The other half bought me the book by Geraint Anderson, “Cityboy – Beer and Loathing in the City“… this was actually meant to be a Xmas present but I really wanted to read it (she blabbed that my present had come through the post and I insisted on knowing what it was.. when I found out what it was, I begged her to let me read it right away… my persuasive charms worked and I just digested the book). Anyway, it was a fun read and an insight to how the City worked. The City being the City of London, the Financial capital of the world!! I know some New Yorkers will dispute this but London officially overtook New York a few years back (the Sarbanes Oxley stuff made it more complicated for firms to list on the New York stock exchange).. however, with what’s happening lately in the economy.. who knows, everyone knows the whole financial centre is a complete mess (particularly in London)

After reading the book, it did make me wonder if I would ever like to work in the City. You get paid handsomely and the salaries are completely disproportionate to the rest of the country but it is a dog-eat-dog world. There are a lot of egos in the City and people are only interested in their own success..  people are only interested in you if you can help them someway or another. Also, people work 70 – 80 hours a week… you really spend most of your waking life for your company. Even with all the money that you’re making, when are you ever going to find time to spend it?

Geraint’s account is viewed through the eyes of Steve Jones (his alter ego for the book) and tells of his story from when he started, wet behind the ears. It is a hilarious read and some of the stories may seem a bit unbelievable in the context of the Corporate world but I know some of these things do happen. I used to work for a recruitment company in Mayfair and recruitment guys have very similar characteristics to traders (I read somewhere that failed Traders become Estate Agents and Recruitment consultants!). Some of the things which I saw which were done to others were hilarious.. so long as they weren’t done to you!

Anyway, going back to the book.. Geraint’s story tells of how he started and progressed up the ranks starting off with a salary of £24,000 to £120,000 in 5 years. He talks about the personalities you’ll meet in the City and the conversations he had. He writes about the client entertaining and the hedonistic behaviour (drugs, alcohol and crazy spending)… it gives you an understanding of the characters and personalities in the City… about what happens behind those remarkable buildings where the the City workers make their millions. It is told in in a humourous manner and so is a great little read…

For those of you living in London, you probably know of the Londonpaper.. there was a Cityboy column which wrote about the shennigans of the City workers. Geraint had been writing the column anonymously. On the release of his book, his identity was revealed. Now there’s a Citygirl who has appeared in Londonpaper and giving her anonymous account..

Anyway, I try to keep my posts within a reading distance.. too long they just drag. If you would like to read Cityboy, you can get your copy from Amazon:

Tags: beer and loathing, book review, cityboy, cityboy book, geraint anderson, londonpaper, trading blog

I have recently finished the book “The 4-Hour Work Week: Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich” and what a great little book. We live in times where the world is changing so rapidly and Tim has managed to take advantages of the opportunities available and enrich his life.

He talks about the New Rich.. these are those who have managed to get rich by exploiting our world today. These are people like guys who set up Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the guy who set up Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg etc. Most of the New Rich are those who have exploited the internet or found ways to use the internet to help their existing bricks and mortar businesses.

The Old Rich are those who have made money the old traditional way such as property magnates, big corporation bigwigs etc…

Whilst the main crux of the book is about outsourcing your life and mini retirements…. it’s the outsourcing your life parts which were fantastic and hold immense worth if you value your time in our information loaded lives. The mini retirements were more of a lifestyle once you’ve managed to outsource your life.

Outsourcing your life, in a nutshell, means finding people to do the boring administrative and tedious things you hate to do. Obviously, you can’t outsource things like taking your partner out for dinner (she/he may run away with the other person) but, in the context of running a business, you could get people to do the admin work such as typing, research on the internet, data entry etc. There are heaps of people in places like India, China, Phillipines who could do this for you at a fraction of the cost of employing someone in Europe or the US… best of all, you can hire them for a finite job (project), pay them and be done with it. If you are a small business owner, this could be a fantastic way to expand your business which is essentially what Tim Ferriss did. He hired virtual assistants to run the mundane tasks of his business and it go to a point where his virtual assistants could also make decisions on his behalf so that he could go travelling (his mini retirements).

I have been trying the virtual assistant idea myself and I can see the merit in it. From my blog, you’ll note that I am interested in a lot of stuff (mostly financial trading) and I frequently wished I had enough time (and energy) to do everything that I want to do. I hold a 9-to-5 job which I thoroughly enjoy, I am trading the financial markets (not very well), I make websites for small businesses and run a few blogs and a few other things here and there.

Anyway, I am currently using Odesk to outsource work. I have only run 1 task so far to test and see how the system works and I am extremely pleased with it! I wanted someone to do some research for me on the web and collate it all into a document. I posted the details of the job and a price I was prepared to pay for it and then watched people applying for it. There were loads of people wanting to do it and the virtual assistant I used (who was also the first person to apply) did a marvellous job and in record time. If you’re time constrained and need a hand, I throughly recommend having a look!

Links:
Odesk
4 Hour Work Week

Tags: 4-hour work week, four hour work week, getfriday, getfriday.com, make money, makemesomemoney, odesk, outsource your life, save time, tim ferriss, timothy ferriss, yourmaninindia, yourmaninindia.com

 I purchased Rob Booker’s Adventures of a Currency Trader a couple of weeks ago from Amazon. The book tells the story of our hero, Harry Banes on his quest to become a successful Currency trader. We follow Harry from his first adventures thinking that it’s an easy endeavour and losing all (well, most) of his money to him, becoming successful and making money consistently.

The book is a work of fiction and attempts to draw parallels between the reader (if they have dabbled in the markets and been unsuccessful) and Harry. The path to becoming a successful trader takes time, there is a learning process involved and you will lose money initially. We follow Harry through these steps and you get an idea of where you are.

There is a happy ending and Harry makes it… it doesn’t take him long but in reality, the steps can take years to master. The book is a easy and fun read and I recommend it to all those who have some aspirations to becoming a successful trader.