Investment advice from my old quiz bowl teammate

Back in high school, Dave Kansas was a teammate of mine on our state-champion quiz bowl team. We also shared starting duties at point guard on our high school basketball team, which explains why we were not state champions in basketball.

Anyway, Dave Kansas has done pretty well for himself. He was a journalist at the Wall Street Journal before becoming one of the big shots at thestreet.com, making (and I fear eventually losing back) millions in the internet boom. Now, he is back at the Wall Street Journal, where he is in charge of the money and investing section.

He recently wrote a book on investing that is garnering some excellent reviews entitled “The Wall Street Journal Complete Money and Investing Guidebook.”

Kirkus Reviews, for instance, writes the following about his book:

Most people have heard of the New York Stock Exchange, but the inner workings of the stock market are often a mystery. In a slim 200 pages, Kansas provides all you need to know about money and investing. He covers stocks and bonds, mutual funds, retirement investing, real estate investing and more, tying it up at the end with simple yet insightful conclusions. He also discusses the relationship between personal investment and general economic areas of interest-the business cycle, unemployment rates, gross domestic product, federal reserve, etc.-all with a layperson’s voice that will appeal to even the most numbers-averse. Augmented with charts and graphs (we are talking investing here, after all), as well as an extensive glossary, Kansas’ guide will help anyone navigate the often-confusing terrain of money and investing. Rule number one: Invest $14.95 in this book.

As I write this, the book is one of the top 40 bestsellers at Amazon. Not bad for two old high school buddies to both have books in the top 40.