Personal Finance reading

[shri]

To add to the list of excellent books on this subject, The Myth of the Rational Market by Justin Fox does a great job of debunking a lot of accepted wisdom that markets set prices efficiently.

Copied this to the reading thread.

It has a very decent recommendation by Krugman.

Is this one of those books with a charts and graphics? (i.e. Not kindle friendly?)

[traineeinvestor]

Copied this to the reading thread.

It has a very decent recommendation by Krugman.

Is this one of those books with a charts and graphics? (i.e. Not kindle friendly?)

Not a chart or table in sight (IIRC). It's basically a history of relevant market theory. My copy has survived several purges for the donation boxes because I keep meaning to re-read it.

P.S. a positive recommendation from Krugman? Might be the first time he's actually said something that makes sense.

[Sith]

So I was reading a Dutch blog of someone who invests just in index funds and he had an interview with Hendrik Meesman, a guy who started "Meesman indexbeleggen" back in 2005 after he discovered that the banks who he used to work for were there only to make money from their clients instead of for their clients. So he does only index funds investing.
Anyway he recommended some books that you might be interested in...
I have left out the obvious ones that are already mentioned here in this topic (Common Sense on Mutual Funds by John Bogle and A Random Walk Down Wall Street, by Burton Malkiel)

Investment Illusion by Marius Kerdel

https://www.triplepartners.com/inves...usion/?lang=en

You can download the white paper for free on their website (hardcopy you would need to buy)
Apparently it is the basis for a Dutch book; De Beleggingsillusie, van Marius Kerdel & Jolmer Schukken (which was the actual recommendation from Meesman) but I assume most of you don't read well in Dutch ;-)

https://www.bol.com/nl/p/de-beleggin...tm_content=txl

All about indexfunds by Richard Ferri

https://rickferri.com/books/all-about-index-funds/

And just in case you do know your Dutch, his partner at Meesman also wrote a book:
De Schitterende Eenvoud van Indexbeleggen, by Jacques Wintermans

https://www.bol.com/nl/p/de-schitter...tm_content=txl

[traineeinvestor]

A fascinating look at America's early banking industry and the perils of an unregulated industry. The Exchange Artist by Jane Kamensky: https://www.amazon.com/Exchange-Arti.../dp/B001C2M1KW

[Elefant&Castle]

Power of Gold by Peter L. Bernstein
https://www.wiley.com/en-us/The+Powe...-9781118270103

Early Central banking - history of gold starting in Lydia 600 BC and up to modern times.

Of the aspects I found interesting is that most of the time gold and silver were both used for official coinage - and this led to endless arbitrage flows, because central banks had to enforce a fixed exchange ratio between the two.

Issac Newton - as head of the Royal Mint - set the ratio at 15.5. Since then it's been wacked around by demand and discoveries of gold/silver deposits - this morning it stands at 90.

[tck]

Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke. Not directly finance and investing but I'd say good decision processes.

She's done the podcast tour talking about that book which you can check out before taking the plunge to read the book and she's an amazingly articulate and clear thinker.

Check her appearance on either the Andressen Horowitz podcast: https://a16z.com/2019/05/07/thinking...n-uncertainty/

Or on the Farnham St podcast https://fs.blog/annie-duke/

[traineeinvestor]

In the current HK market Russell Napier's Anatomy of the Bear is worth revisiting.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...my_of_the_Bear

[traineeinvestor]

Bank of England Staff Working Paper No. 686

"Eight centuries of the risk-free rate: bond market reversals from the Venetians to 'VaR shock'" by Paul Schmelzing

In spite of the title it's a actually a very interesting read for anyone interested in interest rates (especially bond investors) and the whole "lower for longer" interest rate predictions floating around right now.

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/work...-the-var-shock

[LoganH]

The most important personal finance book I've read is Your Money or Your Life (2018 version) by Vicki Robin. If I could only recommend one book, it would be Your Money or Your Life.

I've also read Financial Freedom by Grant Sabatier, and I think it's good if you want to try to motivate yourself to pursue other ways to make money, but I'm personally not ready to start a blog or a YouTube channel or write a book or make an online course to potentially create passive income. Also easy things like dog walking, babysitting, and even house sitting are real opportunities for many people in the U.S. and in other 1st world places where people can't pay to have a live in helper for less than 600USD a month. I'm also lucky with my current job, but if I only pursue side hustles that could make me 400+HKD/hour that seems like only something I get with tutoring or creating a successful passive income stream (the hard part being successful and knowing it'll work ahead of time).

I've also read parts of Millionaire Expat by Andrew Halam and some of his blog, and I think you could do worse than buying VT or VTWAX and settling for the world index's average return.

My favorite blog is by far mrmoneymustache.com, but I'll admit plenty of what is on there is specific to the U.S. and those that own cars, but plenty is applicable to many people even not in the U.S. and those that don't own a car. There is also an active forum, which is nice as he hasn't posted much since I started reading through his awesome stuff in early 2019.

I'm currently reading through paulmerriman.com after @shri recommended one of his videos. It has now opened my idea to seeking the best possible average return using different asset classes, and Paul's evidence says that at least in the past small-cap value was the best performing asset class over any 40 year period. We only have the past, and it can hopefully at least give us a better gauge of potential risk, but the higher the potential reward the higher the potential downside. However, I really like the idea of trying to find the best and cheapest passive index fund investments. The best would be, at least in the past, those that had the greatest long-term (15 to 40 years) compound return with the lowest possible drawdowns and standard deviations.

The more I try to read about investing though, the more I realize that I don't understand partially because no one can accurately and consistently predict anything about the wild stock market. I accept that, but what's the best I can do? I guess just do something that makes sense to me and that I can stick to in the long run and try to save and invest as much as I can along the way to my attempt at reaching financial independence.

[foxwendal]

It has now opened my idea to seeking the best possible average return using different asset classes, and Paul's evidence says that at least in the past small-cap value was the best performing asset class over any 40 year period.

"best possible average" imo is an oxymoron
Small cap value would also have left you very disappointed the past few years compared with just the general index.
Personally think the most reliable way to maximize your portfolio more than trying to pick winners is being intentional to simply save/invest as much as you can