Navigating the markets these days is an interesting process. If you still have a thriving financial practice or capital to invest after the August 2007 to mid-2009 market fall out, great for you. However, I would make a bet that you took a sizable hit to either your clients or your own personal portfolio. Thus, I am creating this post containing a book list because I believe there are always ways that we can be better investors and better financial professionals.

For those of you interested to know, the process to become a financial advisor is down right challenging. It is full of hurdles that happen well before you ever solicit any type of securities products. First, there is the process of making the decision that your heart is truly in this career decision. Because if it ain’t, you will fail. Then, there is research and reading to both see if you have the skills necessary and where you need improvement. And trust me, as a rookie seeing Wall Street and the industry from the outside, very few go into this business without needing improvement. Or maybe you could be the investor looking for the right financial professional. I guarantee in any market that there is at least several firms and hundreds of professionals that can meet your needs.

So- have said that, I decided to write this post about some of the books that have helped me become much better educated about not only the markets but the business of the money culture. In fact, almost all of these were recommendations from the dozens of financial professionals and investors I have spoken with over the past many months. In many ways these financial related books helped me understand the business, give specific information about how to start, expand and some really fascinating and sometimes hilarious stories along the way.

In addition, if you have very little interest in working in this industry but want some information to help you  make better financial decisions and/or learn about the shenanigans that goes on at times, I have divided this book list into two categories. One category for the Financial Advisor and one for interested individual investors looking for a good read. And probably the best part is that I have linked each of these books to Amazon.com so you can read reviews and buy new or used copies. I highly recommend Amazon to purchase used books as many of their sellers are reliable and you just can’t beat the price. I have given a small and very short summary about a few of the books I really enjoyed as well.

Click continue reading if on the home page. Thank you.

2010censuslogo

Today I decided to write about the 2010 United States Census. I was inspired by an article in the Wall Street Journal called, “Republicans Fear Undercounting in Census.” I have more personal experience with the census than most Americans because this year I have applied to be a supervisor for the Davidson (Nashville metropolitan) county zone. I thought many of you who read my posts might be interesting in learning a little information from the inside. Here is the 411 on the census, questions and answers.

I was reading my usual morning Wall Street Journal articles and came accross this article, “New iPhone Could End AT&T’s U.S. Monopoly.” For some time I have been closely following the iPhone and the almost unreal deal with AT&T. This deal has in many ways made it possible for AT&T to maintain consistent growth in market share,  and not only in cellular technology. I believe investors, consistently collecting on a 6.4% dividend, could not be happier with the deal that was struck.

I made a comment on my Twitter page about my ability to write a book called “Landing Your Dream Career in a Recessive Economy.” I thought I might elaborate on this with short summaries on twelve methods that have worked well for me. You could say this would be the outline of my book’s content.

This goes out for all you soon to be graduates or the many out there trying their best to succeed. If you follow these tips with absolute dedication to a singular goal of landing your dream career, you can only succeed given a long enough time table. I wish you the best of luck. This is all about getting that dream job. Personally, I have been at it for six months. I continue to bust my tail, knock on doors, call/interview with anyone who will give me the time of day,  network and above all I refuse to give up. Good luck to you. I honestly hope these steps help- even for just one person, that would mean the world to me.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, this picture draws the most popular social networks like Facebook, Digg, Twitter, YouTube and MySpace as people. I think this artist pretty much nailed it. I searched for the artist but had no luck. If you know the artist, please let me know.

-Adam

There needs to be something said about the quality of the iPhone/iPod games. However, not all of them are without flaws, and some are just not worth the money.  I decided to share three games that I have been playing in my limited spare time.  If you like these three game types in general, you will enjoy playing these three games. I have picked one game from sports, strategy and music. They are all from EA publisher.