James Kirby - Investing For Dummies

Investing For Dummies

by James Kirby

and Barbara Drury

Wiley Publishing Australia Pty Ltd

Investing For Dummies

Second Australian Edition published by Wiley Publishing Australia Pty Ltd 42 McDougall Street Milton, Qld 4064 www.dummies.com

Copyright 2009 Wiley Publishing Australia Pty Ltd

The moral rights of the authors have been asserted.

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

Author:Kirby, James.

Title:Investing For Dummies/James Kirby and Barbara Drury.

Edition:2nd Australian ed.

ISBN:978 1 7421 6851 7 (pbk.)

Subjects:Investments.

Other Authors:Drury, Barbara.

Dewey Number:332.632

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About the Authors

James Kirby has held senior positions on the Australian Financial Review , the Australian, Business and Finance in Dublin and the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. A veteran of reporting on and analysing Australian corporations, he wrote for Business Review Weekly before co-founding Eureka Report . He has written several business books, including biographies of Janine Allis, Gerry Harvey and Richard Pratt, and was a contributor to Investing for Australians All-in-One For Dummies . James is also a columnist on the Sunday Age .

Barbara Drury is a personal finance and business writer for publications in Australia and overseas. She is a regular contributor to the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age , and writes for a number of financial newsletters and corporate publications. She is the author of Personal Finance For Dummies and Sorting Out Your Finances For Dummies , Australian Edition, a contributor to Investing for Australians All-in-One For Dummies and co-author of The Fairfax Experience: What the Management Texts Didnt Teach Me with Fred Hilmer, also published by Wiley. Barbara began her career in journalism more than 20 years ago as a staff writer for publications including the Australian Financial Review , the Australian and the Sun newspaper in Sydney. These days Barbara works from her home office on the New South Wales north coast. When shes not writing, she can be spotted on the sidelines at junior soccer or being dragged along the beach by a hyperactive labrador.

Dedication from the First Edition

To Adam Ryan. Since I came to Australia, Adam has always offered excellent advice. Many people can hold forth on the investment markets but few can communicate lifes investing lessons so effectively.

Authors Acknowledgements

From James, for the first edition: Thanks first to Jane Ogilvie, publisher at Wiley Publishing Australia. The best publisher is someone who can see exactly where a writer is coming from and yet remain a publisher first and foremost hats off to you, Jane. Nicole McKenzie, project editor, for her fine work putting this large book together with an unfailing sense of humour. Thanks also Nicole for volunteering to do work that could easily have fallen back to me without your efficiency. Robi van Nooten (calm and collected at all times), thanks for your careful editing.

At Fairfax Business Publications, I want to thank my editor at BRW , Neil Shoebridge, who conceded to my working part-time at the magazine while writing this book. Thanks also to Robin Bowerman and Mike Dobbie at Personal Investor , and Tony Featherstone at Shares for advice and permission to use various facilities at their magazines. Throughout the book I warn that the investment world yields nothing for free. Yet, a string of people helped me with this book several reading entire chapters in draft form without asking for anything in return. Thanks a million to Adam Ryan and Marc Cini at Adamco for their observations (always delivered with zeal!) on the property market. Scott Walters at HSBC for his advice on the changing nature of the stock market, Brendan Donahue at Bank of Ireland Asset Management for his advice on everything from bonds to superannuation, Neil Crawford at Heffernan Crawford for his advice on the realities of investing in managed funds and Roger McIlroy at Christies for his advice on the art market. Also, Gervase Green at the ASX, Simon Morgan and Doug Sumner at Norwich Union, Tony Kaye at Standard & Poors, Prabhu Sivabalan and Zoltan Matolcsy at University of Technology, Sydney, and everyone else who helped in any way.

In writing any book you need encouragement from others who have been through the process. So, once again, I wish to thank my fellow non-fiction writers Gideon Haigh and Adrian Tame for saying the right things at the right times.

Finally, I want to thank my partner Mary OBrien for her help and patience throughout the year I put this book together.

From Barbara, for the second edition: Many thanks to James Kirby, author of the first edition of Investing For Dummies , for entrusting the second edition of his book to me. The investment landscape has changed enormously in the seven years since the first edition was published, and James work has stood the test of time.

This is my fourth major project for Wiley, so thanks also to acquisitions editor Charlotte Duff for her continued faith in me, and to project editor Kerry Davies for her unfailing attention to detail. On a book as broad in scope and as detailed as this one, it is often difficult to tell where the authors work ends and the editors begins.