Posted by author Daniel R. Solin
There is certainly no shortage of financial books. I have contributed to the glut by publishing four of them: Does Your Broker Owe You Money?, The Smartest Investment Book You’ll Ever Read, The Smartest 401(k) Book You’ll Ever Read, and The Smartest Retirement Book You’ll Ever Read.
My background is in law and not in investing or finance. I learned about the securities industry from representing investors whose portfolios were decimated by the misconduct of stock brokers (who disavow that name and have much fancier titles, like “financial consultants”).
I was shocked by what I learned about how money is managed. Brokers are salesmen. Their goal is to generate profits for their employers. The brokers I encountered knew less about finance and basic principles of investing than I did.
I did a survey of financial books. Most of them were so complicated and densely written that I couldn’t understand them. The point seemed to be that investing is terribly complicated -- far beyond the expertise of the ordinary investor. What was the option? Retain the author and his firm to handle your investments. After all, he wrote the book.
My experience with trying to get back money lost due to broker misconduct was not a positive one for many of my clients. When they opened their brokerage accounts, they agreed to mandatory arbitration run by the very industry they were suing. The results were predictable. Many investors who were victimized by their brokers were revictimized by this arbitration process.
I struggled with these issues. Investing with brokers made no sense to me. Subjecting yourself to mandatory arbitration seemed to be like giving your broker a gun and asking her to shoot you.
I proposed a solution in The Smartest Investment Book You’ll Ever Read. The title says it all, but it is often misunderstood. It’s not that I was arrogant enough to believe my book was the smartest investment book ever written. I saw a need for a book about investments that everyone could read, understand and implement, without using any broker or adviser. I didn’t want my readers to become part of a system I believed was fundamentally flawed. I wrote the book in a different style. I keep the chapters very short and the advice very simple. I provided extensive academic support for the recommendations in the book.
The reaction, which has continued with the publication of the other Smartest books, has been very gratifying. The most common feedback from readers is they wish they had read my books thirty years ago. Many told me they bought copies for their children. Tens of thousands changed the way they invest and adopted the simple indexing strategies I recommend in my books.
When I wrote the Smartest Investment Book in early 2006, I did not anticipate the greatest recession in fifty years occurring in 2008. Readers of my books were not spared losses. However, their losses were far less than those who ignored the basic principles in my book, and they were prepared to wait out the recovery, which occurred faster than anyone anticipated in 2009.
The positive impact my books have had on so many readers has been -- by far – the most rewarding experience of my life. I am so grateful I had this opportunity.
Visit Dan’s website at http://smartestinvestmentbook.com/
Follow Dan Solin on Twitter @DanSolin
Books by Dan Solin:
Now available as an eBook: Does Your Broker Owe You Money?
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