John Ellis

Get between the covers this Christmas

BY JOHN ELLIS

FINANCIAL ADVISOR

MONEY sense isn’t necessarily about what you know. It’s about your behaviour and it’s di cult to teach. Personal nance and business decisions are typically taught using formulae graphs and excel sheets to tell us what you should do. But in reality people don’t make nancial decisions logically. Fear, greed, ego, pride, our own worldview are the underlining unfelt unrecognised drivers of many of our decisions.

For this column I was researching last minute book buys for Christmas with a nancial bent. So many just drive our fears and needs and are openly greed driven. So, what I though was let’s look at a few good books that would be worth reading over the festive period and not all unashamedly nancial. e intelligent Investor – Benjamin Graham’s book, the stock market bible ever since its original publication has sold millions of copies. First published in 1949 it has stood the test of time. His philosophy is “value investing” which protects us from substantial error and teaches how to develop long-term strategies.

Over the years, market developments have proven the wisdom of Graham’s strategies. ere is a current edition with the classic text annotated to update Graham’s timeless wisdom for today’s market conditions by noted nancial journalist Jason Zweig, whose perspective “incorporates the realities of today’s market, drawing parallels between Graham’s examples and today’s nancial headlines giving readers a more thorough understanding of how to apply Graham’s principles”.

According to Harper Business Essentials edition, the Intelligent Investor is the most important book you will ever read on how to reach your nancial goals.

Tie this with the book e Psychology of Money. e award-winning author Morgan Housel shares timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness. In 19 short stories he explores the strange ways people think about money and teaches you how to make better sense of one of life’s most important topics.

So often though, having been encouraged by what we read we set out our nancial goals but often we become waylaid as time goes on. But, according to John Kay the author of ‘Obliquity’, if you want to go in one direction, the best route may actually involve going in another.

Paradoxical as it sounds, according to the author, many goals are more likely to be achieved when pursued indirectly. e richest men and women are not the most materialistic; the happiest people are not necessarily those who focus on happiness, and the most pro table companies are not always the most pro t oriented.

Whatever the obstacles, the battles, or goals to be achieved history shows that oblique approaches are the most successful, especially in times of di culty. e author lays out his premise in an entertaining and challenging way.

With the New Year looming and the January blues invariable approaching it’s the time we usually make new year resolutions. But so often, by the second week of January, we have succumbed to our old selves once again.

“If you’re having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn’t you, the problem is your system,” says James Clear the author of Atomic Habits. He is one of the world’s leading experts on habit formation. He says “bad habits” repeat themselves again and again not because you don’t want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change; “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”

In this book you’ll get a proven system that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviours that lead to remarkable results that can take you to new heights.

Finally, A Christmas Carol, a tale of transformation, rst published in December 1843 by Charles Dickens, of Ebenezer Scrooge. An old miser who detests Christmas, whose mind and soul has been warped by the pursuit of money above all other things. is -book was written at a time when Christmas traditions were in steady decline in England. It was seen as a major turning point in helping ensure that family unity and ‘goodwill to all men’ once more became the appropriate sentiments of the Christmas season.

It’s a lovely read or re-read for Christmas but with a point to make to all, young and old, underlining our propensity to think only of ourselves.

john@ellis nancial.ie 086 8362633.

A story that can not be told

HE had gone to Scarin, a rundown area outside the north east gate to meet Al Fer Arco a Syrian who worked for the Romans. His hopes were that he could gather information about the upcoming census that was to be taken. Al Fer Arco was a census taker and he hoped that the information gained from Al Fer Arco would help lay to rest some of the rumours and gossip that were circulating the market places. As a Scribe and Announcer in the market places part of his duties were to end any gossip or rumours that the Romans feared might cause unrest. Some of the rumours doing the rounds now related to a new city being built, a new King being born or a new Kingdom being created and with the in ux of citizens from all reaches of the lands there was also talk of famine, war or plague.

ey had met in an Inn owned by Palini a Jew who was known for his generosity and acts of kindness. Having been assured by the Syrian that the census was only a record keeping exercise by the Romans to help calculate tax receipts and to establish a count of able bodied young men who could be expected to take up arms, he left through the back.

As he walked across the yard he rst noticed the fawn and white stallion that stood alert and pawing at the dirt with its front hoofs. Its coat was shining in the sunlight and it looked a splendid animal, but it was only about two thirds the size of the horses used by the Romans. It was surrounded by about twenty horse riders who looked more like a raiding party than traders. As he moved closer to investigate he noticed the Shepherds who appeared to be drunk, embracing each other, laughing and cheering. As he moved through them he was confronted by a very tall person with white hair who spoke to him in a strange language that he was able to understand. ”He is born” he said and then continued to walk on by.

He looked towards a cave that had been cut out of the surrounding stone and was usually used to house livestock. Nearby the entrance stood a highly decorated carriage which was pulled by six oxen, around it stood both male and female servants, the men standing to the front appeared to be bodyguards although they were not armed.

A little drummer boy was marching up and down beating a tattoo on his drum. e boy wore the colours of Herod’s third Battalion and the tattoo he played was “go forward in triumph”

While following his march his eyes came to rest on a group of men, each had their heads shaved and they all wore an orange robe. ey all stood motionless heads bowed.

At this stage he had moved enough to be able to see inside the cave. A family was gathered in the back right hand corner. A father, mother and new born infant. He rst noticed the child’s face, how radiant it was, it was then he knew. e mother was beautiful, the father held his cloak over his family protectively, eyes darting from person to person as if expecting danger from every angle.

Again a white haired person spoke “He is born glory to God the most high”. It was as he turned to see who spoke that he saw the olive green coloured skin of a reptile looking being, which partly hid their identity under a purple coloured hooded cloak. His skin crawled. Seven of the white haired people appeared to be shielding and steering it away from the cave. He knew he had an amazing story to tell and tell it he would.

But now as he sat at his table among the other scribes he could not write. He could not form words to tell his story. e story was clear in his head from beginning to end, but the end had not happened yet and would not for many years but he knew it so well. He could not, must not write of it now. He must monitor and observe this story as it happens and he must be there at the end to record it. en he would be able to write. He would nd the sentence to begin. To start he must wait for the Word.