Book review: Keys to successful investing

BEFORE you reach the introduction to Enrich Your Future: The Keys to Successful Investing, you will be thrown a curveball in the foreword by Cliff Asness, managing and founding partner at AQR Capital. He lures us into a trap by suggesting a number of best investment practices. For instance, he recommends beating the stock market through timing and stock picking, using fire and hire decisions on money managers that add value in the long term, and retaining oversized holdings as a prudent and low-risk strategy.

Surprise! These approaches are the opposite of what Larry Swedroe recommends in Enrich Your Future. Indeed, they are the opposite of what Swedroe has practised for decades as head of economic and financial research at Buckingham Strategic Wealth and what he has said in his numerous books and articles. He explains that the tactics illustrated in the foreword can be highly damaging to long-term financial health.

This engaging book is simultaneously memorable and humorous. The numerous analogies between investing and success in playing or betting on basketball, American football, and golf will have you smiling as you absorb the lessons. Swedroe presents unforgettable investment precepts in four parts: 1) How Markets Work: How Security Prices Are Determined and Why It’s So Difficult to Outperform; 2) Strategic Portfolio Decisions; 3) Behavioral Finance: We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us; and 4) Playing the Winner’s Game in Life and Investing.