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The perfect beginner's guide from the best-selling author of A Random Walk Down Wall Street.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
276 of 281 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is the best investment guide I have read yet.,
This review is from: The Random Walk Guide to Investing: Ten Rules for Financial Success (Hardcover)
Burton Malkiel is the author of the incredibly successful investment theory book "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" first published in 1973. Thirty years later, his publisher suggested he writes an investment guide capturing the wisdom from "A Random Walk" in a shorter tome aimed at the layperson. Malkiel did exactly that. In this book, he does a beautiful job in avoiding statistics out of reach for the layperson. Yet the investment advice remains sharp and relevant. Malkiel covers a lot of ground in investments, financial planning, retirement, savings for college, and insurance in just 180 pages. He structures this knowledge through just ten basic rules. Throughout, he includes numerous useful tools. One is the famous rule of 72. If you divide 72 by the investment return, it will tell you how many years it takes to double your investment. Thus, Malkiel covers all the basics and also explores the cutting edge of behavioral economics from the luminaries in this field including Robert Shiller (Irrational Exuberance) and Richard Thaler. This book is just as interesting to the layperson and the investment professional alike. Malkiel outlines eloquently the benefits of index funds. They incur lower operating costs. They have lower turnover, which leads to lower transaction costs and greater tax efficiency. Consequently, index funds beat actively managed funds by 2 percentage points. Malkiel states this superior performance is a direct result of index funds low cost advantage. The higher cost handicap of actively managed funds is insurmountable over time. As a result, the S&P 500 index beats out 84% of large cap mutual funds over 10 years, and 88% over 20 years. This leads to one of Malkiel most surprising point. Two investors investing $1,000 in an IRA earning respective returns of 6% and 8%; the investor earning 8% will have more than twice as much money in his account after 40 years ($21,725 vs. $10,286). I thought Malkiel made a typo. I calculated the figures, and he did not. This has huge implication in a long term investment environment where single digit returns will become the norm. Costs matter a lot! On diversification Malkiel includes much original intelligence. He makes a strong case that international diversification is not all what it is cracked up to be. This is because international stock markets move increasingly together when the U.S. one experiences a downturn. Also, he mentions that REITs provide excellent diversification benefits (better than international stocks). I have personally done much research on this subject, using regression analysis. And, Malkiel is correct, even though this fact is unknown to Wall Street. Malkiel recommends different asset allocations for different age brackets (Life-Cycle investing). He tracks how these different asset allocations performed over the past 20 years (January 1983 to December 2002). It is stunning to note that the most aggressive asset allocation targeted to young people with a 65% stock exposure would have earned a 11.52% return or only one percentage point greater than the most conservative one targeted at senior citizens with only 25% stock exposure which earned a 10.51% return. On the other hand, the most aggressive asset allocation would have suffered 20 quarterly losses with the worst one being minus 14.5%; meanwhile the most conservative asset allocation would have incurred only 16 quarterly losses with the worst one being only minus 5.0%. This gives you pause on how much additional risk is it worth taking. Malkiel does also a credible job of explaining the superior long term performance of Warren Buffet and Peter Lynch despite the efficiency of the markets and the overall superiority of index funds. Of the two, he states that Peter Lynch record is much less impressive. He attributes much of Lynch record to the laws of randomness. If you have a 1,000 coin flippers and you make them flip a coin 10 times in a row, you will have one coin flipper who will have flipped tails 10 times in a row. He will be perceived as a genius. But, he was just lucky. Observing Peter Lynch record, his hand got progressively colder as his Magellan fund became larger and his tenure lengthened. This is exactly what Malkiel expected. Lynch genius was to retire close to the top. He retired at the young age of 46, when his record viewed over his tenure could still be perceived as legendary. Warren Buffet case is completely different. In Malkiel view, he is not so much an investment genius, as a businessman. Buffet has often intervened in running the companies in which he invested when they were faltering. This was the case for the Washington Post, Salomon Brothers, and many other companies Buffet invested in. So, to compare Buffet?s record to the S&P 500 is comparing apples and oranges. Buffet record can't be replicated by any regular investors who have no control over the companies they invest in.
46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful foundation for building your financial future,
By
This review is from: The Random Walk Guide To Investing (Paperback)
It is sad to think about all the trees that have been felled to provide the paper to print so many thousands of useless books on investing. Very few of them provide the investor with the truth about the market and what that implies for their financial future. Those that push a system for beating the market or complicated strategies should be ignored. Others who advocate the advantages of leverage rarely explain the true magnitude of the risk being taken on by the investor nor explain why these investments are almost never a good idea for a retirement account.
This book is a delightful exception and I recommend it to everyone as a great first guide to getting yourself on a solid path to financial security and some truly golden years. It is simple to read, contains just the bare minimum of financial terminology and therefore stays intelligible to the average person looking for the truth about their money. What I like about the approach taken in the ten rules put forward by Burton Malkiel is their universal applicability and the power it puts in the hands of each investor. Of course, it also puts responsibility for his or her financial future in those hands as well. The rules focus on starting to save early, saving in ways that keep your costs low, diversifying your savings so when one bad thing happens it only stings you instead of destroying your future. The author provides helpful guidelines for building a diversified portfolio to your personality profile and tolerance for risk. I also liked his discussion of portfolio mix related to your age and where your financial interests should be in the various decades of your life. He also suggests working a few extra years and why that could make a big difference. He wants investors to pay themselves and to carefully use every tax advantage they are entitled to. He also doesn't want you to spend money on tip sheets, investment guides, or an investment advisor. You probably know that the "random walk" portion of the title comes from Prof. Malkiel's wonderful book "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" in which he demonstrates that the market is usually extremely efficient and why even experts usually fail to provide even market returns (those pesky charges they make you pay them for providing a market return) and why index funds are the way to go for the average investor. The last chapter on stupid investor tricks is terrific. This is a great first book for any investor. Young people especially should start here and absorb its teachings into the marrow of their bones. The author provides a wonderful quote by Woody Allen: "A stockbroker is someone who invests other people's money until it is all gone." And notes a story from the past when an investor was being wooed by an investment banking house who showed them all the trappings of their wealth and a tour of the bankers' yachts. Their idea was to make him feel secure about placing his money with them. However, he investor asked the salient question, "Where are the investors' yachts?" There you have it. Strongly and emphatically recommended.
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Expert Advice, Written for Laymen,
This review is from: The Random Walk Guide To Investing (Paperback)
Malkiel's book is perfect for anyone interested in learning the basics of investing. It is simple, direct, and easy to understand. Even a complete novice could build a fairly sophisticated, diversified investment portfolio by following its simple recommendations.
One of the biggest problems facing novice investors is that there are so many products available that it is impossible to know where to begin. Malkiel solves that problem by identifying: 1. the four major asset classes that investors should consider (cash, bonds, stocks and real estate); 2. the specific percentages of one's portfolio to invest in each asset class; and 3. the best mutual funds in each asset class to invest in. In addition to that specific guidance, Malkiel also gives 10 rules as a general framework. Specifically: Rule 1: Start Saving Now! (Time is money; the miracle of compounding) Rule 2: Save Regularly! Rule 3: Be Prepared for Emergencies. (term insurance; emergency funds) Rule 4: Pay Attention to Tax Benefits. (401(k) plans; IRAs) Rule 5: Match Your Asset Mix to Your Temperament. Rule 6: Diversify! Rule 7: Pay Attention to Costs! Rule 8: Nobody Can Beat the Market Consistently . . . Rule 9: But Low-Cost Index Funds Can at Least Tie the Market. Rule 10: Avoid Some Common Mistakes. With traditional pension plans on the way out and Social Security under increasing financial pressure, it is now more important than ever for individuals to be knowledgeable about the basics of investing. Malkiel's book is a great way to get started.
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