Investing Books

• Learn to Earn: A Beginner's Guide to the Basics of Investing and Business by Peter Lynch
  In Learn to Earn, Lynch and Rothchild explain in a style accessible to anyone who is high-school age or older, how to understand a company annual report, and why everyone should pay attention to the stock market. They explain not only how to invest, but also how to think like an investor. Many investors, including some with substantial portfolios, have only the sketchiest idea of how the stock market works. The reason is that the basics of investing - the fundamentals of our economic system and what they have to do with the stock market - aren't taught in school. At a time when individuals have to make important decisions about saving for college and 401(k) retirement funds, this failure to provide a basic education in investing can have tragic consequences.

• The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns by John Bogle
  Owning a diversified portfolio of stocks and holding it for the long term is a winne's game. Trying to beat the stock market is theoretically a zero-sum game (for every winner, there must be a loser), but after the substantial costs of investing are deducted, it becomes a loser's game. Common sense tells us, and history confirms, that the simplest and most efficient investment strategy is to buy and hold all of the nation's publicly held businesses at very low cost. The classic index fund that owns this market portfolio is the only investment that guarantees you with your fair share of stock market returns. Filled with in-depth insights and practical advice, The Little Book of Common Sense Investing will show you how to incorporate this proven investment strategy into your portfolio. It will also change the very way you think about investing. Successful investing is not easy. (It requires discipline and patience.) But it is simple. For it's all about common sense.

• Bogle on Mutual Funds: New Perspectives for the Intelligent Investor by John Bogle
  

Investing Articles

• Choosing The Highest Safe Withdrawal Rate At Retirement
  The article explores safe withdrawal rates for retirement savings - "As can be seen in Figure 1, there were many occasions in the past when withdrawal rates higher than even 5.5% could have been successfully employed. In fact, the average SAFEMAX for all retirees for the years 1926 to 1990 was 7.0%—much higher than the “worst case” scenario of 4.5%. It seemed to me, therefore, that it would be useful to have a method that prescribed high withdrawal rates when the right conditions existed."

• How to save $1 million by 65
  "Save $250 a month until you're 65, for example, and you would need a 10% annualized return to hit that $1 million target. I still consider that overly optimistic even for an all-stock portfolio, given the prices stocks are selling at today and the uncertainly surrounding the growth prospects here and abroad. Boost your monthly savings to $400, and the return you need falls to about 8% annually. Possible? I suppose. But perhaps still ambitious. ... ... Remember, though, having a million bucks 37 years from now isn't like having that sum today. In fact, assuming a modest 2.5% inflation rate, $1 million in 2047 would be the equivalent of having about $400,000 now. Or, viewed another way, you would need about $2.5 million in 2047 to have the purchasing power of $1 million today."

• Save Some of Each Raise by John Hunter
  "Anytime you get a raise split the raise between savings, paying off debt (if you have any non-mortgage debt), and increasing the amount you have to spend. I think too many people think financial success is much more complicated than it is. Doing simple things like this (and some of the other things, mentioned in this blog) will help most people do much better than they have been doing."

• Pitfalls in Retirement
  A very good, detailed, overview of reasonable retirement planning and retirement spending expectations. "Spending rates of 3% or less are likely sustainable, while those much above 5% may not be. Careful research confirms these observations. The sustainability of spending rates within the range of 3–5% depends on the period in question as well as the other factors noted above" Curious Cat Investing Blog post on the paper

• New Normal math: How your investing plans must change
  "I don't think the implications of changing stocks' rate of return from 10% to 5% have sunk in. We acknowledge that stock returns will be poor, and yet all of our retirement advice—save 10% of your income... withdraw 4% in retirement—stays the same. ... Option number two: Retire later. You're likely going to live to an age older than your parents anyway, and I'm sure you've had it in the back of your mind that it was never reasonable to work 40 years and then have a 40-year retirement anyway."

• Beginners' Guide to Asset Allocation, Diversification, and Rebalancing
  by the SEC. By including asset categories with investment returns that move up and down under different market conditions within a portfolio, an investor can protect against significant losses.

Investing Web Sites and Resources

• The Motley Fool
  " Our mission: To educate, amuse, and enrich Our vision: To build the world's greatest investment community Our core values: Honesty, optimism, teamwork, innovation, winning"

• Money Magazine Retirement Site
  Lots of articles on retirement savings and investment strategies.

• Curious Cat Investing and Economics Blog by John Hunter
  

• Money Under 30
  

• TIAA - Saving For Retirement
  Articles to help learn about the financial issues and strategies to plan for a successful retirement savings strategy.