The Smartest Investment Book You'll Ever Read: The Proven Way to Beat the "Pros" and Take Control of Your Financial Future

I can see where my review may be rather common place. Great Book! If you have ever watched the likes of CNBC, MSNBC, FOX, and Bloomberg, you can really identify with the authors point of view. After all, in split-second timing, these communication organizations on a daily basis, deliver in "talking head" style, the blow by blow action of the market movements. Of course, for anyone reading this review, it does not need to be said, there are 3 objectives in the market. Stay the same, move up and move down! With only 3 variables one would think "timing" the market would be a piece of cake and you can add a nice cup of coffee to that as well. Mr. Solin carefully points out that while watching the fast talking "in the moment," personalities on these shows, one gets the sense of urgency. As if we are watching life go by at "jet speed!" This type of "huckster communication," is rather popular with those that feel a "need for speed." Mr. Solin handily points to more solid, sensible investing practices that are clearly designed to take advantage of time-based investments. Thus freeing one up to pursue their career while investing for the future, which, as I can verify at this point in my life, comes without much warning. One day you are 18, with the world ahead of you and then, you wake up, age 63 and people pass you by on the business street, with little fanfare. No longer consider a "threat," you are patted on the head and sent away. Consider what Mr. Solin so smartly expresses in each chapter, then begin your investment career on good footing with his advice wisely implemented. You will thank him 30 years from now, sipping your morning coffee and reading your digital newspaper by the pool.

William Bernstein, author of "The Four Pillars of Investing" calls this booka "little gem that belongs to every investor's book shelf". Indeed, this book will change the way you invest. Daniel Solin cuts through the financial hype to show you exactly how assets should be invested with easy-to-follow plan that allows you to create and monitor your portfolio in 90 minutes or less...and put your investment earnings in the top 5% of all professionally managed money. You can avoid the biggest mistakes most investors make. They are: (1). Buying into the hype that stock pickers and market timers are anything but a fool's errand; (2). Giving to much credence to the media and self-style gurus who peddle "financial pornography"; and (3). Falling for "dumb money" solutions that give your hard-earned cash over to hyperactive brokers and investment investors. The most important part of this book is chapter 36 where Daniel Solin outlines his 4-step processes. They are: (1). Decide on your asset allocation; (2). Open an account with any of the fund families noted in chapter 38; (3). Invest the stock and bond portions of your portfolio in the funds described in this book and (4). Rebalance your portfolio twice a year to keep your portfolio either aligned with your original asset allocation or to a new asset allocation that meets your changes in investment objectives and/or risk tolerance. The meaning of all these steps are outlined in chapters 37-40. This book even provides evidence of the assertions made through this book. Digest this book and your purse will never be empty.

One line book summary: Use this simple method to manage your retirement investments; long-term, you will make more than a PFA can make on your behalf. So like me you are an average kind of bear. Retirement investing is too confusing, risky and worrying for bears of little brain? You'd rather pay fees and have someone else do the brain work. That was my take. That's why I enjoyed this book and was influenced by it. If you are tempted to use a personal financial adviser or investment manager (PFA) of some sort to manage your retirement investments, or if you are considering doing so, you should certainly read this book. The book can be summarized as: 33 very short chapters explaining how using a PFA, especially a hyper-active adviser, limits your gains; 8 short chapters explaining what you should do instead. I skipped to chapter 34 and read the "Four step process", a recipe which is so simple I laughed. Then I did some really dumb math using historical data. Then I was really motivated to read why Solin's simple process was so much better, and so I read the first 33 chapters. The author does a very competent and professional job of explaining why investment managers in general have not, cannot, and will not outperform the market - unless they work for free or pay you! It's all backed up with references from refereed articles, and/or very credible sources, often surprising sources. It's not necessary to read all 33 chapters, but it's fascinating, especially in these times of sordid financial dealings. His conclusion seems to be: get real, and be happy with getting average market returns over the long haul - you are very probably not going to beat the market any other way, and very likely do worse. The (4-step) recipe really is simple. If you can subtract your age from 100, then the hard math is done. Then Solin tells you EXACLY which no-load, index funds to buy depending on which brokerage you want to use, and in what proportions to mimic "the market". Apart from re-balancing the investment proportions each year ... that's it. The book is powerful, but you probably don't need to read all 33 chapters to get the message about PFAs.

noch nicht ausprobiert und mich auch noch nicht um entsprechende Produkte im europäischen Raum gekümmert (da liegt verständlicherweise bei all den Publikationen aus USA der blinde Fleck) Die Behauptungen sollten auch leicht nachprüfbar sein und wirken auf mich auf's blosse Durchlesen hin sehr schlüssig & gut belegt

Excellent book !

Simply a must read if an investor

Make a lot of sense with the investment, saving, insurance premiums. Sometimes there is no choice but to keep your money and sometimes you take the risks, either way, you are choosing to invest or not to invest. Just decided and live with the consequences of loss or reward of the profits

Good