The Little Book that Saves Your Assets: What the Rich Do to Stay Wealthy in Up and Down Markets

by David M. Darst, Jim Cramer

If you’ve ever wondered how investors continue to see substantial market-beating investment returns with portfolios that just seem to grow and grow, The Little Book that Saves Your What the Rich Do to Stay Wealthy in Up and Down Markets will reveal some secrets. David Darst, also known as Mr. Asset Allocations, shows you how to use savvy asset allocation strategies that you can use to invest like the rich do. This dynamic and easy-to-understand book allows you to rethink your asset allocation strategies and make the leap from mediocre to stellar returns.

Genres: Finance, Business, Money, Nonfiction, Economics

240 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2008

Reviews

[Leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is great for beginners into the stock market and money markets. There wasn't much that I learned from this book. To be quite honest you're actually better off reading the book by Tony Robbins - MONEY Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom.

[Michele rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book that basically said to get advice from other people who have been through it more than you, and to diversify more than you think you are diversifying. It was nice to listen to, but the book definitely could have been cut in half.

[E · Rating 4 out of 5]

An expert explanation of asset allocation

A successful football team needs a strong offense to gain ground and score points, a sturdy defense to hold firm under attack and a decisive coach to make intelligent substitutions when necessary. These are exactly the characteristics you need to manage your investment portfolio, says David M. Darst, chief investment officer at Morgan Stanley. Darst is an acknowledged expert on asset allocation, a “fundamental principle of investing,” which stipulates that you shouldn’t put all your financial eggs in one basket. Instead, you should spread your wealth among various diversified, “uncorrelated” investments. Although Darst’s numerous analogies are oversimplified, and his information on how to rebalance your portfolio is fairly general, his skill at breaking financial concepts down into simple terms makes his libretto very useful to rookie investors. getAbstract recommends his basic, savvy book to anyone who may be confused by the financial jungle, or anyone who wants to invest simply and smartly.

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[C.J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good, short book on asset allocation.
Quite honestly, I have worked in the investment field, and I had forgotten just how important asset allocation (read: non-correlated assets) was in a portfolio's performance. (It's the most important factor.)
The book tends to be redundant, drilling the same points over and over again, but I think this was done on purpose. Still, the book could have been a good 50 pages shorter.
In any case, I would recommend this book to beginning or seasoned investors alike. I plan on making this book a part of my investment library.
(As a rule of thumb, all of the "Little Book" series on investments I have read have been very good-- I would consider buying the whole series, in fact.)

[Mehul Sutariya · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives ideas for how to diversify your portfolio and how it behaves. It is different from all previous little books! No discussion about the stock market but discussion about assets and its class with how they related to each other.

[Arun Narayanaswamy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Focused book on asset distribution and its importance for investors.
It has some important lessons- however I feel it’s very rudimentary and not much of value for anyone who has been investing for even a couple of years.

[Isaac Esseku · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for learning about investments....reinforced a lot of what I learned in b school and do/use at work

[Inês Ferreira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Financial education explained in a simply way.

[Pasi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I suppose this book is good reading for an investing newbie, but for a more experienced reader the content tends to be overly familiar.

[Underdoggaming · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got me thinking about refining my own investment process, so I appreciate that about it.

[Pradeep Kumar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has discussed a very important point of asset allocation,

Good explanation

Thank you to the Author for his valuable insights

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good not great, some good basic wisdom

[Dennies Chung · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great investment book for all - serves as a great intro for beginners and as a great refresher for experienced investors looking to restart/refresh goals. This book structures different asset classes really well, what advantages they provide (e.g. income, long-term growth, hedges against inflation, etc.). Mr. Darst also highlights and emphasizes the importance of asset allocation and setting yourself up for investment success. This book also helped me to think about my investment goals a little more and what I wanted to achieve. I'm not really sure why, but I never made real goals for myself financially after getting out of debt. My main goal was to make as much money in the shortest time that I could (whose goal isn't to make money in the shortest period of time?). This book helped me to lay out timelines for myself, and what I should be earning should I hit certain milestones. Great book overall that made me think about short-term, medium-term, and long-term financial goals.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would give this book one more star if it hadn't arrived in my mailbox the day after the stock market crashed. There is a lot of good information here, but the book only helps to get you started doing your own research into asset allocation. If you're looking for information such as, I'm 35, plan to retire in X years, and have X in my 401k, how should I allocate it to be probably diversified, look somewhere else.

[Mike Green]

Great Book covering everything about Asset Allocation. Redo once a year. Unclefrank(TrustedOutsider/signalfromnoise/luckvsskill),BuildHouse(Needsbased Alocation/Bonds{Safe-Income}Stock{Growth-Ownership}Real-estate{Tangelble-Growth-Onership}Comodities{PriceMoves}Medals{PurchasPower}VC{Growth}Futures{TrendExploit}Hedge{Market Inefficient}InflationIndexSecurity(InflationHedge)Art{?})Match Asset to Goal,ObjectiveBasedAssetAllocation(1.InflationProtect{Stocks}2.Growth{stocks}

[Wendy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is not the best investment book. it says the same thing they all say, using quirky anecdotes and gimmicks to appeal to baby boomers.
The best small book of investing is The only investing book you'll ever need by Tobias.