April 21 (Bloomberg) -- Jim Rogers has three hot tips for investors: “Question everything, never follow the crowd, and beware of boys!”
Rogers is the bow-tied “adventure capitalist” who co- founded Quantum Fund with George Soros. He made enough money to retire at 37, then toured the globe on a motorcycle.
Now 66, Rogers is exploring the uncharted territory of fatherhood for the first time. In “A Gift to My Children,” he distills the lessons of his investing life into an open letter to his daughters Happy (born in 2003) and Baby Bee (who joined the family last year). The result is a zippy if uneven booklet of fatherly advice from a man who long scoffed at parenthood.
The oldest of five boys, Rogers spent a lot of time looking after his siblings and saw what a burden it was, he says. He only changed his mind about kids, it seems, after meeting a Southern belle named Paige Parker and taking her on another jaunt around the globe, this time in a four-wheel-drive Mercedes-Benz.
Funny how a young bride can change a guy.
Rogers’s helpful hints on how to lead a rich life -- in both senses of the adjective -- run from the predictable (be true to yourself) to the passionate (go see the world!) to the downright goofy (use the toilet before setting out on a long drive). The diaper set does make you focus on human plumbing.
Underpinning these sometimes corny pointers is the straight talk of a man who grew up in rural Alabama, made his first money collecting empty soda bottles at a local baseball field and emerged from Yale and Oxford with his folksy demeanor intact.
Snakes and Diamonds
Unlike Rogers’s previous books, this volume doesn’t dwell on his travel exploits or specific investing advice, though he throws in snatches of both. He recalls trips through war zones in Angola and Sudan, the time he was served snake for dinner (butchered before his eyes, yuck), and the day he bought a diamond from smugglers in Namibia. They said it was worth $70,000; he haggled the price down to $500. The gem turned out to be a glass bead. So much for all the years he has advised people “to invest only in what they know,” he says.
Much of Rogers’s advice will be familiar to anyone who wants to get ahead. Be a self-starter, think for yourself and pursue something you’re passionate about. Do your own research and pay attention to details, however trivial they seem.
This sounds easy, but isn’t. His idea of due diligence involves reading every financial statement a company publishes, including the notes. Next step: Verify the statements.
“Talk to customers, suppliers, competitors and anyone else who might affect the company,” he says.
‘Cold Beer’
His plans for his daughters are so ambitious that I’m not sure whether to envy or pity them. They should learn philosophy, history and languages -- yet temper this education with travel aimed at seeing how different people live. Rogers has already started their education by moving his family to Singapore, where a Chinese governess talks to the girls in Mandarin. (About the only Chinese he knows is “cold beer,” he jokes.)
Travel guides your investments, he says: His time in Russia, for example, has convinced him that an investor can profit there “only if he’s in cahoots with the criminal element.” This is one reason he’s so bullish on commodities.
“There is simply no way that we can expect an increased supply of raw materials from there anytime soon,” he writes.
Much of his advice will resonate with parents. His daughters shouldn’t get married until they are at least 28 and should avoid having drinks -- let alone dinner -- alone with the boss. They should also heed this sound principle for dealing with boys: “They need you more than you need them.”
As a father, I couldn’t agree more.
“A Gift to My Children: A Father’s Lessons for Life and Investing” is from Random House in the U.S. (85 pages, $16) and from Wiley in Europe (112 pages, 11.99 pounds, 14.40 euros).
(James Pressley writes for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)
