Launch Day! Finally.

It’s been a long time coming. In fact, my buddy Nick O’Kelly and I came up with the idea for this book one year ago this week over IHOP pancakes just steps away from the Tijuana border.

Over the years we’ve been asked so many times how we afford to do what we do year-after-year. To me it never seemed so magical—I traded. That’s what I’ve always done, since the day I quit getting my hands dirty working construction jobs in college. Trading and investing aren’t foreign to me, they aren’t a foreign language; yet every time I spoke to someone about how I made a living it felt like I was talking to a wall as their eyes glazed over, they nodded, and said, “Mmm hmm.” It was clear they had no idea what I was saying.

So that’s where this book comes from. Ali and I answer Bumfuzzle e-mail every day from people who dream of dropping out of the rat race—even if for only a few months—to fulfill some yearning they’ve had for as long as they can remember. With this book Nick and I have tried our utmost best to answer how we did it and continue to do it. From making the changes in your life, to recognizing what is holding you back, to the real risks involved, to actually taking charge of your financial life one hundred percent.

This isn’t a get-rich-quick book. It doesn’t make any promises to turn you into a flawless stock picker earning 100% returns yearly. It is meant to guide, and to make the stock market a little less scary place. It’s intention is to get you involved, to help you see opportunities, and to get you to a point that you can act on those opportunities instead of sitting on the sidelines.

Nick and I are both really happy with how it came out. It’s much longer than we ever anticipated, as it was almost impossible for us not to write something and then realize we had to work backwards from there until it reached a point that a total newbie could understand. Or could at least be educated enough that they could search out even more information. And it’s written just like I write, and Nick talks, every day. It’s our voice—not some pompous know-it-all voice—so if you enjoy reading Bumfuzzle I think you’ll enjoy reading this.

We’ve also turned it into an audiobook. And let me tell you, it is awesome. Nick used to be a big shot San Francisco television weatherman (still is on occasion) and he has the best audiobook voice I’ve ever heard. Take a listen and tell me you don’t agree.

Anyway, let me wrap this up. The book is available today for your Kindle, as well as in audio, and will be available in about a week (hopefully just in time for Christmas shipping) in paperback.

Thanks for putting up with us the past month or so. I’ve been neck deep in the book and the website has been pretty slow in updating. Things should get back to normal now. We’re going sailing tomorrow, Ouest has her birthday on Thursday, and we’ve got a trip up to Mazatlan for Christmas with family right around the corner. Back to “normal” life.

Just because it was launch day doesn’t mean it was a day off from what we really do around here though.