Review of Panic for Democracy (Hardcover)

This is a great read.Van Schalkwyk has drawn on wealth of research to effectively argue that our politicians and institutions have duped us, as their actions are self serving with total disregard for future generations.A weighty topic like this could easily have been a dull read but the author manages to maintain interest with a broad sprinkling of references ranging from medieval history through to modern fashion trends.If enough people were to read this book and perhaps listen to some of the others voices of reason out there, perhaps there would be chance for change.For all those who prefer to keep their head in the sand, not abook for you!



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Review of Investing Under Fire: Winning Strategies from the Masters for Bulls, Bears, and the Bewildered (Hardcover)

Investing Under Fire is a very interesting collection of essays by 30 luminaries from various fields, some of them not at all related to investing. Each selection contains at least a thought or two to repay the effort of perusal, and that's a great deal more than many books deliver, especially books about investing. The anthology's five segments cover mutual funds, key sectors - from Asia to precious metals, research and legal resources, innovative companies and geopolitical influences. Anyone who merely reads the first selection, by Vanguard founder John Bogle, and applies its lessons, would more than recapture the purchase price of the book. Despite the sometimes self-promotional comments from a few of the other contributors, it's a very valuable book. If nothing else, we note, it will expose you to a spectrum of diverse opinions, a useful prophylactic against complacency.



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Review of The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing (Hardcover)

I read this book quickly shortly after I got it, and I was blown away. Many reviewers pick this as a book for "beginners", but I don't agree with that.

My background: I have read (and own) dozens of investment books. I have subscribed to many newsletters (including Morningstar's, which is decent but unnecessary after you read this book). I have owned many individual stocks and for the last 2-3 years before I got the Boglehead religion I was lucky and beat the market averages buying individual stocks (although for most of my life I've lagged far below the market). I opened my first brokerage account in 1990, and I've been self-directed ever since. I've had 400%+ years as well as -70% years. I've even been in the top 100 virtual mutual funds on Marketocracy (out of 70,000), and I've written custom software to analyze the daily performance of the top 1500 stocks.

Having said all that, I wish that I had followed the investment principles laid out in this book from the very beginning. I would have a lot more money than I do now.

Before reading this book, I already had all my retirement money in Vanguard index funds. So you would think, end of story, you're already a believer. NOT SO! While I started out using the Target Retirement funds, which allocates your money properly for your age, I slowly deviated from those funds into the higher risk emerging markets index fund, because that fund was doing so well. It's easy to read this book and say, "oh that makes sense", stay the course for a year or so, then get seduced by the hot performance of a particular sector and lose your way. For these principles to work, you really have to apply them relentlessly, and I think that it takes either someone with an iron discipline or someone who's acquired "experience" in the market (i.e., losses that hurt) to recognize the wisdom of this book and follow it.

Years ago, I read John Bogle's book on index funds, and I agreed with the logic of what he was saying. Then I proceeded to ignore it for most of my investing career before I really "got" what he was saying.

Perhaps, if you're a beginner, you'll follow this book and avoid the pain and losses. The principles are easy enough to understand. In fact, if you want to save the price of the book, simply go to Vanguard, pick your retirement date, buy a "Target Retirement" fund for that date, and you're done. That's pretty much what the book tells you to do.

BUT, you'll need the book (and, in my opinion, the "experience" of following the 99% of the misleading advice out there) to really understand why this is the real way to go. You almost have to read this book every year as an antidote to the temptation that assaults you nonstop from Wall Street and CNBC and all the financial magazines.

If you're a beginning investor, this is it. This book is the mother lode. You can stop looking. Unfortunately, it may take you 10-15 years and many large losses to realize this (as I had to do), but take it from me (some random anonymous person on the Internet), this is the REAL DEAL.

Knowing what I do now, if at age 21 I'd had my choice of $2,000,000 or the wisdom to understand the concepts in this book, I'd choose wisdom. Here are two examples from this book to illustrate why. On page 13 of this book Jack Bogle relates a letter that he received in early 2005 about someone who's been investing with Vanguard for about 30 years, and whose portfolio had grown to over $1.25 million, but he'd never made more than $25,000 in any year in his life. Although they knew nothing about his specific investing history (maybe he just got lucky? we don't know), this figure is attainable investing $600 a month in a Vanguard stock index fund over 30 years.

On the other hand, according to an NBC News report related on page 180 of the book, more than 70 percent of lottery winners exhaust their fortunes within 3 years.

So, clearly, doing the right thing is going to have a huge impact on how much money you end up with.

Even the most experienced investors will benefit from this book (and in fact, may benefit more) by simplifying their portfolio. The chapters on asset allocation and taxes are extremely insightful, even to non-beginners.

After reading this book, I immediately re-balanced my Vanguard portfolio to better fit my age group, and to lower the risk that I was taking.

Even as an "experienced" investor already in Vanguard index funds, I learned something actionable that I was immediately able to apply. If you consider yourself an "experienced" investor, you will also benefit from reading this book. I highly recommend it. My ENTIRE retirement portfolio is in Vanguard index funds, allocated in the recommended amounts, so this is not an idle recommendation.

Read it and live it.

(Just so you know, I have never visited the Boglehead web site, and I have never corresponded with any of the authors. I'm just an uninterested third party who's a big fan of this book).




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Review of How to Build a Real Estate Empire (Hardcover)

How to Build a Real Estate Empire,
by the gang at Marcus and Millichap

What a great strategy, for a real estate investment brokerage firm to write a book that encourages people to learn about how to build wealth through investing in, you got it, real estate. What's even more brilliant is to highlight 4 of their (most likely) best clients and tell their success stories. Hats off the gang at Marcus and Millichap, they are definitely an aggressive firm that is going places!

Although the book claims to be for the more seasoned investor, there is much to be learned even for a beginner as long as they are interested enough to stay with it. The first four chapters tell about four investors and their successes. I would like it to have been more in-depth but you can get more than a few sound strategies from the short chapters (one per investor) that cover each investor.For example:

Ben Leeds says, "I am primarily an apartment investor. The multifamily segment is more definable, more predictable-a necessary commodity and more responsive to affective management. It is also easiest to finance...."

He also says he regrets everything he ever sold.

Leeds has 75 separate apartment projects totaling over 1,600 units with a value over $160,000,000.

I would have liked more than 25 pages about his story.

Next up is John Hamilton who built his real estate portfolio up from $0 to $200 million with some major hiccups along the way. I also would have liked more than 11 ½ pages on him.

A good tip from Gerald Marcil who has a portfolio of $150 million is to constantly monitor your holdings to see if the equity could be better utilized, with less risk someplace else. Something else he mentions that I am a big believer in partnerships. If someone wants to be a part time real estate investor, they should partner with someone who is full time. His chapter ends with, "If it was profitable and easy, everyone would do it."

The story of these investors absolutely shows that it is possible to build a huge real estate portfolio starting from practically nothing but determination and hard work.

The book then moves on to a bunch of interesting statistics and annotations which read a bit like a textbook, but are well worth glancing at and remembering them to use as a reference in the future. Some of the topics included are: a growing population and how it will affect real estate, lots of different market indicators and some great reference web sites. There is also a great section on real estate partnerships and how they can be structured.


Having written a book myself, A 20,000% Gain in Real Estate, by Kevin Kingston and having built a real estate portfolio of $25,000,000 starting from less than zero just 5 years ago, I will say that the concepts in this book are 100% worth knowing and the inspiration you can get from people that have built $100-$200 million portfolios are worth listening to.

By Kevin Kingston, author of: A 20,000% Gain in Real Estate


My Blog:
http://www.bloglines.com/blog/KevinKingston





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Review of Everybody Wants Your Money: The Straight-Talking Guide to Protecting (and Growing) the Wealth You Worked So Hard to Earn (Hardcover)

Boy, does that title ring true! I also noticed on the cover of this book the wording, "Because that hand in your pocket... isn't yours!" You and I know that everybody wants your money in one form or another. However, I discovered some new ways while reading this book that I just finished. It is Written by David W. Latko, who is the co-host for the national radio program, "Money and More". Impressively, David Latko ranks among the nation's top one percent of financial advisors. I can just imagine how 'in demand' he is. He started off in a middle class neighborhood and moved his way up by helping people.

Where do you usually turn for answers with questions regarding investing, real estate, divorce, automobiles, identity theft, and so much more? If you say your family, friends, neighbors, or your own financial advisor, then you REALLY need to read this book to make sure you are steered on the right path. Looks can be deceiving. Do your homework, starting with this book, because it is YOUR money and YOUR financial future you are looking out for. No one else has such a vested interest in your finances as you need to, except for the slime balls mentioned in this book that you have to watch out for who want your money.

David not only presents practical advice in this book. He also shares memorable stories that yank on the heartstrings and gets your blood boiling. Think you are safe from your own family members who are to inherit your money? Think again and take a look at the story examples in this book. If nothing else, you will at least be aware and prepared just in case.

This book would make great gifts for everyone in your life. What better gift can you give them than to make sure they don't make wrong financial decisions that can destroy their future? I'm going to be buying and giving this book to some of my own family and friends as gifts. I am keeping mine to refer to and share with my children when needed. This book is definitely worth it!

... Story example: Willa and Tony, a retired couple who had a horrific experience with their first financial advisor. They came into some money. They had no idea what to do to invest or what to do.

So they solicited some advice from other retired friends. One of them had received a postcard in the mail a week before, and he passed it along to Tony and Willa. It gave the name and number of a financial advisor who worked in a branch office of a major brokerage which they knew of from hearing about it on TV.

In short order, their new advisor "handled" their prosperity problem. He put them into a range of investments that Willa and Tony did not clearly understand. Then, after a month or so of frenetic activity, he stopped calling-or returning their calls.

With their frustration mounting, they mentioned their problem to a person who happened to be a client of Davids. Turns out the other advisor had locked Willa and Tony into investments that carried staggeringly large up-front commissions; others carried long-term (and expensive) surrender charges.

There was little that could be done. The couple were tied into investments that could not be changed without taking a significant financial hit, in the case of Willa and Tony, it was more than a $26,000 loss.



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Review of Intermediate Accounting, Update (Hardcover)

The book is huge. I didn't know the book is available in two parts to cut back on the bulk. It is the size of a dictionary. The book is also very heavy, which doesn't really come in handy when I am carrying it all over the college campus. It does not fit into my oversized school bag (or it would if nothing else was in the bag).
The book is ok. My professor tests us on questions that aren't gone over in depth within the book. Each chapter has A LOT of info and not enough ways to critically access and understand all of it. The editors should consider more problems or better explainations that go into concepts more in depth then just scratching the surface as they do now.



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Review of The Ivy Portfolio: How to Invest Like the Top Endowments and Avoid Bear Markets (Hardcover)

Most investment books are disappointments because of one or more of these characteristics:inflated (would have been a good magazine or journal article, but doesn't deserve a book);obscure because information is withheld (in order to sell a newsletter, software, or service);obscure because it is poorly written;subjective (not data driven);or just plain wrong.

The Ivy Portfolio has none of those problems."Not bad" isn't the same as good, but this book is good.It is full of ideas and useful information;the disclosure is extensive, allowing reproducible results;it is well written;it is data driven;it is right based on the historical evidence, and I think the recommendations will prove to be robust.

Under the theme of learning best practices from the most successful investors, Ivy has not one but three big ideas:do what the "super endowments" do (diversify into additional asset classes);employ systematic timing to reduce risk;follow the best investment managers.A non-professional (but responsible) investor will understand how to do these things after reading Ivy, and I believe will do much better than buy-and-hold management (or in practice, "winging it").It won't take much time or special resources to manage an Ivy Portfolio.The companion website, www.theivyportfolio.com should be a good adjunct.

Any concerns?I suggest that more discussion about pitfalls in choosing ETFs to implement the less familiar asset classes would be good.More importantly, the underlying idea is patterned after endowments and hedge funds.The typical individual investor has a time horizon and risk profile driven by the life cycle:accumulation, transition, decumulation (systematic withdrawal to provide retirement income).Individuals benefit from investment volatility early in their savings career, yetvolatility is treacherous for retirees, particularly in the early years of retirement.Endowments don't die.Addressing possible mismatches between management based on institutional models and the individual's situation would be helpful.Academics and quants might look for discussion of the statistical significance of the findings here, but I am satisfied with the case the authors make for the economic significance of their ideas.

Bottom line:a curious or thoughtful investor will find this book well worthwhile.




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