Book Review of the Coffee House Investor by Bill Schuultheis

 Sometime during the beginning of April, I was at Times bookstore scouring over the finance and self help section for yet another book to read. ( Feel my wife's eyes rolling behind my back). After about half an hour or so, i decided on a book called the Coffee House Investor.

The book is written very simply yet holds very powerful messages. Its tagline being "How to build wealth, ignore Wall Street and get on with your life." I guess the term ignore Wall Street caught my eye. In MY opinion Wall Street can be contextualized into things such as market noise, analyst reports and random idle talks and speculations.

The author constantly reminds of 3 lifelong and important principles that we all know to be true. 

They are:

1. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. 
2. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
3. Save for a rainy day.

The book is filled with many examples and careful explanations thus making the authors concepts very easy to understand. Basically, the essence of the book is very similar to that of The Millionaire Teacher by Andrew Hallam. It preaches heavily on the benefits of Investing in Index funds. Some of which are low cost, diversity, ease of re-balancing and the ability to beat Mutual funds or Unit trusts in the long run.

The part of the book that left an impression the most was a poem by Robert Service the author posted titled "The Spell of the Yukon" It goes something like this...

I wanted the gold, and I sought it;

I scrabbled and mucked like a slave;

Was it famine or scurvy, I fought it;

I hurled my youth into a grave.

I wanted the gold, and i got it-

Came out with a fortune last fall,-

Yet somehow life's not what i thought it,

and somehow the gold isn't all.

The poem struck a chord within me as it kinda assured me that my goal of early retirement to do things that i want to do and spend time with people i want to spend time with is right. What the point of working your youth away earning that massive sum of money only to lose the only thing which can never be gotten back...time.

Time is the most important thing that you can possess. Don't waste too much of it attaining wealth, only to find at a later age, you would have given any wealth to get that time back. Think upon it and i hope what i have written will open another option in life for you.

As always, save more, spend less and invest wisely.. and also.. make the most of your youth.

P.