Once upon a time there was a good family man. He paid his bills, saved diligently, and planned for the future. What he couldn’t anticipate was medical bills that pushed him to the brink of bankruptcy. When they finally ended he was down to $70 in the bank…
17 years later he retired early, and never went back to work.
Is that how you expected the story to end? Actually, the story is still going on, but the thing that led him from near bankruptcy to early retirement was a short, enjoyable book. It explained how investments worked. It wasn’t fancy or boastful, but it went through one concept at a time in straightforward language, somehow bringing in academic research and expert conclusions without being intimidating.
That book is Frank Armstrong‘s, Investment Strategies for the 21st Century, a free PDF. If you want to buy the newer edition in paper form, here it is.
The book wasn’t magical, but it was real. This guy did what it said– one step at a time, investing in low cost index funds, investing automatically, letting the investments grow, and not panicking when the markets crashed. He gave away dozens of copies of the book as he wanted everyone else to get the benefit he’d gotten. I don’t think any of those people read the book, much less followed its guidance. I did, but that’s another story.
