1. THE DICK DAVIS DIVIDEND by Dick Davis ($35.99, Wiley): In 1982 Davis started the Dick Davis Digest, one of the largest investment newsletters in the U.S. Now he looks back at his decades in the market and reveals the investing game’s big secret—to do well, you should put most of your money in a basket of index funds. OUR TAKE: Okay, we think it’s rather comical that someone who made his money by peddling stock market tips is now a born-again advocate for indexing—but we couldn’t agree more with Davis’s surprising turnaround.

2. GET SMARTER by Seymour Schulich with Derek DeCloet ($29.95, Key Porter): Schulich, a self-made Canadian billionaire, wants to tell you the most valuable lessons he’s learned in his career. Among them: how to make a decision, how to choose a career, how to overcome setbacks. OUR TAKE: To his credit, Schulich doesn’t brag and doesn’t invent jargon. It’s also true that he doesn’t reveal anything too startling. But what shines through this book is his exuberant spirit—and a passion for the market that truly is inspiring.

3. JIM CRAMER’S STAY MAD FOR LIFE by James Cramer ($29.99, Simon & Schuster): Boo-yah! Cramer, the raving, hyperactive host of the Mad Money TV program, has become famous for touting hot stocks and lightning trades. Now he turns his attention to how you should go about building wealth for the long haul. OUR TAKE: You know all that stuff that Cramer spouts on his TV program? Well, forget it. Turns out that the core of your wealth-building strategy should be to save lots of money, invest it sensibly in a diversified portfolio and monitor it closely. Yep, that’s it. Sorry.

4. THE OPPOSABLE MIND by Roger Martin ($29.95, McGraw-Hill Ryerson): Martin, the dean of the Rotman School of Business at the University of Toronto, believes business leaders have to practice “integrative thinking,” which means finding ways to combine the best of opposing ideas in order to create even better ideas. OUR TAKE: Well, um, sure. Martin’s message is hard to disagree with because it sprawls everywhere—to his way of thinking, any new idea that succeeds is automatically an example of integrative thinking. His book may inspire you; unfortunately, we doubt that it will illuminate you.

5. A DEMON OF OUR OWN DESIGN by Richard Bookstaber ($33.99, Wiley): Bookstaber earned a PhD in economics from MIT then went off to work on Wall Street in 1984 as one of the fi rst generation of quantitative traders, or “quants.” He and his pointy-headed peers were eager to use math and computers to engineer smarter investing strategies. But a funny thing happened on the way to perfection. The quants inadvertently helped to create the 1987 stock market crash, the hedge fund crisis of 1998, and the current credit crunch. OUR TAKE: Not a light read. But if you want to understand why fi nancial crises are so commonplace, pick up this book.

Good. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, I am going to brave the hate mail from the Apple zealots and suggest the unthinkable. Maybe, just maybe, you should look beyond Apple when buying your next digital music player.

There are two good reasons to do so. The first is to encourage innovation. A lot of companies do excellent work in this category, but they’re ignored because of our love affair with the iPod. The other reason is value. Buying a non-Apple MP3 gadget usually gets you more features at better prices than a corresponding iPod.

The only catch? Non-Apple players either rely on their own software (in other words, you can’t use iTunes with them) or they use the built-in Windows Media Player that comes with Windows. In either case, the software is not always easy to figure out.

If you’re up to the software challenge, some of the iPod alternatives are very fine indeed. I suggest that you at least look at the following devices before handing Steve Jobs your money.

FITNESS BUFF – If you exercise with your music player, then you need a small, light MP3 player that can take a smack without missing a beat. My pick is the SanDisk Sansa Clip. It’s a tiny matchbox- sized MP3 player that can pack 250 to 500 songs into its flash memory, depending upon whether you choose the 1 GB model ($49.99) or the 2 GB version ($69.99). Since its memory has no moving parts, the Clip is ideal for situations where the device may get dropped or jostled. As its name suggests, the device also has an adjustable clip so you can attach it to clothing, a waistband or even a hat. It even features a tiny screen and an FM radio tuner. With the Clip around, it’s easy to skip Apple’s iPod Shuffle. More info at www.sandisk.com/sansa/.
Sansa Clip 1 GB $49.99
iPod Shuffle 1 GB $84.99

BUSINESS TRAVELLER – When I climb on a plane, I want to watch videos and lull myself to sleep with music. I also want to be able to show photos of my cats to the guy in the next seat who really, really wants to tell me his life story. (Believe me—a dozen or so cat shots are enough to discourage even the most determined conversationalist.) Granted, you can do all those things with the touch-sensitive, video-capable iPod Touch, but a fine alternative is the Archos 605 WiFi. This handheld device is designed for video playback on the go. It features an 11-cm touch-sensitive screen and comes with storage capacity of 30 GB, 80 GB or 160 GB, which gives you space for 40, 80 or 200 movies. Want more? It can connect to a wireless network so you can surf the Internet. It can also record TV-to-go and play games. Check it out at www.archos.com.
Archos 605 WiFi 30 GB $329.99
iPod Touch 16 GB $449

COMMUTER – If you’re looking for a pocketsized device that does video on a small but ample screen, plays your music and shows off your pictures, you can rush out and buy an iPod Classic. But first check out the SanDisk Sansa View. This cellphone-sized player fits in your hand and features a dialand- click browse wheel that is as good as the one on the iPod. Its screen dominates the device and its memory comes in 8 GB or 16 GB versions. It also has an expansion slot so you can add 2 to 8 GB of storage using a tiny MicroSD data card. The unit is priced in line with the 8 GB iPod Nano, but you can also compare it to the more robust iPod Classic, which has 80 GB or 160 GB of storage. For my money, the Sansa View is a happy medium between the two. More info at www.sandisk.com/sansa/.
iPod Classic 80 GB $259
Sansa View 16 GB $219
iPod Nano 8 GB $199

URBAN HIPSTER – If you’re a yoga mom or an aspiring illustrator, the iPod Nano is meant for you. A fine alternative, however, is the Creative ZEN. It’s a purse- or knapsack-friendly device with a nice 6-cm screen. Besides video and audio playback it has an FM radio, an SD data card expansion slot to add memory, and an audio recording feature that lets you store conversations or voice memos (“Note to self: pick up laundry soap”). Granted the ZEN is not as pretty as the Nano, but if you want a small, sturdy device that can endure being banged and jostled in the bottom of your purse or courier bag this could be the player for you. I dropped mine on my hardwood floor and on a snowy sidewalk with no damage. More info at www.creative.com.
Creative ZEN 8 GB $219.99
iPod Nano 8 GB $199

The $25 iPod alternative

Before you rush out to buy a new player, you might want to first crack the manual for your cellular phone. Many newer phones—especially the smart ones, such as BlackBerry, Treo and some Nokia devices—can store and play music. They can also play video files and display photos. While the built-in storage on these devices falls short of the generous space on dedicated music players, they have slots for data cards, which can greatly expand the memory. The BlackBerry slot, for example, is under the battery. A 1 GB MicroSD card ($24.99) can hold more than 200 songs. Double that for a 2 GB card ($30.99).

How? By putting some money on the line the next time you resolve to do a little self-improvement. If you do, you’re much more likely to succeed.

Gary Charness and Uri Gneezy, both professors of economics at the University of California, showed that students who were paid $100 to go to the gym for four weeks went twice as often as those who weren’t paid. The icing on the cake? The students kept going even after the payments stopped.

Bribery can help us overcome even long-established weaknesses. When the staff health-care costs at Wesley Willows, a non-profit retirement community in Rockford, Ill., started getting out of hand due to rampant obesity, the company decided it had to convince its employees to lose weight. Management hired a weight-loss consultant to pay employees cold hard cash for every pound they lost. In the first six months the company spent $12,000 on the program— and saved more than $180,000 in health-care costs.

Cases like this suggest that one way to stick to a New Year’s resolution is simply to pay yourself for being good—perhaps by promising yourself a new set of golf clubs if you meet your goal. But research suggests that taking out a contract in which you lose money for not reaching a goal is even more effective than a reward. That’s because humans are wired in such a way that the pain from loss is more intense than the joy we get from gain. So if you pledge to give away $1,000 if you don’t lose 10 kg by swimsuit season, you’re more likely to be successful than if you got a $1,000 reward for meeting your goal.

But if you pledge to give away money for missing your goal, how can you make sure you’ll follow through? Look no further than StickK.com, a new website that lets you make a contract with yourself. It’s the brainchild of Dean Karlan, a Yale economics professor, and Ian Ayres, a law professor who teaches at Yale’s school of management. The goal of StickK is to act like a conscience-for-hire. When you sign up, you state your goal—lose 5 kg, kick smoking, or whatever—and pledge a bond for a certain amount of money. If you’re not successful at meeting your goal, you lose the bond.

Will StickK make us all better people? John Lynham, an economist at the University of California, says it depends. His research found that many of us are still doomed to overestimate our own resolve, even if our money is on the line. Because of that tendency, he thinks most people who take out a contract on StickK.com will kiss at least some of their money goodbye.

But that doesn’t mean the money is wasted. “Most people won’t meet their goals,” says Lynham, “but I still think they’ll lose more weight than they would otherwise.”

Put a contract on yourself

StickK.com can help you lose weight, stop smoking, exercise more or meet another goal by putting some of your own hard-earned cash at stake. The site allows you to post a cash bond which will automatically go to a charity, a friend, an enemy, or even an anti-charity (such as a tobacco company lobby group) if you don’t meet your goal. The site’s services are free, and it encourages you to enlist an independent “referee” to confirm your success. It even includes support networks for common goals to help cheer you along.

My husband and I feasted on stuffed squid, pasta, and a fine bottle of Malbec at Broccolino, an Italian restaurant in the centre of Buenos Aires. The bill came to $20.

We strolled back to the Promenade Hotel, a basic but comfortable hostelry. Our air-conditioned room came equipped with a hair dryer, TV and phone—all for $50 per night, including free Internet access and a continental breakfast.

If you’ve ever thought about visiting “BA ” now’s the time. Following a 70% devaluation of the Argentine peso in 2002, Buenos Aires is a budget traveler’s delight. You can spend a day feasting on the world’s best beef, exploring the tango, and following in Evita Perón’s footsteps, all for less than it would cost you for a nice dinner back in Canada.

I recommend you start your exploration of this vibrant city at its heart—the Plaza de Mayo. If you’ve seen the movie Evita, you will recognize La Casa Rosada. Evita stood on the balcony of this pink palace as she delivered her speeches to cheering crowds below.

The palace is surrounded by grand architecture: the basilica, the national bank, the congress building and the municipal museum. Gawk at these neo-classical masterpieces, then, when it’s time for a coffee break, do as the locals do and enjoy a java jolt and pastry at Café Tortoni. Founded in 1858, the café has provided a second home to many Argentine writers and artists. You’ll sip your coffee amid the café’s dark wood paneling, sepia photographs and yellowing marble countertops.

Next door, climb to the second floor of the National Academy of Tango. Packed to the rafters with dancers’ costumes, shoes and photos, it’s a celebration of BA ’s longest- lasting popular art form. You might even catch tango students strutting their stuff on the polished wooden floors.

If you want to take a more active role, visit the Tango Brujo dance school. The ground floor sells books, CDs, shoes and costumes; upstairs you can enjoy an hour-and-a-half lesson for only $3. I convinced my husband to give it a whirl, but after 20 minutes of stepping on each other’s toes, we slipped out.

We recovered from our exertions with a walk through the San Telmo district, chock-a-block with cobblestoned streets and colonial mansions. This neighborhood was home to BA ’s elite until the 1870s, when yellow fever sent the well-todo residents fleeing north. Immigrants moved in and the mansions turned into tenements. Today San Telmo is a magnet for artists and musicians: BA ’s version of Greenwich Village. Try to visit on Sunday when Plaza Dorrego becomes a flea market. The streets are filled with antique shops, tango bars and cafés. And don’t miss the Bar Federal, a vintage hangout with a long oak bar decorated with Art Nouveau stained glass. A feast of antipasto, followed by turkey ravioli, will set you back about $8 for two.

No visit to BA would be complete without a touch of Evita—or, to use her full name, Eva Duarte Perón. As a young actress, she caught the eye of General Juan Perón, later the president of Argentina. She married Perón and became a dominating figure in the country’s politics before dying of cancer in 1952 at only 33. More than half a century after her death, the debate about her legacy is still raw: some call her a saint, others a social-climbing tart. The Evita Museum, housed in a mansion that Evita turned into a shelter for single mothers, portrays its founder as a humanitarian heroine. Propaganda or not, the museum is worth a visit for the history lesson alone.

You can pay your personal respects to Argentina’s former first lady by visiting her remains in the Familia Duarte mausoleum (number 57), located in Recoleta, BA ’s poshest neighbourhood. The shady boulevards are lined with Belle-Époque buildings, reminiscent of Paris’s Champs-Élysées. Afterwards, drop by the Alvear Palace Hotel. Its guest list includes Antonio Banderas, Robert Duvall and Donatella Versace. Who knows? You might get lucky and run into Antonio in the hotel’s L’Orangerie, a posh restaurant where the waiters wear red blazers and white gloves. Enjoying a traditional high tea in these luxurious surroundings is a splurge by Argentine standards at $20 per person.

Just make sure you leave room for dinner. Argentina boasts the best beef in the world. While North American cattle are pumped with hormones and marbled with fat, Argentina’s cows are leaner, sweeter and chewier because they range freely on the pampas, eating grass.

Most guidebooks will tell you that BA ’s prima steakhouse is Cabaña las Lilas. I had lofty expectations but when my lomo (baby beef) arrived, it was tough. However, we found carnivore nirvana just around the corner from our hotel at Las Nazarenas, where the meat sizzles on an asador (wood fire barbecue pit). The 12-page menu starts with an anatomical drawing of a cow showing the various cuts of beef. Flaky empanadas, mixed salad, Flintstone-sized T-bones, crispy fries and a fine red Malbec came to $40 for the two of us.

Tango lesson: A few simple steps to navigating a sultry city

Getting Around: Do not attempt to drive a car in BA . The traffic is crazy. Instead, use the subway and bus system—both are fast and cheap. Taxis are also plentiful and a bargain, but some literally stick up tourists, so call a radio taxi in advance and don’t take one off the street. For sightseeing, ask your hotel to arrange for a car and driver, called a remise.

Safety: BA has its share of pickpockets. Don’t flaunt your expensive jewelry or cameras and be prudent about where you carry your money and credit cards.

Starting points: Promenade Hotel won’t win design awards, but offers friendly, inexpensive accommodation in the centre of the city. The Evita Museum pays homage to the city’s most famous resident. Las Nazarenas serves up huge—and delicious—steaks. Dance it all off at the Tango Brujo dance school.

At least that’s what most people think. Stick a fork beneath the surface, however, and you’ll discover that bonds aren’t so dull after all. In fact, they can be just as tempting as stocks. Despite what most people think, Canadian bonds have produced virtually identical results to Canadian stocks over the past 25 years. Bonds gained 10.6% a year during that period, while stocks advanced 10.7%.

If you’re just beginning to invest, it’s important to appreciate the differences between stocks and bonds. When you buy a stock, you’re buying a tiny slice of a company. If the company does well, the stock price rises and you make money. On the other hand, if the company runs into problems, you suffer a loss.

When you buy a bond, the situation is different. You’re not signing on as an owner. All you’re doing is lending the company a bit of cash. A bond is an IOU in which the company promises to pay you a set amount to use your cash for a certain number of years. You won’t get any extra payout if the company does spectacularly well. But if the company hits a snag, you can take comfort in knowing that its problems don’t affect you. So long as the company can continue to makes its bond payments, your cash keeps rolling in.

Bonds deserve your attention because they provide a natural balance to the ups and downs of the stock market. When economic news is good, bonds fall. Conversely, when times turn bad, bonds rise.

Bonds move in this odd way because the guaranteed payout from a bond becomes more valuable as the investing alternatives grow worse. Think of a bond as being like the emergency rations you keep tucked away in a kitchen drawer. During normal times, when you can wheel by the supermarket to get dinner, your food cache isn’t worth much. But if there’s a huge snowstorm that blocks the roads for days, the value of your stash skyrockets.

Bonds are at their best when there’s a financial storm. That’s why wise investors keep 25% to 50% of their investment portfolio in bonds. If the economy goes bad and stocks sour, bonds provide you with hearty fare until the storm blows over.

Most of us invest in bonds through bond mutual funds. Two tips can help make sure you get the best deal on these funds:

Watch fees. Since bonds yield only 5% or so, paying a 2% management fee on a bond fund can eat up nearly half your profits. Consider instead the iShares Canadian Bond Index ETF . This trades on the Toronto Exchange under the ticker XBB . It charges you a mere 0.30% a year to track the Canadian bond market.

Watch risk. Some bonds are riskier than others because the companies behind them are financially weak. Rating agencies rank bonds on a scale ranging from AAA (super solid) to C (close to default). If in doubt, stick to funds that buy mostly bonds rated AA and AAA. They’re solid fare for any investor’s table.

Just go to InsureMyTrip.ca. It allows you to easily compare policies and prices. That can mean the difference between paying $40 or $100 for the same coverage.

The site asks you for a few details about your trip, then produces up to a dozen different quotes from four agents. You choose the one you want, read the fine print before you buy, then purchase the policy directly over the web.

Jim Grace, founder of IMT Services, which operates the website, says the most important type of insurance to buy is emergency travel medical coverage. This insurance pays for health services that aren’t covered by your provincial plan. If you fall ill or get injured in a remote location, it also pays for emergency transportation to a health-care facility. Unless you’re already covered through a comprehensive private plan, you should get a medical policy—it could save you tens of thousands of dollars.

When choosing between policies, consider the price and the maximum amount you’re covered for (you need more in the U.S. and Europe, less in developing countries). Also look at the policy’s coverage of what insurers call “pre-existing conditions.” If you have a heart murmur, blood condition or other medical issue before you set off on your trip, and fall ill while on the road, some insurers will refuse to pay on the grounds that your holiday emergency was the result of a medical condition you had before the plane took off.

To make sure that doesn’t happen to you, Grace says you should call the toll-free number on the site for help if you’re older or have had health problems. His agents should be able to tell you whether the policy you’re looking at will cover you properly, given your age and medical history.

It definitely is worth paying more for meats, cheeses, milk and eggs. If you have a limited budget for organics, that’s where you should splurge. “You’ll get a noticeably denser, richer product,” says Bishop, and you’ll get the biggest health benefits too. Animal proteins make up a large part of most people’s diet, says Rubino, and proteins take the longest time to digest, so going organic in this area will significantly reduce your exposure to growth hormones and other harmful chemicals.

On the other hand, our chefs agree that when it comes to grains and cereals, there isn’t much difference, even though organics can cost 80% more. “Most people are misled to think organic cereals are healthier,” says Long. “But unless you’re Jerry Seinfeld and eating three bowls of cereal a day, then go for the non-organic.”

With fruits and vegetables, you’re wasting your time worrying about whether they’re organic or not, say our chefs. The real question should be whether they’re local or not. “I would rather buy a nonorganic Canadian apple than an organic apple from Chile,” says Long. He says that fruits and vegetables from outside Canada must be shipped over enormous distances, so foreign growers will sometimes resort to sleights of hand—such as tinting the skin of oranges—in order to give their product the illusion of freshness. Local produce is always much fresher, even if it isn’t technically organic.

The best news is that as of this December, finding true organic foods in the supermarket will become much easier. That’s when the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s revised Organic Products Regulations will take effect, and you’ll see the debut of a new “Canada Organic” logo. Producers can only use the logo if they raise their livestock in natural environment conditions, restrict non-organic ingredients to 5% of their product’s total composition, and avoid the use of genetically modified plant seeds. Sounds like a natural winner to us.

In 2004 the top small stocks gained 54.8%. In 2005 the tiny superstars climbed 44.6%. In 2006 the pint-sized overachievers advanced a further 18.3%. If you had bought the top-rated top small stocks in 2004 and rolled your gains into the new bunch each subsequent year, you would now be up 170%, not including dividends. That compares to a gain of about 152% for the top-rated stocks in the Top 200.

I hope that my smaller stocks continue their hot streak, but I would urge you to be cautious. Small stocks are prone to big swings and tend to be riskier than larger stocks. You should limit them to a modest portion of your portfolio. Still, if you’re looking to add some spice to your portfolio, I think small stocks are definitely worth a look. They can grow far more rapidly than big firms if the conditions are right. And they frequently represent better value than their larger competitors.

The key is to do your homework before buying. I grade small stocks using exactly the same methodology as I do with large stocks. Each stock gets two letter grades—one for its growth prospects, the other for its value appeal. The grades run from A (for top-of-the-class superstars) to F (for struggling underachievers). I’m particularly interested in stocks that manage to earn an A or a B for both value and growth.

Some extraordinary qualities are needed to get high marks. On the value front, I look for stocks that pay dividends and that sell at low prices compared to their book values. They have to generate at least some earnings and they can’t carry much debt. On the growth side, I seek stocks that have achieved strong growth in sales and earnings over the past five years. Top-rated growth stocks also have to demonstrate healthy returns on equity, strong momentum, and reasonable price-to-sales ratios. (You can find a detailed explanation of the methodology, and a complete ranking of the best large stocks in Canada, in the December/January issue of MoneySense.)

From hundreds of small stocks, I’ve selected a few that score particularly well on both value and growth. You should, of course, do your own research before adding any of them to your portfolio. Here’s why they’re worth a look:

Akita Drilling (AKT.A, $11.22) is an oil and gas drilling and servicing contractor with operations in western Canada and Alaska. This year, it’s my highest rated small stock, earning an A for value and a B for growth. Akita’s only blemish is a little recent weakness in its share price. But that means that you can buy Akita at just above its book value and for only nine times its earnings. You get a 2.5% dividend yield in the bargain.

Clarke (CKI, $7.66) is a Halifax holding company controlled by George Armoyan, the famed value investor. He’s been very successful at buying into depressed firms, shaking them up and unlocking shareholder value. If you like Armoyan’s style, and want a convenient one-stop way to buy into a diversified portfolio of small stocks and trusts, Clarke is a tempting proposition.

H. Paulin & Co. (PAP.A, $8.50) keeps its eye on the nuts and bolts—literally. It describes itself as being the “first in fasteners” and is also active in fluid systems and auto parts. Based in Toronto, Paulin has faced some mighty challenges from the rising loonie and declining automakers. But it has still managed to grow its sales and profits, and trades at only 51% of book value.

Brampton Brick (BBL.A, $10.60) is Canada’s second largest producer of clay bricks; it also makes paving stones and other landscape products. The Brampton, Ont., firm sells to both Canadian and U.S. customers and has been hard hit by the recent collapse in the U.S. housing market. Still, it could be a bargain: it trades below book value and pays a nice 1.9% dividend.

Amerigo Resources (ARG, $2.34) is headquartered in Vancouver, but makes its money by extracting copper and molybdenum from the tailings of the world’s largest underground copper mine in Chile. I like the company’s low debt levels, generous 16.6% earnings yield, and 5.6% dividend yield. Given the unpredictability of metal prices, Amerigo is likely to be a wild ride, but if you’re willing to take a flyer, it’s an interesting speculation.