Borders may put itself up for sale. This may give rival Barnes and Noble a chance to pick up Borders at firesale pricing.

Borders executives are one year into a plan to turn around the bookseller, revealed on Mar. 20 they were considering selling all or part of the company after being hit hard by the tough retail environment and the difficult credit markets.

Barnes & Noble shares traded 8.1% higher on Mar. 20 to close at 30.27. Borders shares hit a 52-week low below $4 per share at one point on Mar. 20 before ending the day at 5.07, down 29%. That gave Borders a total stock market value of $298 million.

Though some analysts expressed doubts about a Barnes & Noble purchase of Borders — which would need the approval of anti-trust regulators — Barnes & Noble executives told analysts they were open to the idea.

Borders has hired JPMorgan and Merrill Lynch to look into a possible sale.

Barnes & Noble reported earnings of $1.79 per share, vs. $1.83 a year ago as revenue rose 1.7%. The firm raised its quarterly dividend from 15 to 25 cents per share.

The book-selling business is already very competitive, with Internet retailer Amazon.com giving Borders and Barnes and Noble a serious battle.

I prefer Barnes and Noble and Amazon over Borders because Borders stores seem to be in disarray and they seem cluttered almost to the point of being dirty. Borders also is more of a music and video store now istead of a book store.

This is an excellent book that provides you with a no nonsense comprehensive plan to get yourself out of debt and to increase your wealth. You just need to learn how to say NO.

Book	Audio

Here are some of his key points:

1. Debt is bad. Don’t get into it. Buy with cash.
2. Here’s how to payoff debt: Concentrate on the smallest debt first. Pay what you can on it, over the minimum payment. Once the smallest debt is gone, add that former payment to the next outstanding debt payment and so on. (The “debt snowball”) is what he calls it. Psychologically this will help you get your debt paid off. He says don’t concentrate on the interest rate, just the size of the loan.
3. After all debts are gone, set aside 3-6 months of expenses for your emergency fund.
4. After the emergency fund, start investing in mutual funds.

Over the last few days I listened to a classic book called

The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason

These tools have stood the test of time. Babylon may be gone, but their ideas for a sound living remain.

By Ben Stein and Phil Demuth

Automatic Millionaire by David Bach

Book	Audio Book

1. People aren’t taught these principals in school. He is right most people aren’t taught how to handle money in the public schools. The only way I was taught this information was to take accounting classes and by reading lots of personal finance books.

2. He talks about “The Latte Factor”, saving a few dollars or wasting a few dollars will cost you dearly over along period of time. Example: $3.50 a day for a latte would cost you $1260 per year and $12,600 per decade. That is a lot of money to save or to waste.

3. Pay yourself first. Make your savings automatic such as a retirement plan, IRA or 401K. Retirement monies can be put away with tax free dollars which will amplify your retirement over time.

4. He talks about automatic savings for a rainy day. Put away 3 to 6 months of savings for a rainy day emergency. This all depends on your comfort level. The more I have set aside the more I feel comfortable.

5. He recommends that if you are in debt that you set aside one month for an emergency fund, then pay off your high interest debt and then set aside the other 2 to 6 months for your emergency fund.

6. Automate your house payments and add some extra payments periodically to save a bunch of interest over the 15 or 30 years that you have the loan.

7. Pay down your high interest credit cards, check your interest rates, ask for a lower rate, consolidate several cards and shop the competition.

This is a great little book that discusses the merits of Index investing. I really like index investing for it’s diversification, although the market as of late has been pretty volatile as a whole. I know I am supposed to be thinking long term, but the market has been a little rough lately.

In Hardback or in Audio Format, I prefer audio because I like listening to books on my way too and from work.

• Why business reality—dividend yields and earnings growth—is more important than market expectations
• How to overcome the powerful impact of investment costs, taxes, and inflation
• How the magic of compounding returns is overwhelmed by the tyranny of compounding costs
• What expert investors and brilliant academics—from Warren Buffett and Benjamin Graham to Paul Samuelson and Burton Malkiel—have to say about index investing
• And much more

You’ll also find warnings about investment fads and fashions, including the recent stampede into exchange traded funds and the rise of indexing gimmickry. The real formula for investment success is to own the entire market, while significantly minimizing the costs of financial intermediation. That’s what index investing is all about. And that’s what this book is all about.

JOHN C. BOGLE is founder of the Vanguard Group, Inc., and President of its Bogle Financial Markets Research Center. He created Vanguard in 1974 and served as chairman and chief executive officer until 1996 and senior chairman until 2000. In 1999, Fortune magazine named Mr. Bogle as one of the four “Investment Giants” of the twentieth century; in 2004, Time named him one of the world’s 100 most powerful and influential people, and Institutional Investor presented him with its Lifetime Achievement Award.

The name of this site came from a book I read called,

“Retire on Less Than You Think.”

This is the revised edition of the book that will be out on December 26th, 2007.

This is a common sense book about getting ready for retirement from Fred Brock.

Description

Only a few years ago, the question on many Americans’ minds wasn’t ‘how will I retire’ but ‘when.’ Now, with 401(k)s and IRAs at a fraction of their previous value and health-care costs soaring, it’s time for a definitive guide book that walks you through the fundamentals of retirement. With his biweekly ‘Seniority’ column in The New York Times, Fred Brock has earned a reputation for providing frank and pragmatic advice on the changing landscape of retirement. In chapters written exclusively and originally for this book, he offers updated thinking on all the essentials for a smart and secure retirement, including how to – determine new personal finance and investing goals – find untapped asset streams, such as reverse mortgages – deal with the tangle of taxes on pensions, family gifts, and other income – work during retirement – choose a community and housing – maximize your health insurance – assess long-term assisted-living arrangements He offers indispensable tools for analyzing your true costs of retirement, independent of the mutual-fund industry hype and Social Security scares. And a substantial list of national, regional, and online resources as well as worksheets allow you to customize and realize your retirement plan.