A Gift to My Children: A Father’s Lessons for Life and Investing
- ISBN13: 9781400067541
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
He’s the swashbuckling world traveler and legendary investor who made his fortune before he was forty. Now the bestselling author of A Bull in China, Hot Commodities, and Adventure Capitalist shares a heartfelt, indispensable guide for his daughters (and all young investors) to find success and happiness. In A Gift to My Children, Jim Rogers offers advice with his trademark candor and confidence, but this time he adds paternal compassion, prot… More >>
A Gift to My Children: A Father’s Lessons for Life and Investing
I have never read any of Jim Rogers prior books, but I am pleasantly surprised to find this little book insightful and enjoyable to read. He provided his answers to questions such as how to best prepare our children for the future. As a father of a five year old daughter, I fully appreciate a book just like this.
Each chapter is a lesson on a major quality of character or “virtue”; and each chapter is about several pages long. Each lesson is elaborated and explained with real events in Jim Rogers’ life – his childhood in rural AL and his investment decisions.
This book is definitely NOT an investment book, but I am more than happy to learn about personal stories of this legendary investor, particularly about his thought process, mindset, and insights about being a father and investor.
Obviously he writes with his unique set of values and ideas about where to live (don’t live in a country involved in any kind of war), what to become (a world citizen), and what to learn (philosophy and history), but in this little book I have found gems of wisdom common to a few very successful people I personally know. They universally credit their success to: 1)think on your own, 2) hard work and never quit, 3) read as much as you can, 4) always prepare for the worst, 5) save and don’t carry debt, and 6) start your child early.
If you write a book for your child, what would you include and exclude? Under this premise I think Jim Rogers has done an excellent job so I rate this book with five stars.
Rating: 5 / 5
I’ve read all of Jim Rogers’ books. All his books are well-written, entertaining, and easy to read. This one is no exception. It is filled with simple, good-ol-fashion advice for both adults and children. However, some of the examples Rogers uses to explain his idea may be hard for children to grasp, e.g. shorting stocks! Unless you plan to educate your kids about finance and economics early on, this book may be more appropriate for college-bound age teenagers or older.
Rating: 4 / 5
I bought the book because of all the simple advices the author gives to his daughter (like be ethical, save, don’t use calculator for math, etc) that you will find in any review of this book that is longer than mine. Was hoping to find even more things like that in this book, but in this case its just like any average Hollywood comedy where all jokes are packed in the trailer – its all in the reviews. No surprises there then. It does not get any better in terms of the main plot, as it’s a very general story of authors own life, trading and travels. Yes, it is a story of a very interesting life, but I think that a lot of people who will buy the book will know it already. If not, then its also in a review. So, just for reading the text and taking it very seriously, the book is a bit pointless.
The area where it exceeds expectations is in emotions that it delivers. I’m not a sensitive type of person and usually read books about economics or markets. Guess this is why I found this book in the first place. Yet I know that there are some books where you can feel the emotions that the author has put into writing it and this book is definitely one of them. And the emotions don’t get any more positive than those of a father giving a personal lesson to his kids that he really cares about. For this reason alone I think that this book is worth reading. It is a very short book anyway.
So to sum up – its just what the title says – a lesson that a father gives to a small child. Yes, there is a message in his text and yes, sometimes a kid would remember it. Yet in most cases its fare more about the feel than the message, as is this book…
Rating: 4 / 5
I think this book is really intended as the title suggests – for his daughters; but also for anyone who wants a summary of what Jim Rogers has experienced in his long and colourful life and what conclusions he draws about life in general.
The book is very brief and written in an easy language so that you can read it in one go if you want to. I find it very refreshing that in contrast to many other books this one is NOT bloated to the “standard” size of ca. 200 pages so that the editor is happy.
Prior reviews have outlined the content; there is very little new stuff for people who follow Jim Rogers on TV or have read his other books. Nevertheless I think it is good as a summary for the ones who are familiar with him or who is isn’t yet but wants to quickly get an overview. This book plus a couple of YouTube interviews and you get his – interesting – view of the world.
Rating: 4 / 5
I had preordered the book after the impressive book “Hot Commodities: How Anyone Can Invest Profitably in the World’s Best Market” ( one of the books in perpetual classics list in my listmania) and Jim Rogers TV interviews.The book does a decent job of giving “Commonsense” advise and a lot of motivation addressed to the readers (disguised as addressed to his daughters). However we have to remember that Jim Rogers is an ordinary father who happens to be the “Warren Buffett” of Commodities. That’s it.Everyone who buys the book is looking to tap into the genius in him and possibly get rich trading.Pure and simple!
The first line of the book starts like this ” There are going to be moments in life when you must make very important decisions. You will find many people ready to offer you….” and goes on explaining the importance of Relying on your own intelligence .Unfortunately for most common mortals like me who is squeezed between driving to office and dropping kids at school and watching prime time reality shows, it is nothing more than a hunch or instinct or a radio news that often leads to loss making trades.If you can sterotype an investing genius as someone who is passionate, who reads a lot, who analysis financial numbers, travels to the factories, production zones, understands macro economic,political structure first hand. then this book has all the meat to solidify stereotypes.
Without revealing the plot(!) of the book,I am going to point the subtitles in first chapter,that would give ample evidence to other readers as to what you can expect from the book.
CHAPTER 1:
Swim Your own Races.
Subtitles in Chapter1:
1.Rely on your own intelligence
2.If anybody laughs at your idea, view it as a potential success
3. Be Original,be bold
4. Be ethical
5. Save.
Each has a page or few paragraphs of explanation. A good motivational/instructional book should generally have powerful examples and this book fails terribly in that regard. It is plain instructions page in and page out with bland examples of boring references to Apple, GM etc. The example that stands out are those where he gives his life as examples ( when he invested in IBM stock, when he traveled to China, why he avoided investing in Algeria because of blackmarket currency controls).
For a common man, in general has two modes of investing. Either they “buy and hold” (401k) or trade. There are plenty of better books out there for either modes of investing . Some of them are
Charles Schwab’s New Guide to Financial Independence Completely Revised and Updated : Practical Solutions for Busy People
One up on Wall Street: How to Use What You Already Know To Make Money in the Market, Miniature Edition
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator (Wiley Investment Classics)
Towards the end of the book, the advice on “Following your dreams” are downright insanity and borders on stupidity. He proudly claims driving in his motorcycle around the world chasing his dreams while he knew all along that his father will not be alive when he returns back. He also advises his daughters to do the same, ignore your “everyone” in pursuit of your dreams.
Well, what is wrong with that?. Had he mentioned that ” I was young and bubbling with energy that my ambitions were more important than my father who gave everything for me. Looking back, I would advice that living a “fulfilled” life is more important than being “Successfull”, that would have been a good dad’s advice
A good “Dad or Mom” is an epitome of lot of internal and external compromises.He compromises his career, his hobbies, his desire ,puts up with nasty work environment, even occassionally swallows his pride in office place so that his family and kids have a good and prosperous future. It is lot easier to pursue your dreams , enjoying 18 hour work than playing with your kids and nurturing your family.Well, if you want to be a good dad,then read “The Road Less Travelled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth” ( Another perpetual classic in my listmania)
This book is a “run of the mill” stuff! Still I rate it as 3 stars since the readers are hopefully mature enough to seperate the grain from chaff (ex :save,learn chinese).
Rating: 3 / 5