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THE BEST INVESTING BOOK EVER!

Categories: investing, personal finance

“It doesn’t matter whether you make a return of 2%, 5%, or even 10% on your investments if you have nothing to invest.”

Burton G. Malkiel and Charles D. Ellis

Wow! Not only do these two geniuses know how to write, the way they explain investing is apt for ANYONE-from kindergarteners on up!

MAIN TOPIC

I hate book reviews. I don’t like to read movie reviews either. I’m not sure why, I guess I would rather read the actual book or see the film. OK, now that I’ve gotten that confession off my chest; why am I attempting to craft a book review? Well…. I can’t help myself.

I’ve probably read several hundred investment books and I’m writing a personal finance book myself right now! Yet, this book is so thorough and concise, I am tempted to just post a link to it on my website and retire! Or at least, say nothing more about investing other than to read: THE ELEMENTS OF INVESTING, BY BURTON G. MALKIEL AND CHARLES D. ELLIS! So, here goes, and if I don’t do the book justice, read it anyhow!

Following are the incredible things you will learn in this book; and all in only 137 short pages.

Start to save. It doesn’t matter how much you save, just that you do it.

When referring to credit card debt, the authors reference Scott Adams of Dilbert comic fame who calls credit cards “the crack cocaine of the financial world.” Clearly, they are AGAINST CREDIT CARD DEBT.

Use time to your advantage, start early and let the magic of compounding do the wealth making work for you. Even I talked about this idea here.

These gentlemen even let you in on how the government can further your wealth accumulation!

Quite simply, Malkiel and Ellis share how investing anxiety and expense can be cut way down with the implementation of an easy to implement INDEX FUND strategy. This may be the MOST IMPORTANT INVESTING CONCEPT IN THE ENTIRE BOOK!

Diversification, the cornerstone of making your money grow is explained with engaging examples including a great story about hamburgers and the stock market by Warren Buffett.

Chapter 4, Avoid Blunders, let’s you know WHAT NOT TO DO. This advice is frequently more important than its opposite! If you take this section to heart, you can definitely save yourself some time and money!

On this note, I must inform you of what a wise man (my dad) once told me about investing. “EVERYONE WHO INVESTS MAKES MISTAKES. The important thing is to learn from them!”  And, I’ve learned more from some of my investing losses than my gains!

The authors end with the well known acronym: KISS Investing. The “Keep it Simple” investing recommendations are not only succinct, but empirically supported (in other words, their ideas are backed up by lots of research)!

PRACTICAL ADVICE

Whether you are an investing novice, or a seasoned investing professional, READ THIS BOOK!

ACTION STEPS:

Get a notebook and label it: “(your name) Personal Finance” and keep it by the computer. Use it to keep all of your personal finance goals, thoughts, activities, and plans.

Buy The Elements of Investing by Burton G. Malkiel and Charles D. Ellis.

Read The Elements of Investing this week-end.

Put into action any one of their ideas.

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