Customer Reviews

The First Time Investor : How to Start Safe, Invest Smart, and Sleep Well

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Although I'm a veteran investor, I enjoyed reading this well-written updated third edition by two highly qualified authors. Everyone involved in investing in the stock market, mutual funds or separately managed accounts will glean useful information from this book. Composed of 22 chapters and three appendices, this 300-page paperback covers the key basics of investing.

This no-nonsense easy-to-read text explains the importance of determining your risk tolerance before you invest, understanding the difference between asset allocation and diversification so you don't make foolish mistakes, knowing how to determine your retirement income goals and capabilities, and investing for your children's education.

Many investors do not have a clear idea of the riskiness of the stock market. Perhaps after the the Nasdaq Composite Index fell from 5048 in March 2000 to 1100 in October 2002, investors learned the hard way that risk really matters. That is why one of the key discussion points that the authors hammer home is the comparison of investment risk vs. reward. The authors cover the risk-to-reward spectrum with numerical examples, the meaning of the efficient frontier, beta, and the standard deviation. One chapter provides a blueprint of how to build a diversified portfolio in five easy steps.

Additional chapters cover the basics of investing in active and passive mutual funds, their share classes, stocks, bonds, annuities,separate accounts and company stock options. Also provided is a 17-page glossary of investment terms.

If you have never invested in the stock market or have a minimal knowledge of how to play the game, then I highly recommend that your read this book before you place your hard-earned cash in the market so that the odds are in your favor. You need at least a basic knowledge prior to investing, otherwise your may lost a large portion of your capital without realizing what happened to you, and that would be a shame.

I was thrilled to finally get some serious and safe " how to" information on investing. I thoroughly read and enjoyed Peter Lynch's book " One Up On Wall Street", which is the true ABC guide to investing, but never felt confident enough to put my money in any sort of investment vehicle. This book helps the reader to diversify and thus reduce risk. Simple explanations and data to back up the authors' claims makes this an excellent guide for the first time investor.

A strong 5 stars!

An easy read yet full of useful info. The authors explained some concepts I'd heard often but never fully understood. I'm excited about applying the concepts to my personal portfolio and my 401k.

This book on investment is interesting and is probably worth a read. However, readers who want more detailed information would do better reading Stock Investing Simplified

This book on investing in the market is well written no doubt about that. The authors know their chosen subject well or so it seems. But do they really? My opinion is no. This book is only worth two and a half stars to me. While it's well written the authors have been proven laughable wrong since the year 2004 when the book was written. Since writing in 2004 the market has lost over 45 percent in one year. That year was 2008. The market did reboud in early 2009 however from 2009 until Novemeber 2011 the market is treading water and it's actually down about 2 percent since early 2009. What kind of timing is that. Terrible. That is like telling people in September 1987 to invest 60 percent of their retirement funds in the stock market.

I am in the financial services industry and try to keep books on my shelf for clients to borrow. This one is going into the trash. It is extremely misleading for first time investors. I had to read a few sections twice to understand their point. I should have pitched it when I read "There is no predictablility to the market; it is random."

One of the graphs seemed to advocate choosing low quality stocks over higher quality stocks, though if you happen to know anything about the very short time period during which this was charted, you might have known that the chart took place during an extreme bull market (where pretty much everything went up regardless of quality) After reading the section 3 times I think the authors were trying to make a point about valuation... I think. Not for a first time investor.

A great book for those of us that want to know where our money can work for us but never really had the time to learn. This easy to read, easy to follow book brings the high level investing game to a more understandable level to help you get a better feeling of how the markets work. You have to start someplace and this book is a nice addition to your library for those that want to learn. I also purchased "Investing for Dummies" but I would start with this book first since it's more of a front-to-back reader and not as much of a reference book. For the price, it's a great value.