Book Description
The Morningstar Investment Coach: Building a Diversified Portfolio allows readers to take the next step in their mutual fund journey. With discussions of topics such as gauging risk and return together, how to choose index and international funds, and the importance of knowing your mutual fund manager, this practical guide will help readers sharpen their mutual fund investing skills.
Customer Reviews:
morningstar.com not this book.......2005-04-15
I purchased the 3 books in this series hoping to find a way to bring the invaluable content of morningstar.com to my classroom [where our WiFi is spotty] in a book. The books are quite weak -- a light version of the information contained in the Learning Center / Morningstar University. Save your money; visit the morningstar.com website.
Book Description
Are the 95 million Americans invested in mutual funds making a mistake? Will inherent problems in the fund industry keep investors from achieving their goals? ""Absolutely,"" says author and financial expert Don Wilkinson. ""Mutual funds are the road kill of American investing.""
In Stop Wasting Your Wealth in Mutual Funds, Wilkinson throws passé investment strategy out the window to make room for the reality of a new era. According to Wilkinson, there’s a smart alternative to mutual funds-separately managed accounts, or SAMs.
In this brilliant how-to guide, Wilkinson explains that investors can gain and maintain wealth through a SAM, an individual basket of stocks or bonds. This new handbook shows how the average investor can now open a separate account for as little as $25,000-and have the account managed by a top institutional money manager through the investor’s financial advisor.
Stop Wasting Your Wealth in Mutual Funds proves to mainstream readers that they can invest like the super-rich and reap the myriad benefits of a SAM: reduced taxes, elimination of hidden fees, customized holdings, and potentially improved performance.
Packed with top-notch advice from a financial pro, Stop Wasting Your Wealth in Mutual Funds is the bible for investors seeking superior results with greater control. One of the most useful and thought-provoking investment books published this year.
Highlights In Stop Wasting Your Wealth in Mutual Funds, Don Wilkinson provides:
•Point-by-point comparisons of SAMs to mutual funds, outlining risks, benefits, and returns
•A user-friendly process for opening, customizing, and switching to a separate account from mutual funds
•A comprehensive list of financial advisors for fledgling investors
•Ways to find advisors who handle separate accounts for clients
Customer Reviews:
Book's thesis is nonsensical.......2007-07-14
Wilkinson spends most of the book deriding mutual funds and selling the idea that (if you are already wealthy) you should place your investable assets in seperately managed accounts. Strangely, the reasons he uses to slam mutual funds apply equally to SEPs.
Wilkinson blames high fees, incompetent or corrupt fund managers, and investor ignorance for mutual funds' supposed poor performance. His answer? Invest your money in your own account with broker's fees, an account manager to guide you, and your own investment decisions.
The audience for this book seem to be people with around $100K to invest, who are savvy enough to handle their own diversification and investment strategy and make sure their broker is on the level, but are unable to track the performance and diversify their mutual fund holdings.
If you are wealthy enough to safely follow the ideas in this book, chances are you don't need the advice in the first place.
A convincing explanation why you should avoid mutual funds and an alternative.......2007-01-06
Due to recent revelations, there are several messages that investors should receive loud and clear. New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has done the general investor a great service. By exposing and prosecuting dubious and illegal practices by investment institutions such as flawed recommendation strategies and after hours trading, he has made the investment industry much more transparent. Many investment advisors were counseling their clients to purchase stocks where the advisor had a conflict of interest. Some were also conducting after hours trading, which in the words of Spitzer, was equivalent to "betting on yesterday's horse races." There is a simple lesson in this, there is no substitute for performing detailed and consistent due diligence regarding your investment portfolio.
In this book, Wilkinson points out the general ineffectiveness of investing in mutual funds. In doing so he performs a significant service for the higher end "average investor." By the time the fees and taxes are paid, expenses that are often understated by mutual fund brokers, most mutual funds under perform high interest money market accounts. Furthermore, mutual funds often lock you into investments that you would rather avoid.
Fortunately, while debunking investment in mutual funds, Wilkinson presents a viable alternative. It is the separately managed account, which provides a great deal more flexibility and where the expenses are much smaller. Unfortunately, most separately managed accounts require an initial investment of at least $100,000. Therefore, if you are an investor in that category, it would be very advantageous for you to read this book. Even if you are not, it is worth reading to learn the many pitfalls of investing in mutual funds.
The disadvantages of mutual funds and the advantages of separately managed accounts are completely explained in non-technical language. I am not an investor in mutual funds and after doing the research that reading this book prompted me to do, I probably never will. Wilkinson's main point of advice is very sound, but not easily executed. "Find a caring, knowledgeable financial advisor interested in benefiting you and stick with them for the long haul."
Stop wasting weath improved my bottom line.......2006-02-10
I have read Mr. Wilkson's book and really took it to heart. My wife and I changed our entire investement strategy as he suggested and now are making 12% on our IRA. Could not be happier.
Joe DeCamp
Great book for individual investors!!!.......2006-02-07
This a book worth reading. It provides plenty of useful information for the investor. If you are currently investing in mutual funds, read this book and find out why you shouldn't.
Excellent Information.......2006-02-02
As an investor in mutual funds for many years, I have finally found the
answers on why I have been losing money consistently in mutual funds.
For example, the book powerfully and successfully explains the
excessive fees and the built-in capital gains burden of mutual funds.
The idea of "tax harvesting" performed by a professional money manager
described clearly in the book makes sense to me. Unlike one reviewer,
who appears to want a textbook to teach financial planners about
separate accounts, I 'm an investor who demands solutions not a myriad
of details. I expect my Financial planner to take care of the
specifics. After reading this book, I am going to be questioning him
on why he hasn't put my portfolio into a separate account earlier. This
book is for investors like me. Low returns, paying excessive capital
gains taxes, nicked by fees and charges I don't even know about is my
history investing in mutual funds. This book offers an
alternative--separately managed accounts-- and makes sense for the
right investor. Check it out. I give it high marks
Average customer rating:
- An excellent guide to mutual find investing
- It just makes sense
- The Winning Protfolio - a winning book
- A Great Place to Start
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The Winning Portfolio: Choosing Your 10 Best Mutual Funds
Paul B. Farrell , and
Farrell Paul
Manufacturer: Bloomberg Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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| Popular Economics
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ASIN: 1576600718 |
Book Description
A smart, simple approach to selecting the handful of funds that are right for you. With nearly 10,000 mutual funds to choose from and very little objective advice on which ones are best for different goals, investors need clear guidance to select funds that are right for them. "The Winning Portfolio" presents a simple, practical remedy to the usual haphazard process of picking mutual funds. This is not another laundry list of "the best" mutual funds. Paul Farrell directs investors to the types of funds best suited to them. For example, someone moving into retirement shouldn't choose the same mix of funds as a thirty-something executive. The best portfolio of funds for each of us depends upon risk tolerance, portfolio objectives, and the length of time we want to be in the market. How do we go about finding the strongest handful of holdings to meet our needs? Beginning with the 100 best mutual funds out there, CBS Marketwatch columnist Paul B. Farrell offers a systematic, yet simple, approach to selecting the ten that will diversify and add value to specific portfolios while reducing volatility. He present criteria for narrowing investment choices to those that fir individual requirements. Farrell also includes critical guidance for monitoring portfolios over the years and rebalancing in a bear market. Lists of "hot" funds change every week, but this book gives a sustainable investing strategy, featuring reliable advice on: creating objectives for a mutual fund portfolio; finding the best high-growth, no-load, and tax-advantaged funds; selecting specific funds that meet long-term needs; assembling a diversified fund portfolio that reduces risk, readjusting assets to meet changing needs, plus: analyzing sample mutual fund portfolios to use as models.
Customer Reviews:
An excellent guide to mutual find investing.......2002-02-08
The Winning Portfolio: Choosing Your 10 Best Mutual Funds is an excellent guide to mutual find investing and ideally suited to the informational and strategic planning needs of the novice investor. Written by CBS MarketWatch's dean of funds Paul Farrell, The Winning Portfolio aptly presents how best to choose between the top 100 mutual funds and create a diversified, solid portfolio that will effectively put your money to work for you. Written in clear, easily understandable language for new investors and long-time market veterans alike, The Winning Portfolio is a must-read for everyone putting a sizeable chunk of their financial well-being into the mutual fund market.
It just makes sense.......2000-05-25
There are so many books on investing right now, that it is difficult to know where to turn. "The Winning Portfolio" is a gem that stands out from the rest of the crowd. This book is easy to understand, even for a novice, yet is not beneath those who have already been investing.
He explains how to build a winning portfolio using mutual funds with emphasis on asset allocations. This is not a one-size-fits-all approach. He helps the reader determine how to build a portfolio based on their needs, then offers examples of how to meet financial goals. Yes, it takes a bit of work, but it doesn't require the diligence (and the stomach) of a day-trader to maintain. This system will work for the average person.
After reading this book, I have a solid plan in place and an idea of where I'm headed and why I'm going there. I agree with the previous reviewer... Dr. Paul's column at cbs.marketwatch.com is also required reading.
The Winning Protfolio - a winning book.......1999-12-27
If you have not yet read Paul Farrell's internet column on the CBS Marketwatch page, you are missing out on a lot! This book, and his daily column on SuperStar Funds, are a must for anyone planning their future.
A Great Place to Start.......1999-06-01
This book is an ideal starting point for those who are trying to figure out how to start saving. Dr. Farrell is a comforting voice to anyone who might be overwhelmed at the thousands of mutual funds on the market today and the other countless investment options avaialable these days. Dr. Farrell's message is simple - make a plan, then stick to it. Then, and this is where other columnists, writers fall down, he tells you HOW to do it. He outlines what a model portfolio would look like and gives a long list of funds that might be good choices. Dr. Farrell's other message is, it's not hard to invest - most of the gains in your portfolio come from the allocations you pick - not the individual funds. The book is simple, well-written, and interesting. This shouldn't be the last investment book you read, but if you haven't read one yet, it should be the first!
Average customer rating:
- Should be called financial basics...
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Build Your Own Mutual Fund: How to Use a Personal Portfolio to Take Control of Your Financial Life
Brian O'Connell
Manufacturer: Adams Media Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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| Business & Investing
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Introduction
| Investing
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ASIN: 158062930X |
Customer Reviews:
Should be called financial basics..........2004-03-07
I figured a book with a title of "Build your own mutual fund" would be an interesting read nevertheless a good introduction to building "folios" (see foliofn.com for more info on folios.)
However this book focused more on the basics of personal finance, which I know is the most important aspect of investing but if I wanted a book to tell me how to figure out my net worth I would buy a book on personal finance basics.
This book was supposed to be about creating your own basket of stocks but instead it wanted to teach us the basics of finance and I feel I wasted my time and money purchasing this book since everything in this book can be found on foliofn or in any "how to save money for your retirement book" which is very unfortunate since the author, myself and I'm sure others feel that the folio concept will just get bigger and bigger. I have even considered starting a folio except I realized that if I were to really make anything out of it I would need to switch most of my trading capitol over to foliofn just to try it out, and that is something I am not ready or willing to do.
Overall I feel that if you need a book on the basics of personal finance and you want a short introduction to this interesting investment approach this book may be for you. For everyone else please wait for a more advanced book on folios to arrive.
Reed Floren
Average customer rating:
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The Folio Phenomenon: New Freedom to Customize Your Investments and Increase Your Wealth
Gene Walden
Manufacturer: Dearborn Trade
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Popular Economics
| Business & Investing
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ASIN: 0793154103 |
Book Description
With folio investing, you can build your own "mini" mutual fund containing up to 50 stocks in companies you select.
For investors with modest sums to invest, owning individual stocks once meant facing the risk of putting all their investment eggs in a limited number of baskets. Mutual funds provided investors with one more option, allowing them to spread their risk by owning a broad cross-section of companies. However, with mutual funds, investors have no control over which companies they own or how and when shares are sold, and they often end up with a tax burden based on the activities of the overall fund. To combine the benefits of owning risk-spreading mutual funds and the control of owning individual stocks seemed like an impossible dream.
Not any longer. Visionary online investment companies have created a new vehicle-the folio-that brings the best of both worlds to the reach of savvy investors. Folios allow investors to work with a given dollar amount, thus enabling them to buy fractional shares of stock in as many as 50 different companies. Investors are charged a modest fee-as little as $6.99 a month-that enables them to trade liberally within the folio without incurring the transaction fees paid to regular stockbrokers.
Independent stock and mutual fund analyst Gene Walden offers insights into this new hybrid investment vehicle. In plain language, he outlines the advantages and disadvantages, explains what folios are, how they work, and how they came to be, and he provides insights from the leading players in this budding new industry. He discusses everything investors need to know and constructs a number of sample folios, including:
• Powering up with a utility folio
• Selecting a folio of blue chip all-star stocks
• Investing
Customer Reviews:
Opened my eyes.......2002-05-25
I found this book very helpful because it opened my eyes to a whole new form of investing that I was never aware of before. It's well-written, gets to the point, and showed me very specifically how to set up my own divisified portfolio online, at an unbelievably cheap price. And what I really liked about the book was that it offered a number of pre-selected portfolios of blue chip-type stocks that you could start with immediately. Walden has done his research.
Average customer rating:
- A practical guide to common sense investing.
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The Fortune in Your Future: Wealth-Building Tactics for Every Investor
David C. Veeneman
Manufacturer: Mcgraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Popular Economics
| Business & Investing
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Introduction
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ASIN: 0070673535 |
Book Description
"David Veeneman has written a book that...you cannot afford to be without. The Fortune in Your Future deftly walks the most difficult line in financial writing--namely, it is at once sophisticated and accessible, breezy and comprehensive."--Tyler Mathisen, Financial Journalist
Customer Reviews:
A practical guide to common sense investing........1998-09-24
A great book on investing your money to achieve results within your comfort zone. A wide range of asset allocation models are provided and Veeneman's explanations of the models are fun and easy to understand.
Average customer rating:
- Don't bother.
- All the Wrong Stuff
- Wrong-headed. It simply doesn't work!
- A Peek Behind th Curtain
- A Breath Of Fresh Air
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Hazardous to your Wealth: Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Mutual Fund Experts
Robert Markman
Manufacturer: Elton-Wolf Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
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Introduction
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ASIN: 1586190067 |
Book Description
In the midst of the biggest bull market in history, many investors are wondering why they have not achieved better results. The reason, as Robert Markman clearly and compellingly shows, is that the financial services industry has promoted strategies that are doomed to failure.
Hazardous to Your Wealth: Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the madness of Mutual Fund Experts is a fascinating expose of the misguided and ineffective advice that passes for conventional wisdom in todays investment world. Learn the truth about the delusions that can cost you profits: * Why international funds wont help your portfolio
* Why value funds are not the safe and prudent choice
* Why small-cap funds are doomed to lag the market
* Why advice from financial planners often reduces your potential for long-term profits
In Hazardous to Your Wealth, veteran investment adviser Robert Markman does more than just show that the mutual fund emperor has no clothes. He also helps you break out of mediocre returns by sharing with you solid, practical, easy-to-follow advice; the same advice that has generated millions of dollars of gain in todays market for thousands of investors like you. Before you make your next investment move, you must read this book...then give it to your financial planner and watch him squirm!
Customer Reviews:
Don't bother........2002-09-03
This book is useless. If you bought into Markman's scheme, you have been hurt...badly. Markman obliterated his investors (Markman Multi-funds) over the past 2 and 1/2 years and is merging all of his funds into one to bury his abysmal performance. This book is drivel and was written by Markman to market his money management business. Run, do not walk, away from this self-promoting fluff.
All the Wrong Stuff.......2002-03-29
This screed is filled with truly awful mutual fund investment advice. The book has two redeeming virtues. The first is its rich lode of unintended humor, beginning with its title. Its other virtue is the advice here is so bad that a completely contrarian strategy has much merit: Do use indexed funds and whenever possible avoid using actively managed funds. Do not overweight your portfolio with US large cap growth funds, instead diversify. Making sure to include investments in large cap value funds, small cap value funds, and micro cap funds.
Mr. Markman makes much of checking the historical performance of investment strategies. So lets check the historical record. Three of Mr. Markman's mutual funds have been in existence for over five years. Here are the five year annual growth rates for the three funds as reported by Morningstar in March of 2002, Aggressive -1.21%, Moderate -0.12%. and Conservative 1.76%. Had you invested $100,000 in each of these three funds five years ago, your $300,000 investment would be worth $302,611 today.
Mr. Markman vehemently disapproves of the diversified indexed investment strategies of the DFA family of funds. Consider three of their indexed funds in asset classes Mr. Markman beseeches investors to avoid. Namely,the DFA large cap value fund, small cap value fund, and micro small cap fund. They had the following five year annual growth rates in March of 2002. Large Cap Value 11.74%, Small Cap Value 14.64%, and Micro Small Cap 10.98%. (Morningstar was again the source of the data.) Had you invested $100,000 in each of these three funds five years ago, your $300,000 investment would be worth $540,559 today.
Avoid this nonsense like the plague. For sound investment advice read the books by Malkiel, William Bernstein, Swedroe, Bogle, and Charles Ellis instead.
Wrong-headed. It simply doesn't work!.......2000-12-08
All of the other reviews here were written within a few days or weeks of when the book came out, which leads me to believe that the readers were Markman's friends or clients. The reviews seem to stop once it got to roughly February, because that's when the roof came in on Markman's logic.
He was lagging the indexes for years before -- he lost a famous bet with Vanguard founder Jack Bogle that his Markman funds could outperform an index fund -- and so he came up with this garbage to justify his bad numbers.
It worked, for awhile, mostly because the market was being kind to the kinds of stocks he favored.
But about two months after this book came out, the market tanked. And now that Markman disdains diversification, investors in his mutual funds have suffered big losses in 2000 due to this strategy.
I recently attended a conference in Boston where Markman was on a panel, and it became clear that most of his ideas were easily debunkjed.
He gave away free copies of this book. I read it hoping to see more in it, to see some basic reason why he came to these conclusions and how maybe I had missed something when he got whupped on stage that day. It just doesn't stand the test of time.
Even though I got the book for free, it wasn't worth the investment of time it took to read it.
A Peek Behind th Curtain.......2000-04-09
The underlying message of this book is that for long-term results, invest in large cap US stocks, or funds comprised thereof. Chapter two effectively debunks using small caps as a significant part of a long-term portfolio, both with tight reasoning and solid data. Chapter 3 argues against using international funds for diversification, again with data for support. It would have been nice to include data supporting his contention that international funds' performances are due more to currency fluctuations than an increase in the intrinsic values of the stocks.
The rest of the book, besides a refreshing discussion of the difference between risk and volatility, was basically an expostulation as to why US is currently the best place to invest and will likely remain so. Again all very interesting and possibly true, but not a great deal of hard data was cited for support.
Besides wishing for more data to support his arguments, another quibble I have is his rather confident view on how effective and open the government and private regulation of the US market is. While our financial system IS amazingly honest (after serving 6 years as a Foreign Service Officer in Africa and a year in India, I know graft and corruption!), he doesn't even mention our S&L fiasco.
It's a book worth reading, though a serious editor could have reduced it to a longish magazine article. I am not about to jettison all my "myths...delusions and...madness," but I'm going to check out the other authors he recommends. It's clearly worth a peek behind the wizard's curtain!
A Breath Of Fresh Air.......2000-02-09
An enjoyable read, Markman skewers the prevailing wisdom in many areas. If you think you know what you should do about asset allocation, investing overseas, or snagging some small caps, Markman will set you straight with appropriate data and well-reasoned arguments. This is not a get-rich quick book, but packs more punch than anything I have read in the investment field lately.
Customer Reviews:
Mutual Fund Kit by Gruber.......2006-02-25
This kit would be very helpful for the novice mutual fund
investor seeking plain advice. The standard fund objectives
for a plethora of investors are:
- Safety
- Large/Small cap funds depending upon fund size in dollars
- Money Market Funds
- Tax Benefits
A typical performance measurement statistic is the Russell 3000
index of funds performing over the averages. This book will assist you in crafting a short and long term portfolio of
moderate to advanced complexity.
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- Gold Trading Boot Camp: How to Master the Basics and Become a Successful Commodities Investor
- Guerrilla Marketing: Secrets for Making Big Profits from Your Small Business (Guerrilla Marketing)
- Head Rush Ajax (Head First)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
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