Two thumbs up for the Dilbert financial plan. May it spread far and wide.
If you're the kind of person who can't bring himself to follow a simple and sensible plan like Dilbert's, I have the book for you: William Bernstein's "The Four Pillars of Investing".
If you follow Bernstein's advice you will end up with Dilbert's financial plan, except that instead of one giant index fund you'll have a bunch of smaller index funds - some small-cap, some large-cap growth, some international, and so on. Plus bonds, of course. In other words, you'll be a Vanguard customer. But there's nothing wrong with that.
This additional layer of complexity might be good for an additional point or two of growth. Or it might turn out to be a useless exercise in micromanagement. But it's a nice safe way to satisfy your urge to pretend that doing a lot of higher math and complicated bookkeeping is making you richer. The book is careful to steer you away from stupid stock-picking strategies, stupid stock newsletters, and advisers who work on commission (who are, by definition, not on your side).
If you're the kind of person who can't bring himself to follow a simple and sensible plan like Dilbert's, I have the book for you: William Bernstein's "The Four Pillars of Investing".
http://www.amazon.com/Four-Pillars-Investing-Building-Portfo...
If you follow Bernstein's advice you will end up with Dilbert's financial plan, except that instead of one giant index fund you'll have a bunch of smaller index funds - some small-cap, some large-cap growth, some international, and so on. Plus bonds, of course. In other words, you'll be a Vanguard customer. But there's nothing wrong with that.
This additional layer of complexity might be good for an additional point or two of growth. Or it might turn out to be a useless exercise in micromanagement. But it's a nice safe way to satisfy your urge to pretend that doing a lot of higher math and complicated bookkeeping is making you richer. The book is careful to steer you away from stupid stock-picking strategies, stupid stock newsletters, and advisers who work on commission (who are, by definition, not on your side).