The Investor's Manifesto: Preparing for Prosperity, Armageddon, and Everything in Between,   ISBN:9780470505144

Customer Rating: 

A good book which would normally deserve five stars if not for the fact that nearly all the material is a rehash of his two previous books (The Intelligent Asset Allocator, Four Pillars). For those who have read these I would not recommend "Manifesto". For those who haven't, I would recommend the earlier books instead. My favorite happens to be The Intelligent Asset Allocator. I also have to agree with the reviewer who noted that the title is a little overblown given the content.

Customer Rating: 

I want to order 10 more copies- for each of my grown children.

Chuck Olson

Customer Rating: 

This is required reading for any person who wishes to manage their own portfolio. It details the truth about investing and finances that you won't get from any of the biased sources.

Customer Rating: 

The author does an excellent job of explaining the importance of financial planning in today's US society along with the underlying risks and rewards and the importance of an individual's ability to be comfortable with a certain level of risk. It concludes with some very specific guidelines for asset distribution. Of course the minute I followed the advice to be more aggressive the market dropped 10% so I can understand his warnings about being able to ride the wave. The book is well written, easy to understand a very complex topic and gives very thoughtful advice. There is no ground-breaking new strategy, just a thorough development of the tried and true strategies.

Customer Rating: 

Two or three years ago, I decided to read William Bernstein's 'Four Pillars of Investing', after a favorable review in the Wall Street Journal. I wasn't disappointed. The book covered the basics of the history and psychology of investing, presented a balanced description of the market, the marketing, and the marketeers, providing convincing evidence to make me think that, for the average Joe, the easy but boring path of the low-cost index investing and keeping the cool while the market is going crazy is the safest one. I though that, after the market meltdown of 2008-early 2009, 'The Investor's Manifesto' would provide interesting insights and a summary of new evidence coming from the serious finance literature. Instead, I found a book that was basically a brief summary of 'Four Pillars...', without most of the 'hard' data that helped Bernstein to make his case. If I had to give a recommendation, I would say forget about this one and read his 'Four Pillars of Investing'. Still, 'the Investors Manifesto' makes a fun and interesting read and could be an excellent primer for a person who has not read anything on the topic.