Honestly, while it takes longer than the thirty minutes advertised on the jacket and first few pages of the book to read through all seventeen rules, the extra time spent is well worth it. Mr. Browne offers the reader simple rules to learn and help one preserve and grow money wisely. As such, it tells you the easiest ways to lose money, and how to avoid them. Although I do not agree with his recommended approach to investing, I do agree entirely with the essence of his seventeen rules which superbly present common finance and investment misconceptions and skillfully refute them.
Speaking of his seventeen rules, the first five can be condensed into one simple rule: Forecasting = Fortune Telling. From Browne, we learn that no one can predict the future, yet many of us entrust our hard-earned money without any hesitation to modern day Gypsies- financial planners, emoneyf (mutual fund) managers and stockbrokers, who constantly tell us that they can predict the future using sophisticated eeconometricf forecasting tools. Browne reminds us that our wealth begins with what we earn, not with what we invest, and before we can invest, we have to earn. Although we can always borrow our way to bankruptcy with ease, we can borrow our way to prosperity only in our dreams. In the end, basing our earnings won through blood and sweat on the elaborate crystal-ball gazing of financial witch-doctors is the surest path to losses and total ruin.
Browne also delivers plain talk on risk, investment and speculation, and tells the reader that no one can ever hope to eliminate risk entirely. The best anyone can do is to develop realistic strategies for dealing with risk. As such, it becomes painfully clear that there is no such thing as a risk-free investment. This even includes for example so-called erisk-freef US Government Securities backed merely by the full faith and credit of the United States Government (I personally wonft think any less of the reader who laughs at that last sentence). Who knows what the future holds, and just because the worst-case scenario- a default or bankruptcy, has never happened does not necessarily mean that it can not happen tomorrow. In keeping with this, his thirteenth rule exhorts us to keep some assets outside of our native country, and is a brilliant touch. I had to laugh when I read the various calamities- natural and unnatural, which could befall our investments in our native country. However, one should keep in mind that such calamities can occur in ANY country. Also, holding some assets outside the US may not provide the secrecy or safety Browne says it will impart, simply because of the inter-connectedness of the global economy and the incredibly long reach of the US government.
At no point does the book let the reader off of the hook. We ultimately bear the responsibility for our investment decisions, and Mr. Browne is absolutely right when he says to never assume that what you have earned today can be easily earned tomorrow. Throughout the book, Mr. Browne wants to remind the reader of three things. First, it is hard to earn a dollar, yet even in the face of this generally accepted truism, there are those who want you to believe that you can get rich quick simply by making bets based on their uninformed, though highly elaborate, predictions about unpredictable events. Second, you know more than the so-called eexpertsf want you to think you know. The experts want you to disregard your common sense and put your trust in their opinion. Third, in the world of investing, what goes up eventually comes down, and even more important, what goes down does not necessarily have to go back up. As Browne pointedly remarks over and over again, in the world of investing, nothing is supposed to happen, and anything can happen. As such, the last five of his seventeen rules can be summarized as: Sophisticated = Stupid and Simple = Smart.
Finally, for those of us, including myself, who feel as if they have missed out on the Greatest Bull Market of All Time, fear not, for there will be other opportunities. After all, the last Greatest Bull Market of All Time occurred just before the Great Crash of 1929. As Browne tells the reader at the end of the book, you are not a failure if you missed the boat. To this I must add: You are not a failure if you missed the boat- especially if the boat was the Titanic! I think there are a lot of bruised and broken investors from the New Era Internet Boom (and subsequent Bust) that will wholeheartedly agree with me, as the last six years have been their figurative Titanic. These individuals especially need to read, and re-read this book as they invest going forward.
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