The X-Discipline: Financial Independence for the Web-Savvy Investor (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781412010344)

DURING a thirty-year career in marketing and sales at Hewlett-Packard, Paul Accampo pursued a passion for investing, reading over fifty books and countless articles. Making his first stock purchases in the 1970's, he immediately learned flexibility, when investors at the time cast off stocks for gold, real estate and certificates of deposit. He and two close friends tried and discarded many investing ideas, growing their portfolios over two decades, while learning to avoid major damage from events like the Crash of '87.

Paul's extensive travel precluded managing a large stock portfolio. Having limited time, he focused on mutual fund investing, becoming an early "telephone switcher" and an early user of online mutual fund charts. Noting the vast sums lost in 2000, Paul turned his attention to refining and explaining his methods, improving ways to control risk, refining sell criteria, discovering the best websites for obtaining fund data, and understanding volatility. Wishing to pass on the knowledge accumulated over a lifetime to his children and their generation, he has created a method of disciplined investing for Generation X.

An accomplished writer and speaker on technical subjects during his HP career, Paul has employed the analytical side of his nature (he holds an engineering degree from the University of California at Berkeley) and his marketing and sales skills to explain a most complex human endeavor in straightforward terms. He lives with his wife, Elaine, in Mill Valley, California, where he enjoys bicycling, skiing and volunteering his time in community activities.