The Best University With The All Time Great Professors!
![Investor's Manifesto (09) by Bernstein, William J [Hardcover (2009)]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31X16F83pkL._AC_UY218_.jpg)
A Random Walk Down Wall Street and Common Sense On Mutual Funds are both great books for people getting started. For those already initiated to personal finance concepts, The Investors Manifesto is a must. William Bernstein is a neurologist turned finance guru who doesn’t pull punches. I love the way he can explain why humans fail to make rational investment decisions due to how the human brain was made to function. “The enemy in the mirror” as he calls it. The Intelligent Investor is a timeless book by the mentor of Warren Buffet at Colombia (Benjamin Graham). Die Broke is my sleeper on the list. Not as well known. Older now. A better read for those who have already accumulated wealth. I liked this book because it really prioritized the balance between never outliving our money but not sacrificing our living years just to leave the largest sum when we croak. I enjoyed his goal of “ideally, your last check will bounce at the funeral home.”
The Only Financial Guide I Trust.
This website is run by Bob Brinker’s son (also named Bob Brinker which can be confusing). I listened to his father’s “Moneytalk” radio show for decades and subscribed to his “Marketimer” newsletter as well. His son took over the newsletter this year as his father is in his 80’s. The younger Mr. Brinker had his own “Brinker Fixed Income Advisor” newsletter since 2005 which was focused on bonds and fixed income investing. I subscribe to the current Brinker Advisor newsletter. It contains a short list of recommended mutual fund portfolios for investors seeking everywhere from aggressive growth to fixed income. It also will identify times and values when they think the market is undervalued and at a good buying opportunity.
What I love about both Brinkers is that their approach is sound. They keep expenses to a minimum. Their portfolios are well diversified. Their perspective is long term and they very rarely make any changes to the portfolios. They have done a masterful job of identifying great buying opportunities in the stock market and have avoided the temptation to go against financial history by advising their subscribers to sell out of it. The last time Bob Brinker (senior) recommended selling out of the market was in 2000 just before the dot com bubble burst. He followed that up by identifying the market low in 2003 getting his subscribers back into the market within days of it reaching bottom. The sell high and buy back in low made his subscribers wealthy. The greatest names in finance can’t reliably time markets. I don’t expect Brinker consistently can either. But they can identify buying opportunities. They also keep their readers fully invested in markets which is the time proven best long term approach.
If an investor put $20,000 into Brinker’s aggressive growth portfolio on 1-1-1988, it would be worth near 1.1 million dollars 12-2023. That is just 35 years. This highlights the power of time and a sound portfolio. It is effortless to the investor as the recommended portfolios frequently don’t even change in a decade. Imagine what your investment account would look like after 70 years! We can’t start investing young enough.