How to Retire Rich : Time-Tested Strategies to Beat the Market and Retire in Style [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

James O'Shaughnessy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1998

The author of the national bestseller, "What Works on Wall Street", makes the future brighter--and richer--for millions of ordinary Americans with proven methods and easy-to-follow advice on making long-term investments for a financially secure retirement. Simultaneous hardcover release from Broadway. January 1998 publication date.2 cassettes. .

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Some investment books claim only one true path to stock-market riches. Fund manager James O'Shaughnessy has five, and he has the data to back them up. He was the first independent researcher to be granted full access to a Standard & Poor's database containing computerized information on almost 10,000 stocks going back to 1951. From the data, O'Shaughnessy derived five portfolio-building strategies that, over the past 45 years, have consistently beaten the market average. How to Retire Rich also contains a wealth of useful information on mutual funds, online trading, and using the Internet to research stocks. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

The author, a statistical analyst and founder and president of O'Shaughnessy Capital Management, Inc., builds on his previous What Works on Wall Street (McGraw-Hill, 1996) to demonstrate how investing in the stock market can lead to wealth and security in one's later years: "The path to achieving investment success is in studying long-term results and finding a strategy or group of strategies that make sense." O'Shaughnessy offers strategies based on historical perspective that should beat the Standard & Poor 500 because they involve aggressive investing in not-so-well-known smaller companies. In addition to strategies, he covers good and bad points of mutual funds, making the most of 401k plans, market fluctuations, portfolio management, and a timely chapter on where to find information. This often-quoted author's opinions are presented in a readable style, with several family scenarios providing perspective.
-?Steven J. Mayover, Free Lib. of Philadelphia
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Soundelux Audio Publishing; Abridged edition (January 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559353023
• ISBN-13: 978-1559353021
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,938,235 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #39 in Books > Books on Cassette > Business > Investing
  • #77 in Books > Books on Cassette > Business > Personal Finance

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't use the formulas--unless you want to get rich!, March 26, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: How to Retire Rich (Hardcover)

Jim O'Shaughnessey founded the Cornerstone Growth mutual fund. Subsequently, it was sold to Hennessey Funds and is going strong under new manager Neil Hennessey. The fund is strictly managed according to the "reasonable runaway" formula set forth in the book. For 2001, it gained over 12%, beating the S&P by more than 24%. It is now up approximately 8% for 2002. Morningstar now rates the fund 5-star. (I have no connection with O'Shaughnessy or Hennessey other than investing with them.) It is also easy to run the formulas, and buy the stocks online yourself. It just makes sense--buying value stocks which have appreciated over the past year. Jim's research shows that these stocks will continue to appreciate. Value + momentum = profits. The formula predicts 17% average gains over time and in fact the strategy has earned about 16.9% over the last 5 years, with no significant help from the tech runup. Run the numbers for yourself--17% will make you rich pretty darn fast. Highly recommended reading, and unique among the stock market books I've read for actually making sense and working.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Reasonable runaways - Best way to lose big monies!, February 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: How to Retire Rich: Time-Tested Strategies to Beat the Market and Retire in Style (Paperback)

Mr. O'Shaughnessy outlines several of his investment strategies and in particular his "reasonable runaways". If you look at his numbers AND factor in costs of establishing a similar group of stocks (something he neglects to do)the S&P 500 is the clear winner.

A VERY IMPORTANT piece of investing advice that Mr. O'Shaughnessy advises against is the use of stop-limit orders in his portfolios. By neglecting to use this very important investment tool, you open yourself up to huge losses in the very questionable turnaround stocks that have just been run up in price. Most of these WILL go down and many they will go down big and not recover. Take the advise of someone that has been watching (and burned very badly) by taking his advice and not using stop-limit prices, USE THEM IF YOU EMPLOY THIS VERY RISKY STRATEGIE!!!

If you look at ANY of his mutual funds, you will clearly see that the performance of all of his funds badly trails the S&P 500. His expense ratios are also out of line to the high side, something that he warns against in this book.

The three pieces of advice that are of any value in the entire book are to establish a plan, stick to it, and, if 87% (or so) of mutual funds (including his) do not match the performance of the S&P 500, why are you investing in anything other than the S&P 500?

Good luck to all!!!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Will motivate you to take investing more seriously, March 2, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: How to Retire Rich (Hardcover)

This book is now part of a series I will use to educate my children about the values of time and discipline for investment strategies. My plan is to get their attention and then lead them to long-term growth strategies. On the other hand, the strategies in this book are a bit difficult to follow unless you use the mutual fund approach. And, like some others, I also am very concerned about the 1.5% expense fees (or more) that the O'Shaughnessy funds charge. That just seems excessive especially in light of the narrowing spread vs. the S&P index over the last few years for each strategy as indicated in his data. Taking 1.5% or more off the top can change things a great deal. It seems to be a common fault with all such books to ignore trading costs or expenses in determining their returns. Try meshing these strategies with those of John Merrill in Beyond Stocks. Combining asset allocation and aggressive investing seems to be the way to go. Once again, I would love to hear from the author about those fees in his funds.