15 Books that will make you RICH

With the economy still sluggish and unemployment rates pushing 10%, many Americans are searching for ways to stretch their dollars this holiday season. So why not give a simple present that could pay for itself many times over?

Whether you're looking for great gifts for the active investor in your life or simply searching for a guide to help a recent college graduate navigate the world of mutual funds, there are libraries full of books that will stuff a stocking with advice worth its weight in gold. 

Sometimes, though, the tidal wave of financial advice books on the market is overwhelming. How can you separate the good, the bad and the just plain ugly? That's where we come in. We've gone through the top books on investing to develop a list of good reads for investors of all types. Whether you're a value investor looking to refine your tactics, a buy-and-hold Boglehead looking to beef up on the basics or a parent looking to start your kid down the right path, there's something on our list for you.

Fifteen Books That Will Make You Rich

Ten of the books on our list are classics that deserve a spot on the bookshelf of any financial whiz. Any investor would be well-served to read up on these tomes; the basic tenets of modern investing strategy and tactics are developed and discussed in their pages.

For novice investors, two introductory books on our list offer distinctly opposing viewpoints. Joel Greenblatt's The Little Book That still Beats The Market tells investors to focus on earnings to outperform the market. John Bogle, on the other hand, dismisses the notion that investors can outperform the market and argues in Common Sense On Mutual Funds that indexing is the only smart way to invest. Investors beginning with a blank slate will enjoy letting the books do battle.

"Get rich quick" strategies can often turn into "get poor quicker" realities. Stephen Weiss's The Billion Dollar Mistake: Learning the Art of Investing Through the Missteps of Legendary Investors tells the stories of investors who have messed up and survived to tell about it. The book provides an opportunity to learn from the mistakes of others, while reminding the investors in your life that they should have a Plan B should their stock picks plummet.

With these books on your bookshelf, you and yours will be better prepared to boost your bank accounts while minimizing risk. The advice of some of the world's most successful investors, along with the stories of others who have followed in their footsteps, will get you on the right track to big returns in 2011.

World's Most Expensive Fast Food

In these 20 cities, hamburger lovers pay most for their fix. 

Dublin is home to Trinity College, the Guinness Storehouse and St. Stephens Green. Here, you'll also find the world's most expensive fast food. In U.S. dollars, a hamburger meal at a medium-priced establishment, as defined by consulting firm Mercer, costs a whopping $9.16.

That figure--the only to exceed $8.00 on a list of 20 geographically diverse cities selected for different cost comparisons--is $3.00 greater than the price of a hamburger meal in New York, where it's $5.99. But travelers in Europe will not find significant relief in many other cities on the continent, where the price of a fast-food meal hovers within the $7.00 range: In Amsterdam you'll pay $7.88, in Paris $7.43, and in Athens $6.66. For less pricey eats, grab a hamburger in Prague for $4.91, in Warsaw for $3.86, or in Johannesburg, which sells the cheapest burgers on the list at $2.50.

Behind The Numbers
In devising a comparative study of the cost of a fast-food hamburger meal across different cities, included in this year's Worldwide Cost of Living Survey 2009, Mercer analysts collected data from venues most frequented by expatriates in a given city. Expenses incurred from consuming food outside of the home are assigned a weight of 9.5% in the cost of living index.

Conducted twice a year by field researchers who report prices at the relevant retail outlets, Mercer's annual cost of living survey assesses differences in expenses and housing in 143 cities across six continents. The study compares the costs, in U.S. dollars, of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transportation, household goods, food and clothing. The analysis of this basket of goods and services--indicative of executive spending patterns--is designed to yield data that would help multinational companies and governmental organizations determine appropriate compensation allowances for employees sent out of the country.

"As a direct impact of the economic downturn over the last year, we have observed significant fluctuations in most of the world's currencies, which have had a profound impact on this year's ranking," said Nathalie Constantin-Métral, a senior researcher at Mercer's office in Geneva, Switzerland. The period between March 2008 and March 2009 displayed a greater degree of currency fluctuation against U.S. dollars than in the previous year, Constantin-Métral said.

The ranking of the most expensive cities in the world has shifted to reflect these fluctuations. Moscow this year fell to No. 3 from No. 1 on the list; Tokyo--which had come in second last year--took its place as the most expensive city for expatriates to live. Another Japanese city rose to the top: Osaka moved up nine spots to claim the title of second most expensive city.

How Much is Facebook Worth?

Firms are pooling clients' money to buy privately held Facebook shares--and probably overpaying.

Looking to snag shares of Facebook before it goes public? Felix Investments, a New York City investment manager, is giving rich clients a chance to do just that. The firm touts in a letter to potential investors: "Opportunities like this do not come along every day and we have not seen an opportunity like this since Google in 2004!"
Maybe for good reason. Felix is among a handful of firms vying to get an early jump on Facebook's initial public offering (though the company says it has no plans of doing one). These firms have been pooling clients' money to buy blocks of employee-held shares of the social network company before any IPO.

Felix Investments wouldn't comment, but sources say the firm is looking to pay around $25 per share of Facebook, which values the company at close to $11 billion, according to private share marketplace SharesPost. That was also the bid price recently listed on SecondMarket, a New York company that matches buyers and sellers of shares of hot private technology companies like Twitter and LinkedIn. SharesPost displays bids as high as $31 per share.
That $25 might be a decent price to tempt a Facebook employee to sell, but maybe not so good for investors in the buying pools (who also pay a 5% management fee). Only this past July private equity firm Digital Sky Technologies bought a $100 million chunk of Facebook, paying private holders just $14.77 per share. That put a $6.5 billion valuation on the company.
Despite the big run-up in six months, little has changed about the business of Facebook. It has since topped the 350-million-member mark, and adopted a Google-esque two-tiered stock structure, possibly signaling that a stock issue is imminent. But this news doesn't seem to warrant the 70% price surge.
Of course trying to value Facebook is as difficult as hiding from your former high school sweetheart online. The company's revenue is secret--estimates for 2009 range from $300 million to $500 million--and there are no big publicly traded social networking sites for comparison. But for fun we took the high-end revenue estimate of this "next Google" and multiplied it by the ratio of Google's value at the time of its 2004 public offering to its sales the previous year. That ratio was 15.7. Extrapolated value of Facebook: $7.9 billion, well below the price implied by the latest private bids.

Multimillionaires Without High School Diplomas

For a talented few, the school of hard knocks offers a substantially higher return than time spent in the classroom.

 

 

A good mind is a terrible thing to waste--on high school, perhaps. 

For a special crop of talented go-getters--entrepreneurs, artists, former U.S. surgeons general (you read that right)--jumping right into the wide world without first bagging a high school diploma was the best thing that ever happened to their bank accounts.

Many leaped out of necessity. Others had encouragement from a mentor or at least from a supporter looking to piggyback on their success. All, however, had a vision and a demon drive to fulfill it. Even at a young age, that commitment and passion can overcome the hard months and years it can take to perfect a product and win over investors.

"Great entrepreneurs aren't born fully sprung from the river of Zeus," says Nancy Koehn, Historian of Entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School. Furthermore, Koehn argues, the success of commercial wunderkinds has much to do with what they learned outside the classroom.

In Pictures: 25 Multimillionaires Without High School Diplomas

Robert De Niro

 

Fans of Vito Corleone and Jake LaMotta can thank one of the world's most popular actors for leaving high school before his 17th birthday. The two-time Oscar winner studied his craft at Lee Strasberg's Actor's Studio and the Stella Adler Conservatory. De Niro learned a thing or two about business along the way, too: His financial portfolio includes film studio TriBeCa Productions and a handful of posh New York eateries.

Kirk Kerkorian

 

At last count by Forbes, this megaresort tycoon, who dropped out of school to pursue amateur boxing when he was only in eigth grade, is now worth $3 billion. Bankrolled Vegas Strip mainstays like the International Hotel and MGM Grand and bought a majority stake in MGM Mirage ( MGM - news - people ) in 2006. Survived a multimillion-dollar hit in 2008 after unloading Ford stock at a third of original buying value. Kerkorian's Lincy Foundation has donated more than $180 million to Armenian reconstruction efforts and various charities.

 

Francois Pinault 

 

With holdings like Christie's Auction House, Gucci, Samsonite ( SAMC.OB - news - people ) and Puma ( PMMAF.PK - news - people ), it's hard to believe the third-richest man in France quit high school in 1947 to work at his father's lumber mill. One reason he quit school: Classmates made fun of his poor background. Poetic justice: At last count, the retail kingpin and father-in-law to actress Salma Hayek has amassed an $8.7 billion fortune.

Peter Jackson

  Born to a factory worker and an accounting clerk, this three-time Oscar-winning high school dropout showed signs of filmmaking flair as a child, crafting short movies with a Super 8 cine-camera in New Zealand. At age 20 he worked as a newspaper photo engraver by day and made slapstick horror films by night. His first mainstream hit, the murder drama Heavenly Creatures, came out in 1994. Jackson struck box-office gold with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which grossed just under $3 billion worldwide.

Billy Joel

 

"If I'm not going to Columbia University, I'm going to Columbia Records and you don't need a high school diploma over there," Billy Joel once famously declared after learning he had fallen one credit short of his high school graduation requirement in 1967. The six-time Grammy Award winner has sold more than 150 million records worldwide and recently finished touring with Elton John in March 2010. (Joel's old high school finally agreed to award their famous alumnus a diploma--25 years after he left.)Joel was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999. His estimated net worth is $160 million. 

Richard Carmona

 

If this former U.S surgeon general is any example, you can be anything you want to be if you set your mind to it--high school dropouts included. In 1967 Carmona quit Dewitt Clinton High School at age 16 and enlisted in the U.S. Army, where he eventually earned his GED. Carmona graduated at the top of his medical program at University of California, San Francisco in 1979. President George W. Bush appointed Carmona surgeon general of the United States in 2002. 

Catherine Zeta-Jones

  The daughter of a seamstress and factory owner quit school at age 15 to pursue a stage career in London. The smoldering Welsh actress rose to fame in the late '90s with her performance alongside Anthony Hopkins and Antonio Banderas in The Mask of Zorro. In 2002 she captivated audiences as Velma Kelly in the blockbuster musical Chicago, earning the actress an Oscar, BAFTA Award and Screen Actors Guild Award. Zeta-Jones also has appeared in advertisements for Elizabeth Arden ( RDEN - news - people ), T-Mobile, Alfa Romeo and Di Modolo jewelery. Zeta-Jones' estimated net worth is nearly $45 million.

 

Don Imus 

 John Donald Imus Jr. grew up on a cattle ranch in Arizona and quit school when he was 17. Following short stints as a military bugler and railroad brakeman, the radio rabble-rouser took to the airwaves in 1968, disc jockeying for a small Palmdale, Calif., station. Fired for saying "hell" on air, Imus moved his on-air pranks to Sacramento, Cleveland and finally New York City in 1971. After the shock jock's morning show was canceled in 2007, thanks to his disparaging comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team, it was later picked up by WABC under a five-year deal worth up to $40 million.

 

Jay-Z (Shawn Carter) 

 Jay-Z may have "99 problems," but not having a high school diploma ain't one. Carter grew up in one of Brooklyn's roughest housing projects, dealing drugs before finding salvation in hip hop. In 1995 Carter took his first single to Def Jam Records, the company he ended up running from 2004 until 2007. In 2008 he signed a 10-year, $150 million deal with Live Nation ( LYV - news - people ) that gave him control over his records, tours and endorsement deals with companies like Dell ( DELL - news - people ) and Budweiser. The 10-time Grammy Award-winning hip-hop superstar is now worth an estimated $450 million.

Carl Lindner

  This billionaire dropped out of high school to deliver milk for his family's dairy. In 1940 he used a $1,200 loan to open an ice cream shop with his sister and two brothers. In 1959 he left the business and started investing in savings and loans, and eventually insurance concerns, which he assembled under American Financial Group ( AFG - news - people ). In 1984 Lindner bought Chiquita Brands International ( CQB - news - people ) (formerly United Foods) and ran it until 2001. The family dairy, called United Dairy Farmers, now has 200 ice cream parlors and convenience stores. Lindner's estimated net worth: $1.7 billion.

Simon Cowell 

 The caustic judge pulled down an estimated $80 million last year, thanks to his involvement with American Idol;Britain's Got Talent; musical talent show The X Factor; and SyCo records, his production company. The 50-year-old impresario dropped out of school at age 16 and landed a job in the mail room at EMI. At 23 he left to start his own record label, Fanfare. Cowell recently shifted his focus to a U.S. version of the The X Factor, where he serves as both judge and executive producer.

 

Richard Branson

 

The son of a barrister and a flight attendant dropped out of Stowe School at age 16 to start an arts and culture magazine called Student. In 1970, at age 20, he founded a mail-order record retailer called Virgin. He later opened a record shop and recording studio, which became retail chain Virgin Records and record company Virgin Music. His Virgin Group empire now includes 200 companies in 30 countries, spanning airlines, music festivals, mobile companies and other businesses. Today Branson owns two private Caribbean islands, Necker and Mosquito, and has an estimated net worth of $4 billion.

 

15 Warriors OF Indian Cricket Team Announced

The Indian Squad for the ICC World Cup 2011 has been announced Today. Here is 15 Warriors Of Indian cricket team

1. M S Dhoni [Captain & Wicket Keeper]

2. Zaheer Khan

3. Munaf Patel

4. Ashish Nehra

5. R Ashwin

6. Harbhajan Singh

7. Yusuf Pathan

8. Sachin Tendulkar

9. Virender Sehwag

10. Praveen Kumar

11. Gautam Gambhir

12. Piyush Chawla

13. Virat Kohli

14. Suresh Raina

15. Yuvraj Singh

How a Good Leader Reacts to a Crisis

-By Bhavesh
 

There is something about a big snowstorm that brings out the best, or more often the worst, in big city mayors. If, as former Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill once said, "All politics is local," then you would think that the first hint of snow in the forecast would prompt mayors to relocate their offices temporarily to where the snowplows are dispatched.

Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who recently won a third term, and is widely regarded as an adept city leader, has come under fire for inefficient snow removal in New York City. Most of the complaints came from residents in the so-called outer boroughs — e.g., the four that are not Manhattan.

But across the Hudson, Newark Mayor Cory Booker has received acclaim for his response to the nor'easter snowfall, despite taking flak on a host of other matters. Not content with supervising removal, he plunged in with a shovel, helping to extricate cars, clear walkways, and in one instance deliver diapers to a housebound mother. He also tweeted his first-hand observations of the snow to his more than one million Twitter followers.

We like to see our elected officials in action. The contrast between Bloomberg's reception and Booker's can serve as a lesson for anyone in a position of authority. Here are some tips for the next big storm that hits your office:

Take a moment to figure out what's going on. An executive I know experienced a major disruption in service to his company. He was the person in charge and he told me that at the first response meeting everyone started talking at once. The chatter was nervous response — not constructive — so he delegated responsibilities and then called for a subsequent meeting in an hour's time. This also helped to impose order on a chaotic situation.

Act promptly, not hurriedly. A leader must provide direction and respond to the situation in a timely fashion. But acting hurriedly only makes people nervous. You can act with deliberateness as well as speed. Or as legendary coach John Wooden advised, "Be quick but don't hurry."

Manage expectations. When trouble strikes, people want it to be over right now — but seldom is this kind of quick resolution possible. It falls to the leader in charge to address the size and scope of the crisis. You don't want to alarm people, yet do not be afraid to speak to the magnitude of the situation. Winston Churchill was a master at summing up challenges but offering a response at the same time. As he famously said when taking office in 1940, "You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory; victory at all costs; victory in spite of all terror; victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival."

Demonstrate control. When things are happening quickly, no one may have control, but a leader can assume control. That is, you do not control the disaster — be it man-made or natural — but you can control the response. A leader puts himself into the action and brings the people and resources to bear. Think of Red Adair, who made a name for himself putting out oil fires that no one else could. A raging blaze may seem uncontrollable but Adair knew could control the way it was extinguished.

Keep loose. Not only does this apply to personal demeanor — a leader can never afford to lose composure — it applies to the leader's ability to adapt rapidly. A hallmark of a crisis is its ability to change quickly; your first response may not be your final response. In these situations, a leader cannot be wedded to a single strategy. She must continue to take in new information, listen carefully and consult with the frontline experts who know what's happening.

As much as we like to see senior executives pitch in and help with the heavy lifting, there is a limit. A senior executive's prime role is setting direction. If he or she is engaged too much in front line responsibility, then who is doing the vision thing? Some executives still enjoy doing that hands-on work; they like the rush of adrenaline that comes from direct action. Too bad. That is not their job any more.

Leaders have another important role during a crisis and that is to provide perspective. As Mike Useem has written in The Go Point, an insightful study of decision-making, effective leaders can often do more by standing back from the action.

It is why, as Useem notes, that the team leader in mountaineering expeditions often remains at base camp rather than hiking to the summit. That way, if trouble strikes, he can direct the response with the perspective that comes from seeing the mountain as a whole and the conditions that affect the summit team.

The measure of a leader is often tested during a crisis. And those leaders who can engage directly, but still maintain their sense of perspective, are the ones that will help the organization survive.

List of Highlighted players and their Bid prices in IPL 4

Every IPL throws up some big surprises and this time it is no different. Imagine shelling out more than 11 crore rupees for a single player for IPL season. This time the player prices hit the record and Gautam Gambhir got the maximum price for himself (about 11.4 crores) followed by Yusuf Pathan at 9.4 crore rupees! And both of them went to Kolkata Knight Riders ! SRK seems to be a determined man this time around and he got the players he wanted!
There was an interesting thing about IPL Auction – Indian players were much in demand. I just happened to see the auction and was surprised to see that Swann, who is regarded as one of the best spinners in the world went unsold, while likes of Piyush Chawla and Amit sharma got bidding close to 3-4 crore rupees ! IPL franchisees seem to be fielding young Indian players more than seasoned International players !
You can never say what will happen with these IPL auctions, can you ?

IPL 4 Player Auction Bid prices

Player Name	IPL Team	Player Cost
Gautam Gambhir	Kolkata Knight Riders	$2.4 million.
Yusuf Pathan	Kolkata Knight Riders	$2.1 million.
Robin Uthappa	Pune	$2.1 million
Rohit Sharma	Mumbai Indians	$2 million.
Irfan Pathan	Delhi Daredevils	$1.9 million.
Yuvraj Singh	Pune	$1.8 million.
Saurabh Tiwary	Royal Challengers Bangalore	$1.6 million.
Mahela Jayawardene	Kochi	$1.5 million.
David Hussey	Kings XI Punjab	$1.4 million
Dale Steyn goes	Deccan Chargers	$1.2 million
Muttiah Muralitharan	Kochi	$1.1 million.
AB de Villiers	Royal Challengers Bangalore	$1.1 million.
Cameron White	Deccan Chargers	$1.1 million.
Jacques Kallis	Kolkata Knight Riders	$1.1 million.
Ross Taylor	Rajasthan Royals	$1 million.
Angelo Mathews	Pune	$950,000
Ravindra Jadeja	Kochi	$950,000
Johan Botha	Rajasthan Royals	$950,000.00
Dinesh Karthik	Kings XI Punjab	$900,000
Piyush Chawla	Kings XI Punjab	$900,000.00
Sreesanth	Kochi	$900,000
Adam Gilchrist	Kings XI Punjab	$900,000.00
Zaheer Khan	Royal Challengers Bangalore	$900,000.00
R Ashwin	Chennai Super Kings	$850,000
Ashish Nehra	Pune	$850,000
Andrew Symonds	Mumbai Indians	$850,000
S Badrinath	Chennai Super Kings	$800,000.00
Praveen Kumar	Kings XI Punjab	$800,000.00
Abhishek Nayar	Kings XI Punjab	$800,000
David Warner	Delhi	$750,000
Cheteswar Pujara	Royal Challengers Bangalore	$700,000.00
Doug Bollinger	Chennai Super Kings	$700,000
Kumar Sangakkara	Deccan Chargers	$700,000.00
Dirk Nannes	Royal Challengers Bangalore	$650,000.00
Tillakaratne Dilshan	Royal Challengers Bangalore	$650,000.00
Kevin Pietersen	Deccan Chargers	$650,000.00
Daniel Vettori	Royal Challengers Bangalore	$550,000
Pragyan Ojha	Deccan Chargers	$500,000
Rahul Dravid	Rajasthan Royals	$500,000.00
Graeme Smith	Pune	$500,000.00
RP Singh	Kochi	$500,000.00
Manoj Tiwary	Kolkata Knight Riders	$475,000.00
Morne Morkel	Delhi Daredevils	$475,000
Brendon McCullum	Kochi	$475,000.00
Ishant Sharma	Deccan Chargers	$450,000.00
Brad Hodge	Kochi	$425,000.00
Shakib al Hasan	Kolkata Knight Riders	$425,000
Michael Hussey	Chennai	$425,000.00
Brett Lee	Kolkata Knight Riders	$400,000
Stuart Broad	Kings XI Punjab	$400,000
VVS Laxman	Kochi	$400,000.00
Eoin Morgan	Kolkata Knight Riders	$350,000.00
James Hopes	Delhi Daredevils	$350,000.00
Ryan Harris	Kings XI Punjab	$325,000.00
Brad Haddin goes	Kolkata Knight Riders	$325,000.00
Callum Ferguson	Pune	$300,000.00
Aaron Finch	Delhi Daredevils	$300,000
Amit Mishra	Deccan Chargers	$300,000
Shikhar Dhawan	Deccan Chargers	$300,000.00
JP Duminy	Deccan Chargers	$300,000
Parthiv Patel	Kochi	$290,000
Naman Ojha	Delhi Daredevils	$270,000
Tim Paine	Pune	$270,000
Paul Collingwood	Rajasthan Royals	$250,000.00
Steven Smith	Kochi	$200,000
Dwayne Bravo	Chennai Super Kings	$200,000
Davy Jacobs	Mumbai Indians	$190,000
Ramesh Powar	Kochi	$180,000
Nathan McCullum	Pune	$100,000
James Franklin	Mumbai Indians	$100,000
Wriddhiman Saha	Chennai	$100,000