The Rules for Growing Rich : Making Money in the New Information Economy

Today's new information economy has generated unprecedented opportunities for investors. But taking advantage of them requires discipline and a knowledge of econimic trends. There will be recessions and bear markets. There will be recovery periods from recessions. And there will be future bull markets. How does one make sense of these changing economic conditions and make the right investment decisions? Dr. David Lereah shows how the experts do it, and how you can, too.

With the advent of the Internet, ordinary investors now have access to the kind of information traditionally available only to investing professionals. Dr. Lereah levels the playing field by providing investors with the analytical tools they need to really take advantage of that raw information. This accessible format makes the ideas easy to understand and provides bite-sized, practical steps to take based on which way the market is going. Dr. Lereah's practical guide helps investors navigate the peaks and valleys by using the Internet to easily monitor a wide range of economic and investment data -- from inflation and interest rates to price/earnings ratios-- and then managing your portfolio accordingly.

In part one of The Rules for Growing Rich, Dr. Lereah shows how to be a smart consumer of economic and financial information, including:
-- How to identify business cycles
-- The eight most influential economic reports that you should monitor on a regular basis
-- How the Federal Reserve, market psychology, changing demographics, and other factors influence the investing climate

Then Dr. Lereah shows how to put all of this information together in 168 rules for maximizing your portfolio.
-- 63 rules for investing in stocks
-- 37 rules for investing in bonds
-- 23 rules for investing in real estate
-- 10 rules for investing in options and futures
-- 17 rules for international investing
-- 18 rules for retirement investing

With these rules, investors gain a much clearer understanding of the financial markets and can make profitable investments by more accurately anticipating whether the economy is headed for recession, recovery, or expansion. This is not a book for those who want to make a killing in a day but for those who want to develop a serious, ongoing investment strategy using the clues available about the direction the economy will take in the future.

David A. Lereah was recently named senior vice president and chief economist of the National Association of Realtors.  The NAR is America's largest professional association, representing more than 750,000 members involved in all aspects of the real estate industry.  

From 1992 to 2000, he was a senior staff vice president and chief economist of the Mortgage Bankers Association of America. He also served as president of an MBAA subsidiary, Lender Technologies Inc, which specializes in information solutions for the mortgage lending industry.  Before joining MBAA, he spent several years as a bank regulator and as a financial economist for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Lereah received his B.A. in Economics from American University and his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Virginia.  He has taught at the University of Virginia and at the Graduate School of Management at Rutgers University, where he specialized in banking issues, market information problems and financial market research.  He has also testified before Congress as an expert witness on economic and mortgage lending issues. He lives with his wife and their three children in Fairfax Station, Virginia.