Amazon.ca:Customer reviews: The Little Book of Safe Money: How to Conquer Killer Markets, Con Artists, and Yourself (Little Books. Big Profits 4)

86 total ratings, 23 with reviews

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AdamSmythe

An informative book.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 9, 2009

As of November 2009, Jason Zweig's book is the latest in the Little Book Big Profits series of books, most of which are very informative and well written. This book is no exception. The first thing to recognize about the Little Book series is that, well, the books are little--perhaps only two-thirds the size of most books. If this book were published in a more normal size and line spacing format, it would probably run less than 150 pages, but that doesn't really detract from the value of the book.

Much of the book covers some common sense concepts, like (1) don't take unnecessary risks, (2) don't take risks without sufficient expected return to compensate for taking the risks involved, and (3) don't risk money that you can't afford to lose. Zweig refers to these concepts as "commandments," and comes back to them throughout the book. He does a better job, in my view, when he addresses somewhat less obvious concepts, such as the (sometimes neglected) value of liquidity and the value of one's "human capital." For example, if you have invested years in your own education to become a geologist, then it might make sense not to concentrate your financial capital investments in energy stocks (because if the energy industry falls on hard times, your investments could suffer and you could lose your job at the same time).

Zweig is at his best, in my opinion, when he addresses the supposedly "low risk and high return" investments that the financial industry regularly puts out. He also deserves credit for explaining (1) how some "guarantees" are not all they are cracked up to be, (2) the difference between yield and total return, (3) how the risks that stocks seem to represent and the risk that they actually represent are often inversely correlated (think about that for a minute), and (4) why leveraged ETFs (exchange traded funds) may behave differently than some investors expect. There are more, but you get the idea.

I liked Zweig's discussions of the risks involved in hard assets and emerging markets, and I thought he did a good job pointing out the various unconscious biases many investors have, such as "anchoring" and "framing" that behavioral finance warns us about. The discussion of "Mr. Market" (an invention of the legendary Benjamin Graham) was very good, and I liked Zweig's collection of red-flag phrases for investors--like "can't lose," "guaranteed" and some less obvious others.

This book is an easy read not only because it's short, but also because Zweig has an easy writing style. I doubt that it will plow a lot of new ground for sophisticated investors, but for the rest of us, it represents a worthwhile investment.

25 people found this helpful

bibliophile2020

Good ... but more like collection of articles from WSJ

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 29, 2009

Verified Purchase

Let me begin by telling little bit of my investing background. I consider my self a novice in investing. Just started reading about and trying to implement what I learnt. I read Bernstein's Four Pillars, the new Investor's Manifesto, Boggle's Little book of common sense and New Common sense on mutual funds, Jonathan's Little books of Main street money and several other books. I am really impressed by Bogglehead's school of thought and I consider my self a fledgling Bogglehead. Jason Zweig's work is mentioned in almost every book that I read. I was looking for a book authored by Jason especially for a rookie investor like me. I was delighted to find this book which was written after the most recent market meltdown. I felt like this book is more like a collection of articles than a book on personal investing distilled through enormous experience of Jason with the recent bear market in the background. This book does provide advise about the importance of being liquid and the importance of considering liquidity vs illiliquidity while considering asset allocation. I am sure this book will serve to fine tune the skills of a "Sophisticated Investor" ( Which by the way is an oxymoron per Charles Ellis's Winning the Loser's game).But it provides not much in providing solid advise to rookies like me. I think part of the problem could be due the format of the little book series - squeeze too much in to too little. For a novice investors I would recommend the recent books like - Little book of main street money, The Investor's Manifesto and Winning the Loser's game over Zason's book.

11 people found this helpful

VIVEK SHIVDASANI

This is an investment book meant for beginners

Reviewed in India 🇮🇳 on September 5, 2017

Verified Purchase

This book is reasonably well structured and suitable for investors who are just starting out on their investment journey. Definitely not for seasoned investors.
If you are a connoisseur of fine investment books I would recommend William Worthington Fowler's "Revelations of the personal experiences of a speculator" written in 1880. It is available for free from the open library on google in PDF format.

2 people found this helpful

Elder Brother

Sound advice

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 17, 2014

Verified Purchase

The book is not for those who need an adreneline rush from their investments. As promised, Jason Zweig delivers sound suggestions for avoiding losses in the market, for avoiding excessive fees, and for keeping what you have earned and growing it. The book could have been entitled, "Get Rich Slowly." Not for high rollers or for those who need to cover large losses from currency bets gone bad, but J P Morgan probably wishes that the London Whale had followed Zweig's prescriptions.

3 people found this helpful

Christopher W Smith

Full of common sense investment wisdom

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 13, 2013

Verified Purchase

I used this book as supplemental reading for an introduction to investments class I teach at UConn. I worried that the students might find it too simple, but they loved it and found it full of useful information. I should note that most of these students have little or no experience with investing. So, if you are a novice investor this would be a very good place to start. Zweig goes through numerous things to watch out for and several things to make sure you do before you take the investment plunge.

satpal

Print quality is as good as pirated copy

Reviewed in India 🇮🇳 on December 19, 2017

Verified Purchase

Print quality is as good as pirated copy. Not sure if I got real copy. If this is real better buy hardbound or digital. Not worth paying for such printing.

SandySEPA

Everything important in a few words

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 7, 2015

Verified Purchase

Jason Zweig is the best financial writer I know of (maybe along with Warren Buffett), and the reader benefits from his insight, pithy and entertaining way of putting things, and his vast knowledge not only of the financial world but also of human behavior quirks which can derail investors. Everything you need to know to keep your money safe while investing it is in this small volume.

One person found this helpful

Ken

Very much to the point!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 28, 2020

Verified Purchase

Jason Zweig has been a very very good writer for the journal, his books are outstanding and are right to the point.

Neha

Horrible

Reviewed in India 🇮🇳 on July 23, 2021

Verified Purchase

I learnt nothing from this book - there is nothing in it. This really shouldn’t have been written. Horrible horrible.

Lawrence Jaffe

This is an excellent common sense book on investing

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 12, 2015

Verified Purchase

I had the version of this book in the hardback but I wanted an edition on my kindle. This is an excellent common sense book on investing. I re-read the book every time I am thinking of doing something foolish with my investments and it keeps me on track.

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The Little Book of Safe Money: How to Conquer Killer Markets, Con Artists, and Yourself (Little Books. Big Profits 4)

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