The Investment Answer

False Advertising

"The Investment Answer" by Daniel C. Goldie, CFA, CFP & Gordon S Murray explains very basic investing to beginning investors.  This is a really short book and a very easy read.  If you are looking for a basic explanation of how to invest and some examples of how you can be successful as a passive investor I suggest reading this book.  If you are just a novice passive investor then the old faulty "Efficient Market Hypothesis" mumbo jumbo put forth by the authors of the book will not effect you and you will feel good when you get 7% average annual returns over the next decade or two of your life.  If you are just looking for a way to find someone to help you with your money you should read this hard bound pamphlet.  Do not buy it though, rent it from the library.  It takes a matter of hours to read and the advice given doesn't require that the reader commit to studying the content.

If you are an active investor and/or trader this book really has zero to offer.  It is good to quickly read it so you know the contents and you can tell people who want basic investment advice about the book.  Or you could just take my word for it instead of quickly reading it and just suggest it to passive investors when they ask for some advice about investing.  Actually I can't recommend that.  If you recommend this book you could seem like you don't care about the person asking for advice.  There are much better basic investment advice books out there. 

There is nothing in this book that is risky or controversial.  Just plain vanilla advice and a bit of help for passive investors who want to learn the absolute minimum about investing and therefore get the absolute minimum average returns on their investments.  Summed up this book says, "Here are some very basic investing facts, now go and give your money to these guys so that they can invest it for you....."

Overall I give "The Investment Answer" a C-.  It does not fail to provide some basic information in a very short read.  On the other hand it is definitely not the investment answer for passive or active investors.