Straight Talk On Investing P by Brennan, Marta McCave (With)

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Jack Brennan is the chairman and CEO of the Vanguard Group, the world's second-largest mutual fund; but though he's entrusted with more than $600 billion in assets, this is his first book on personal investment. Why did he wait so long? His Straight Talking on Investing could not have been titled more aptly. Its refreshing honesty and simplicity make this one of the most useful (and readable) personal investment books in years. In fact, Brennan has convinced us that successful investing can be easier than you think.

From the Publisher

Classic investment guidance for everyone
As Chairman and CEO of one of the most respected mutual fund companies in the world, The Vanguard Group, Jack Brennan has made a career out of helping people invest for long-term success. In Straight Talk on Investing, he cuts to the chase and provides readers with sound advice and solid guidance to investing for today and tomorrow, in a bull market or bear market. Starting with a clear explanation of the financial facts of life, Brennan explains that investing is a lot easier than most people think. He shows readers how to develop a financial plan, construct and manage a sensible investment program, and maintain perspective in a sometimes crazy world. Refreshing in its simplicity and honesty, Straight Talk on Investing is a badly needed tonic to the hangover of the bull market of the 1990s. Filled with meaningful guidance for investors from a leading investment luminary, this invaluable resource will help readers make better investment decisions and restore financial faith in themselves, so they can confidently navigate the markets toward their financial goals.
Jack Brennan (Wayne, PA) is the Chairman and CEO of The Vanguard Group, the world's second-largest mutual fund company, with $600 billion in assets under management and 15 million shareholder accounts. Mr. Brennan is a frequent guest on financial news programs and is regularly quoted in leading business and personal finance publications, including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. In 2000 and 2001, SmartMoney ranked him as one of the most influential individuals in investing.
Marta McCave (Wayne, PA) is a senior financial writer for The Vanguard Group and aformer journalist. She was a founding member of the national reporting staff of USA Today and was a contributor to a number of newspapers and magazines before joining Vanguard.

Newsweek columnist, author of Making the Most of Your Money - Jane Bryant Quinn

A wonderful book on investing basics for people trying to get a better handle on their money. Right now, I'd say that's everyone.

George Gund Professor of Finance and Banking, Senior Associate Dean, Director of Faculty Recruiting, Harvard Business School - Andre F. Perold

Through the investment choices they make, individuals are responsible more than ever for their own financial security. "Straight talk" lays out the core principles investors need to guide their investment decision making. The ideas are easily understood yet profound. This the kind of book one will want to read time and again.

Publishers Weekly

With a Harvard Business School degree and 20 years' experience at the world's second-largest mutual fund company, one might expect chairman and CEO of The Vanguard Group Brennan to produce a sophisticated and detailed investment tome weighted on equities. Instead, he offers readers a plain-speaking primer on how to build a sensible long-term investment portfolio. While Brennan applauds the "democratization of Wall Street" that has allowed anyone to become an investor, he notes that the resultant explosion of investment advice includes much that's "dangerous to your wealth." This guide, he says, is the book he himself would have liked to have received when he began his personal investments. The emphasis is on long-term goals and balance rather than playing the market: throughout, Brennan cautions against micro-managing the profile or getting sucked into fads. Though his guidance comes well after the bursting of the stock market bubble, the principles stated within would have steadied the nervous investor through the phenomenon and its nasty aftermath. Filled with practical "do your homework" and "trust diversification" advice, this book is an easy-to-read first title on investing. For readers who closely follow Brennan's common-sense instructions, a second investment book will probably be unnecessary. (Sept. 20) Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

Product Details

• Table of Contents
• Interviews & Essays

Table of Contents

Interviews & Essays

We've seen a lifetime of lessons about investing in the last five years. First we saw a record bull market swell into one of the biggest speculative bubbles in history. Then we saw the bursting of that bubble and the onset of a prolonged bear market, the worst one that the U.S. stock market has experienced since World War II. Many investors now seem shaken and unsure of what to do in this challenging environment.

In a way, it's ironic that investors feel confused, for never before has so much financial information been available to them. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of books on investing in print, and daily news coverage of the financial markets blankets the airwaves, the newsstands, and the Internet. Unfortunately, amid all the noise about investing, there is little sensible, truly useful information that's relevant to "real people" -- people who hope to accumulate wealth to meet their long-term financial goals but who are sensible enough to recognize the folly of speculative get-rich schemes.

This book is aimed at helping "real people," but in a way that's different from most other investing books. I believe that successful investing is really quite simple if you follow time-tested principles. So this book is derived not from what I learned at Harvard Business School but from the wisdom of thousands of ordinary people who have successfully accomplished their own personal financial objectives, largely as do-it-yourself investors.

Straight Talk is based on a series of conversations with my collaborator, Marta McCave, about topics that we think are very important for our readers to understand. Rather than taking an academic approach, we tried to create something as close in tone as possible to the hundreds of investment discussions I've had with clients, coworkers, and friends over my 20 years at Vanguard.

If you are new to investing, I hope Straight Talk on Investing will give you the confidence to get started. If you already have some experience in investing, I hope the book will provide a refresher course on the investment principles that are proven to work for real people. And in either case, I hope you will find the book interesting and enjoyable. Jack Brennan (September 2002)