The Investment Answer: Learn to Manage Your Money & Protect Your Financial Future

by Gordon S. Murray, Gordon S. Murray

The Investment Answer shows you, in clear and understandable language, how to take control of your finances and think about investing in a different way. Whether you are new to finance or an experienced investor, this book is essential reading. Former United States Senator Bill Bradley says that "every American should read this book," and Bob Waterman, co-author of In Search of Excellence, remarks, "if I could give only one book on investing to my friends and family, this one would be it."

This book cuts through the Wall Street hype to give you just what you need to know. Joe Grundfest, Stanford Law School Professor and former SEC Commissioner, says that "Gordon Murray and Dan Goldie share secrets that Wall Street would rather you not know. Read this book and prosper."

The Investment Answer will teach you to take advantage of how markets really work and how to benefit from the wisdom that Nobel Prize winners have acquired over the last 60 years. Nobel Laureate and Father of Modern Portfolio Theory, Harry Markowitz, remarks that "the book offers sound advice, which you will rarely if ever get from a daily financial newscast." Gene Fama, widely recognized as the father of modern finance, says that the book is "an excellent primer for the investor who is not a finance specialist."

You probably know the important measures of your physical health: your weight, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels. But do you know the important measures about your investment health? Is your advisor is a fiduciary who really works for you or for his firm? What is your percentage mix of stocks, bonds, and cash? How much you are paying in fees and investment-related taxes?

Most of us can't answer these important financial questions...but we must. This book will help you become a smarter investor and a better steward of your money.

Genres: Finance, Nonfiction, Business, Personal Finance, Money, Economics, Self Help

85 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 2010

Reviews

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

My dad gave me this book in 2011. I thought it was ok, though he wrote all over the margins never to use a financial advisor so I'm not sure this book where they recommend financial advisors (as financial advisors themselves not shocking) was the best choice. Was a little annoyed by the male pronoun throughout, never gender neutral or she. Women need an investment answer too!

[Paul Eckert · Rating 3 out of 5]

To call this book the investment “answer” is a bit of a misnomer. Or rather, it would’ve helped to know what the “question” was.

There are no hard and fast answer in this book, as the title may lead one to believe. Of course, there are no easy answers when it comes to investing, and this book admits this up front. Rather, the aim of The Investment Answer is to simplify the various facets of investing into a set of decisions one must make, and this the authors do very well.

According to the authors, the five decisions an investor must make are:
1. Should I do it myself, or go with a financial advisor?
2. What kinds of assets should I invest in? (stocks, bonds, cash, etc)
3. How should I diversify my portfolio?
4. Should I actively or passively manage my investments?
5. When and how should I rebalance my portfolio?

Overall, I think the authors make a really good case in most categories. They show the reader how actively managed funds rarely beat their benchmark, and how different assets perform over time. In each category they caution investors against making the type of mistakes that people are coaxed into making by popular media, like the idea that one can beat the market. And with each type of investment, they talk briefly warn about the risk involved.

The only problem I had was the authors’ endorsement of financial advisors. I don’t understand why, in an age where it’s easier than ever before for someone to do their own investing online, someone would need a financial advisor. Perhaps if you have more money than you know what to do with, they could be an option. However, they provide plenty of data to show that few people ever beat the market, and almost never with consistency. Where is the data that shows that financial advisors outperform DIY investors? Their claim is that financial advisors have resources available to them, but if all the research in the world can’t beat a simple index, what is a financial advisor going to differently? In my view, if someone has educated themselves about investing, they can just as easily do what a financial advisor does, and much cheaper. Even if he doesn’t achieve the returns that an advisor does, he may make a similar return because he doesn’t have to pay the advisor a percentage of his investments.

On the plus side, they do differentiate between the different types of advisors, and which ones rarely work in your favor.

All in all, the book provides a good foundation for investment knowledge, and it does filter out all (or most) of the bad information one gets from popular media, as well as providing the sensible alternative. I’ve educated myself quite a bit in personal finance, and I still learned a few things. The structure of their “decisions” is easy to remember and provides a starting point for every investor.

I recommend it. Hell, it’s only 60 pages, and it could open your eyes to simplifying your investing life.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Where I got the book: my local library.

Trying to get a better handle on money...a bit late possibly at 53! This book was recommended to me by a financial advisor. It's very much oriented to the stock market rather than money management as a whole (and explains why) but for a short read I found it to be pretty thought-provoking. It promotes a very straightforward, unaggressive approach to investing which, while it probably won't make anyone rich, is less likely to leave you with an empty portfolio and a bitter heart.

I learned some things:

- the differences between different types of financial advisor, and whether or not they have a fiduciary relationship with their clients;
- the difference between active and passive portfolio management;
- why it's a good idea to rebalance your portfolio regularly;
- why stocks and bonds tend to be a better deal than fancy-schmany investment instruments.

Hmm. With old age (I won't say retirement because neither of us WANTS to retire) looming ever closer and the interest on bank accounts a joke, such matters are worth investigating. If you already have opinions on the stock market, you'll probably hate this book. But if you're like me and just want someone to suggest a relatively low-risk strategy, go ahead and breeze through its 96 pages.

[Konstantinos Boulis · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was highly recommended by investment advisors and after reading it, it became clear why. It recommends a fee-based investment advisor but without explaining why.

The rest of the advice in this book - stick with index funds, rein on your emotions when the market is up or down, rebalance your portfolio - is pretty basic and if you have been slightly interested in investment you have heard all of this before. The upside is that this book is short and does not beat around the Bush.

[Kashif · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why this book was written: 90 page book that lay out how to invest your money

Summary: VERY QUICKLY walks the reader through the main factors of investing and provides, quick, dirty and time tested answers.

Q1: Do it yourself or hire help?
- Hire help, but mind the fees

Q2: How to Allocate Assets?
- Stocks for high risk/high gain, and cash for low risk, low gain
- More stocks when you're younger (deduct your age from 100 for the rough percentage)

Q3: How to Diversify?
- Uncorrelated/reverse correlated stocks
- Domestic and international stocks
- Index mutual funds

Q4: When to Rebalance Portfolio?
- When market ups and downs cause your portfolio's percentage allocation to change

Q5: Passive vs Active Investing?
- Always Passive On index funds and the like. Because active managers never win due to efficient markets and fees

Conclusion: A 90 page book that might make you rich one day.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very quick read that will be of particular use to new or relatively inexperienced investors but which also contains tidbits for the more experienced. Its strength lies in its brevity and clarity. It lays out the strong case for the buy and hold, passively manage, index, and periodically rebalance strategy. It uses sample portfolios to help illustrate these concepts. It debunks some of the most costly myths that cause people to waste money attempting to “beat” the market and serves as a good antidote to much of the hype and sales talk we hear daily from brokers. It also starts off with a helpful section on picking a financial adviser.

[Josiah Richardson · Rating 3 out of 5]

“There is nothing so disturbing to one’s well-being and judgement as to see a friend get rich.”
- Charles Kindleberger

“The right time to invest is when you have the money and the right time to sell is when you need the money.”
- The Investment Answer

“October is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks. The others are July, January, September, April, November, April, May, March, June, December, August, and February.”
- Mark Twain

Goldie and Murray are two individuals who have been in finance most of their lives and have witnessed the way that wall street brokers, investment firms, and your good buddy who has a “can’t lose’ investment tip for you, have led to financial ruin for far too many Americans. To combat this problem, they have compiled a short book with the necessary information you need to make an informed investment decision. They provide five different decisions that must be considered before moving forward with any investment.
1. The Do-it-yourself Decision: Should you try to invest on your own or seek help from an investment professional? And if so, which type of advisor is best?
2. The Asset Allocation Decision: How should you allocate your investments among stocks (equities), binds (fixed income), and cash (money market funds)?
3. The Diversification Decision: Which specific asset classes within these broad categories should you include in your portfolio, and in what proportions?
4. The Active versus Passive Decision: Should you favor an actively managed approach to investing that seeks to outsmart the marker, or a more passive approach that delivers market-like returns?
5. The Rebalancing Decision: When should you sell certain assets in your portfolio and when should you buy more?
The authors believe that whether you recognize it or not, you are answering these questions subconsciously in every one of your investing experiences, but you must think it through further in an informed manner if you want to be successful.

1. DIY Decision: In our autonomous culture, the do-it-yourself (DIY) method is usually the first method of action for most of us; but the authors encourage us to give this further thought. In hardly any other field of expertise do we decide to do something with higher risk without consulting someone with experience. Nobody is performing Gallbladder surgery on themselves or replacing an engine or transmission on their car themselves unless they have full confidence in the outcome beforehand. Yet in the world of finance, this is typically what we do because we believe it isn’t that complex. The authors encourage us to rethink this because the system is set up so that uniformed investors lose money while informed investors or financial professionals with superior resources gain that money for themselves on the market. This is not one of those things where the authors are arguing to just trust the experts or something, this is backed up by the relevant data. In 2009, two years before the release of this book, the average stock fund investor earned a paltry 3.2 percent annually versus the 8.2 percent for the S&P 500 index. The average bond investor earned only 1.0 percent annually versus the Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond index return of 7.0 percent. From 1990-2009, the average stock fund investor barely beat inflation, which means that he barely grew his money at all. This is likely because the average investor is in fear of investing when markets are down and instead tends to invest when they are at or near market highs. Additional causes for lower returns can be an overconfidence in either the market or your own investment skills, an attraction to rising prices and assuming that past performance is indicative of future results, a herd mentality where we follow what everyone else is investing, a fear of regret over potential losses that keep us from investing, affinity traps that encourage us to invest because someone we trust recommended it, among many other things.

If you agree with the authors that you really need a professional to help you through your investments, then your next step is choosing which type of advisor you need. A retail broker or an independent, fee-only advisor. Retail brokers typically offer either a classic brokerage account or an investment advisory account. Brokerage accounts are to the benefit of the firm the retail broker works for and are not held to the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (IAA1940). Under this account, brokers are better compensated for generating more trades, better compensated for selling certain investment products, and are limited to selling the investment products that are approved by his firm. In an investment advisory account (Managed account), your broker has a financial commitment to you and is held to the IAA1940, which eliminates a lot of potential abuse but also has drawbacks. The investment products are still approved by the firm he works for and many of those investment managers and mutual funds are probably paying his firm to be on the approved list. Another drawback is that what is approved by one firm may not be approved by another, and if you ever needed or wanted to switch firms, you may be forced to sell your investments which may incur costly capital gains or lose any additional gains from retaining the investments. Many brokers do not like to disclose that they are not in fact an independent advisor and will tell you they are independent because they are not employees of a Wall Street firm, but this is deceptive because they are still employees or contractors of one of the many thousand brokerage houses across the USA. Simply ask if they are a registered representative, which is the technical term that all brokerages use – if they are, then they are not independent.

By contrast, Independent, fee-only advisors are typically more closely aligned with their clients because they are without any of the aforementioned constraints that a retail broker has. Fees are set percentages of the money that is managed for you and the compensation that he receives only comes from his clients, not from the investments he selects or moving money between investments. They use third-party custodians, like Charles Schwab or Fidelity, to hold your investments. This ensures your money and investments are only attached to you and your advisor has limited authority to manage the funds. Any advisor that wants to take custody of your money, like Bernie Madoff and others did, is trying to take advantage of you. An advisor then is a fiduciary who must put your interests ahead of his own – and this bears repeating, a broker is working for his firm while independent fee-only advisors are working for you.

So how should you choose an investment advisor? Well, you must make sure that you both share the same investment philosophy to reduce any potential rifts and you want to ensure that there is a personal connection and trust between you both. After all, you are likely going to have him manage your investments for many years. Beyond these things, some housekeeping items are that he is professionally qualified (Such as CFP,CFA, or CPA designations), a proper educational background for the field, has experience in finance, knowing his business structure and the services that are offered, and the type of clients that he typically works for.

2. Asset Allocation Decision: There are generally two ways to invest in a company; the first is through stocks or equities, which are ownership interests in a company that have both higher risks and higher returns. The second is through fixed income, or bonds, which are glorified I.O.U’s to an entity like a business, state, or government and are considered lower risk and lower return investments. There are risks to any investment, but some of the more prominent risks are Credit Risks where the company’s credit quality decreases, as well as Inflation Risk where the return on your investment diminishes because the currency diminishes, and maturity Risks where your return on investments are pushed further into the future, and of course Market Risk where things tend to go both up and down alongside every other stock. At the end of the day, the common denominator in all measures of risk is the uncertainty of future results.

It is a market certainty that low volatility portfolios end up with more wealth than high volatility portfolios. A portfolio that is down 50 percent requires a 100 percent appreciation just to get back to even. But a portfolio that is down just 8.0 percent only needs a recovery of just 8.7 percent to make up for the loss. There are no low risk/high expected return investments, and this is a feature of our free market system. But we can favor one sort of asset class (which is a group of similar investment securities that share common and objectively defined risk and return characteristics) over another. Small company stocks tend to be riskier and carry larger returns than larger companies, which makes sense then that the higher returns are simply rewards for taking greater risks. Another consideration is choosing between value or growth companies – value stocks have low stock prices relative to their underlying accounting measures such as book value, sales and earnings whereas growth stocks have high stock prices relative to their underlying accounting measures. Wall street would have you believe that your investment results are determined by your timing of when to get in and out of the market, picking the right stocks and bonds, and finding the top performing managers or mutual fund. But this is not the case according to the authors, because the primary driver of investment returns is risk, particularly the riskiness of the asset classes that you have in your portfolio and how you allocate your dollars among them. This is the Asset Allocation decision.
You need to focus on your desired mix of cash, bond, or stock investments because this is the single most important investment decision you will make. In Cash, you should be investing as much as you might need to quickly pull from those funds – typically any amounts that are required in less than one year should be invested in your cash equivalents. Stocks and Bonds are good for balancing each other out since stocks have a high volatility and bonds reduce that volatility.

3. The Diversification Decision: In order to reduce risk on your investments, you must diversify them and create what is known as a blended portfolio. If you invest solely in technology, if there is ever a crash in that sector then you lose money across the board. Diversifying will in turn will cause you to accurately focus on the performance of your portfolio as a whole instead of one individual component. Domestic stocks are less than half of the market value, so while it is important to invest in those, you should also look to international stocks to diversify. This applies to domestic bonds and international bonds as well to properly reduce your overall risk. While this chapter was the shortest, it may be the most financially important.

4. The Active versus Passive Decision: There are two tactics when it comes to being in the investment market; the first is to be active in the market and attempt to beat it through a variety of techniques. The other alternative is to be passive and avoid subjective forecasts to deliver normal and expected returns. The Efficient Market Hypothesis states that no investor will consistently beat the market over long periods except by chance. People who try to disprove this hypothesis are consistently unsuccessful as the data shows that most funds fail to beat their respective benchmarks. This does not mean that the market prices are always correct, but simply that it values them randomly and unpredictably to the point where no investor can outperform another investor.

Most active managers attempt to beat the market through either market timing or security selection. Market timing is exactly what it sounds like when the manager attempts to invest or pull funds based on his prediction of the market future. Since nobody can predict the future, and there are countless market bursts of gains and losses, it is nearly impossible to predict the market timing without insider information. Security selection is when there is an active attempt to find the securities that are mispriced by the market with the hope that the market will correct itself and the securities will outperform. But as the authors state, markets work because no single investor can profit at the expense of other investors.

Passive investing is a more sensible approach that can lead to consistent investment returns. Indexing, the process of purchasing all the securities in a benchmark index in the same proportions as the index, is the most popular form of passive investing. In comparison to passive managers, active managers incur higher expenses, they experience increased turnover and are exposed to greater tax exposure.

5. The Rebalancing decision: When your portfolio needs adjusted, not due to any market forecasts but because it has drifted from your asset class percentage, this is called rebalancing. This is needed when some investments have higher losses or gains than normal and shift the proportion of your investments in one direction. You can fix this by adding new income to your portfolio, withdrawing money from equity, or selling an investment and reinvesting elsewhere. This sounds counterintuitive to sell the ones doing well and buy more of the ones doing poorly, but rebalancing is an automatic way to buy low and sell high.

Most rebalancing happens on set schedules, like every quarter, but it must be done. After going through a careful selection of your risk levels, risk tolerance, time horizon, and other factors, you do not want to let the market disrupt your portfolio.

As an introduction to finance, this short work gives you five safe rules for engaging in the markets. But do not look for anything more in depth than that in this work - it won't be found.

[Rebekah]

So concise and easy to read!

[Mariah · Rating 5 out of 5]

My dad gave me this book like 5 years ago and annotated it. It took me one subway ride from cobble hill to the upper west side to read it. Very accessible, makes investing seem simple and like something you can accomplish without much experience just with simple guidelines.

[Walt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book effectively challenges every popular conception pertaining to personal finance and investment. Condensed into a very small book, the authors systematically argue against active investing and get-rich quick dreams that many investors harbor.

The book is guided by five questions that does not so much answer questions but prepares investors for when meeting financial advisers. The book gives some practical advice - avoid active money managers - but generally offers advice on what to look for in an adviser.

The book is short on details preferring simple sentences to explanations. There are no suggested readings, bibliography, or notes. Readers are expected to trust the authors. Judging by the considerable mass of positive reviews (which is why I read the book), a lot of people do trust them. The only negative reviews concerned the shortness of explanation and lack of further readings.

Recommended for those investors who have not taken any courses in finance or business. Even those who have taken such courses can probably benefit.

[Caleb · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was very good overall and gives a realistic expectation for how to invest well. To sum it up my main takeaways:

1. Cultivate a relationship with an investment advisor (fiduciary). Inform him of personal goals, personal events, personality,
2. If you are young, your youth is your biggest asset in growing your equity! Be willing to be more risky than if you were 70. By more risky, I don’t think it means small caps only, but your ratio of stocks to bonds will be greater than if you are about to retire.

I wish the authors would have spoken on commodities a little more.

[Viraj · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the two authors (Dan) was Wimbledon quarter-finalist! The book has good information succinctly given with a good financial advice similar to the ones by John Bogle and Burton Malkiel. in short, invest in stock market with index funds with good diversification (international vs. US, stocks and bonds) and keep rebalancing annually to match / beat the market over the long term. Avoid timing the market and high fee / trading. Excellent succinct and good advice for most folks.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

For us seasoned investors, this is pretty basic. However, this is still 90-95% of how investing is done (if you want to actually make money). I gave it 5 stars simply due to the "alternative investments" section where they discuss things like hedge funds and commodities. Also, the small blurb where they talk about how adding some risk to your portfolio can actually reduce your risk exposure is something everyone should know.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hated this book, but that is because I take an active role in managing my money, not just ship it off for someone else to worry about.

It does give somewhat good advice if you don't want to learn anything.

The "answer" is to hire someone else to think about your money.

Oh and diversify against a range of asset classes, stick with index funds, rebalance your holdings at regular intervals.

Solid advice, but could have been given in a couple pages.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book doesn't reveal much new. It also begins by talking about what kind of advisor one should use. Considering that one author is a CFA/CFP there is a pretty huge bias here and there is a bit of denial there by putting that as the first chapter. It is possible that author's address the downsides of adding an advisor but I didn't see it or get the feeling it would be there.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

Goldie's #1 suggestion: hire a professional investment manager because it is too complicated to manage by yourself.
Goldie's #2 suggestion: invest passively in indices because no manager is able to beat the system.

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book about investing. Debunks a lot of the mystery. I'll read it again.

[Erica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yep, I need to get a financial planner.

[Claudio · Rating 5 out of 5]

It takes around one hour to read and it's a must if you don't know where to start with your investment strategies.

[~JC · Rating 1 out of 5]

More of a brochure than a book. Useful if your looking for the briefest of overviews on investment terms and broad strokes of theory

[Javier · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is about investing according to the efficient market hypothesis, which I believe is total garbage.

[Chris Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are 5 investment decisions:

1. The Do-It-Yourself Decision
2. The Asset Allocation Decision
3. The Diversification Decision
4. The Active versus Passive Decision
5. The Rebalancing Decision

The Do-It-Yourself decision is deciding whether to manage your investment finances yourself or to hire someone. The book highly recommends that you hire someone. Many people do home remodeling themselves the book takes the tact that managing investments is more like a doctor. You want expert advice and the wrong decisions in your investments could be catastrophic similar to your health. The book then makes a comparison between a brokerage advisor or a independent, fee-only advisor. The recommendation is to use a independent, fee-only advisor primarily because the brokerage advisor might not always be working in your best interest. The independent advisor has a fiduciary duty to act in your best interest. The book then covers information to gather to make a decision on a independent advisor and how your account should be setup.

The Asset-Allocation decision is making a decision on the split of cash, equities (stocks), and fixed income (bonds) of your investment portfolio. The decision on this split is based on an individuals tolerance for risk--the higher the risk the higher the return but also the higher the volatility. The book discusses The books discusses why small company stock has a higher risk and higher overall return than large company stock. The same with value versus growth stocks. Also, when buying bonds, to buy high-quality, short-term bonds, because you are buying these to reduce your risk and you don't want these assets to increase your portfolio risk.

The Diversification decision is when you have made your general asset class mix (cash-stocks-bonds) then you need to make sure that you have a diversified assets in these classes. They give the example of a person who works for a technology company and has his company's stock. He wants to diversify but buys other technology stock. Many times the market moves in tandem for a particular asset class, e.g., technology stocks. They make the recommendation that you look for assets in multiple classes in order to build a diversified investment portfolio. They also make the case to include international assets as well as domestic.

The Active versus Passive decision is that there are funds that are "actively" managed and others that are "passively" managed. "Actively" managed funds try to have better returns than the market, but these funds also charge a higher rate. "Passive" funds match the market and are charge significantly less that active funds. The recommendation is to use passive funds, because these will have a higher return over the years. There were studies cited that back this up.

The Rebalancing decision is make sure that on a schedule that you are continuing to readjust your portfolio to match you goals set under the Asset Allocation decision. Over time, your portfolio will be out of balance with your Asset Allocation decision and this would re-adjust your portfolio to match. The book discusses different ways to do thi.

The book then discusses a couple of other topics like how to determine if your portfolio is performing and also looking at alternatives (hedge funds, private equity, commodities)--probably a current one would be cryptocurrency.

If you follow the advise in this book, you have the answer to investing successfully.

I did read after completing this book that one of the authors--Gordon Murray--died within the year after this book was published. His diagnosis of brain tumors was what drove the authors to write and complete the book.

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 1 out of 5]

this review says everything you need to know!

Amazone

Warren Buffett has much better advice for the ordinary investor
2/10

This book is just a rehash of Financial Planning 101 for CFPs in order for them to sell their services. The supporting charts are nothing more than "hypothetical" illustrations, not reality and prove nothing.

Warren Buffett's advice is to put your money in a low cost S&P Index Fund and sit on it. That will outperform every planner I've met in 60 years of investing.

See Buffett's comments regarding his bet with a hedge fund manager in the Berkshire Hathaway annual reports of 2016 and 2017 for some of the best investing counsel you will ever read.

Wild Goose

---

definitely a sour reader with a sour experience! lol


Buy the top 7 stocks in Berkshire Hathaway and bite your nails once a year and readjust your portfolio [maybe]

sell whenever you think you're done

me I just think the smaller the book, the more filler

[Maureen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy read about investing; the author states only need to make 5 informed decisions to take advantage of wise investing. These 5 decisions are:
1. the do-it-yourself decision - do you want help from an investment professional and what type:
2. the asset allocation decision - percentage of equities, bonds and cash you want in your portfolio;
3. the diversification decisions; which specific asset classes within the broad categories do you include in your portfolio;
4. the active vs. passive decision- do you want to actively manage your portfolio or a more passive approach that delivers market-like returns;
5. the rebalancing decision - when to sell and when to buy to maintain the balance you had determined in 2 and 3 above.
Remember past performance is not indicative of future results and it is the performance of your whole portfolio as a whole that matters.

[Tim Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Investment Answer is fairly simple and straight forward and yet, I wouldn't recommend it to someone just starting out in the world of investing. To some degree every book published on investing deals with the questions of risk tolerance, asset allocation, and rebalancing. They argue that investing is too complicated to learn and that you should leave to a fee-only professional adviser. But what if your goal is to learn how to do it on your own? It won't help much because every explanation is cursory due to the fact that from the outset, the assumption is that you'll be working with an adviser.

It's not that the information is bad. More time is dedicated toward what different advisers do and how to pick one, than on learning about the asset classes and how to navigate the investment world.

[minhhai · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very concise book on personal investment. The advice are clear, straighforward and simple. They align very well from other financial workshops I attended.

I agree with most, if not all, the advice in the book: let's play a defensive personal investment and stay to the mean. There are chances for one to "beat the market" but that requires extra investment in time and effort, so the total benefit would be minimal.

The book doesn't go too far into how much (percentage) one should invest in bonds, stocks, etc. Although that is almost of personal preference, a quick guideline will be very helpful for those who are new to investment like myself. This book provide a general advice on diversification, but it's totally up to readers to design their porfolios.

[Kaylah Hancock · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a short, simple book to get your feet wet about investment. There wasn't much that I learned from the book, but that is because I majored in finance and this knowledge is pretty much ingrained into you. This would be a good book for someone who doesn't know a thing about investing and it gets the mind thinking.

It was a good and bad thing that it was so short. On one hand it was concise and got straight to the point (I finished this in about an hour and a half), but on the other hand it's very broad and high level, and I missed some more in depth analysis.

[Derek DeMars · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to read this for work and as someone totally new to investing, this was a somewhat helpful primer. It nicely lays out the various kinds of investment options & terminology, and gives a well-informed argument for the value of setting up a diversified investment portfolio rather than trying to play the market. Very basic stuff, probably won't be too helpful to those already more experienced. Leans hard into plugging for financial advisors which, again, won't be helpful/necessary to those already managing their own finances or those who don't have a lot of assets.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick book that doesn’t necessarily give you a “financial answer” (since that doesn’t really exist), but it does provide insight to those new to the investing world about what decisions they might need to make, but I don’t think you necessarily need a book for that.

It is a little dated and most people today probably don’t need a financial advisor, but other than that, it’s important to consider the types of assets (stocks, ETFs, bonds), diversification of the portfolio, actively/passively manage your portfolio, and the need to rebalance from time to time.

[Kelly Lynn Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short, simple book on investing that walks you through five main questions you need to ask yourself when setting up investments (retirement or otherwise). Also walks you through the answers and gives solid advice. I wouldn't have minded a bit more detail on somethings, but this is the perfect book for someone who isn't really interested in investing, but wants to at least understand the basics of their money.