The 30-Minute Millionaire by Peter Tanous & Jeff Cox

Author:Peter Tanous & Jeff Cox [Tanous, Peter J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: BUS027000 Business & Economics / Finance / General
ISBN: 9781630060404
Publisher: Humanix Books
Published: 2016-02-02T05:00:00+00:00

10

The 411 on 411

WE LIVE IN THE Information Age, or so we think. We’re awash in information—data, analysis, and opinion—all of it converging on us daily from our smartphones, mobile devices, desktop computers, televisions, and radios, gadgets and implements that permeate our lives to provide whatever we want to know at a second’s notice.

But do we really need it all? Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “There are many things of which a wise man might wish to be ignorant.” The quote could serve as an effective epigram for this book. On many levels, today’s investor is suffering from information overload. As in all other aspects of the media landscape, there is now a 24/7 news cycle in the business world. Cable television and the Internet combine for an as-it-happens potpourri of financial news, from the data point of the moment—China manufacturing, euro zone GDP, US nonfarm payrolls, you name it—to the latest big company news or whipsaw trading movements. It’s hard to believe that only a generation ago, most folks away from Wall Street had to read the morning paper or at least watch the six o’clock news to find out how the market did on a particular day. It’s harder still to believe that few people cared. Once upon a time, most investors designated a set share of their money to the market and checked back in on it every once in a great while. Today, more and more average folks are making knee-jerk decisions based on the news of the moment. This is one of the principle trends our book is trying to counter.

Some of the things you read in this chapter might strike you as a bit funny considering one of our authors. Jeff Cox has been with CNBC since 2007, most recently as the finance editor and a frequent TV guest where you can watch him conveying the latest news, as well as occasionally getting into a little animated cross talk with other experts on the network. So let’s just dispense with the obvious right off the bat: we think you should watch CNBC. We think you should read CNBC.com and use it as one of your prime sources of financial world news. The important point we want to make is about how you process information from CNBC and all the other financial news sources out there.

The key to the whole process is to consider what you’re getting from these sources to be “information,” in the strictest sense of the word. While many TV folks, journalists, bloggers, and the like may offer what appears to be “advice,” we believe you should process it as “information.” Francis Bacon didn’t say, “Information is power.” Instead, he said, “Knowledge is power.” Information is what we know. Knowledge is what we do with it.

A well-read and well-versed investor is highly likely to make better decisions than someone who takes stock tips from a cabdriver. As we’ve said before, knowing why you’re doing something is as important as knowing what you’re doing.

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