No. of Recommendations: 0
All,
I looking to gift some books for a friend who wants to start to invest in the market.
He's 57
Just a Basic understanding and not to technical.
Any suggestions?
Scott H
No. of Recommendations: 6
Friends are always asking me for investment advice. As a layer of insulation, I mostly refer them to these two books:
"The Four Pillars of Investing, Second Edition: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio" by William Bernstein.
The first edition made my retirement secure. Doctors are notoriously bad investors, perhaps because all the common sense ended up in this one retired neurologist.
"The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing 2nd Edition",
by Mel Lindauer (Author), Taylor Larimore (Author), Michael LeBoeuf (Author), John C. Bogle (Foreword)
In spite of their chronic poor understanding of BRK, following the Bogleheads will put you ahead of most professional "wealth managers".
No. of Recommendations: 7
I am no expert and mileage will vary.
Whatever small bit I know, I learned at the feet of the masters. That is what i try to emulate, however haltingly.
"Investing is a subset of worldly wisdom." -- Charlie Munger, Words that made this man one of my heroes.
The first investment book ever suggested to me in 1996, by the GOAT, himself, was, The Intelligent Investor, by Benjamin Graham, both with the preface by Buffett and the edition with commentary by Jason Zweig
It took 6 months to read the fourth edition, the first time. Not my native language, though Chapter 8 made sense. The rest made sense 20 years later, the second time I read it--well, almost finished. Still not my native language.
Books on Charlie's worldly wisdom list, including those about Charlie and Warren:
The Psychology of Money, Morgan Housel
Damn Right! Janet Lowe (Foreward by Buffett) mainly about Charlie's contribution to the partnership
Warren Buffett Speaks, Janet Lowe
Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, Charles Mackay
Against the Gods, Peter Bernstein
Since the annual letters are written for non-professionals, have him peruse those, especially from around 1999 and early 2000's so they will see good examples of chapter 8 in practice.
Have him look at old Youtube videos of Warren and Charlie to get a feel for their thought process and values, also real time events.
Yes, this is contextual research, which gives a person the ecology of mind to become a value investor, not a buy the dip or a drive yourself crazy trying to make a big buck kind of "investor."
Also, though I haven't done it, myself: I heard dollar cost averaging is very effective if you stick with it. I think Housel mentions it
and people like Jason Zweig also.
If nothing else, your friend will be wiser and smarter than he was. :)
No. of Recommendations: 0
""The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing 2nd Edition",
by Mel Lindauer (Author), Taylor Larimore (Author), Michael LeBoeuf (Author), John C. Bogle (Foreword)"
I like the "little Book of..." series, one of which is by John Bogle - Little Book of Common Sense investing which sets out the benefits to investing through index funds.
Others in the series I really like are
Little Book that beats the Market by Joel Greenblatt (it has a slightly newer version out- '...still beats the market', and a third edition is supposedly in the works but the release date on Amazon keeps moving),
Little Book that builds Wealth by Pat Dorsey
Little Book of Valuation by Aswath Damodoran
Honourable mentions to James Montier's book in the series on behavioural investing and Christopher Browne on Value investing.
Others have mentioned books like One up on wall St and Warren's letters which I love as both are fantastic reads.
