Life Hacks for Polymaths

Wisdom, Knowledge, Adventure, hacks for polymaths ... Life

Welcome polymaths !

Ever get the feeling that you seem to don't know what to do with your life because there are just so many things that you want to do ? I know, I've been there, so welcome to the club.

My name is Zigfred Diaz and I am a polymath. After more than 6 years of bloging about almost anything under the sun and having sort of a "blogging identity crisis." I've finally embraced who I am and decided to turn my main blog into some sort of guide for people with so much interest. Feel free to poke around.

Free seminar on Introduction to Financial statements

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If you want to invest in the stock market like Warren Buffett or learn how to do value investing properly, you must learn how to understand a company’s financial statement. You don’t need to have an accounting degree to understand financial statements. All you need is the willingness to learn. Don’t even worry if you are not good in math, besides prominent value investor Peter Lynch once said “Everyone has the brainpower to follow the stock market. If you made it through fifth-grade math, you can do it.” If you want to have a free web directory introductory lecture on financial statements you might want to attend the Street Strategist’s free seminar on Introduction to Financial statements. I’m teaching business law at the Cebu Institute of Technology. Currently we are now tackling the Corporation code. I believe that students can learn more if we apply theory into actual practice that is why I usually relate my discussions on the corporation code to publicly listed companies … [Read more...]

Guerilla Blogger meets the Street Strategist

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In my bid to become a better value investor and to be more equipped in our business, together with one of my managers and one of my staff we attended a two day “Financial literacy-accounting for non-accountants” seminar last July 15 and 16 2009 conducted by the Street Strategist and held at the Holiday Plaza hotel. The Street Strategist is no other than the famous Thads Bentulan perhaps one of the greatest minds of the 21st century. Thads has a degree in engineering and an MBA from the prestigious Asian Institute of Management. He is famous for his “out of the box” thinking on very interesting topics. He currently anchors a radio program every 9 p.m. from Mondays to Friday in station DYAB, ABS-CBN Cebu. The program is called “Side walk 1512” where he talks about business, finance and economics. On Saturdays he hosts a very controversial radio program. (Try listening to it if you want to know what it is all about:-) ). His “hyperwage theory” has caused quite a stir not only in Cebu but … [Read more...]

Follow Warren Buffett’s signal on when to buy stocks-Part 3

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I was about to write a series of articles entitled “Follow Warren Buffett’s signal on when to SELL stocks, when I realized that I still have not finished the third installment of the series on when to buy stocks. I first wrote “Follow Warren Buffett’s signal on WHEN TO BUY stocks-Part 1” last December 17, 2008. It was followed up by “Follow Warren Buffett’s signal on WHEN TO BUY stocks-Part 2” almost 2 months later that is on February 2009. I really thought I have uploaded part 3 of the series, but a search on the posts I wrote revealed that I haven’t uploaded it in my blog. Anyway here is the last part of this 3 part series. To read the previous parts just click on the links above. 3.) Individual calamity – Another good time when to buy stocks is when companies suffer individual calamity. These refer to situations when brilliant companies do something stupid ending up losing money or when something adverse happens to an individual company but nevertheless does not affect its … [Read more...]

Recommended reading materials for the value investor

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This question often pops up more often than any other question I am asked. I’ve been blogging about investing in the stock market more specifically being a value investor for almost 2 years now and I’ve frequently been asked on what are books and reading materials that are recommended for the value investor. Before you read any further take note that this recommendation is most especially useful for those who are interested in investing in the stock market (most especially the Philippine stock market) and those who are interested on being a value investor. It’s a good thing that readers of this blog are asking what they should read. It shows that they are interested in becoming a value investor. When asked how he became so successful in investing, Buffett answered: “We read hundreds and hundreds of annual reports every year.” If Buffett who is already a genius in investing reads  hundreds and hundreds of annual reports every year, we mere mortals should reads thousands if not … [Read more...]

Are you on your way to financial freedom ?

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Today’s post is a quite unique as I will not be discussing the detailed quirks of stock market investments but will be focusing on a broader topic of finance, more specifically personal finance or what personal finance writers call as “financial freedom.” What compelled me to write about this subject is that a reader of this blog sent me this interesting email. Since the message he sent is a bit long, I have only presented parts of the email just to let you understand what his current situation is and how this relates to his questions. Here is his email in relation to his question regarding financial freedom. “ . . . I've been working here in Bahrain for two years now but I must confess that I dont have any idea of what savings and investments are all about. For two years, my financial cash flow is this: all I have to do is to wait for payday then "remit" then whatever is left is to be expended until the preceding payday comes. This was my routine. . . . . . Until I … [Read more...]