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Summary: "Coffee House..." changed the way I invest!
Review: All serious investors, or those aspiring to be, should read this book next. Next check out Bernstein, Intelligent Asset Allocator.
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Summary: I love this book!
Review: At last! An investment book for people who want to do more with their lives than monitor the stock market! The Coffeehouse Investor is an excellent book that is filled to the brim with financial insight -- without all the jargon and difficulty that characterize most investment books. Within its pages you will find real-life, relevant examples -- such as how investment risk compares to mountain climbing or how dividend reinvestment relates to pumpkin pie. (You even get the recipe!) The writer's style is very engaging -- even entertaining -- and his ideas on simplified investment techniques will truly change the way you invest forever! Buy it, read it, apply it! You won't regret it!
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Summary: Practical, offbeat book makes investing easy, fun,lucrative
Review: Having recently read a number of personal finance books, I found Schutheis'work refreshing, easy to follow, and FUN to read. How often have you laughed out loud reading an INVESTMENT book?? But don't get me wrong; the real message and beauty of this book is that it's as practical as it is enjoyable.With well-documented research, the author succinctly and cleverly explains what he considers the three principles of successful investing: saving, allocating and indexing. Interspersed among these principles is a somewhat divergent but still very relevant "sub-story" describing the author's mountain climbing, golfing and cooking adventures. This lighter side works well to contrast with the serious investment aspects, and helps the book remain true to one of its main messages: that it's possible -- if not vital -- to have a vibrant personal life AND a lucrative financial life. Schultheis' writing style is similar to that of Andrew Tobias' (author of the classic best-seller "The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need"), in that it's written for the "common person." Schultheis pokes some legitimate holes in arguments of a few relatively myopic investment experts. He gives readers information to help them feel more in control of their money and in control of how much they can earn by investing wisely, primarily through lower-cost, higher returning index funds. Most importantly, he helps lower our anxiety about our money and retirement with an achievable, easy-to-follow investment strategy. If you care about your money and would like to find a practical way to invest and REST, if you'd like to keep your money and personal lives both separate AND successful, you must read this book. (end)
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Summary: GOOD, BUT MANY INVESTORS DO BEAT THE MARKET INDEX
Review: I read most every book I can find on investing in the stock market. Even when the stock market took a nose dive over the past few years, during the internet stock wreck craze, there was an author whose approach to investing exceeded most (if not all) the market averages. The author is R. Max Bowser, and he currently has three books available that I refer to constantly. To balance out the opinions in this book, I would recommend R. Max Bowser's books, "Making Dollars with Pennies: How the Small Investor Can Beat the Wizards on Wall Street" and "Guaranteed Profits with Small Stocks: The Only Stock Market Investment System that Comes with a $5,000 Guarantee." Many investors who followed his advice shared their stories in his third book, "Penny Stock Winners: True Stories of Successful Investors." I, as an investor, read all the books on investing that I can get my hands on. One great idea from one source can be its weight in gold.
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Summary: A quick read
Review: If you are looking for a quick read and are really too lazy to do anything else to educate yourself, this is a good starting point. For those with a little more gumption, I prefer Paul B. Farrell's book, "The Lazy Person's Guide to Investing."
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Summary: How to be a successful investor--and still have a life
Review: Recommended by Morningstar as one of the "Best Books for Getting Started" as an investor, this little book is a very worthwhile use of three hours--not just for beginners, but also for investors who may be more experienced but may also have come to think of CNBC as something more than entertainment. Schultheis's main idea is that successful investing comes down to three basic imperatives: allocating assets intelligently, approximating (rather than trying to beat) the market average, and saving at a rate that can reasonably be expected to get you to your goals. While he emphasizes the use of index funds, he also includes a chapter on using a small part of your portfolio to indulge in the fun of picking stocks. Wisdom and good humor on investing, mountain climbing, and the unsuspected importance of pumpkin pie.
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Summary: Great book
Review: THE COFFEEHOUSE INVESTOR is written for those of us who recognize the importance of the investment process to achieve our financial goals but don't want to take a lot of time from family, careers, and recreational passions to obsess on the matter. This is a book that can be easily read in a couple of sittings. In fact, the book's brevity is a function of its message. Commit to a few basic investment strategies and "get on with your life". For the author those life passions include cooking and mountain climbing, so you will want to indulge him a bit (bite?) to digest the book's message. Contrived, perhaps, but I for one will take my tips where I can find them. Schultheis' advice is to diversify our investments, approximate the stock market's long-term results by using index funds, and save. These are themes that other investment writers have worked in detail, but a 'coffeehouse investor' is not about overwhelming us with detail. Schultheis chooses his statistical references and charts sparingly, but they are persuasive. Charts showing the average annual returns of large company stocks over a one-year, rolling five-year, and rolling ten-year period in Chapter 2 clearly show how risk in the stock market diminishes over time. On the subject of savings, I recommend his 'retirement worksheet' in Chapter 7 as a good working model. Why index funds? The majority of actively managed funds under-perform the benchmark indexes, and that's before annual expenses, management fees, and taxes resulting from portfolio turnover. Investing as equity owners in the stock market is ultimately an investment in the "collective" creativity of our fellow human beings. The best way to participate is to 'buy the market', which is the collective sum of all our entrepreneurial efforts, mirrored in an index fund, and avoid single stock ownership except with the "fun" share (say, 5 to 15%) of our assets. No reason why investing shouldn't have a fun component too. Schultheis wants us to ignore Wall Street's muddled, self-interested message that tells us to be long-term investors, and then stimulates an environment of short-term "stuff", "hot stocks and cool mutual funds", and a "switch-to-get-rich mentality". Books by William Bernstein, Larry E. Swedroe, Charles D. Ellis, Richard A. Ferri, and others detail in greater depth the reasoning behind asset allocation, index investing, and saving for retirement, but THE COFFEEHOUSE INVESTOR will reach a large segment of the investing public who might otherwise be occupied with family, career, and recreational priorities and miss the opportunity to embrace these important investment ideas.
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Summary: Great book
Review: This is a great book for people who want to invest, but don't want to spend their lives doing it.
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