The past few months I have been putting a lot of work into gearing up for the “second chapter” of The Coffeehouse Investor. Truth is, it is more like the “second decade” as it will soon be ten years since the book was first published in January of 1999.
What a difference a decade makes. Ten years ago the domestic stock market was red – hot, and everyone seemed to be caught up in the easy money of daytrading.
Looking back though, I guess fate was smiling down on the Coffeehouse, because it wasn’t but a year later when the stock market began its nasty, three year bear market decline, and investors of all sizes started searching out a little common sense with their investing portfolios.
Now, ten years later, the market is languishing again, albeit not to the extent of 2000-2002. Even so, more investors than ever before are searching for a meaningful way to build long term wealth amid the frustrating volatility inherent in common stocks.
I am part owner of the Registered Investment Advisory firm at which I work, Sagemark Wealth Management (www.sagemarkwealth.com), and find it interesting that when the stock market languishes, our phones start ringing, not from our current clients, but from investors across the nation who are in search of a better investment approach toward building wealth (more on this phenomenon in future blogs).
You will notice a fantastic new web site design here at the Coffeehouse, created and produced by Rhaya Shilts. You can see more of her work at www.rhaya.com. I will be updating this blog at least weekly, if not more often. And the big news is that last January, Jeffrey Krames, (www.jeffreykrames.com), the editorial director of Portfolio/Penguin Books invited me to work with him to publish the 3rd edition of The “New” Coffeehouse Investor, with an expected release date of January, 2009.
So for the past six months I have been hard at work writing three additional chapters and updating the original manuscript. At times I felt like I should be writing an entirely new book, there was so much more I wanted to share with the readers. In light of the increasingly difficult investing climate and progressively more challenging task of building long term wealth, I feel a sense of urgency to disseminate the Coffeehouse philosophy to investors across the nation, and am excited with all the things we are putting in to motion to make that happen.
After a long, cold, dreary spring that extended into the early months of summer, the sun is finally shining in the Pacific Northwest. These days the temperatures creep up into the mid – 80’s and the sunshine seems to last forever, so I best get outside today.
Check back next week, because I am going to write a little about an experience I encountered with a stockbroker who is trying to win the investment account of a foundation on which I serve as a board member.