About this item
A hard-hitting look at achieving financial freedom by avoiding excessive borrowing and spendingIf you don't actively resist America's culture of debt, you'll end up precisely where the government, banks, and big business want you to be: indentured servitude. The mistakes people make with their money are basic, and avoidable, and unless you understand what they are, you're probably going to repeat them. What you need is someone who can shed light on the obstacles we face and show you how to avoid getting tripped up by them.Financially Stupid People Are Everywhere shows how society is rigged to take as much of your wealth as possible, and simple ways you can resist. It investigates, explains, and offers advice for all those who have fallen into debt, taken a second mortgage, been trapped by credit cards, or found themselves unable to get ahead.
About the Author
Jason Kelly is the author of "The 3% Signal" (3Sig) , which introduced the technique that pushed dollar-cost averaging aside as the stock market's new best practice. His nine other books include "The Neatest Little Guide to Stock Market Investing," a BusinessWeek best seller now in its fifth edition; and its companion volume, "Stock Market Contest."
Every Sunday morning he sends out The Kelly Letter. It highlights the latest coin-toss forecasts being foisted on the unsuspecting by "z-vals," a shorthand introduced in 3Sig for zero-validity pundits, proven to be wrong half the time but still blathering on a regular basis. The letter also runs the original 3 percent signal plan and two permutations, providing subscribers with a clear (and usually humorous) look at financial markets. Yes, 3Sig is still running circles around the z-vals with just a single quarterly rebalance to its famous signal line, no forecasting required -- or desired.
He graduated from the University of Colorado in 1993 with a BA in English, but not before a professor told him that he would never succeed as an author because he "lacked a basic command of the English language." Luckily, IBM disagreed and hired Jason as a technical writer at its Silicon Valley Laboratory in San Jose, California. Once income from his freelance writing matched his income from IBM, Jason left corporate life to become a full-time freelance writer. About IBM hiring him for the only "real" job he's ever had, Jason wrote in his book "Financially Stupid People," "I keep a special smile for Big Blue because of that break. It was the only company that believed in me. I never knew the meaning of the term 'competing offer.'"
One of Jason's Japanese publishers, Shueisha, brought him to Tokyo on book tour in 1999. He took that opportunity to visit his old high school exchange student friend, and wrote a funny article about the experience. That article remains one of Jason's most widely read. It's still on his site (short link http://v.gd/12years) . Japan went straight to Jason's heart, and he decided to live there. He rented out his home in California and moved to Sano, Japan in 2002 for what he thought was going to be a one-year stay. This many years later, he still lives and works there.
After the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, he started Socks for Japan, a volunteer organization that hand-delivered 160,000 care packages from around the world to survivors. See photos and read reports about the effort at jasonkelly.com/helpjapan.
In addition to writing new books and The Kelly Letter, he's an investor in Red Frog Coffee in Longmont, Colorado, a delightful shop managed by his sister and business partner, Emily. It was voted Longmont's Small Business of the Year in 2014.
His website is at jasonkelly.com.
