The Smartest Investment Book You'll Ever Read: The ...

The Smartest Investment Book You'll Ever Read:
I love this book. It is informative, not too technical, tells you when you can skip a section of reading, and gives advice that makes sense. It's also an easy read - I read it in a few hours.

Great primer on benefits of index fund investing:
I enjoyed this little book. Most Americans never had the opportunity to learn the basics of investing in the U.S. educational system. Money magazine used to annually give a basic investing test to Americans and they consistently received grades of "F". Americans also seem to have a short attention span (witness 8 second sound bites on TV).....so the design of this book might help educate people about the basics of investing. Most people also find the subject of investing very boring...and most Americans spend more time planning their vacations than reviewing their finances. This book design is relatively short, and each chapter is relatively short at about 4 pages. The author uses the majority of the chapters to drive home the point that low cost index fund investing is the proven way to invest for almost most Americans. Solin hit the basics of investing, but left out a few key steps in the entire process: 1. Living below your means so you have money to save and invest. 2. Use automatic savings method where you pay yourself first like 401K's. 3. Determine your asset allocation plan. 4. Adjust your asset allocation slightly to a less risky portfolio as you go through life. 5. Use low cost index funds to minimize expenses and maximize returns. 6. Determine your actual living expenses right before you retire so you can more accurately your retirement expenses.......and therefore the income you need to retire......versus using the 70% to 80% income replacement ratio rule-of-thumb when you get close to retirement 7. Don't withdraw more than a 4% inflation adjusted amount during retirement from your portfolio. 8. Rebalance your portfolio annually All-in-all, a very easy to read book which does an excellent job of educating and justifying the advantages of index fund investing. Actually a pretty good job considering the author is an attorney! If you are interesting in learning more about index funds and asset allocation, I would suggest reading some of the books noted below. Index Mutual Funds: How to Simplify Your Financial Life and Beat the Pro's The Richest Man in Babylon Bogle on Mutual Funds: New Perspectives for the Intelligent Investor The Millionaire Next Door The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing, Ninth Edition The Coffeehouse Investor: How to Build Wealth, Ignore Wall Street, and Get On With Your Life The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing Wealth: Grow It, Protect It, Spend It, and Share It Retirement Income Redesigned: Master Plans for Distribution: An Adviser's Guide for Funding Boomers' Best Years

AVOID THIS BOOK:
This book can be summed up rather easily: beware of anyone trying to sell you investment advice (including this book) and whatever you do, never buy anything other than an index fund. There, I just saved you the hassle of buying the book. I wish I could find my receipt and had the conscience to return a book that I read and wasted my money on. I exaggerate a tad, but not much. If you are looking for any real insight into uncovering the emotional process (a key to success), how to recognize real danger and opportunity etc. - pursue another book or you are doomed to make the same mistake I did. I won't even challenge any of his premises (though index funds have had a rough go recently), or ideas per se, but if you don't know the information conveyed in this book, in my opinion you have no business putting money in the market just yet. Instead you need to make an effort to educate yourself - particularly you should study and recognize the emotional traits most of us have to battle that can hinder performance. Maybe, only maybe, will a novice investor find this book revealing or useful (which should include warning bells alerting yourself that you aren't ready to invest). If you truly are lazy and need reassurance that index funds aren't a bad choice, spend your money, but be advised that much of this info is available for free if you spend the time looking for it. The mere size of the book indicates that more valuable information could have been easily added. As you can tell, I feel ripped off and wish I had spent a few minutes at the store pre-reading this thing. I admit I fell for the accolades on the back of the book. D'oh!!

Excellent Advise:
Excellent Advise. No one can watch your money as well as your self. The book gives excellent overview of types of investments to aid as a quick reference book. It was very educational. The subject matter hit what we don't always learn at home growing up. Thank you.

Buy and hold low cost indexes rather than trying to trade on hot stocks or funds:
OK. I have no idea why this author uses such an overhyped title for this book. Solin basically talks about two kinds of investors: Hyperactive Traders who trade too much and hurt their earning by incurring too many costs and who unavoidably end up selling too low and buying too high. And Smart Traders who buy and hold indexes that give them exposure to the global markets in equities and bonds. Using funds like Vanguard, Fidelity, T. Rowe Price or similar low cost institutions, you can achieve this goal with three or four index funds. I think the best part of the book is Solin's debunking of the products that brokers will try to sell you and the arguments they will make about "hot" funds or stocks. He also goes after the financial shows on TV and in print and why they have to hype bad deals for you in order to keep their businesses going. You simply can't go on the air everyday telling people about buying and holding low cost index funds anymore than news shows can go on and say that 99.999% of the population is just fine. This is a good and concise book with good advice. I just think the title is too much. Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI