntley’s ‘Your Money Weekly’); and a couple of other shares which have fallen by the wayside.  As our earnings improved and together with an inheritance, we embarked on a negative geared share portfolio from 1995 and rode the bull market to year 2000 (where we transferred the share portfolio into our self managed super fund formed in 1998).

We continued to build our portfolio with spectacular failures (Timbercorp, Croceus Mining and a few others) but also reinvesting dividends and growing our portfolio of mainly quality companies.  We were able to retire at the age of 64 without being a burden on the taxpaying community – totally self funded!  Four years later we are 68 and have a portfolio of thirteen companies returning 7.5%, allowing us to travel and be financially independent.  From a couple of ordinary wage earners – a labourer and a secretary - we thank you.

AND FINALLY

Studies show that if a cat falls off the seventh floor of a building it has about thirty percent less chance of surviving than a cat that falls off the twentieth floor.  It supposedly takes about eight floors for the cat to realize what is occurring, relax and correct itself.

The saying "it's so cold out there it could freeze the balls off a brass monkey" came from when they had old cannons like ones used in the Civil War.  The cannonballs were stacked in a pyramid formation, on a triangular frame called a brass monkey.  When it got extremely cold outside the triangle would contract and the balls would fall off.

Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks, otherwise it will digest itself.

A walla-walla scene is one where extras pretend to be talking in the background - when they say "walla-walla" it looks like they are actually talking.

101 Dalmatians and Peter Pan (Wendy) are the only two Disney cartoon features with both parents that are present and don't die throughout the movie.

‘Stewardesses’ is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.

The Baby Ruth candy bar was actually named after Grover Cleveland's baby daughter, Ruth.

A whale's penis is called a dork.

Armadillos have four babies at a time and they are always all the same sex.

To escape the grip of a crocodile's jaws, push your thumbs into its eyeballs - it will let go instantly.

Reindeer like to eat bananas.

A group of unicorns is called a blessing.

I hope you have enjoyed the latest edition of Noel News - 2 December 2014.

Thanks for all your kind comments. Please continue to send feedback through; it's always appreciated and helps us to improve the newsletter. 

And don't forget you'll get much more regular communications from me if you follow me on twitter - @NoelWhittaker. 

Noel Whittaker