Free Book!

[Rick Ferri]

Actually, my first book on investing, written 1998 and published in 1999 has been free for a long time. But you may not have known about it.

Serious Money; Straight Talk About Investing for Retirement.

Here is the good news. I just finished rereading the book and to my surprise (not really) nothing has changed in 15 years! Well, I have more gray hair than the picture on the cover, but that's the biggest change.

Here is a snippit:

In the early 1900s, Harry Houdini exposed widespread fraud in the fortune telling industry. Houdini offered a large reward to anyone who could prove they could speak to the dead. Though many soothsayers tried to fool Houdini, he uncovered all their tricks. No one ever collected the prize.

Today, market timers run a similar business as Houdini’s spiritualists. Their skill is not in predicting the direction of financial markets - it is in marketing their predictions. It does not matter if an advisor has no skill in choosing superior investments, what’s important is to convince the public that they have special insight. These modern day soothsayers understand that selling their investment advice is much more profitable than following it. No broker has ever gotten rich by purchasing the products they peddle. They get rich off the commissions and fee charged to the gullible public.

Download it, copy it, send it around - the price is right!

Rick Ferri

[Nummerkins]

Thanks, downloaded and transferred to my Nook. I look forward to reading it!

[LadyGeek]

Actually, your book has been in the wiki for quite a while: Taylor Larimore's Investment Gems

There are 2 other free books listed in the wiki. The direct links:

- Road Map for Investing Success - by pkcrafter

- Investing Strategies for the 21st Century - by Frank Armstrong

[Rick Ferri]

Free is good! Unlike most investment advice where you pay a lot and earn far less than the markets, on this forum you pay nothing and earn your fair share of a market returns!

What a country.

Rick Ferri

[lindisfarne]

Free is good! Unlike most investment advice where you pay a lot and earn far less than the markets, on this forum you pay nothing and earn your fair share of a market returns!

What a country.

Rick Ferri

Very much appreciated. Reinforcement of the core principles is always good.

[ResNullius]

It does not matter if an advisor has no skill in choosing superior investments, what’s important is to convince the public that they have special insight.
==========
Snake oil salesman. The name changes, but the substance (or lack thereof) remains the same.

[6miths]

Thanks Rick. Always looking for things to read on the computer. Sound advice is timeless.

[Taylor Larimore]

Bogleheads:

For a bit of nostalgia, this is a post I made on the old Morningstar Vanguard Diehard Forum in 2001 after reading Rick's free online book:

http://socialize.morningstar.com/NewSoc ... stID=47707

Thank you, Rick.

Best wishes.
Taylor

[NOLA]

Thanks Rick.

Taylor, thanks for adding the last part. Fun read for sure.

[stemikger]

Thanks Rick. I look forward to reading it and sharing it.

[camper]

Thanks Rick. I will download it when I get home from work. I just sent the link to a coworker in hopes of getting back my copy of the second edition of All About Asset Allocation. He has only had it for a year.

[Rick Ferri]

I've loaned books to several friends who are also slow readers.

Rick Ferri

[2retire]

Thanks Rick. I downloaded it a month or two ago when you posted it in a thread on how to calculate performance returns. The thing that really stood out in it for me was your example of chasing the hot dot and the PBHG Growth Fund. I was one of those people that got into that fund after it had made all its great returns. I had discovered the fund after reading Money magazine. If I only knew then, what I know now.

[Random Musings]

Years ago, I printed it out for a friend. After that, he's all index/passive.

RM

[Karl]

A lot of things haven't changed since 1999. For example, the NASDAQ is still at the same level. Only difference is I don't have any smug fools telling me how I fail to comprehend how the Internet has entirely changed investing. Soon as their investments in GotNoEarnings.com went down the toilet they all went away.

[Grt2bOutdoors]

A lot of things haven't changed since 1999. For example, the NASDAQ is still at the same level. Only difference is I don't have any smug fools telling me how I fail to comprehend how the Internet has entirely changed investing. Soon as their investments in GotNoEarnings.com went down the toilet they all went away.

Some of those investments may not have had earnings, but they did have five zillion web "hits".

[GracieLou]

Thank you! I downloaded it and look forward to reading it.

[ofcmetz]

Thanks Rick. More free stuff for me to read.

[LadyGeek]

Adding to the list, Steve Schullo just announced a limited time free download on his book: Subject: New book available. Get yours FREE Dec 22 & 23 [& Feb 3]

UPDATE:
In case you missed the last free offering, our book Late Bloomer Millionaires will be offered free on as an ebook on Amazon once again this Sunday, February 3rd, starting at midnight and ending 24 hours later.

http://www.amazon.com/Late-Bloomer-Mill ... llionaires

Thanks to all of you for your interest and who wrote a review on Amazon.

[bogleblitz]

Someone update the wiki links to the 3 free books. The 3 links are all broken here:

http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Financia ... logs#Books

[LadyGeek]

Thanks, the links are fixed: Financial Websites and Blogs (Books)