My Mind on Mortgages

I am currently in the middle of preparing to sit for the CFP(R) Board’s CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER(R) test in July 2010.  I have been at it since the Fall of 2009 and my efforts have prevented me from doing any recreational reading.   I’m looking forward to completing the test (and hopefully passing) and having my [...]

Apparently there is a new biography about Ayn Rand’s life out on the shelves.  I plan to purchase it in the near future.  Here is a link to the NY Times book review.  Maybe this will motivate me to finally get “The Fountainhead” up on my book review page.

After recently reading “Outliers”, Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book, I was inspired to read “Blink” which was the remaining of his I hadn’t yet read.

I really like Gladwell for two reasons.  First, the subject matter he writes about is both relevant and interesting.  The stuff he covers is right under our nose all day everyday but [...]

While strolling through one of the best second-hand book stores in NZ (Title Book Galleries) I ran across this title from Deirdre Kent, an unknown writer from NZ.  Being that I have an interest in economics as well as sustainability I thought it would be a good one for me to read.

Kent’s premise is that [...]

Over the past 4 months in NZ Tina and I have spent much of our waking moments immersed in the natural beauty which makes this country such a special place to visit.  As it does with traveling to foreign places it got me thinking about the natural treasures which are close to home that I [...]

There are very few people in the business world that I respect more than Warren Buffett (hereby referred to as “WB”).  His skill, success, conviction, simplicity, and humor are all characteristics that I have a deep admiration for.  In the past I’ve read several books which cover WB’s investment style but lack significant biographical detail.  [...]

Back in February I was able to convince my friend Kevin Hill to trade me his brand new hard bound “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell for my well worn paper-back Atlas Shrugged.  Thanks Kevin.

I read Gladwell’s previous book entitled “The Tipping Point” a couple years ago and enjoyed his unique perspective in explaining how trends are [...]

I ran my first and thus far my only marathon here in Portland back in October.  Tina and I trained and ran the entire marathon together (BTW, we managed to run the entire course).
Much of the credit for our successful completion of the marathon goes to Tina’s friend and palates teacher Susan Schmidt.  Susan is [...]

I began reading Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand, on the flight from Portland to Los Angeles on the outset of my 6-month sabbatical with my wife.  I completed the 1,074 page novel on the flight to New Zealand at the conclusion of our European-leg of our trip.  WHAT A GREAT BOOK!  My only regret is [...]

My passion for economics was ignited in college thanks to my favorite professor Randy Grant (no disrespect to Jeff Summers because he was also a major influence).  For some reason economics was the one subject that made sense to me, almost as if it were intuitive.
Of all the great economics classes that Linfield had to [...]