A Gift to My Children: A Father's Lessons for Life and Investing [Hardcover]

Jim Rogers (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Legendary investor Rogers cofounded the Quantum Fund with George Soros in 1970, retired at the age of 37 in 1980, and spent a number of years traveling through China and six continents by motorcycle. He recently fathered two daughters in his sixties and wrote this small memoir to share with them some of the insights that he has garnered from his experiences. He advises to make your own decisions in life rather than listening to others, to figure out what you love to do and focus on that rather than what is expected of you, and to have a dream and to live your dream. In the area of finances, he says to save and invest early on rather than spending frivolously, so that you will be able to afford the important things in life later, and to do your own research, draw your own conclusions, and look to the future—not the past—for great ideas. These and other nuggets of wisdom from this self-made man are worth reading several times over. --David Siegfried

Review

Praise for A GIFT TO MY CHILDREN
Hey Jim!
What a lovely, lovely book! (A Gift to My Children). Though I've read all you've written, this one really touched me. It is, of course, a love letter to your daughters, which is not only a wonderful, meaningful thing to do, but it was filled with exactly the kind of advice all fathers should give. Your new book will stay on my shelf for a long, long time, and I'll be giving it to my own kids to read. --Nicholas Sparks: Author of The Notebook, Dear John, and The Last Song

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Random House; First Edition edition (April 28, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400067545
• ISBN-13: 978-1400067541
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #34,708 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not an investment book, but good advices to fathers and their children, May 28, 2009

By	X. Li - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: A Gift to My Children: A Father's Lessons for Life and Investing (Hardcover)

I have never read any of Jim Rogers prior books, but I am pleasantly surprised to find this little book insightful and enjoyable to read. He provided his answers to questions such as how to best prepare our children for the future. As a father of a five year old daughter, I fully appreciate a book just like this.

Each chapter is a lesson on a major quality of character or "virtue"; and each chapter is about several pages long. Each lesson is elaborated and explained with real events in Jim Rogers' life - his childhood in rural AL and his investment decisions.

This book is definitely NOT an investment book, but I am more than happy to learn about personal stories of this legendary investor, particularly about his thought process, mindset, and insights about being a father and investor.

Obviously he writes with his unique set of values and ideas about where to live (don't live in a country involved in any kind of war), what to become (a world citizen), and what to learn (philosophy and history), but in this little book I have found gems of wisdom common to a few very successful people I personally know. They universally credit their success to: 1)think on your own, 2) hard work and never quit, 3) read as much as you can, 4) always prepare for the worst, 5) save and don't carry debt, and 6) start your child early.

If you write a book for your child, what would you include and exclude? Under this premise I think Jim Rogers has done an excellent job so I rate this book with five stars.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another good Jim Rogers book, June 5, 2009

By	Yunsum S. Yu (Huntington Beach, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Gift to My Children: A Father's Lessons for Life and Investing (Hardcover)

I've read all of Jim Rogers' books. All his books are well-written, entertaining, and easy to read. This one is no exception. It is filled with simple, good-ol-fashion advice for both adults and children. However, some of the examples Rogers uses to explain his idea may be hard for children to grasp, e.g. shorting stocks! Unless you plan to educate your kids about finance and economics early on, this book may be more appropriate for college-bound age teenagers or older.

23 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "Run Of The Mill" motivational book!, April 30, 2009

By	T. Chandrasekhar "gentlemans25" (Pembroke pines, Florida United States) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: A Gift to My Children: A Father's Lessons for Life and Investing (Hardcover)

I had preordered the book after the impressive book "Hot Commodities: How Anyone Can Invest Profitably in the World's Best Market" ( one of the books in perpetual classics list in my listmania) and Jim Rogers TV interviews.The book does a decent job of giving "Commonsense" advise and a lot of motivation addressed to the readers (disguised as addressed to his daughters). However we have to remember that Jim Rogers is an ordinary father who happens to be the "Warren Buffett" of Commodities. That's it.Everyone who buys the book is looking to tap into the genius in him and possibly get rich trading.Pure and simple!

The first line of the book starts like this " There are going to be moments in life when you must make very important decisions. You will find many people ready to offer you...." and goes on explaining the importance of Relying on your own intelligence .Unfortunately for most common mortals like me who is squeezed between driving to office and dropping kids at school and watching prime time reality shows, it is nothing more than a hunch or instinct or a radio news that often leads to loss making trades.If you can sterotype an investing genius as someone who is passionate, who reads a lot, who analysis financial numbers, travels to the factories, production zones, understands macro economic,political structure first hand. then this book has all the meat to solidify stereotypes.

Without revealing the plot(!) of the book,I am going to point the subtitles in first chapter,that would give ample evidence to other readers as to what you can expect from the book.

CHAPTER 1:
Swim Your own Races.
Subtitles in Chapter1:
1.Rely on your own intelligence
2.If anybody laughs at your idea, view it as a potential success
3. Be Original,be bold
4. Be ethical
5. Save.

Each has a page or few paragraphs of explanation. A good motivational/instructional book should generally have powerful examples and this book fails terribly in that regard. It is plain instructions page in and page out with bland examples of boring references to Apple, GM etc. The example that stands out are those where he gives his life as examples ( when he invested in IBM stock, when he traveled to China, why he avoided investing in Algeria because of blackmarket currency controls).

For a common man, in general has two modes of investing. Either they "buy and hold" (401k) or trade. There are plenty of better books out there for either modes of investing . Some of them are

Charles Schwab's New Guide to Financial Independence Completely Revised and Updated : Practical Solutions for Busy People
One up on Wall Street: How to Use What You Already Know To Make Money in the Market, Miniature Edition
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator (Wiley Investment Classics)

Towards the end of the book, the advice on "Following your dreams" are downright insanity and borders on stupidity. He proudly claims driving in his motorcycle around the world chasing his dreams while he knew all along that his father will not be alive when he returns back. He also advises his daughters to do the same, ignore your "everyone" in pursuit of your dreams.

Well, what is wrong with that?. Had he mentioned that " I was young and bubbling with energy that my ambitions were more important than my father who gave everything for me. Looking back, I would advice that living a "fulfilled" life is more important than being "Successfull", that would have been a good dad's advice

A good "Dad or Mom" is an epitome of lot of internal and external compromises.He compromises his career, his hobbies, his desire ,puts up with nasty work environment, even occassionally swallows his pride in office place so that his family and kids have a good and prosperous future. It is lot easier to pursue your dreams , enjoying 18 hour work than playing with your kids and nurturing your family.Well, if you want to be a good dad,then read "The Road Less Travelled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth" ( Another perpetual classic in my listmania)


This book is a "run of the mill" stuff! Still I rate it as 3 stars since the readers are hopefully mature enough to seperate the grain from chaff (ex :save,learn chinese).