Peter Tanous and his wife Ann have been our traveling buddies for many years. I am grateful for their friendship and continued support of my writing career.
Beside being an expert money guy, Peter is an author. He has written three novels and three non-fiction investment books.
For some reason creative people and money don't mix, as if we're missing the moola gene. So I asked my friend Peter, president and CEO of Lynx Investment Advisory to answer a few questions.
What three easy financial tips can you give a regular person?
The first "tip" is an echo of the old real estate maxim: location, location, location. When investing in the stock market, the most important rule is: diversification, diversification, diversification, the corollary of which is don't put all your eggs in one basket.
Most investors shouldn't buy stocks themselves. Why? If you have doubts answer this question: If you pick stocks yourself, how much time will you spend doing it? 20 minutes every day? Or as much as an hour a day? And if that's the case explain to me, and more importantly to yourself, why you will do better in the market than a professional investor who spends 8 hours a day doing the same thing? If you can't answer that question satisfactorily, buy some good mutual funds.
Most professional investors don't beat the stock market. So make sure that a good part of your investments are in an index fund like the Vanguard 500 fund which mimics the S&P 500 and has very low fees.
If you had a chunk of change to invest where would you put it?
Assuming your investment time frame is 5 years or more, I would buy the Vanguard 500 fund and I would put part of my money in the Vanguard Energy Fund because we will run out of oil in a few decades and the increasing demand for oil means that the price of oil is going in only one direction: up.
What book would you recommend on writing and why?
One of the very best books on writing is Stephen King's "On Writing." (Scribner, 2000). I can't recommend this book highly enough. How can you not love a book whose second forward begins with this: "This is a short book because most books about writing are filled with bullshit." And it just gets better! Fabulous writing advice and tips.
What is your favorite dessert and why?
My favorite dessert is mousse au chocolat. But I can't have it very often. So I stick to sugar free desserts. And finally my favorite desserts are those that are included in the price of the meal.
Peter J. Tanous is president and CEO of Lynx Investment Advisory, LLC, an investment consulting firm based in Washington D.C. His firm advises on over $1 billion in client assets for both family groups, charitable foundations, schools, and colleges. He is the author of three novels and three investment books, including the 1997 bestseller, “Investment Gurus”. Tanous is working on his fourth investment book. "Building a Winning Portfolio" which will be published by Kaplan under the Kiplinger label later this year.
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