Books/Resources on Investing

Okay, when I get back to the US in a few years I’m going to have quite a stash of loot saved up.

I’m seriously thinking of investing it.

Does anyone know any books or other resounces on the subject?

I know it’s in the future (perhaps a little distant), but I’m wanting to start educating myself on it before I do it…and seeing as it’s a way off, I figure now is a good time…so that I’m ready (well, more ready) when the time comes.

Thanks.

www.fool.com has some good free advice on investing. It is more stock related and tends to push for passive index fund investing for newbie’s(this is what I do). If you feel comfortable with your stock picking prowess, take a 10-20% share of your assets and invest in individual stocks. Keep records and be honest with yourself if you are really beating the market or not.

I always reccomend The Vanguard Investment Group. They have done nothing but provide excellent investment services and competitive rates agains Morgan Stanley, Merryl Lynch, etc…

I have had them for three years and I am always happy with them.

Just finished reading “Automatic Wealth” by Michael Masterson, and found it very helpful.

You can find a review here: http://www.investmentu.com/resources/automaticwealth.html

Watch MAD MONEY on CNBC at 6pm, 9pm and midnight with Jim Cramer. this guy is a nut case but if stocks are your game, this guy knows his shit. he managed a hedge fund for a while and all his advice is as non biased as possible as he holds no positions for financial gain. his trust is solely for charitable purposes. i have invested using his reccommendations and principals and have had good success. any more advice PM me as i have invesment licenses and have done it in the past.

The Wealthy Barber is a good intro to investing and it’s told in a storyline format which makes it an easy read. It covers the basics like investing 10%, real estate, life insurance, etc.

YGuy

Deepest gratitude to everyone.

Jason

I second the Motley Fool books. Good stuff and funny.

I read a good book some time ago about dividend reinvestment plans (DRIPs) by Carlson. DRIPs and direct stock purchase plans are an interesting way to invest.

LA

I do mainly “trading” not “investing”, but for investing wise, it’s definitely worth checking out William O’Neil CANSLIM approach. You can check out the website: www.investors.com
I will admit I have never put the method into practice, since I just don’t have the personality for longer term investing. But while studying all kinds of different methods of investing in the beginning of my trading endeavor, this method is the most objective one I came across.

Do you want general investing advice on what to buy and hold – i.e. how to build a well diversified portfolio that will be defended against large losses – or do you want stuff on trying to make profits by quick, in-and-out type trades?

[quote]BostonBarrister wrote:
Do you want general investing advice on what to buy and hold – i.e. how to build a well diversified portfolio that will be defended against large losses – or do you want stuff on trying to make profits by quick, in-and-out type trades?[/quote]

Please say the first. You’re basically gambling with the second option.

Read Rich Dad, Poor Dad Series of Books. There is a “wealth” (pardon the pun) of information on what do do with your $$$.

[quote]randman wrote:
BostonBarrister wrote:
Do you want general investing advice on what to buy and hold – i.e. how to build a well diversified portfolio that will be defended against large losses – or do you want stuff on trying to make profits by quick, in-and-out type trades?

Please say the first. You’re basically gambling with the second option.[/quote]

If anyone offers you advice on the second options, there is a very good chance they are trying to sell you something.

Very few people consistently beat the market. Your best hope is to diversify and minimize investing costs.

[quote]lothos wrote:
Read Rich Dad, Poor Dad Series of Books. There is a “wealth” (pardon the pun) of information on what do do with your $$$.[/quote]

I saw this book marketed on an infomercial. My general rule is that if it’s sold on an informercial, it must be crap. I then researched this book and found out that it is basically crap.

As for daytrading, or in and out trading, I’ve done it and lost money. However, it is not completely gambling. The Motley Fools do advise against it, though. Their recommendation for their first book, which I haven’t read for a while, can be summarized as follows:

Mutual funds: Your best bet is to put the bulk of your investment in an index fund. These funds are not managed at all, but simply invest in all of the stocks that comprise a certain index, e.g., an S&P 500 Index fund will invest in all of the 500 stocks that make up the S&P 500 Index. Most of the large, managed funds will not beat these indices. That’s because give the size of these funds and the number of stocks that they own, the holdings of these funds become statistically insignificant from the holdings of the Index funds. However, the large funds still charge you a management fee for picking stocks. Management fees for Index funds are minimal since all they really need to do is send out your quarterly reports and such.

Personal portfolio: The Fools’ second recommendation is to manage your own, small portfolio of stocks. Here is where you can potentially beat the market. Trading in these stocks is fairly active, but it’s not daytrading. Read the books to get the details on their strategy for this.

I studied business in college and most of my senior year courses were taught by experienced professionals.

Their advice:

1)Wall Street Journal everyday.

  1. Business Week every week.

All of them also would make strong cases for Index Funds (unless you want to pick your own stocks which they say you should do until you’ve done 1 + 2 for a year)

Simple, strong advice is the best anyone can give bc there are no “secrets” no matter what anyone tells you.

[quote]lothos wrote:
Read Rich Dad, Poor Dad Series of Books. There is a “wealth” (pardon the pun) of information on what do do with your $$$.[/quote]

Load of crap, sorry. I read the book, and my boss at one time quoted the part about people expecting their salary to make them wealthy rather than their “assets.” My response: You can’t get assets without money. “Uh, yeah.”

He’s very gung-ho while providing little practical information. The stuff you get on real estate from RDPD is outdated… the general rule is, once a “trick” hits the printing press, it has already run its course. The bottom line is that real world investing is pretty unsexy. It involves things like saving, looking at long term results, and doing without. Some people are lucky enough to consistently beat the market, and have the time to do that kind of research. I salute them, but I am not one of those few, and you shouldn’t assume that you are, either.

My advice is that if you will be staying in an area for a while, buy a house. Not for the appreciation on the house, but for the equity… you have to pay to live somewhere, you might as well be putting your money toward something (equity).

Also, I second that Vanguard funds are good.

[quote]Soco wrote:
randman wrote:
BostonBarrister wrote:
Do you want general investing advice on what to buy and hold – i.e. how to build a well diversified portfolio that will be defended against large losses – or do you want stuff on trying to make profits by quick, in-and-out type trades?

Please say the first. You’re basically gambling with the second option.

If anyone offers you advice on the second options, there is a very good chance they are trying to sell you something.

Very few people consistently beat the market. Your best hope is to diversify and minimize investing costs.[/quote]

Definitely true for most of us, and probably for everyone in the long run and the aggregate.

I’m most definitely a broadly diversified, buy-and-hold type of guy.

But don’t forget that without people trying to find those arbitrage opportunities, the market wouldn’t be efficient… And I harbor no illusions about some of the markets with very small volumes, or some of the foreign markets, being efficient, either strongly or weakly.

I have been involved in the investment arena for a number of years. There has been a lot of good advice given to you already. If you are a complete novice, I would stick with the basics that have been provided to you. In other words, go to Motley Fool, Vanguard, T. Rowe Price, Fidelity, etc. They will provide you with the tools to set up a very basic portfolio – a couple index funds or mutual funds that provide good diversification across a number of asset classes.

Actually, there is a pretty decent article in the Wall Street Journal today by Jonathon Clements saying that you really only need 3 index funds to build a good portfolio.

Once you understand the basics, you can explore more advanced topics - how to pick stocks, investing in alternative asset classes, etc. However, you have to realize that there is no sure thing - investing is a long-term endeavor and there will be times where you lose money, but if you make prudent decisions guided by intellect (not emotion), you will do fine over time.

Let me know if you need more direction. Best of luck.

[quote]BostonBarrister wrote:

Definitely true for most of us, and probably for everyone in the long run and the aggregate.

I’m most definitely a broadly diversified, buy-and-hold type of guy.

But don’t forget that without people trying to find those arbitrage opportunities, the market wouldn’t be efficient… And I harbor no illusions about some of the markets with very small volumes, or some of the foreign markets, being efficient, either strongly or weakly.[/quote]

Boston Barrister - while the markets may be efficient over the long term, they are incredibly inefficient over shorter periods of time - even our high volume, high liquidity markets her in the U.S. Of course, when you start investing in some of the foreign markets - it truly is another game.