Emotional IQ just as important as brainpower for Buffett

Investing is not a game where the guy with the 160 IQ beats the guy with a 130 IQ," he says. "Once you have ordinary intelligence, what you need is the temperament to control the urges that get other people into trouble in investing."

Full article

A Shout-Out on the Web

Investing groupies make Facebook pages a virtual Omaha

Warren Buffett has never been known for his love of technology. In The Warren Buffett Way, Robert Hagstrom describes how limited the 76-year-old executive's online activities are: "He buys books, reads the Wall Street Journal, and plays bridge."

But while Buffett has pretty much ignored the Internet, the Internet has certainly not ignored him. Scads of investing sites, forums, and blogs around the globe lionize Buffett's legendary investing prowess and the success of Berkshire Hathaway, the investment holding company he runs. Members of online communities like Silicon Investor, with its Buffett-loving constituency, pore over his shareholder letters, discuss Berkshire's numbers, and scrutinize the latest transactions.

more

Warren Buffett's Amazing Record

If you have invested $1000 with Warren Buffett in 1956 (about $7700 in 2007 dollars) and never cashed in, you'd have amassed $27.6 million at the end of 2006.

See detail

Carlos Slim is the richest man you've never heard of

MEXICO CITY - Carlos Slim Helú's business career began on the playground, trading baseball cards.

He would buy the adhesive-backed paper cards at a candy stand in downtown Mexico City, then make a meticulous record of each trade in a ledger notebook, carefully evaluating whether he had come out on top in deals with his peers.

By age 12, he had moved on to trading stocks and bonds. Before turning 30, he owned a soft-drink company and a stock brokerage. Now, at 67, Slim is the world's second-richest man and is closing quickly on Bill Gates, according to Forbes magazine's most recent rankings. Slim's business empire stretches from Mexico to the United States - it includes major stakes in companies such as CompUSA and Saks Fifth Avenue - yet most Americans have never heard of him.

lim accumulated his $53.1 billion fortune by collecting companies in much the same way he did baseball cards. He searches for businesses that are undervalued, infuses them with cash and uses the size of his holdings to overwhelm the competition. He now owns stakes in more than 220 businesses but says he has never forgotten the lessons of his youth.

Full article

The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville

By Warren Buffett

Click here for full article

The Person Responsible For Your Success

By Jack Canfield

It's time to meet the person who has been responsible for the life you live right now.

This person has created your income, your debt, your relationships, your health, your fitness level, your weight, your attitudes and your behaviors. Who is it? To introduce yourself, just walk to the closest mirror and say hello! This person is you!

Although one of the popular myths out there is that "external factors" determine how you live, the truth of the matter is that you are in complete control of the quality of your life.

It's time to look at the life you've created and determine what is working and what is not. Certainly there are wonderful things happening in your life, whether it's your job, your spouse, your grades, your children, your friends, or your income level.

Congratulate yourself on these successes; you are creating them for yourself! And then take a look at what isn't working out so well. What are you doing or not doing to create those experiences?

It's time to stop blaming outside factors for your unhappiness.

When you realize that you create your experiences, you'll realize that you can un-create them and create new experiences whenever you want. But you must take responsibility for your happiness and your unhappiness, your successes and your failures, your good times and your bad times. When you stop blaming, you can take that energy and redirect to focus on creating a better situation for yourself. Blaming only ties up your energy.

It's also time to stop complaining.

Look at what you are complaining about. Really examine it. More than likely it is something that you can do something about.

Are you unhappy about something that is happening? Make requests that will make it more desirable to you, or take the steps to change it yourself. Making a change might be uncomfortable to you. It might mean you have to put in more time, money, and effort. It might mean that someone gets upset about it. It might be difficult to change or leave a situation, but staying put is your choice so why continue to complain? Face the facts that you can either do something about it or not. It is your choice and you have responsibility for your choices.

Successful people take 100% responsibility for the thoughts they think, the images that visualize and the actions they take.

They don't waste their time and energy blaming and complaining. They evaluate their experiences and decide if they need to change them or not. They face the uncomfortable and take risks in order to create the life they want to live.

Taking responsibility requires you to first decide to believe that you create all your experiences. Second, to pay attention to yourself, your behavior, and your life experiences. And last, to face the truth and deal with what is not working in your life. You have to be willing to change your behavior if you want a different outcome. You have to be willing to take the risks necessary to get what you want.

Isn't it a great relief to know that you can make your life what you want it to be? Isn't it wonderful that your successes do not depend on someone else?

Commit to taking 100% responsibility for your every aspect of your life. Decide to make changes, one step at a time. Once you start the process you'll discover it is much easier to get what you want by taking control of your thoughts, your visualizations, and your actions!

© 2007 Jack Canfield

A Primer on PE Ratios

By Sanjay Bakshi

The PE ratio is the most common tool used by investors and financial analysts to ascertain how expensive or how cheap a stock is. Unfortunately, it is also one of the most misunderstood tools in the investment business. A stock which may be having a PE of 5 may be thought to be cheap and yet it may turn out to be quite an expensive mistake. Similarly, a stock which may be having a PE of 100 may thought to be too expensive may actually turn out to be a bargain.

What are the determinants of a stock's PE ratio? There are eight. These are: (1) Stability; (2) Growth; (3) Dividends; (4) Return on invested capital; (5) Leverage; (6) The proportion of non-operating assets in a company's asset base; (7) Financial community's appraisal about the industry and the company, including its managers; and (8) Interest Rates.

Full article