The Only Guide You'll Ever Need for the Right Financial Plan: Managing Your Wealth, Risk, and Investments

by Larry E. Swedroe, Kevin Grogan, Tiya Lim

An accessible guide that outlines the key elements of an effective financial plan From Larry Swedroe, the author of the bestselling series of "The Only Guide" investment books, with Kevin Grogan and Tiya Lim comes a step-by-step handbook that shows you how to develop a winning personal investment strategy and reveals what it takes to make that strategy part of your overall financial plan. The Only Guide You'll Ever Need for the Right Financial Plan focuses on the "art" of investing and gives you the information you need to create a strategy that is tailor-made for your particular situation. Designed for savvy investors and professional advisors, this book offers the vital information needed for developing and implementing an overall strategic financial plan. In this essential resource, Swedroe outlines the basics in asset allocation and other investment planning concepts. The Only Guide You'll Ever Need for the Right Financial Plan offers a handy tool to help you make more informed and prudent decisions that will go a long way to ensure a secure financial future.

Genres: Finance, Nonfiction, Personal Finance, Money

240 pages, Hardcover

First published July 2, 2010

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

You’re likely to be a fan of this book if you accept two premises: 1.) passively managed, low-expense, index funds or ETFs generally are better investment vehicles than actively managed funds; and 2.) Determining and maintaining the proper asset allocation among fund types is a better path to achieving your investment goals than attempting to time the markets. The text is organized into four parts and seventeen chapters that attempt to cover financial planning from beginning (creating a personal investment policy statement) to end (estate planning and preparing your heirs). People with some exposure to financial planning probably will be able to follow the author’s thought process most of the time. Occasionally, I got lost, such as when he describes “efficient frontier models” (no matter, he doesn’t believe in them, anyway), or when he plows his way through a long list of alternative investments like “covered calls” (which he doesn’t recommend). He describes as well as anyone I’ve read the reasons why your home probably doesn’t add real estate diversification to your portfolio, mainly because one home can never be as diverse as the total real estate market. One new (for me) and counter-intuitive thought I’m still pondering is his assertion that a small allocation of collateralized commodity futures may reduce the overall volatility of your portfolio in a way similar to fixed-income instruments. I was introduced to Swedroe’s work by Jack Naldi, who used to write a personal investing column for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Naldi is a champion of passive investing strategy, which probably did nothing to attract advertising dollars from financial services providers, and may be one reason that his tenure didn’t seem to last very long.

[James Varghese · Rating 4 out of 5]

A textbook, but one worth having around

A (very) dry read but this is a good book to have around as a reference since it covers so many investment vehicles and questions. However, as a how to book for setting up your own financial plan, there are better options.

[Kristi · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't finish

[Karan Malhotra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good summary of Swedroe's other works

[Brian Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good overview of financial planning for personal/family use. Swedroe is insightful, and bases his advice on the latest academic research. About half the book is about investing and asset allocation across various asset classes (and even sub-classes using the latest factors-based research on the additional risk premiums associated with company size and valuation). The rest of the book talks about tax management, insurance, and estate planning. Overall I liked this book because it covered much more than just investing. (I've read many books on investing ... but none on the broader aspects of a total financial plan.) This book also introduced me to the academic research that Swedroe uses in his work, which is helpful in constructing a more diversified, risk-managed portfolio that still maximizes expected returns.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not an introductory book. It covers investing very well, particularly asset allocation. It's discussion of passive verse active investing is excellent.
On risk, Swedroe advises considering ability (timeline), willingness (gutcheck) and need to withstand risk. It is very good coverage of risk. It does a particularly good job of illuminating the risk of striving for more wealth, when you have sufficient to meet your needs.
Swedroe is very conservative on fixed income. He argues for a lot of it and all of it should be in TIPS, Treasuries or AAA/AA corporate bonds. This is conservative on a level that approaches Bernstein.
This is the first Swedroe book I've read. At times, I could have used more discussion of topics and/or some sample asset allocations, I expect this is covered in other books that I haven't read. On the whole, very good coverage of investing.

[Rich Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is very well written and full of good information and things to think about. It's probably best for a reader who is already familiar with basic investing principles. It leans towards passive indexed investing plans and gives good arguments for it (think Vanguard Funds and John Bogle). The discussion on asset location, what goes in a tax sheltered account as opposed to a regular account, had points I hadn't considered and was very useful. I'll definitely look at some of his other Only Guides.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great book. Very clear, with details other books haven't covered. I found myself on the Bogleheads forum and seeing that nearly every question being asked, from the effect of Social Security on the risk profile of a retirement portfolio to the value of judicious tax-loss harvesting, had been covered very clearly by Swedroe. Considering a purchase of this book to keep on my shelf for future reference.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really excellent financial guide. It assumes a pretty substantial financial knowledge base and builds on it smartly and convincingly. I finished it and think I should probably just re-read it again now.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't get all of the way through this one. It had a lot of information and good information at that. It was just a bit repeatable. I think that a book like this is better read in chunks, not all at once.

Excellent reference though

[Jigar Dave]

Good book, Can serve as a great financial education for starters. However the writer is only thinking in terms of American public. Some of the savings and investment instruments mentioned are not available in other countries.

[Lyndsay Goody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent financial guide.

[Zee]

Read the whole book but chapters 7 and 8 are good explanations of how to a build a portfolio.

[Henry]

Broad and shallow. There is some good stuff, like remembering that you 19re keeping 15% (or 25% or whatever your retirement marginal tax rate will be) of your 401k for the federal government.