Andrew Hallam 
Millionaire Teacher 
The Nine Rules of Wealth You Should Have Learned in School

The incredible story of how a schoolteacher built a million-dollar portfolio, and how you can too

Most people wouldn’t expect a schoolteacher to amass a million-dollar investment account. But Andrew Hallam did so, long before the typical retirement age. And now, with Millionaire Teacher, he wants to show you how to follow in his footsteps. With lively humor and the simple clarity you’d expect from a gifted educator, Hallam demonstrates how average people can build wealth in the stock market by shunning the investment products peddled by most financial advisors and avoiding the get-rich-quicker products concocted by an ever widening, self-serving industry.

Using low cost index funds, coupled with a philosophy in line with the one that made Warren Buffett a multi-billionaire, Hallam guides readers to understand how the stock and bond markets really work, arming you with a psychological advantage for when markets fall.
* Shows why young investors should hope for stock market crashes if they want to get rich
* Explains how you can spend just 60 minutes a year on your investments, never open a financial paper, avoid investment news, and still leave most professional investors in the dust
* Promotes a unique new investment methodology that combines low cost index funds and a Warren Buffett-esque investment philosophy

Millionaire Teacher explains how any middle-income individual can learn can learn the ABCs of personal finance and become a multi-millionaire, from a schoolteacher who has been there and done that.

Table of Content

Acknowledgments xiii

Foreword xv

Introduction xix

RULE 1 Spend Like You Want to Grow Rich 1

The Hippocratic Rule of Wealth 2

Can You See the Road When You’re Driving? 6

One of the Savviest Guys I Ever Met–And His View on Buying Cars 8

Careful Home Purchases 11

Millionaire Handouts 13

How Did I Become a Millionaire? 14

Looking to the Future 17

RULE 2 Use the Greatest Investment Ally You Have 19

Compound Interest–The World’s Most Powerful Financial Concept 21

The Bohemian Millionaire–The Best of Historical-Based Fiction 23

Gifting Money to Yourself 26

When You Defi nitely Shouldn’t Invest 28

How and Why Stocks Rise in Value 28

RULE 3 Small Percentages Pack Big Punches 33

With Training, the Average Fifth Grader Can Take on Wall Street34

Financial Experts Backing the Irrefutable 35

What Causes Experts to Shake Their Heads 38

When the Best Funds Turn Malignant 41

Reality Check 46

Who’s Arguing against Indexes? 55

RULE 4 Conquer the Enemy in the Mirror 61

When a 10 Percent Gain Isn’t a 10 Percent Gain 61

It’s Not Timing the Market that Matters; It’s Timein the Market 64

On Stocks . . . What You Really Should Have Learned in School67

Internet Madness and the Damage It Caused 72

Taking Advantage of Fear and Greed 75

Opportunities after Chaos 78

RULE 5 Build Mountains of Money with a Responsible Portfolio85

What Are Bonds? 86

Profi ting from Panic– Stock Market Crash 2008-200990

Having a Foreign Affair 92

Introducing the Couch Potato Portfolio 94

Combinations of Stocks and Bonds Can Have Powerful Returns97

RULE 6 Sample a ‘Round-the-World’ Ticket to Indexing 101

Indexing in the United States–An American Father of Triplets 101

Indexing In Canada– A Landscaper Wins by Pruning Costs108

Indexing in Singapore– A Couple Builds a Tiger’s Portfolio in the Lion City 114

Indexing in Australia– Winning with an American Weapon119

The Next Step 121

RULE 7 Peek Inside A Pilferer’s Playbook 125

How Will Most Financial Advisers Fight You? 125

The Totem Pole View 132

Is Government Action Required? 134

RULE 8 Avoid Seduction 139

Confession Time 139

Investment Newsletters and Their Track Records 143

High-Yielding Bonds Called ‘Junk’ 147

Fast-Growing Markets Can Make Bad Investments 147

Gold Isn’t an Investment 149

What You Need to Know about Investment Magazines 150

Hedge Funds– The Rich Stealing from the Rich 153

RULE 9 The 10% Stock-Picking Solution . . . If You Really Can’t Help Yourself 157

Using Warren Buffett 158

Commit to the Stocks You Buy 159

Stocks with Staying Power 164

Selling Stocks 174

The Nine Rules of Wealth Checklist 179

Index 181

About the author

Andrew Hallam is a high school teacher at an Americaninternational school who built a million dollar investmentportfolio on a teacher’s salary. He has been writing personalfinance articles since 2002, and he has been nominated a finalistfor two National publishing awards. His work has appeared in Money Sense magazine, L’Actualite and Reader’s Digest.

He has also been profiled in The Globe and Mail, for his nine rules of wealth, and in The Wall Street Journal- with a quirky plea to sleep in Warren Buffet’sgarage.

Motivated to protect his friends and colleagues from theconflicts of interest running rampant in the financial serviceindustry, Andrew started delivering investment seminars in 2006, showing how people can easily beat the investment returns providedby the vast number of financial advisors.

Currently, Andrew lives in Singapore with his wife, Pele.Together, they traveling, adventuring outdoors and savoringlife.