Archive for July, 2009
Kicking off the evaluation process is the toughest for us. Question after question kept popping up “Is the property market low enough?”, “Is this property worth considering?”, “Are the numbers the only criteria for investment?” What are we really looking for in real estate investing?? Quick bucks $$ or Regular income…
Bottom-line = Money!!!
Property Agents have tons of recommendations for YOU! How will you know whether they are good investment for you?
There are many factors that need to be considered in evaluating a real estate investment. For example, location, environment/neighborhood, facilities, financing options, rental income, etc. If all above works, it is time calling your agents and set up appointments. Happy Viewings!!!!
Actually it is not difficult and it does not need much of your time to know if a real estate investment is worth investing in the first place. All you need is crunching some numbers with your calculator, and Bingo! You can decide whether the property is worth investing.
Later in this article, we will show you how these numbers work in your prospective real estate investment by two real life cases in Johor Bahru, Malaysia.
Numbering GAME
Numbers, numbers and numbers.. How do you get them?
You may try calling a few property agents, check with banks on properties valuations and of course there is plenty of information on the Internet. Once you have these numbers you can determine if a real estate investment is worth spending your time for a viewing. “Seeing is Believing.” Check out the property to see the actual condition and the environment, whether it is to your liking once you get your numbers RIGHT! Once you get your numbers, you will see:
Incomes
One-time income – selling price
Regular income – rental price
Costs
One-time expenses (startup costs) – down payment, agent’s brokerage, legal fees, stamp duty, furnishing cost, etc.
Regular expenses (monthly costs) – monthly loan repayment, monthly maintenance fee, quit rent, property tax, etc.
See how they (numbers) work..
The basic requirement for a good real estate investment is that the income it generates must be more than its costs.
If the selling price of a real estate investment is more than its purchase price and startup costs, this investment generates capital gain.
If the rental income of a real estate investment is more than its monthly expenses, this investment generates cash flow.
If you are looking for capital gain, the gain or loss depends very much on the real estate market. Hoping to make money from capital gain on real estate is like buying a product and hoping the value of the product will go up with time. On a long term basis, real estate will be appreciating in value because of inflation, but the gain is not guaranteed.
On the other hand, a real estate investment that generates cash flow effectively put money into your pocket every month, while your equity in the real estate investment increases over time. This is the real estate investment that we are looking for – an investment worth investing.
Too good to be true?
With this recession time, you will ask yourself, “Is it the RIGHT time for me to start investing in real estate? Everything is so uncertain NOW.”
In Johor Bahru, you can find plenty of real estate investments worth investing at this juncture. We discovered most of these investments that generate substantial cash flow are mainly apartments or condominiums. You can read from our upcoming article to know why apartments or condominiums are better real estate investments in Johor Bahru. Here are two recent real life cases of real estate investments worth investing in Johor Bahru.
Case 1: We found a condominium in Larkin area of Johor Bahru in Octorber 2008 selling at $160,000 with existing tenant. Monthly rental income is $1400 while monthly maintenance cost is around $300 (maintenance fee plus sinking fund plus quit rent).
If we finance 90% of the purchase price to buy this condominium with interest rate 4.85% with a tenure of 30 years, monthly loan repayment is estimated to be $760. Thus, this condominium is generating a net cash flow of $340 every month, $4080 every year.
Total capital outlay for this investment is $24,000 for down payment including other startup costs like legal fee and brokerage.
Effectively this investment gives us a yearly cash-on-cash return of 18.5%. In other words, within 6 years we would be able to take back our capital $24,000! The best thing is we still own the condominium. It will keep putting money into our pocket every month. We also have the option to sell it away when the market is good.
Case 2: There is a 3-rooms apartment in Tampoi sold at $125,000 in Octorber 2008. Monthly maintenance cost is about $150. If we finance 90% of the purchase price with interest rate 4.85% with a tenure of 30 years, monthly loan repayment is estimated to be $600.
Expected rental income for a fully furnished apartment in the area is about $1200. With furnishing cost of $10,000, total capital required for this investment is around $27,000, while total monthly cost is $750.
The apartment is expected to generate a net cash flow of $450 every month, $5400 every year. Cash-on-cash return on this investment is 20% which we can expect to take back all the capital within 5 years.
Sound interesting right?
Of course, so far we are only talking about numbers. A good real estate investment does not rely on purely numbers. You still have to go and have a look at the building structures, study the location and neighborhood, and perform other checks before you make your decision. What we have discussed, however, can save you time and give you more ideas on the potential returns of a real estate investment before you tell your agent which real estate you want to view in the coming weekend.
Read more about real estate investment tips at http://reijb.com
We write regularly about real estate investment. Some of our featured articles include:
“How to estimate the value of a property?”
“Why apartment can be the best real estate investment?”
“How important is location to an investment real estate?”
“With the continuing explosive growth of e-commerce, small- and medium-sized businesses that are able to reap actionable information from a rich online platform are uniquely positioned to compete in the online marketplace,” says Michael Emaus, President and CEO of eEnterprise (www.eEnterprise.com), a global integrator of NetSuite, the world’s leading on-demand, Web-based business management software. “Today, e-commerce demands sophistication, in terms of the online shopping experience, which products are presented to customers, and how sales are tracked.”
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, e-commerce sales rose to $25.2 billion during the first quarter of 2006, an increase of more than 25 percent over sales during the first quarter of 2005. Adjusted for seasonal variations, the first quarter 2006 growth of e-commerce over fourth quarter 2005 was more than double that of retail sales overall.
“Although online sales currently represent only about three percent of all retail sales, that number is sure to climb,” says Emaus. “It’s crucial that online retailers position themselves to take advantage of this trend. NetSuite business management software integrates a flexible e-commerce platform with the critical, real-time information e-tailers need to make sound decisions.”
With NetSuite, online retailers can easily increase sales by automating up-sell and cross-sell recommendations on the shopping cart page, as well as by allowing customers to purchase and use gift certificates and coupons online. “Because accounting is integrated into NetSuite’s e-commerce solution, a customer can shop with a gift certificate any number of times, until the balance is used,” says Emaus. “An e-tailer can even offer downloads for purchase, using NetSuite’s ability for password protection and license codes.”
Behind the scenes, NetSuite gives a business owner or marketing team real-time, actionable information that they can leverage to increase their exposure to potential customers. “Instead of simply seeing which paid keyword campaigns are driving traffic to the site, an online retailer can see which campaigns are generating the most sales revenue, and make adjustments as necessary,” says Emaus.
The same holds true for inventory management, since NetSuite allows just-in-time restocking by dynamically calculating reorders based on seasonal demand or historical sales data. “Successful e-tailers don’t have inventory sitting around, nor are they caught with an item out of stock,” says Emaus.
He continues, “NetSuite removes the limits imposed by a traditional Web architecture and provides the online retailer with a marketing powerhouse. Small- and medium-sized businesses simply don’t have the resources to support the in-house staff necessary to design and maintain the e-commerce solution that NetSuite provides. Best of all, NetSuite is a Web-based application that can ‘turn on’ fully supported global resources in about five minutes.”
With the growth of online sales clearly outpacing traditional retail sales, NetSuite helps small- and medium-sized businesses level the playing field.
For businesses to survive in today’s competitive global market, business managers must be properly trained and fully aware of all the latest trends of the business industry. They have to learn how to adjust their operations to meet the ever-encroaching pressure of globalization that exposes them to competition from all over the world. As a result, they must stream line, source cheaper supplies and ramp up their marketing in order to keep the bottom line out of the red.
There are many sources from which business managers can gain their skills, but the easiest and most flexible method is through the pursuit of an online degree in business management.
Background of Online Degree in Business Management
The online degree in business management targets those individuals who want to enjoy the best of both worlds during their tertiary education. Students are afforded the opportunity to study from locations convenient to them and still achieve a high level, accredited business management degree. Online business management degree courses are divided into several modules, each accompanied by its associated examination that steadily guides students through the course. The length of you course will depend on the level at which you are studying and whether you opt for an accelerated of regular schedule program. Students have access to their universities large online resources where they can research material make new contacts and communicate with their professors.
Types of Online Business Management Degrees
Business management degrees are available at all levels of study. Students can study at the associate, bachelor, master and PhD level. The training afforded through these online business management degree programs are first class and are accredited by most government educational bodies. Courses are also designed with the assistance of leading industry professionals who ensure that the courses remain relevant and applicable to today’s trends.
At the associate and bachelors level, students are given introductory courses into the science of business management. When they move up to the master and PhD levelsin business management, the online degree in business management switches its focus to research and development of the business sector.
Course Outline of Online Business Management Degree
The online degree in business management focuses on creating successful managers who will display the right attitude and ethics during the operation of their businesses. To achieve these skills, online business management degree students undergo studies in subject areas such as:
* Introduction to business principles
* Principles of management
* Business communication
* Bookkeeping
* Human resource management
* Management of teams
* Mediation
What can I do with an Online Degree in Business Management?
Graduates of online business management degree programs are in high demand. This is due to the involvement of major industry players in the design of these online business management programs. As a result, they are fully aware of the capabilities of these graduates and the contribution they can make to their organization. Graduates of Online Business Management Degree are employed as business consultants, business managers, analyst and executives. Some graduates also go on to start their own companies.
Socially Responsible Investing for Idiots
Sí, Money! (http://simoney.us)
By Michael Grodsky
If I have to be an idiot, at the least I’m a green idiot. I believe in clean air, corporate responsibility, community activism, licorice, pizza and Thai food. And healthy living, freedom, and of course freedom raisins.
Shiny happy raisins
I love trees, sky, and ah, the OXYGEN! But I’m worried about the dismal state of health care, education funding, the ozone hole, the Medicare donut hole, and your little dog too! Did you know the North Pole is melting? That really scares me. Plus I need to cut down on my Chunky Monkey intake.
In everything I do, in every move I make, it seems that I’m part of the worldwide web of production and consumption. So I pertly place my recyclables in the blue bin, our family uses reusable grocery bags, and I vote. What more can a light-switch thumping, gasoline-pumping 21st century fox do?
C’mon, baby, light my SRI fire…
It was only a couple of years ago a friend remarked to me that real estate was the only investment that made any sense, as if his seat on the Ferris Wheel of investments, propelled by an invincible source, would forever be going up, up, UP! Instead, what happened was “up, up and away.”
The first Ferris wheel, from 1893 World Columbian Exposition in Chicago
The desire for a sure thing is hard to resist. Albert Einstein, succumbing to pressure to support the idea of a static universe, in his 1917 paper added an adjustment number called the “cosmological constant” to his equation for general relativity. In 1931 he publicly renounced this static cosmology and endorsed the Big Bang expanding universe model, ditching the cosmological constant and returning to his original equation. He later called his bowing to peer pressure the greatest blunder of his entire life. You can read about the adventure in author Simon Singh’s “Big Bang – The Origin of the Universe.”
Many philanthropic foundations have long drawn a wall between their socially conscious mission statements that drive grant making, and the investment holdings of their endowment. There is a truism that investing for social benefit results in lower returns. But just as scientific peer consensus eventually embraced the Big Bang theory, so has the thinking of philanthropic foundations changed. The reasons are twofold: A recognition that corporate responsibility and societal concerns are valid parts of investment decisions, (1) and a growing number of academic studies have demonstrated that socially responsible investment (SRI) mutual funds perform competitively with non-SRI funds over time. (2)
For example, according to University of Maastricht and Erasmus University Rotterdam economists in their prize-winning paper, “we find little evidence of significant differences in risk-adjusted returns between ethical and conventional funds for the 1990-2001 period.” (3)
Foundation investment choices seem to be increasingly guided by effect upon society as a whole, not just financial gain, according to a recent Los Angeles Times article. (4) Fresh thinking in the nation’s largest foundations may be driving the impetus ever faster: The $8.5-billion William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (Menlo Park), the $6.1-billion John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (Chicago), the $7.8-billion W.K. Kellogg Foundation (Battle Creek, Michigan) all have made recent changes to improve the social effect of their investments. (5)
SRI assets are also growing faster than assets as a whole: according to the non-profit Social Investment Forum’s 2005 biennial report, SRI assets rose more than 258 percent from $639 billion in 1995 to $2.29 trillion in 2005. Over those ten years, SRI assets grew four percent faster than the entire universe of managed assets in the United States. (6)
Some have already been on the SRI track: the nation’s second largest foundation, the Ford Foundation, along with others such as the F.B. Herron Foundation, the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation and the Nathan Cumings Foundation, have for a long time aligned their charitable and investment practices.
What is Socially Responsible Investing?
Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) is a broad-based approach to investing that now encompasses an estimated $2.3 trillion out of $24 trillion in the U.S. investment marketplace today. (7) The release of the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment–subscribed to by some of the world’s largest institutional investors, asset managers, and related organizations representing over $9 trillion in assets as of mid- 2007–underscores the widespread acceptance of the principle that investors cannot, in the long run, achieve their goals by investing in corporations that externalize their costs onto society. (8)
How do I research SRI funds?
A good place to start is the Social Investment Forum (http://www.socialinvest.org). Look at the resource list at the end of this article too.
How do I start investing?
If you participate in an employer-sponsored retirement plan, there may be SRI funds already available to you. If you manage your own IRA or other plan, look into what’s available. But don’t just go adding a fund without considering the entire makeup of your portfolio.
The key to earning decent long-term returns and limiting overall risk is to have a proper asset allocation, meaning you don’t have all your eggs in one basket. For do-it-yourself-ers, check out the government’s website about asset allocation (http://tinyurl.com/2825hw), or purchase “All About Asset Allocation” by Richard A. Ferri ($13.57 at Amazon), a great introduction to the topic. Your personal financial advisor or company where you have your investment or retirement accounts can help.
How do I know which funds will produce the highest returns?
You don’t, you can’t, and you won’t, so just forget about it because past performance doesn’t predict future results. The day-to-day ups and downs of the market receive the media attention, but the daily, quarterly, or even yearly returns are largely irrelevant in constructing an individual’s portfolio whose objectives are long-range. What you want to look for are funds that perform well over the long run within their particular sector, as compared to the appropriate benchmark indices. Various areas of the economy are always moving up and down and sideways, and so far no one has ever been able to know ahead of time what the pattern will be. Asset allocation, I’ll say again, may be the key to long-term success in building a financially secure future. Not panicking helps too!
What makes an SRI fund different?
If a prospective company is a fit according to a fund’s stated objectives, research is performed to determine whether or not it’s a good idea to buy stock at the current offering price. It boils down to the question “Within the guidelines of the stated objectives of the fund, will this purchase help to achieve the highest possible return for the fund’s shareholders?”
The three core socially responsible investing strategies are screening, shareholder advocacy, and community investing. Screening means a fund will include or exclude companies based upon criteria such as alcohol, tobacco, animal testing, and human rights, among others. These screens can be positive (e.g., including companies that treat employees well) or negative (e.g., excluding companies who do business with disturbed musicians).
Keep in mind that, as with all mutual funds, SRI funds have no guarantees of future return.
In any case, you’d better take this lad’s offering of raisins!
If you use electricity, drive a car, and participate in many other activities of daily living, in a very true sense you are already investing in the companies that allow and encourage your consumption. In other words, you are part of the “market” whether or not you actually own stocks or mutual funds. Socially responsible investing can be a way to make your dollars work toward something in which you believe, and support those companies you believe have a vision in line with your own.
Resources and suggested reading
1. “The Mission in the Marketplace: How Responsible Investing Can Strengthen the Fiduciary Oversight of Foundation Endowments and Enhance Philanthropic Missions.” Social Investment Forum Foundation’s resource guide for foundations to manage risk and leverage their investment assets more fully with their core philanthropic purpose, while creating lasting value. http://tinyurl.com/35t49h
2. “10 best” list of companies. Corporate Responsibility Officer magazine rates the citizenship disclosures, policies and performance of large-cap, public companies in the following industries: Auto & Vehicles, Paper, Technology Hardware, Technology Software, Transport, and Travel & Lodging industries, Chemical, Energy, Financial, Media and Utilities industries. http://www.thecro.com/node/580
3. Social Science Research Network. http://www.ssrn.com/
4. United Nations’ “The Principles for Responsible Investment.” An investor initiative in partnership with UNEP Finance Initiative and the UN Global Compact. http://www.unpri.org/
5. The Social Investment Forum; national membership association dedicated to advancing the concept, practice, and growth of socially and environmentally responsible investing. http://www.socialinvest.org/
6. Social Investment Forum’s 2005 biennial report. http://tinyurl.com/258794
7. Sristudies.org, a resource for quantitative aspects of socially responsible investing. Includes an annotated bibliography of studies of socially responsible investing. A project of the Moskowitz Research Program, which is affiliated with the Center for Responsible Business at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley.
8. Socially Responsible Mutual Fund Charts of Financial Performance. http://www.socialinvest.org/resources/mfpc/
9. SocialFunds.com, an advertising-driven website with information on SRI mutual funds, community investments, corporate research, shareowner actions, and daily social investment news.
10. “Handbook on Responsible Investment Across Asset Classes.” For asset allocation junkies, individuals and institutional investors the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship created this work. http://tinyurl.com/2ffqbu
Footnotes
1. The Maturing of Socially Responsible Investment: A Review of the Developing Link with Corporate Social Responsibility by Russell Sparkes and Christopher J. Cowton. Journal of Business Ethics, Volume 52, Number 1 / June, 2004.
2. SriStudies.org
3. International Evidence on Ethical Mutual Fund Performance and Investment Style, paper by Rob Bauer, Kees Koedijk, Rogér Otten. Limburg Institute of Financial Economics, November 2002. (socialinvest.org/resources/research)
4. Foundations align investments with their charitable goals by Charles Piller, Los Angeles Times, December 29, 2007. Section C, p 1.
5. Ibid.
6. 2005 Report on Socially Responsible Investing Trends in the United States. Social Investment Forum. (www.socialinvest.org)
7. Socially Responsible Investing Facts. Social Investment Forum. www.socialinvest.org
8. PRI Report On Progress 2007. PRI (Principles for Responsible Investment), United Nations. (www.unpri.org)
Image credits
Sun-Maid/George Bush composite image
• First Sun-Maid packaging to feature a likeness of Lorraine Collett as the “Sun-Maid Girl,” 1916. Designer unknown, incorporates painting by Fanny Scafford. Public domain in the United States.
• Photograph of Bush speaking. Brazil, November 6, 2005. Agência Brasil, a public Brazilian news agency, produced photograph. Published under the Creative Commons License Attribution 2.5 Brazil.
Fox/Morrison composite image
• Foxes by Franz Marc, 1913. The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. Public Domain.
• Jim Morrison portrait, 2007, by Amadeu.taradell. Released by author into public domain.
Ferris Wheel/Superman composite image
• The first Ferris wheel from the 1893 World Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The New York Times photo archive. Public Domain.
• Screenshot of 1941 cartoon Superman. Fleischer Studios. This work is in the public domain because it was published in the United States between 1923 and 1963 with a copyright notice, and its copyright was not renewed.
Musician holding Valentine’s Day raisins composite image
• Photo of musician Jeff Hawley, 2007. Manager, Marketing Content Pro Audio and Combo Division, Yamaha Corporation of America. Courtesy of Mr. Hawley.
• Photo, August 3, 2005 by Mazbln. Halberstadt, Klosterkirche St. Burchardi, Ort des John-Cage-Projektes “As slow as possible.” Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.
• Original painting of Lorraine Collett by Fanny Scafford, 1915, later used on Sun-Maid raisin packaging. Public domain in the United States.
This column is meant to provide general information, and should not be construed as providing investment, legal, or tax advice. There is no guarantee as to the accuracy or completeness of the information in this article. There are no guarantees of future return for any fund, nor an endorsement of any investment product. Mutual funds are sold by prospectus only. For complete information on mutual funds including sales charges and expenses, call your financial professional for a prospectus. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing. Links are provided herein as a courtesy, and no guarantees are made as to the accuracy of the content on the referenced websites.
Sí, Money! – Vol. 2, No. 1 February 2008 – http://simoney.us
Business books are published every day, and with thousands of business books out there to choose from, how do you know which books to read? Some authors publish books with the intention of sincerely helping you make more money or get out of debt, but there are hundreds of authors who simply want to make themselves money and do not really care about your financial life.
There are hundreds of books available today that can really change the way you think about money and can help improve your current financial situation. Before you buy another business book, take a minute to think about the following eight guidelines and make sure your book is not simply another get-rich-quick book that will only waste your time.
1. Check the ratings and reviews on Amazon
Amazon is a wonderful tool to help find out how people feel about the book you are interested in reading. Amazon provides a 5 star rating system in ½ star increments, so you can see if the book is highly recommended at around 5 stars out of 5, or not highly recommended at a lower star rating such as 1 star out of five. However, use caution with Amazon. You will want to read several ratings and make sure they seem genuine and legit. Many less-known authors will create fake user names and have their peers do the same to drive up their star ratings. It is a sorry way to make themselves look better and their books seem better than it may actually be. If you see that a book has similarly worded ratings and nothing but 5 star ratings, take a second look before buying the book. Also, look at the author’s other books and see how they are rated. This may help give you a good idea of whether or not the author is actually a decent, respected writer.
2. Research the author’s credentials
Use your favorite search engine and type in the author’s name. Look at his/her website and information such as publisher, any reviews in major newspapers, and whom he/she has written for in the past. If you find that the author is published by a reputable publisher such as Harper Collins, Three Rivers Press, Norton, Random House, or John Wiley and Sons, you probably have a well-known and respectable author. Also, if you can find a New York Times book review or a favorable review from a paper such as the Boston Globe, you can feel safe that the reviewer is reputable and the book will be a good read. Also, if you can find that the author has written for well-known papers or magazines in the past like Sports Illustrated, the New York Times, or other large publication sources, you can feel safe that the author has good credentials and is a talented writer.
3. Ask a friend or advisor what they recommend
Some of the best book recommendations some people will ever receive come from respected mentors and peers. For example, if you are taking business classes at a university or working in a business-related office, ask your professors or co-workers what they have read and recommend. You will find that most people are thrilled to talk about books and their personal favorites. People are always glad to give suggestions about what you should read and the most influential books they have read. Why read about what strangers think online when you can hear a first-person account of a book from someone you trust.
4. Harper Collins Business Essentials
Harper Collins produces a line of books called Business Essentials, which is a collection of business books that are the best of the best. Many colleges and universities use these books as required reading in their undergraduate and MBA classes. In this series you will find books by authors such as Michael Dell, the founders of Hewlett Packard, and Benjamin Graham. The books in this series have sold millions of copies and all of them should be required reading for any serious business person.
5. Look for books by business tycoons
If you go to your local book store and look for books with sound business advice, you will most likely find a large majority of them have get rich quick advice and will simply waste your time while reading them. Many of these authors are self-proclaimed to be rich and do not have any credentials that allow them to give you financial advice. The truth is, most business book authors are simply out to make money. However, there are authors out there that have made their millions and billions of dollars the right way, and want to tell you how they did it for your own benefit. Some people who made their money the right way are Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Michael Dell, etc. These people do not want to take your money; they already have billions of dollars. They hope only to tell you their story and tell you how anyone, including you, can go from rags to riches. You can feel good that your money is well spent on books written by business tycoons and that their advice is from the best of the best in the business world.
6. Avoid “Get Rich Quick” or “Make Millions Now” books
Everyone has heard the saying, “If it seems to good to be true, then it probably is.” The same rule applies to business books. Book stores have shelves lined with books about how you can “get rich quick” or how you can use the author’s five secret steps to becoming a millionaire. The truth is that a majority of these books are totally useless. Authors will tell you that they are self-made millionaires and living the life they always dreamed of, but will never tell you how they made the millions of dollars. Why take advice about your money from someone that you have never heard of? Instead of spending your hard-earned money on worthless books by could-be millionaires, spend your money wisely on books that are proven and written by someone notable.
7. Read the first few pages
If you usually buy your books at your local book store or online at websites such as Corner Office Books or Amazon, be sure to not only read the book reviews but also the first few pages. While reading the first 5 to 10 pages, look for sentences that may cause concern, telling you how to live the life you have always dreamed of and how you can make a million dollars fast. You can usually get a general feel for the validity of the book by taking a few minutes to read a couple of pages.
8. Look for books that have been selling for 50+ years
There are numerous books that have been published for dozens of years. You may even come across books by authors such as Dale Carnegie that are highly recommended and have been published for over 70 years now. If a book has been in publication for so many decades, you can bet it is a great read. You will also find books by authors such as Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffett that are proven and full of great principles and advice. These authors are usually very old or have passed away, but their books have lived on and are time-tested to have good advice and principles valuable to business people today.