Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment by David F. Swensen
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(Hardcover)
- Pub. Date: August 2005
- 416pp
- Sales Rank: 42,640
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Product Details
- Pub. Date: August 2005
- Publisher: Free Press, The
- Format: Hardcover, 416pp
- Sales Rank: 42,640
- ISBN-13: 9780743228381
- ISBN: 0743228383
Synopsis
The bestselling author of Pioneering Portfolio Management, the definitive template for institutional fund management, returns with a book that shows individual investors how to manage their financial assets.
In Unconventional Success, investment legend David F. Swensen offers incontrovertible evidence that the for-profit mutual-fund industry consistently fails the average investor. From excessive management fees to the frequent "churning" of portfolios, the relentless pursuit of profits by mutual-fund management companies harms individual clients. Perhaps most destructive of all are the hidden schemes that limit investor choice and reduce returns, including "pay-to-play" product-placement fees, stale-price trading scams, soft-dollar kickbacks, and 12b-1 distribution charges.
Even if investors manage to emerge unscathed from an encounter with the profit-seeking mutual-fund industry, individuals face the likelihood of self-inflicted pain. The common practice of selling losers and buying winners (and doing both too often) damages portfolio returns and increases tax liabilities, delivering a one-two punch to investor aspirations.
In short: Nearly insurmountable hurdles confront ordinary investors.
Swensen's solution? A contrarian investment alternative that promotes well-diversified, equity-oriented, "market-mimicking" portfolios that reward investors who exhibit the courage to stay the course. Swensen suggests implementing his nonconformist proposal with investor-friendly, not-for-profit investment companies such as Vanguard and TIAA-CREF. By avoiding actively managed funds and employing client-oriented mutual-fund managers, investors create the preconditionsfor investment success.
Bottom line? Unconventional Success provides the guidance and financial know-how for improving the personal investor's financial future.
More Reviews and RecommendationsBiography
David F. Swensen is the chief investment officer of Yale University and the bestselling author of Pioneering Portfolio Management. He serves on the boards of TIAA, The Brookings Institution, Carnegie Institution, and Hopkins School. At Yale, where he produced an unparalleled two-decade investment record of 16.1 percent-per-annum returns, he teaches economics classes at Yale College and finance classes at Yale¹s School of Management. Mr. Swensen lives in New Haven, Connecticut.
Customer Reviews
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Personal Investment Guidanceby Anonymous
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November 06, 2008: A terrific book for the lay investor, Swensen's Unconventional Success is a blueprint for the lay investor. In it, he explains the various aspects of the stock market, historical returns, risks, etc. He then teaches you (in your own life) how to mitigate your risks and earn what Benjamin Graham termed an "acceptable return". By being well diversified, avoiding risky assets, setting realisitc expectations and investing with a view for the long-term; Swensen teaches us that we can all achieve financial stability with a little help.
Investment advice from a proby Anonymous
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February 08, 2008: Although for many investors, the stock market is the only game in town, author David F. Swensen, the experienced manager of Yale University?s endowment, suggests investing in logical low-cost, fair, nonprofit index funds that track the market closely. He advocates building a carefully balanced portfolio, and strongly recommends regular rebalancing. He comes to these conclusions based on his rigorous analysis of the returns achieved by a host of other investment media, especially mutual funds. In fact, he builds his investment guidebook around a scathing scolding of the mutual-fund industry, even though mutual funds also have strong supporters. getAbstract believes Swensen?s counsel will be useful for individual investors who face a bewildering array of choices. In fact, if you had a rich uncle on Wall Street to advise you, he would probably echo much of Swensen?s logical advice.
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