INVESTING IS ONE OF THE FEW AREAS IN LIFE WHERE EVEN VERY SMART PEOPLE LET HOPE TRIUMPH OVER EXPERIENCE According to Wall Street Journal investing colum­nist Spencer Jakab, most of us have no idea how much money we’re leaving on the table—or that the average saver doesn’t come anywhere close to earning the “average” returns touted in those glossy brochures. We’re handicapped not only by psychological biases and a fear of missing out, but by an industry with multimillion-dollar marketing budgets and an eye on its own bottom line, not yours. Unless you’re very handy, you probably don’t know how to fix your own car or give a family member a decent haircut. But most Americans are expected to be part-time fund managers. With a steady, livable pension check becoming a rarity, we’ve been entrusted with our own finances and, for the most part, failed miserably. Since leaving his job as a top-rated stock ana­lyst to become an investing columnist, Jakab has watched his readers—and his family, friends, and colleagues—make the same mistakes again and again. He set out to evaluate the typical advice people get, from the clearly risky to the seemingly safe, to figure out where it all goes wrong and how they could do much better. Blending entertaining stories with some sur­prising research, Jakab explains ·How a typical saver could have a retirement nest egg twice as large by being cheap and lazy. ·Why investors who put their savings with a high-performing mutual fund manager end up worse off than if they’d picked one who has struggled. ·The best way to cash in on your hunch that a recession is looming. ·How people who check their brokerage accounts frequently end up falling behind the market. ·Who isn’t nearly as good at investing as the media would have you think. He also explains why you should never trust a World Cup–predicting octopus, why you shouldn’t invest in companies with an X or a Z in their names, and what to do if a time traveler offers you eco­nomic news from the future. Whatever your level of expertise, Heads I Win, Tails I Win can help you vastly improve your odds of investment success.

From 1998 to 2018, people who managed their own investments yielded a paltry 1.9 percent return. Why do so many think they can strike investment gold but wind up with such disappointing results? In Tilting the Odds, Mark Tepper, CFP® and president and CEO of Strategic Wealth Partners, shows you how to avoid the pitfalls common to many do-it-yourself investors. You'll learn the investment edge process, which is rooted in a well-balanced risk-reward profile. Rather than strike it rich or make money fast, the goal of the investment edge process is to create long-term success. By following the investment edge process, you'll increase your ability to control your reactions to the ups and downs of the stock market. Instead of succumbing to the failures that lead to poor investment results, you'll learn to skillfully manage risk. If you're ready to improve the investment decisions that affect your financial life most, Tilting the Odds is your essential guide.

Opines that most people lack the skills and knowledge to invest their money but do it anyway, and unsuccessfully. Explains how to invest wisely and how markets really work. Looks at how to double a retirement fund.

FACT: NOTHING IS COSTLIER OR MORE DIFFICULT THAN GETTING A NEW CUSTOMER. Business owners agree. The referred customer is far superior to the one brought in by cold advertising. Yet most business owners will invest more money to find new customers than getting referrals from current, happy customers. Millionaire maker Dan S. Kennedy and customer retention expert Shaun Buck dare you to stop chasing new customers and keep an iron cage around the ones you already have. Kennedy and Buck present a systematic approach to help you keep, cultivate, and multiply customers so that your entire business grows more valuable and sustainable, and you replace income uncertainty with reliable income through retention and referrals. Learn how to: Apply the #1 best retention strategy (hint: it’s exclusive) Catch customers before they leave you Grow each customer’s value (and have more power in the marketplace) Implement the three-step customer retention formula Use other people’s events to get more referrals Create your own Customer Multiplier System Calculate the math and cost behind customer retention Discover the referral-getting, sales-increasing, battle-tested tactics designed to help you build a thriving business for the long-term.