I read this book last week:
First, I’d like to thank my good friend Josh for buying this book for me for Christmas. We’re both graduating this year and in order to get the best financial start possible, we wanted to both start reading as much financial book as possible to avoid most of the pitfalls that a lot of people our age fall into (excessive spending, lack of foresight, buying a new car.. etc….). So thanks Tako and now on to the review!
There are a couple things I really like about this book but also a few things I don’t like about it. I really like how the book is very short and concise. I think it is all too common that financial books or personal investing books become too thick and cumbersome for the average person who is supposed to read them (someone too busy to read a thick book!). This book is only about 170 pages or something total, and the last like 40 pages are appendix related chapters which are optional and supplemental so the shortness of the book is very refreshing and in a span of about a week (reading it to and from work in traffic jams) I finished it. What I don’t like though is that even though the book is really short, the author seems to say the exact same things over and over and over again. At some points I even felt a little insulted that he needed to remind me of his statement when he had already said it every chapter. Secondly, I am a pretty avid stock trader as I have some play money set aside that I strictly buy and sell individual stocks with. This has worked out pretty well for me (in that I’m not broke yet) and I’m having fun and learning about companies and such. Daniel Solin straight out denounces anything related to this style of trading by presenting a TON of “facts”/quotes from other famous people supporting his case. This book is almost an advertisement (in the form of a book) for exchange traded funds and index funds. The author even goes as far as to insult individual stock traders in many cases. I personally didn’t really take any offense since I’m doing pretty well and I think he probably must drive it this hard in order to make his point, I just think he could have done it a bit more tactfully without resorting to insults and name-calling.
With all that being said, I definitely think that this book is perfect for anyone who doesn’t really want to get into investing and rather just recognizes that investing for growth/retirement is a necessary part of today’s life and doesn’t want to commit his hours of day to it (the average person). Also, it is a fantastic primer for ETFs and Index funds as Daniel actually spells out where to go, what funds to buy, and names particular funds and brokerages. I learned a lot about these types of securities and I can definitely see the appeal and I’m even looking personally to get some now. So the book was definitely a good investment of my time and I would recommend anyone who is new to investing to start here.
Now! Enjoy some Music! 
This is one of my favorite Jack Johnson’s songs
It’s All Understood by Jack Johnson
