1. Start in twenties. Time value of money is amazing.

2. Have the stomach for risk.  If no risk, then put in 1-2% savings accounts.

3. Don’t try to beat the market.  Set goal to match it.  4-5% for conservative portfolios or 8-10% for aggressive portfolios.

4. Diversify through comprehensive asset allocation based on age and risk profile. “Be the world.”  Re-set allocations to target levels once per year. Learn and apply the various asset classes: stocks (value, growth, balanced), bonds (muni, treasury, TIPs corporate, junk), inflation and downturn hedges (commodities, precious metals, real estate), international (developed and emerging).

5. Don’t chase the market ups and downs.  Use “dollar cost averaging” to be in the market in good times and bad.

6. Don’t become dependent on financial professionals – “The stockbroker services his clients in the same way that Bonnie and Clyde serviced banks.”

7. Use discount brokers, trade yourself online, and buy indexes through electronically traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds with low-cost fees. Don’t invest in individual stocks unless you have $100,000 to invest because you need 20 stocks to diversify, or about $5,000 per individual stock.

8. Invest in tax-deferred and capital-gains-advantaged retirement plans such as company 401K, Roth IRA, Individual 401K, Individual IRA, 529b college savings accounts

9. Don’t chase gimmicks or latest stock tips from friends, family, or TV commentators.

10.  If you get the gambling bug for individual stocks, limit them to 5-10% of your portfolio.

I’ve read scores of business books and recommend this one above all others: The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio, by William Bernstein.  See my book review of The Four Pillars of Investing.

Our VP for Editorial and Digital Initiatives, David Marshall, is also a bestselling author and has held numerous executive-level positions with global companies. Here David obliges us with five lessons on management — three for self-management and two for managing others:

Managing Yourself…

#1 Plan your career, or it will plan you (lifelong tip): In a previous entrepreneurial life, I spent many hours with Richard Bolles, the acclaimed author of What Color Is Your Parachute? Dick says that the vast majority of people fall into jobs that have nothing to do with their values; it’s no wonder so many are unhappy with their careers. Confucius said “find a job you love, and you’ll never work day in your life.” There is much wisdom in those words. In college, I created a 50-year career life chart that I have updated every five years as new life experiences re-shaped the original plan. It is vital to have a vision of where you want to be professionally in 5, 10, and 20 years. If you don’t, you will let external factors drive your career instead of you steering it.

#2 Grow or die (annual tip): Many managers and leaders, usually at the 50-yard line or beyond, conclude that they have learned all there is to learn, figured out what management style works best for them, so just settle in and execute. This is a tragedy. Don’t go stale. No matter how advanced your career, no matter how much success you’ve had, take a blank piece of paper at the beginning of each year (it’s not too late for 2011), and write down five things you want to learn or improve upon as a manager and leader. Choose things that you can realistically accomplish with intention and attention. Pick the most important one and create quarterly milestones for yourself so you can measure your progress. Grade yourself at year end.

#3 Fortify your life blood: your daily time (daily tip): Choose the number of hours you work each week; don’t let it choose you. For some, it’s 40; for others, it’s 70. Embrace that number and then prioritize projects within it. Steven Covey advises us to do first what we prioritize as the most important rather than let others choose which things we do first based on their priorities. Avoid letting new requests from others re-prioritize your day, week, and month. Learn to respectfully say no or “yes, but later” when necessary. Every committed project advances or slips based on what’s in front or behind it. If I lose control of my time, I feel stressed, guilty, and de-motivated—and don’t even want to go to work. It’s deadly.

Managing Others…

Managing myself and managing others are connected at the hip. 1) If I am not happy at work because I am in the wrong career, 2) if I have lost my desire to keep learning throughout life, or 3) if I have lost control of my time, woe be to those I manage; they will suffer because I did not nurture my own management soul first.

#4 Practice permission-based leadership: Employee and company stakeholder empowerment is not just a buzzword. As Harvard Business School professor and new BK author Bill George said to Steve Piersanti and me recently (I’m paraphrasing), “the era of top-down ‘command and control’ leadership is over.” My experience is that people work harder, longer, and with higher quality if they are inspired and motivated by their manager, not brow beaten. As head of the BK editorial department, it’s not my right to lead the team. I receive permission every day from Bonnie, Jeevan, Neal, and Steve to lead it. They hold the power, not I. If I serve them well, miracles happen. This is equally true of cross-departmental and cross-divisional leadership.

#5 Be hard on the issues, soft on the people: Many assume that you are either soft on the issues and soft on the people (good cop), or hard on the issues and hard on the people (bad cop). However, it is indeed possible to be a strong-willed manager who asks employees to stretch themselves every day without being a tyrant. A common dysfunction resulting from the “hard on the issues, hard on the people” management style is passive-aggressive behavior whereby co-workers, who are under harsh personal treatment from managers, outwardly agree to support the bad cop’s directives but don’t follow through. Managers who learn to be hard on the issues but soft on the people—both good cop and bad cop in the same person—are more effective and successful in the long run.

A final note on humility and resilience: Either lose your ego or don’t seek or accept a management position. I aspire to the five tips above but am not always successful. I regularly fall, but pick myself up and try again. Fail fast and often, learn from the slips, and bounce back; that’s the overriding lifelong learning tip I can share.

You can see what others said about my post here.

People who know our family journal books often ask which book they should buy as a gift for their special someone, The Book of Us: A Journal of Your Love Story in 150 Questions or What I Love About You.  They are both wonderful fill-in books that foster intimacy and communication, and I think both will he cherished by both you and and partner, but here’s how I see the differences.

A week later Mom took me to our regular doctor to get the stitches out.  He was shocked.  He told her that for a serious injury like mine, the doctors at our community hospital should have put in about seventy stitches instead of twelve.  Mom told him the nurse did it.  He just shook his head, pulling the nylon threads out one at a time while I winced.  “There’s going to be a big scar,” he said.  Mom frowned but I just smiled.  In my neighborhood, scars were badges of courage.  The bigger, the better—and the badder.           

The wound healed into the shape of a carrot, with the green stalk on top at the wrist, and a juicy fat carrot underneath, ending in a point toward my elbow.  When I walked the halls at school, kids yelled out, “Lemme see yo carrot.”  I was so proud.

Celebrate this moment – who you are, where you are in life, and where you want to be – by capturing in this guided journal all the things that make your life unique.

Picture of Me: Who I Am in 201 Questions, by Kate and David Marshall, Broadway Books, March 17, 2009, $13.95.  For details on this book and our other family fill-in-the-blank journals, visit our Marshall Books website: http://www.marshallbooks.net.

Thanks for watching our video, David Marshall

The Contra Costa Times in Walnut Creek, California published an article today that combines concepts from three of our books The Book of Myself, What I Love About You, and our new book, Picture of Me, just in time for Valentine’s Day:

Readers Pen Six-Word Memoirs About Love...

Of course the most famous six-word memoir is from Ernest Hemingway: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

I like this line from the article by Jackie Burrell:  “The very notion of a six-word memor is a perfect fit today, Fershleiser remembers thinking, “when everything is voyeuristic and confessional, and everyone blogs.”

The article is full of six-word expressions of love for cupids pondering what to say, do, or write for February 14, 2009.

But back to the six-word life memors,  I know I will want to modify this soon, but here’s mine as of today:

“Cult boy discovers freedom, makes difference.”

What’s your whole-life or the “Tales of Love” version?

David Marshall

EARLY LIFE VOTERS (18 to 30)

If you want the status quo, and if you want someone whose most significant event in life was framed by war, who stubbornly insists on outdated views of “victory” over all else, McCain is your man.  Obama will not shirk from war, but he will be less likely to start a new cold war with Russia or regional wars with Korea or Iran than McCain.  Obama will use all forms of diplomacy and solicit our allies before pulling the trigger.  McCain may not.  Obama will help restore America’s respect around the globe.  If you want to make a difference in the world, and create lasting change in our social, economic, and political systems, that helps alleviate poverty, creates clean and sustainable energy, and prioritizes responsible stewardship of the environment, Obama is your candidate.  He will call upon you to hitch your wagon to a cause greater than yourself, but you may become a bigger person because of it.  Lose yourself in the service of others.  If you seek to create a world that works for all, please vote for Barack Obama. 

MIDDLE LIFE VOTERS (31 to 60)

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” wrote Thomas Jefferson.  If you believe in equality for all, then please consider voting for Barack Obama.  For someone who claims to fight pork barrel politics and ear marks, McCain’s proposed $350 billion in tax cuts for the wealthy are the biggest ear mark of all.  McCain’s net worth is $100 million and you can be sure he is focused on helping the rich first, with the broken promise that some of this wealth will trickle down to help everybody else.  Ronald Reagan buffaloed us all with this notion, and I even voted for him in the 1980s so I could have lower taxes and feel like I was helping others with a single vote.  But in the last 25 years the rich have become richer and the poor poorer; we know now that trickle-down economics just doesn’t work.  If you truly care about helping your fellow Americans, a vote for Obama will make a bigger economic difference than any charity or congregation plate donations you make during the next four years.  If you are earning more than $250,000 per year, don’t be selfish with your good fortune, voting for McCain because he will keep your taxes low. Instead, step up and do your part to help others less fortunate than you.  If you are making less than $250,000 per year (95% of taxpayers), your taxes will be reduced if you vote for Obama.

LATER LIFE VOTERS (61 to 100)

Your retirement nest egg is not safe under a Republican administration that believes that free markets should remain unregulated at all costs.  Our life savings are now under siege because of overly deregulated markets with inadequate oversight.  Obama will fix this.  McCain, the deregulator, will not.  Under our current health care system, the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) estimates that most Americans will need to save $250,000 each for medical care in later life, even after Medicare and private insurance reimbursements.  How many couples really have an extra $500,000 in savings to apply to this?  Most American households don’t even have this much for their whole retirements, much less for medical costs.  Medical expenses are the #1 cause of bankruptcies in America today.  We need the universal care that Obama is advocating, which will bring the Unites States even with the rest of the developed world.  McCain will just ask you to figure it out yourself by investing in our tumultuous stock market.  With our financial markets in disarray and our stock market plunging, are you ready to take on that risk?  Even if you disagree with Obama on everything else, you should vote for him based on this issue alone.  Protect your retirement.  Vote for Obama.

Participative democracy means every eligible voter’s voice should be heard and counted. Whatever you do, please go to the polls on November 4, 2008.  And encourage any “Undecideds” you may know to go as well.

Thank you for the consideration,

David Marshall – Moraga, California

journals for people with life stories, love and wisdom to share: www.marshallbooks.net

Book Publishing Digital Community Builder.  I actually did this.  After a 25 year career in the software industry, I decided to make a major career change when I turned 50 in 2005.  I was looking for a vocation where I could make a difference and change people’s lives for the better.  After spending two years writing a non-fiction narrative to help young people discover their voice and freedom, I joined Berrett-Koehler Publishers (BK), a small book publisher in San Francisco in October of 2007.  The mission statement of the company is Creating a World That Works For All, at the individual, organizational, and societal levels.  BK Life serves individuals with personal development titles on career and life planning.  BK Business serves organizations with progressive management and leadership books.  BK Currents addresses social, political, and economic justice and global sustainability.

I joined the company to help it make the transition from printed books to the brave new digital world.  Just like the music and newspaper industry, book publishing is going through a radical transformation.  These days, many people are starting to read on iPhones, Kindle, and Sony electronic reading devices.  Now BK sells e-books alongside every new printed book, and we are selling article-size content from our authors as well.  We are building an online community of BK stakeholders, which includes readers, authors, agents, printers, book designers, manuscript reviewers, and BK staff members.  We help authors produce videos, blogs, and podcasts and feature them on our website, bkconnection.com.  You can also see some of our BK Author Video segments on the Other Books section of this website.  We’ve also established a BK presence on Facebook, YouTube, and Scribd.

But one thing surprised me about the book industry.  I thought I would be slowing down by moving from the fast-paced software field into the more staid field of book publishing—but it has been anything but.  I’m working harder than ever before, but since I get such pleasure out of helping people grow, it hardly feels like work.  What was it that a wise person once said: “Do something you love, and you’ll never work another day of your life.”  That’s what it feels like working at Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

David Marshall

Senior Manager for Digital Communities

Berrett-Koehler Publishers

San Francisco, California USA

dmarshall@bkpub.com

www.bkconnection.com

These are the presidents I voted for:

I am 51 years old but this is only my 9th presidential election.  My parents were flaming liberals in the 1960s and brought me up to be a good Democrat, who supported federal spending to help the poor versus the greedy Republicans who supported the wealthy classes.  But I broke ranks along the way, stumbled, and then recovered.

In 1974, when I turned 18, I registered with the Democratic party.  I felt my vote counted, and looked forward to my first presidential election two years later.

In 1976, when I was a 20-year-old college student, I voted for Jimmy Carter.  Ford had been a caretaker President after Nixon’s fall from grace, so I wouldn’t have voted for him anyway.

In 1980, selling Apple II computers and Commodore PETs in San Francisco, I voted for Carter again, but was kind of pleased about our California actor-turned governor moving in the White House.  Maybe it would be good for out state.  I felt bad for Jimmy though, especially with how the Iran Hostage Crisis turned out for him.

In 1984, I was starting to make real money as a gung-ho software manger.  I didn’t want Uncle Sam taking all my wages in taxes, so voted for Reagan.  I convinced myself that he was a compassionate conservative and wouldn’t forget the little guy.  I just couldn’t get excited about Mondale.  I even changed my political affiliation to the Republican party.  By this time my father was moving toward the Green party and lamented that I had gone over to the dark side.

In 1988, I came to my senses and voted for the Democrat, not because I thought Dukakis would win, but because I didn’t like Bush Sr.  He was the CIA chief and everybody knows what that meant.  The Willie Horton slander was just the tip of the iceberg for a CIA chief.  However, I stayed in the Republican party.

In 1992, I voted for Clinton and was truly excited about the new era that Bill and Hillary (and Al Gore) represented.  I was disappointed that they couldn’t push through the national health care plan during Bill’s first term, since I was living in German where the national health care system worked just fine.

In 1996, I voted for Clinton again.  It was no contest against Dole.  I am happy with my two Clinton votes but was extremely mad at Bill for not controlling his urges.  If not for Monica (and the others), Gore would not have broken with Bill, and Al would have sailed into the White House. 

In 2000, I finally recognized the obvious, that I was a Republican in name only.  I voted for Gore and re-registered a year later as a Democrat.  Bush Jr. was not even a remote consideration; I just didn’t think he was qualified, and couldn’t understand why others thought he was.

In 2004, I voted for Kerry and hoped we would squeak through.  I was livid about Karl Rove and his dirty tricks (Swift Boat among others), but I was also mad at the Democrats for not fielding a stronger candidate.  It was partly our fault that we let a failing president grab another four years to create his mayhem.  Shame on the national Democratic leaders.

Now in 2008, my daughter and son, both in college, will be voting in their first presidential election.  I must make my decision in the California Democratic primary on February 5th, just three weeks away.  I still don’t know if I will be voting for Hillary, Obama or Edwards, but I feel sure that any of them would make a better U.S. President than the field of Republican contenders.

From 2009 to 2012, until the pull the lever for the 10th time, I am hopeful that we will reclaim the promise for America, both domestically and in the world.

What are the presidents you voted for?

David Marshall, www.marshallbooks.com