Investing Made Simple: Index Fund Investing and ETF Investing Explained in 100 Pages or Less

by Mike Piper

Find all of the following explained in plain-English with no technical

Asset What does it mean, why is it so important, and how should you determine your own?

How to Pick Mutual Learn how to choose funds that are mathematically certain to outperform the majority of other mutual funds.

Roth IRA vs. Traditional IRA vs. 401(k): What's the difference, and how should you choose between them?

Financial Learn what to look for as well as pitfalls to avoid.

Frequent Investor Learn the most common mistakes and what you can do to avoid them.

Calculate Your Retirement Learn how to calculate how much you'll need saved in order to retire.


Who Is This Book For?

Anyone who has questions about investing, but who doesn’t want to trudge through a 300-page textbook.



What This Book Is

This book is not a great work of literary art.

This book is not going to make you an absolute expert on the topic, and

This book is not going to provide you with a way to get rich overnight.



What it will do (hopefully) is provide an easy-to-understand, concise introduction to the topic of prudent investing.

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

118 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Sherif · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very simple and easy illustrated but with a very distinctive impression on me... really that is the truth which this book speaks about...I recommend it far ....

[Wes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple beginners info

Simple book that covers the basics and then describes funds all the while telling you to go with low cost index funds

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Piper's first part, "The Basics," goes over financial literacy terminology and concepts:
Stock v bonds v funds,
401k and Traditional (pre-tax deposit, taxed withdrawal) v Roth IRA's (after-tax deposit, untaxed withdrawal),
and basics of budgeting, risk and inflation.

In part two, Piper echoes many of the ideas put forth by other personal finance experts. Only trade funds, you are not smart enough to know which exact stocks to pick, and in all likelihood, no one on earth is ('successful' fund managers with past success are just as likely to have simply gotten lucky several years in a row).
A wise investor should go with index funds, as they have consistent returns, low fees and little portfolio turnover which minimizes taxes.
If low-cost index funds aren't available within one's 401k plan, prioritize the lowest expense ratio and portfolio turnover options.
For asset allocation, Piper offers a bond to stock fund rule, where bond percentage is equal to age. You can differ from this depending on your volatility tolerance (this may be psychological, or even longevity based, as those who live longer have more time for volatility to average out), my family, for example, would consider this extremely conservative. Somewhere between 20 - 40 % of stocks should be international. As a side note, John Bogle recommends less than 20%, but consensus seems to be one Piper's side.
Intervals between 'rebalances' to maintain or adjust asset allocation should be on a timeframe longer than one year. You also shouldn't really be checking on your funds more often than that, as seeing dips or hikes can make staying the course difficult.

In the third and final part, Piper again emphasizes staying the course, not peeking, and not responding to bear and bull markets. He gives some advice on seeking out good financial advisors with strong fiduciary responsibility. Piper ends on a few sections recommending automated investing techniques and urges the reader to steer clear of newsletters and media sensationalism more broadly.

[Linda Carroll · Rating 3 out of 5]

Missing info on Bonds/Bond Funds

I would say this is a decent overview for the brand new investor, except he left out any explanation of bonds/bond funds and why they should be included in a portfolio. This is a glaring oversight that makes the book less useful than it could have been.

[katie reynolds wilbanks · Rating 4 out of 5]

great for beginners, helpful reminders about humility in finance, and allocation advice :-)

[Hugo Fostin Hokianto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple to read, yet informative. This is one of the books that requires less pages and lengths to understand a topic, yet it covers pretty much everything you need to know about investing (and specifically index funds). The book gives reader a whole summary of investments and index funds, with easy to understand language and very relatable examples for easy understanding. The further reading list is also a strong list too, by giving out some of the best books to read if the reader is interested in reading more.

Shame I didn't read this book first when I start investing, but nonetheless, its very educative and I'm benefited from reading this book.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a no-nonsense, no-frills guide to investing. While I am a novice on the subject, I can't really rate it for content of information, but I can at the very least say it is simple and straightforward, and presents it's arguments and evidence and sources in an easily-accessible way.

I would recommend this for high school and older aged-readers. Non explicit language or graphic sex or violence. Three stars.

[Adam Harnish · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful little book that tells me everything I need to know about investing. I won’t ever touch any stocks or bonds outside of this instruction manual. I may be interested in private investing with individual companies, but it helped clear up a complicated subject and remind me that I don’t need to “dive in” to all the stock talk that’s on YouTube and whatnot. It’s super short, and it’s not really a book per-se, but it was very helpful.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent, brief overview of a broad swath of investing. Probably useful for those who have recently started earning more than they spend and want to get some guidance on building wealth.

IMO, his take on ETFs vs mutual funds seems kind of dated, at least for taxable accounts. A page discussing the tendency for mutual funds to produce taxable phantom gains, which the ETFs generally avoid, is relevant to choosing between them.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked how this book tried to explain matters in laymens terms. I understand that they wanted the book to be brief but I would have loved for them to explain the difference between index and etf a little more.

[Nayef Kazzaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good as a starting point

Has some good advice specially again for low to mid income (less than 100000) . Promotes index fund which makes sense yet other issues such as limited employer choice is not put into prospective.

[Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very easy read. Can read in an hour. I recommend it for anyone who doesn't know anything about investing or hasn't heard of the strategy of investing in low-cost index funds for successful investing.

[Jeremy Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solid, succinct overview of the basics

Good overview of basics that is short enough people not super interested in finances may actually read it. Probably will become my go-to basic financial literacy book to give away.

[Matthew Kern · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book does as its title implies, teaches simple investing. A great and quick read if you are new to investing and want some clear and fundamental advice.

[Zach · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book reflects the ideas and simple approach to investing I have heard from other sources. It makes a lot of Vernacular much easier to understand.

[Oleg Malikov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very simple ideas and useful information for investors.
Geared towards individual investors, who are starting out.
Good read.

[Sam Fink · Rating 3 out of 5]

A simple although superficial summary.

[Amr · Rating 4 out of 5]

A simple summary, yet leaves much to explore.

[Darren Bailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Read

Very solid read on investing took some pointers that will surely improve my strategy for now and in the future.

[Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good at defining the basic terms used in investing so you can understand what a mutual fund is ect. Also gives a quick overview of how you should invest and how behavior plays in.

[David Castellano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful for those seeking to gain knowledge on the stock market.

[Theodora (paper.bag.reader) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple, a good refresher of the basics, and a good starting point in general. Most of the principles you need are here, as for the implementation, there's other books to help with that

[Jeremy PERREAU · Rating 5 out of 5]

Instructive, read for trading. Learned quite useful basics to better understand how this whole finance world works

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s a helpful little book.