The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need Paperback – Bargain Price, January 3, 2005

I purchased a very early edition of this book back in the 80's and you have to believe me, it changed my world. Sound, practical financial advice when you are starting out in life is an invaluable aid. I have since given away copies to all the young people I know as a graduation gift and like to think it has helped them start out on the right foot too.
I bought this update just to read Andy's insight into all the changes we are seeing in the financial arena and a quick review didn't disappoint me. I will finish reading it again cover to cover (OK I will skim some of it) by the weekend. After all when you are comfortably retired (fiscally and physically) you have time to indulge yourself with a good read.
BUY THIS BOOK!

This is a great book for people looking to learn the basics of investing and saving money, if you're starting from zero. The author spends at least half of the book talking about day to day spending tips, like buying in bulk or purchasing cars that get good gas mileage. For someone like me who grew up in a thrifty family, a lot of this was common sense and I kind of flipped through to the latter half of the book where he talks about basic investment strategy. Spoiler alert: he advocates investing in index funds so if you're already in that camp you might not find a lot of extra information in this book. However, to me there were enough gems and clever tips that it was still worth it. Plus, he explains a lot of basic investing terms for people who are totally new to the subject.

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Andrew Tobias's witty but serious little book contains no such platitudes. Throughout, it serves as an antidote to the gimmicky "beat the market" schemes so prevalent in investment literature these days. Even the chapter titles, which include "If I'm So Smart, How Come This Book Won't Make You Rich?" "A Penny Saved Is Two Pennies Earned," "You CAN Get By on $165,000 a Year," and "The Case for Cowardice" should deflate any reader's wildly speculative expectations. This book does not intend to make anyone rich beyond fantasy. Instead, it suggests calm, patient fortitude in the face of market dynamics. But it does suggest how to build wealth in a realistic and sane manner. For example, Tobias's answer to "how do you beat the market?" echoes through the book: "you can't always." Though he gives tips for those who want to try, he apparently shares this human all too human weakness with many, he advises those with little time or rabid motivation to buy no-load index funds, such as offered by Vanguard, T. Rowe Price, or Fidelity. With such investments wealth builds up over time, not in flailing bursts. Though this isn't the stuff movies and dreams are made of, Tobias's advice will resonate with squeamish or suspicious investors, or with those with limited funds. "The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need" speaks to this less affluent demographic. Perhaps a better title would have been "Investing for the Rest of Us." Fervent speculators who love risk or have Scrooge McDuck-esque piles of dinero should look elsewhere for adventure on the high speculative seas.

Tobias also talks personal finance. The book's first part tells readers to "get your financial act together before you even think of investing." Live within your means, buy bulk, have a tax strategy, read the prospectus, trust no one, save enough for security, excuse cowardice, find cheap alternatives, and other down to earth advice saturates the book's first 130 pages. These suggestions ring true because establishing a solid financial foundation can reduce the risk of investing (not to mention the frequency of sleepless nights). If your investments smolder, at least you'll have 10% - 20% squirreled away in a safe place.

Stuck between descriptions of what kind of bonds, stocks, funds, and bills exist are Tobias's personal reflections, including tales of glory and woe. This saves the book from that monastic dryness that permeates so many investment books. Strange as it may sound, the book is funny in many places. Not only that, it makes sense (at least, to those who seek stability over instant domination). From saving money by buying Bordeaux by the case to family planning to estimating future social security payouts the book runs the gamut of personal finance questions. Tobias focuses on the easy side of investing. Can't afford Vanguard's initial investment cost (still $3,000)? Try the much cheaper T. Rowe Price (which Tobias calls "the poor man's Vanguard"). The final chapter "What To Do If You Inherit a Million Dollars; What To Do Otherwise" discusses both the pleasures and pains of instant millionarehood. For those of us less, or more, fortunate, Tobias delineates the options the average Joe and Jane have for building wealth and keeping ahead of inflation. A final warning against the addiction of accumulation closes the book appropriately. After that last page turns (don't forget the appendices!) those once unfamiliar with the wiles of Wall Street will find themselves empowered with real options, not vacuous pipe dreams. Start here.

This was the first investment book I read, and it still stands out as one of the most commonsensical, though I'm afraid at a later stage of life--when questions about social security, annuities, Roth IRAs, ETFs, medicare and health insurance, wills and estates loom large--it's especially suitable for a youngster or someone just looking to get their feet wet. One of the charms of the first edition was its singular compactness and economy--by the time of the 2002 edition, however, it had begun to pack on some weight at the expense of what made it unique in the first place. It's continued to get lengthier, though it's still a bargain.

Since the first edition of this book, the markets have become so complex and media-blanketed that a lot of the Benjamin Graham practical advice no longer applies (just ask someone who invested huge sums in mutual funds at this time a year ago, only to see it all sliced in half just several months later). On the other hand, people who follow CNBC and the second-by-second gyrations of the markets still tend to labor under the old illusions about how to "beat" the market--and indeed some do, whether due to chance (most likely) or some magical formula or insight. But win or lose, these latter-day market mavens become so absorbed in the moves of the exchanges, they're apt to miss out on the more significant changes in their personal lives and the world around them.

But controversial though the title may be, "The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need" is a statement that's closer to the truth than not. Tobias has a remarkable nose for all of the "fat" when it comes to managing money. People spend countless hours fine-tuning their investments on a daily, obsessive basis, wasted hours that will never be repaid by a slightly lower mutual fund fee or a lucky "hot stock" pick. If you "know" what your doing--not simply in terms of playing the game but that what you're doing "is," in fact," a game (especially now that the internet bombards us with more information in a single second than can be registered in a life-time), then fine. Set up 3 computer screens in addition to a television monitor with Jim Cramer hollering away--and have fun. But be aware that it is a game, that one-click trading quickly becomes a form of addiction, and that you're not doing much for humanity or your own social life--in fact, the isolation that many people feel is merely increased by this sort of illusory "action."

On behalf of the "opposition," I would partly refute Tobias by pointing out the drastic reduction of fees for most stock transactions (from $55 when I started in the early '80s to $10 or even less per transaction in 2010). I would also hold up the year 2008--when the financial systems and banks fell apart, with the consumer taking the biggest hit, losing half of his 401K or mutual fund investment--as a time that understandably changed thinking about the way the game is played. You lose 50%, and it's not going to be easy to gain 100%, which moreover will accomplish no more than bringing you back to even. As a result, greater vigilance, along with "cost-averaging," makes more sense than when Tobias wrote his book.

Still, for the most part Tobias is on the money--even in 2010--and the modest price of his book suits his philosophy of not throwing money around heedlessly or wasting all of your time trying to make money out of money. instead, make "something," or make the world a better place. Or, instead of putting all of the emphasis on "making a living," how about simply "living" for a change? In short, the beauty of Tobias' book is that it provides an example of how to step back, put finances in perspective, and acquire a "big picture." For those who feel they are no longer in control of a manageable world or who experience non-stop stomach-churning and incessant tweaking of numbers when it comes to investing and money, Tobias' little book is to the world of finance what Strunk's classic "The Elements of Style" is to grammar and the English language. We could all profit from more books like it.