The Motley Fool's What to Do with Your Money Now : Ten Steps to Staying Up in a Down Market

Rating:
Summary: One thing NOT to do with your money now: Buy this book..
Review: After owning a couple of the previous works from the Motley Fool (and subsequently throwing them out because the advice is pretty bad) I took a look at the latest edition by borrowing it from someone.

First of all I've always found their advice frustrating. On one hand they kind of half-heartedly recommend passive index investing and then they go about telling you about the latest stock-screening get-rich-quick fad. Toss in a couple dubious stock picks along the way and you have nothing but a mixed message.

I think this book is a pretty shallow attempt for these two to make up for the really bad advice they gave in their other books over the years. They take several chapters explaining away (in hindsight) how wrong they were, but even in this light they fail to embrace proven strategies and instead go about telling you what stocks to own (Starbucks anyone??). Basically this book is trying to convince you that "This time it's different." They are now trying to mend their ways and show that now their advice is worth listening to and all the stuff they said before was wrong and they're very sorry you lost so much of your money using their strategies. And oh, by the way, we still offer for sale this nifty stock investment newsletter and website for a really great price!

I really think the best approach is to concentrate your portfolio on passive index funds compromising various asset classes (domestic, foreign, bonds, real estate) and just rebalancing once a year. This is a very proven strategy that will beat virtually every actively managed portfolio/fund with far less stress (and taxes). Most major pension funds follow an indexing approach for a good reason: It works.

For a much better read try out The Coffeehouse Investor, books by Larry Swedroe, Bogle, and William Bernstein. Send these two jesters back to the circus...

Rating:
Summary: Inexperienced But Some Gold Nuggets
Review: Although the Motley Fools have shown their inexperience, like some of us knew they would, they have also started maturing. Much of their advice is generic enough to be good and hardly any of their advice is "bad" (like much of their competition). Also, there are some gold nuggets later in the program, so it is worth a listen if you are at any transition points in your life.

Rating:
Summary: Good and timely
Review: Everytime I have a money question The Motley Fool comes forth with an answer that is no-nonsense, easy to act on and either makes or saves me a ton of money.
This book is great because it helps people understand what happened in the last few years to business, the economy, the market. But, it's not like it is just another think tank book. It goes the step further to help you make smart moves now that will pay off. Good info about insurance, CDs, capital gains. Definitely a good, timely read.

Rating:
Summary: One thing NOT to do with your money now: Buy this book..
Review: I didn't want to go to a one because some of it was useful. Their admission on how poorly they performed in the market downturn says it all. So now they're saying, along with countless others, "We have the best hindsight of anybody!", rings absolutely hollow. Very bland humor too.

If you've read or heard them before, there's no need for this one. Try to find somebody who has beaten these bad times.

Rating:
Summary: I've had enough!
Review: I didn't want to go to a one because some of it was useful. Their admission on how poorly they performed in the market downturn says it all. So now they're saying, along with countless others, "We have the best hindsight of anybody!", rings absolutely hollow. Very bland humor too.

If you've read or heard them before, there's no need for this one. Try to find somebody who has beaten these bad times.

Rating:
Summary: Where's the Beef
Review: I got the audio version of this (although abridged...I think a book like this will separate the grist from the meat and potatoes of the real information...and since most people need to review and hear stuff 3-4 times to get the information...this is a good way to do it). CD 1 is stories of their past and others to explain the lessons that they have learned... fairly entertaining at times... and needs several listenings to get the full impact (especially about their Fool.com and their foolish expansions of what they were not good at.) At one point they explain a chart that they say is worth the cost of the whole course...if only they or the publisher had thought to include a little packet of the graphics they were refering to in the front cover...but enough listenings to it and you get it.
CD 2 are all their suggestions of what to do with your money and to get yourself financially secure... so if you just want the information and none of the filler (like you can with self help books) then skip to the end (or CD 2 in this case). It helps me to focus on what I want to do with my money and why I am out of debt now but not able to save any (another good book for getting out of debt is "GET OUT OF DEBT, STAY OUT OF DEBT AND LIVE PROSPERSOUSLY"... which I consider a very good book and along with the Fool Brothers has helped me to pay off the credit cards and have the potential for saving and living hapilly.
Cool Runnings to you.