Years ago, I was on a business trip and killing time at a bookstore before a client meeting. I saw Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Ind ependence: Revised and Updated for the 21st Century by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez on the shelf, and… [Read More]
Blog
Investing and frugality
You may have noticed that I write about all things financial: hedge funds, bitcoins, investing in Africa. Sometimes people ask me why someone with an MBA is writing about museum free days and buying store brands at the grocery, but to me, it’s all the same. It’s all about getting the most value for your… [Read More]
Gen X and Gen Y and investing
Gen X and Gen Y are cliches, and yet, like so many cliches, there may be something to them. Today, I am struggling with the usual existential crisis that makes managing money so hard: living for today versus saving up until age 100. In finance terms, it’s a matter of opportunity cost; we tend to… [Read More]
Somalia: Born in the Big Rains
The next country on the my list of African nations to learn about is Somalia. I was in New York City recently and went to the wonderful and amazing Strand Books and asked for books about Somalia, ideally something happy and upbeat. My choices were tales of war and destruction or Born in the Big… [Read More]
Scalawags, Spanish prisoners, and Nigerian scams
As part of my ongoing effort to learn about Africa, I read the book 419 by Will Ferguson. It’s about a Canadian who is caught up in the so-called Nigerian scam, and it is also about charity, crime, forgiveness, and retribution. The title comes from the section of the Nigerian legal code that handles punishment… [Read More]
