Links: Hilarious real-estate bubble seekers, investing yourself (not through a broker), clueless friends and asset allocation

May 8 7 Comments latest by AndyS

Down to the last two weeks of my book manuscript, so things are going to be a little quiet around here. For now, here are some interesting links I’ve been reading.

Amazon book comments on a book titled Are You Missing the Real Estate Boom?: The Boom Will Not Bust and Why Property Values Will Continue to Climb Through the End of the Decade - And How to Profit From Them. Sadly, this book was written by the former head economist of the National Association of Realtors. The 5-star reviews from 2005 are sad, hilarious, cheerleader-ish comments for the real-estate boom.

Story about someone who had to cut his brother off because he kept asking for money.

JLP shows how you can save TONS of money by investing yourself instead of paying a broker.

How women look for men who have their financial house in order. It is wildly misconstrued by clueless commenters who are determined to miss the point.

His friends insist that long-term investing is “boring” but then have improperly allocated portfolios. With good math examples. Remember, asset allocation is the most important part of your portfolio, not the individual investments you choose.

See all my links on my del.icio.us feed and twitter.com/ramit.

7 Comments latest by AndyS

“Why don’t companies ever hire me?”

April 30 21 Comments latest by Sam

Because you’re no different than the other applicants.

Here’s how to stand out, from a recent post. Note: This doesn’t only apply to programmers. Everyone should have a portfolio.

I am in college, but have lots of free time, so I can work fulltime at a startup plus add in a lot of extra hours (I know how startups are) on site or by telecommuting.

I applied to a few, sent my resume, etc.. but the same thing always happens. They want a portfolio.. links to things I’ve worked on. I am a programmer, PHP/Rails/C/Ruby/etc.. but I don’t have a degree in anything related to CS, and no professional portfolio.

I’m thinking the only option I have is to get a regular $8/hr job, while working on more and more projects in my free time. Enough projects to get a startup interested in me.

My response:

You’re a programmer, so why don’t you create a portfolio for yourself? Find interesting things that you wish software did — and build it for yourself.

Maybe you want a new way to integrate your iPhone with Outlook, or you wish there was a way to scrape all the images off a web page with 1 click. Whatever. Then build it. There — you have a portfolio.

Do you contribute to open-source projects?

Have you started a blog?

Or have you found someone who has an idea and helped them to build it?

Without some/all of those things, you’re just another programmer. Ask yourself how you can stand out.

There are a couple books that had a huge impact on my career. Rather than the typical how-to-get-a-job books, they’re a little different:

Staying Street Smart in the Internet Age: What Hasn’t Changed About the Way We Do Business (it has nothing to do with the Internet age, and everything to do with a kickass mindset in your current job).

Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable. (It’s not just for businesses. I used the ideas in this book to convince Seth Godin to hire me as his first-ever intern and work on a bestselling book with him.)

For more book recommendations, see a list of 50 other books I recommend.

21 Comments latest by Sam

Check out these new financial startups I’ll be meeting tomorrow

April 28 14 Comments latest by Judiel

Tomorrow I’ll be attending FinovateStartup, a conference highlighting startups in technology and finance. I’ll be meeting these companies, so if you have any questions, leave them in the comments and I’ll try to get them answered from the founders themselves.

• BoulevardR: Personalized guidance on your retirement goals
• Buxfer: Track your spending online
• CakeFinancial: Centralize your portfolios, compare your performance to others
• Credit Karma: Free credit scores, offers based on your score
• FindABetterBank: Compare banks
• Mint: Track your spending online, find offers based on your spending
• Prosper: Borrow or loan money online
• SmartHippo: Use the “power of the herd” to find better mortgage rates
• TrustedID: Get identity protection
• Vestopia: See how Wall Street pros manage their portfolios
• Wesabe: Track your spending, save money, join an online community
• Zecco: Online trading/investing community

And if you’ll be there tomorrow, let me know.

14 Comments latest by Judiel

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