Ben Stein has gotten himself a gig as one of yahoo’s superstars of personal finance. Unlike some of the people yahoo has, I always look forward to reading Ben’s stuff. After much consideration, I have decided to include Ben in our personal finance guru rate and have awarded him the grade of B+.
You frequent readers will note this is better than my grade for Suze Orman or Bob Kiyosaki. Here is why I am awarding Ben this grade.
1) Sound insight. While he didn’t build his reputation on finance, his book on income investing with Phil Demuth is sound and useful. I like income investing and agree with Ben when he says
that stocks that pay dividends are legit and profitable. Even with the Sarbanes Oxley act in effect, there are still plenty of legally questionable practices in corporate finance. All things being equal, the absolute best indicator of a corporation’s profitability is money in the pockets of shareholders, period. Ben, thanks for the insight.
2) Engaged, amusing style. His columns are always fresh, witty and they address real issues pertaining to the health of the nations pocketbook. For example, he’s written about the dangers of excessive executive compensation, Social Security and the importance of the SEC. While these aren’t personal finance issues per say, they are always amusing, insightful and make his columns a pleasure to read.
So, to recap. I am awarding Ben the grade of B+ for 1) good ideas and 2) amusing and skillful delivery. You might ask why I did not give Ben an A. Good question. I didn’t give Ben an A because its not clear to me that Ben is a finance wizard, that is, he’s not like Warren Buffet in that he’s made a great deal of money directly from his investing activities.
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Happy investing!
-James&Miel
DINKS (Dual Income No Kids) Finance is a blog discussing personal finance for couples. While by no means financial experts, we own a variety of assets including real estate and stocks. We've both been up to our eyeballs in debt and have made tons of financial mistakes. However, we've both successfully retired that debt and we both do learn from our failings. We hope that our voice in this blog can help others in achieving their goals!
