The Lazy Person's Guide to Investing: A Book for Procrastinators, the Financially Challenged, and Everyone Who Worries About Dealing With Their Money

by Paul B. Farrell

In today's volatile market, jittery nerves are the norm when it comes to investing. But with this keep-it-simple, easy-to-understand proven strategies that best of take very little time or energy to maintain, readers can relax. Dr. Farrell has distilled the most successful plans - from the couch potato to the coffee house, to the no-brainer approach, so that even inexperienced investors can chart their financial future with confidence.

Genres: Finance, Nonfiction, Business, Personal Finance, Reference, Economics, Money

Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[C · Rating 3 out of 5]

After I read The New Coffeehouse Investor, I wanted to learn more about lazy investing and lazy portfolios. I saw this book on the shelf at the library, and picked it up. I'm glad I did! It starts by comparing a few popular "lazy portfolios" (simple, low-maintenance index fund portfolios), including the Coffeehouse Portfolio, then moves on to explaining why you should build your own lazy portfolio.

The author includes quotes and advice from many big names like Scott Burns, Bill Schultheis, William Bernstein, Paul Merriman, John Bogle, the Motley Fools, Ric Edelman, Charles Carlson, Robert Kiyosaki, Burton Malkiel, Charles Schwab, Peter Lynch, Jane Bryant Quinn, and Napoleon Hill.

Most of the book covers passive index funds, but there are a few chapters that cover other topics at the end. These include ETFs, DRIPs, and investing in your own business.

This book isn't as simple and straightforward as The New Coffeehouse Investor, but it does offer more specific advice and incorporates ideas from more people, so it's a more "diversified" (pun intended) book than The New Coffeehouse Investor.

Notes
The Couch Potato Portfolio by Scott Burns
- Vanguard 500
- Vanguard Total Bond Market
- split 50/50 for traditional portfolio, or 75/25 for "sophisticated" portfolio
- rebalance annually

The Coffeehouse Portfolio by Bill Schultheis
- 60/40 stock-bond split, with stocks evenly split between:
- S&P 500
- large value
- small cap
- small value
- MSCI EAFE international
- REIT

The No-Brainer Portfolio by William Bernstein
- 25% large (S&P 500)
- 25% small
- 25% international
- 25% total US bond market

Kiplinger's Keep It Simple Portfolio
- 25% large (S&P 500 or total US, such as Wilshire 5000)
- 25% small or small value
- 25% international (MSCI European or total international)
- 25% total US bond market

Never pay loads. There's always a better no-load alternative.
The expense ratio is the only reliable predictor of future performance.
Buy quality and hold forever; never rebalance.
Vanguard is the only fund company owned by its shareholders.
Diversification is about 10 times more important than the specific stocks or funds you pick.
When selecting funds in your 401(k), try to clone the lazy portfolios as closely as possible.
ETFs are best for large, infrequent lump sumps and long holding periods. Otherwise no-load index funds are a better choice.
If you must invest in individual stocks, use DRIPs.
If you can, consider becoming an entrepreneur and investing in your own business.

[Anthony · Rating 2 out of 5]

The entire content could be written in one page. Instead it just get quite repetitive.

[Rupert Wolfe-Murray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall good but lacks definition of the financial terms he uses constantly, e.g Index Funds.

You need to know the language of investment before reading this

[Adam Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really really great book. So much of this makes common sense. Basically get an index fund that track a broad index and stick with it for life. Asset allocation is more important then individual stocks. Include indexes of bonds and vary the amount of bonds in your portfolio by how much risk you are willing to accept. This book doesn't break new ground and the fact the author borrows from a lot of great other books may annoy some readers. However, if I planned on recommending one book for someone who wants advice on investing alone this book would rate a mention.

[Dan Dawson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, but too repetitive.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty decent explanation of popular, easy approaches to investing. Plenty of specific recommendations that anyone can implement. Repeats the information and recommendations found in plenty of other good books. Probably could've done without the last few chapters that delve into more complex approaches, including the foliofm approach that has lost popularity, thus veering away from the laziness theme.

[Nathan Fowler · Rating 3 out of 5]

A better title would have been the lazy person's guide to commonsense financial literacy.

He recommends mutual funds over individual stocks. Then why even read this book, what exactly am I even learning?

[Britt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Helpful information about simple ways to invest money, but repetitive as hell and filled with unneeded add-ons. My biggest takeaway is how you can make your kid a millionaire by just investing $1000 for them as a baby. I don’t even have kids but that is amazing information.

[Bev · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED IT! Even has a great humor and one liners. I learned so much and would highly recommend!

[Mun · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book since it's easy to read and especially it used plain English. It teaches us how to deal with money and finance. Many lessons in this book, our work is applying them.

[Roland · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew nothing about stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and all that other financial stuff before reading this book. Now I know a little more and have a better idea of how the market works. The most interesting part was that the market is entirely unpredictable, and that a monkey throwing darts can make stock picks that do better than those selected by the "pros." The book is repetative, but the author points out that that was his intention, and it worked. His overuse of certain quotes gets irritating though, so I docked the book a point for that. Overall? Dump your money in an index fund with the intention of never selling it, and you'll be fine.

[Toby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Humorous and well written, this book manages to make personal finance fun! Always tongue-in-cheek, it provides a really strong case for an all-index-fund portfolio by providing a lot of data, news and anecdotes about how index funds will outperform individual stock trading or load-fund portfolios. A must read for anyone who invests or enjoys managing their personal finances.

[Bracken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and informative for me, as a complete novice to investing. This book supported my feelings about investing and was instrumental in preventing me from making a bad investment.

I did feel, though that the author was trying too hard to be funny and that it could have been substantially less repetitious and get the point across.

[Adra · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I got from this book is that investing the correct way is a long and very boring process. This guide breaks down the investing terminology so well that even the average joe can understand. Mr Farrell does a decent job at simplifying the process of investing.

Adra Young
Author of: The Everyday Living of Children & Teens Monologues Comment | Permalink

[S]

332.6 FAR

[durban]

It's hard to rate when I am such a money novice, but I am trying to learn, from the personal finance side to the micro/macro-alterna side.

[Major Doug · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listened to this book: interesting passive investing strategies.

[Blanche · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book I've read on the subject. I've been investing my money in Vanguard since finishing the book in 2010.

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

perfectly informative and basic for beginners.

[Kirill · Rating 3 out of 5]

The whole book could be written on a single page.