Book reviewed: Learn to Earn by John Rothchild and Peter Lynch

“Learn to Earn” by John Rothchild and Peter Lynch is a book for any investor and anyone interning to learn how a company earns money.

The book accomplishes on what it sets out to accomplish by showcasing that capitalism is the best economic system.

The author, John Rothchild, is most know for his work as the former editor of Washington Monthly as well as a former columnist for Time and Fortune.

The co-author, Peter Lynch, is an investor know the As the manager of the Magellan Fund at Fidelity Investments between the years 1977 and 1990. Peter Lynch averaged a 29.2% annual return with is mindblowing.

I enjoyed reading the book. The book helps me confirm my thought that the best economic system is capitalism for the company, the consumer and the investor.

I enjoyed the first chapter where the author briefs a quick history lesson of capitalism and explain without a capitalist country like the United-stade would it prosper as it did. I also like the appendix two where the author helps ride a company balance sheet.

The only thing the I did like is that the book isn’t updated and the references are old. Unless this I enjoyed reading the book.

I would recommend this book to anyone interning to learn how a company earn money and to learn about the stocks.

 

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Book Review: The neatest little guide to stock market investing by Jason Kelly

 

“The neatest little guide to stock market investing” by Jason Kelly is a book for anyone who wants to learn about the stock market.

The book accomplishes on what it sets out to accomplish by giving a good overview of every step related to becoming a business owner in a public company.

The author, Jason Kelly, is most know for his book “The 3% Signal” and his newsletter “The Kelly Letter” about the stock market and investing.

I liked the book. I had some knowledge about the stock market prior, but reading the book helped me think like an investor. I learnt how to evaluate stocks and all the termer related such as P/E, ROE and all the other measurement.

I enjoyed the third chapter where the author writes about Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, Peter Lynch and other investor masters. He summarizes the investor philosophy which is very helpful. I also liked the way the author related all aspects of investing with one example throughout the book.

There is nothing that I didn’t like about the book. Although the book had a dry and academic tone which is expected for these kinds of books, I loved reading this book.

I would recommend this book to everyone because I truly believe everyone should learn the basics of investing even though the invest in an index fund or mutual funds.

iHealth Core Review

Since I started using Gyroscope to track different aspects of my life. Nowadays, I am looking to find new ways to add more data into the app. My goal is to track everything about my health and daily tasks.

I bought a body composition scale to track my weight, body fat percentage, body mass index (BMI) and lean body mass. Why these 4 measurements? Because these measurements can be added to the Apple Heath app to track my progress over time. The scale that I bought is the iHealth Core. The scale tracks more than the four measurements I mentioned. It also tracks body water, visceral fat rating, muscle mass, bone mass, daily calories intake.

 

Images from amazon.ca

The scale is well built and has a nice design. It blends with any decor of a room. It doesn’t pop up. It looks like a normal scale, it is not blocky event though it is a smart scale. The scale uses 4 AAA batteries to power. The scale has a beautiful glass cover. The scale display is well lit and easy to read. The scale is connected to wifi to upload the measurements to the app and the iHealth website.

The app has a nice design. It is not well designed like the Lifesum app but better than a lot of the health apps existing in the App Store. The app integrates with Apple Healthkit which was a must for me when I was looking for a new scale. The App can track up to 10 users.

Image from amazon.ca

The scale initial set-up is not the easiest. During my set up, I had problems syncing my data to the app. One thing I don’t like is that the scale can’t be reset. During my set up I had a typo mistake when writing my email. I had to delete my user to create a new one. Now the scale has designated 2 users to my weight. This is a bummer because I have to change my user every time to upload to the app

I had to email iHealth to factory reset the scale. I had to send the scale QR code and they reset it from their office. It would be nice if I was able to factory rest by myself. The customer service was good and the respond fairly quick.

The accuracy of the measurements is similar to the smart scale on the market.

I would recommend the iHealth Core to anyone who wants to track any of the 9 measurements that the scale offers.

 

 

 

Marshall Acton: Best Home Bluetooth Speaker

Marshall Acton is the best home Bluetooth speaker on the market. I am an average consumer, I am not an audiophile, I repeat not an audiophile.

According to my testing, the Acton speaker can easily fill up an 800 square foot floor with no effort. The speaker sounds amazing and I never maxed the volume. Most of my time using the speaker, the volume is between 20% to 40% of the max volume. I love to control the bass and treble of the speaker to customize exactly how I want it.

I love the design of the speaker. It gives an old school look with the faux leather and the metal accents. The speaker is very nicely built with excellent feedback, especially the on/off toggle. It gives the feeling of using an old airplane toggle. I initially bought the speaker for its design. I didn’t know how it would sound even though I heard good thing about Marschall. There are no other speakers better designed on the marker than the family of speakers offer by Marshall.

The Acton speaker is the smallest plug-in model offered by Marshall at a retail price of $249 USD.

In the box, there is a Type A plug and a Type C plug, a manual box, a cloth, a 3.5 mm audio cable and the speaker itself.

The Acton is a Bluetooth speaker that need to be plugged into a socket to work. It has one ¾inc dome tweeter on each side of the 4-inch woofer which is in the middle.

On top of the speaker, from left to right, there is a 3.5 mm input, a Bluetooth and Input light, a volume knob, a bass nob, a treble nob, a source/wake up button, a pairing button and an on/off indicator.

The 3.5mm audio cable that is included is the box is the most beautiful audio cable I have ever seen. I paid over $25 for 3.5mm audio cable a couple of time, but they are nothing compared to what Marshall gives with their speaker.

The only con that I can found is that you need to manually change the bass and treble and can’t change through a phone or a computer. Maybe there is a way, but I did not find it.

I recommend this speaker if you are someone who loves well built and designed object. You can for sure find a cheaper or probably a better sounding speaker, but I don’t believe you will be able to find a speaker with a more beautiful industrial design.

Book Review: Investment 101 by Michele Cagan​

Investing 101 by Michelle Cagan is a book for the newcomer in the vast world of investing.

The book accomplishes on what it sets out to accomplish by giving a good overview of every branch in investment such as stock, bonds, ETFs, Mutual funds, currency commodity trading and real estate.

The author, Michele Cagan, has worked in several fields involving money such as financial planner, accountant, and tax advisor. She also wrote several books on personal finance and business.

I very much liked the book. I had some knowledge about investing prior but reading the book probably gave me a better understanding than the average person. I was still able to learn a lot which is never a bad thing. I have expanded my knowledge about the stock market and learned about new ways to invest especially in the bonds market.

The book has a dry and academic tone but is very easy to understand and not boring at least for me and the author doesn’t implement fancy words. It is written for the new learner with no or very little knowledge about personal finance.

I enjoyed the last two chapter where the author writes about how a person can build a profitable portfolio built according to the person’s needs. I also loved the chapter where the author introduces successful investors and gives their advice to the reader. Finally, I loved the part where the author gives an exercise where you can learn about your risk tolerance which is an important aspect of investing.

I did not enjoy parts where the author talked about mutual funds, currency, and commodity trading because I have no interest in this type of investment.

Event though I did not enjoy some parts of the book, I would change nothing about it. I believe that every part is important because every person has different ways to invest and all of them are important even if all these branches are not meant for everyone.

I would recommend this book to everyone because I truly believe everyone should learn the basics of investing.