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Yes, You Can Become a Successful Income Investor! Reaching for Yield in Today's Market
 
 
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Yes, You Can Become a Successful Income Investor! Reaching for Yield in Today's Market (Hardcover)

~ Benjamin Stein (Author), Phil Demuth (Author), (Author) "In 2000, we could get 6.2 percent interest on a risk-free T-bill..." (more)
Key Phrases: unhedged foreign bonds, dividend portfolio, leveraged fund, Dow Jones, Current Price, Market Cap (more...)
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)

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Yes, You Can Become a Successful Income Investor! Reaching for Yield in Today's Market + Yes, You Can Still Retire Comfortably!: The Baby-Boom Retirement Crisis and How to Beat It + Yes, You Can Get A Financial Life!: Your Lifetime Guide to Financial Planning
Price For All Three: $38.07

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Aimed at those living on a fixed income or on the cusp of retirement, Yes, You Can Be a Successful Income Investor! explains the basic building blocks of fixed-income investing and offers advice on getting the highest possible yield while minimizing capital losses. At a time when interest rates are unusually low and with more Americans than ever reaching retirement (a trend that will continue for the next 15 years), this is particularly timely information. Ben Stein and Phil DeMuth sift through dozens of investment options and highlight the stocks and bonds with the greatest income yields in recent years as well as some strategies and investments that should be approached with caution. They also discuss how to develop a diverse portfolio, name specific investments and explain their yields and risks, and help readers develop an overall strategy based on goals and needs. There are also chapters on the bond market, annuities, winning stocks, various investment products, real estate investment trusts, and a look at the hard numbers on various mutual funds.

Stein, an economist and part-time TV and movie personality, and DeMuth, an investment psychologist, make a good writing team. They combine a wealth of information, including hard data, graphs, and charts, with a clear and precise writing style that investment novices will appreciate. The book also contains practical tips and advice designed to help readers do their own research and know the questions to ask when dealing with investment professionals. --Shawn Carkonen



Product Description

With the bursting of the stock market bubble, and after 13 rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, yields on CDs and Money Market funds tread at historic lows—a negative return after inflation. Gone are the days when investors could earn 5 percent interest, risk-free. With smaller savings coupled with lower returns on what savings remain, retirees and others living on fixed-income investments watch in horror as their income checks shrink with each passing month.

However, there are investments that still earn a significant rate of return—and do so reliably and consistently. These fixed-income securities include bonds, real estate investment trusts, preferred stocks, and emerging market debt, among others. They earn the kind of returns that baby boomers and the retirement community need in the same way they need to draw breath, yet hardly anyone knows anything about them. As 70 million Americans reach retirement age in the next 15 years, fixed-income investing will become a sociologically inevitable megatrend. Yes, You Can Be a Successful Income Investor! shows you how you can safely secure the highest possible yield from your savings, even in a treacherous investment environment.


Product Details

  • Hardcover: 223 pages
  • Publisher: Hay House (March 1, 2005)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1401903193
  • ISBN-13: 978-1401903190
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #496,301 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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72 of 72 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent handbook to take charge of your financial future, May 3, 2005
Ben Stein and Phil DeMuth are very dedicated to helping people get serious in preparing for retirement. They bring several strong virtues to this task. First, they not only reject investment fads, they believe in and focus on solid investment basics. Second, they believe that you have the final responsibility for your money, so if an investment or financial program is too complicated for you to understand in every detail, they advise you to stay away from it. Third, they understand and preach diversification. Simply, diversification aids the investor by removing the risk associated with investing in just one firm or one market sector and therefore stabilizes earnings.

The idea behind this book is quite good. For the past two or three decades, all the talk around investing has been about growth stocks where you make your money by realizing capital gains. Before the age of double dividend taxation, people invested for the income provided by dividends. The present market for stocks is priced high in historical terms (see Stein and DeMuth's excellent "Yes, You Can Time the Market" to understand why this is true) and it is all too likely that a correction could provide losses instead of gains. In this book, the authors provide an approach to investing that provides a return by gaining dividend income from stocks and interest income from bonds while avoiding the risk of capital losses as much as possible.

Stein and DeMuth begin by talking about bonds. They provide an excellent primer and then talk about the various types of bonds, their risks, and their returns. Their discussion will help the reader understand that a higher return comes with increased risks. In effect, the higher return is a compensation for taking on that higher risk. The authors help the reader understand that there are some bonds whose increased risk is worth taking and many whose higher return is not sufficient compensation for someone counting on the income for their daily bread.

The discussion then turns to developing a stock portfolio that is designed for income rather than capital gains. This is an excellent and important discussion because it runs counter to most of the stock talk of the past generation. Just as with bonds, they show the effects of various portfolio constructions. They are very good on what matters to the income investor and what is dangerous to your financial health. They have a short chapter on preferred stock that is interesting and gives adequate warning to stay away from complicated investments that you don't understand.

The section on REITs is terrific and will help the average investor understand them. They can be an excellent part of a portfolio and are an excellent way to participate in real estate without having to own and maintain your own properties. Remember, in retirement you want to be enjoying yourself, not going through the hassle of being a real estate manager.

They also talk about annuities in a sensible and helpful way. Stein recounts how annuities helped his parents have a terrific retirement. The authors also balance that with cautions about the balance between fixed and variable annuities and offer solid advice about their complications. They note that most of the people who sell annuities don't really understand what they are selling and to stay away from those you don't understand completely.

The heart of the book is the section on how to combine all of these investments into a portfolio that balances your ability to take risk versus return. They provide various example portfolios while always encouraging you to do your own research. They want you to use the examples as models of what to do rather than as investment recommendations.

Stein and DeMuth also provide a very good website that provides current information and links as well as errata for the book (you know the small typos that creep into any book).

This is an excellent handbook for anyone who wants to take responsibility for his or her retirement and is serious about understanding what is involved. There are too many sad stories of people who work their whole lives to save some cash and then have it evaporate in some inappropriate investment that promised them gold falling from the sky. Stein and DeMuth have provided an excellent guide to understanding what is real and what is fluff. You could not spend $23.95 better than to buy this book and then study it carefully. If you do, you will be a much better investor and steward of your financial future.
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Income Investing Bible, December 7, 2005
By Bobby Joseph (Michigan USA) - See all my reviews
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This was the best income investing book I have read. I loved this book, it was superbly well written with practical income investment advice in stocks, bonds (treasuries, corporate, municipal, junk etc) and real estate (REITs). This book would be very useful regardless of the amount of money you have to invest. The authors make specific recommendations without any vague statements. There is income portfolio advice. It is easy to read and I finished it in one sitting. The book had a lot of humor sprinkled throughout. I loved the two stories in one of the earlier chapters in which the authors said that if you understood these 2 stories you would understand the bond market and they were right on! There are plenty of numbers and figures but the authors have accomplished a remarkable feat in that they wrote the subject matter in such a way that any high schooler could understand. Yet the material is far from "dumbed down".
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A very different investment book, January 5, 2007
By L. F. Smith (E. Wenatchee, WA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
This is a very different investment book. While the books one typically sees suggest ways to get rich-- that is, to accumulate capital-- as quickly as possible, this short, readable book suggests that those near or in retirement should be thinking about how to deploy their resources in a way that maximizes their income. That is, staying comfortable is more important than getting rich.

Stein and DeMuth explain that most investment fads are not only unsuitable for older investors, but, worse, they just don't work. They make a point that many people who lost their money in the market meltdown a few years ago should have thought about: If an investment is too complicated to understand, then it should be avoided. In the end, there's no magic bullet; diversification and adherence to investment basics will pay off. The body of the book is devoted to explaining how to do that.

The book discusses various types of bonds, dividend-paying stocks, real estate investment trusts, and annuities. The one thing that is mentioned in every chapter is the basic principle that risk and reward are in balance; the only way to get a high reward is to take more risk. Striking the correct balance is, of course, an individual decision, and the most important part of the book is the discussion about how to combine various types of investments in in a way that balances risk and reward. There are numerous sample portfolios and many specific bond and stock funds suggested-- and also numerous cautions that investors need to do their own research before they buy anything. The authors provide a link to their website, which provides current information and links.

A bonus is that unlike many investment books, this one is very readable. The authors don't dumb anything down, but they take pains to explain things without using jargon. Readers familiar with Stein's TV and movie style of delivery will recognize it here, too.

This is a very valuable book that will provide the reader with a lot to think about-- and a good way to do that thinking.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Income Investor
Excellent book ... short, easy to read with good illustrations. Would have liked an explanation as to how to select dividend stocks rather than using the recommended list since... Read more
Published 16 months ago by D. Skalko

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Primer on Income Investing
Fine book on income investing. Good for all. Highly recommend this to all who are interested in increasing their income and preserving capital. Hats off to the authors.
Published 22 months ago by Anthony Salvatore

3.0 out of 5 stars Take with a grain of salt
A good book but not as complete as Yes, You can still Retire Comfortably.
Does not fully elaborate on the risks of bonds in dealing with Financials (sub-prime) and Bond... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Robert Strauss

5.0 out of 5 stars Invest for Yield people
This is an excellent book to teach you how to invest for the highest yield. I should add that Jeremy Siegel's books are also good for this type of investing. Read more
Published on May 5, 2007 by Michael

5.0 out of 5 stars Who knew Fixed Income could be so cool
The authors do a great job breaking down an extremely sophisticated asset class so the everyman investor can optimize their returns while minimizing risk(Maximizing the Sharpe... Read more
Published on June 20, 2006 by Samuel R. Chisholm

5.0 out of 5 stars Informative for Everyone
I read this book and fealt it was not only informative for us babyboomers but for my children, too.

The main part of the book is on how to combine all of the... Read more
Published on September 12, 2005 by Ellen L. Johnson

5.0 out of 5 stars America's Renaissance Man
Ben Stein is one of the very few authors whose work is an outcropping of his successes in life - not a reaction against his failures. Read more
Published on September 10, 2005 by B. Greenberg

5.0 out of 5 stars Informative and Entertaining
I am a very slow reader. Usually, it takes me about five minutes to read one page. However, since this book is so easy to read and one's attention is kept by the humor that Mr... Read more
Published on September 1, 2005 by Joseph K. Senter

5.0 out of 5 stars A New View Towards Retirement
With the approaching retirement of large numbers of Baby Boomers retiring in the next few years it is appearant that the investment plans of many small investors will need to... Read more
Published on March 28, 2005 by John Matlock

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