Most people out there are not like me. They don't thumb through the magazines at the doctor's office hoping against hope to find a copy of Forbes or Fortune. They don't look forward with anticipation for the day that the monthly Money (magazine not check) will arrive in the mail. With that in mind I have put together some thoughts on how most people could read a financial magazine.
The first thing you need to do is to open the magazine to the table of contents. Read through the titles and the one liner for each article or feature and cross out the articles that are of no use to you. If you have never owned a foreign stock and don't plan to own a foreign stock anytime in the near future cross out all articles with the words, foreign, overseas, China, Japan, Emerging Market, and exchange rate. The only time you may actually read an article on foreign investing is when the title is something like "Investing overseas for first timers", otherwise don't touch it.
There are a lot of articles about credit card and other consumer debt. If you pay off your credit cards every month do not waste your time here (unless you want to feel good about yourself). If you don't have kids stay away from any article about saving for children's college. Sure you may have kids in the future, but the tax/finance landscape will change and your time can be much better spent now.
Now after you have eliminated the useless articles start thumbing through the magazine. When you reach an article that may be of interest to you flip to the end to see how long it is. My general rule is that if the article is over 4 pages it has to be something I am very interested in (Warren Buffet for example). Anything that takes more than 4 pages to explain is not worth my time.
After starting into an article don't be afraid to trash it. If the tone of the article turns from what you thought it was and you are getting bored stop reading. On the other hand if the article is intriguing but difficult to understand don't be afraid to read it again or save it for later.
I like to tear up my magazines. I usually don't find more than 2 or 3 articles in an issue that change the way I think, but I will want to return to those 2 or 3 articles at some point in the future so I tear them out of the magazine and throw the rest in the trash. I've found that I can never find what I'm looking for if I save entire magazines, but if I save just the articles that stick out to me I can easily find them (so long as my filing system is in good order).
It's not a cut and dry system but it works for me.
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1 comment:
I like this. Maybe I'll try it again. My problem is that I feel like if I don't read the entire magazine, I'm not getting my money's worth, but when I do try to read the whole thing, it's completely overwhelming. I'll have to try your method, and be guilt free about it.
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