Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

  • Our Verdict
  • GET IT


  • Kirkus Reviews'
    Best Books Of 2016

Next book

The Death of Buy and Hold

HOW NOT TO OUTLIVE YOUR MONEY — INVESTING FOR, AND IN, RETIREMENT

A superb how-to manual for the motivated self-investor and an authoritative retirement handbook for anyone who wants to know...

Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

  • Our Verdict
  • GET IT


  • Kirkus Reviews'
    Best Books Of 2016

A comprehensive debut guide to smart, do-it-yourself investing with an emphasis on saving for retirement.

Minnucci, a former mining engineer who retired early, seems to have cracked the code of retirement investing and become his own best adviser. Thankfully, he shares his considerable knowledge in a book that’s highly readable, remarkably thorough, and filled with fact-based, sensible investment counsel in which the author serves as both educator and cheerleader. He offers a solid historical basis for having faith in stocks, replete with examples and tables, while also recognizing the value of “high-volatility hedges,” such as precious-metal equities, and “low-volatility hedges,” such as bonds. He provides a cogent, well-written overview of multiple investment vehicles, including U.S. and international large-cap stocks, small-cap stocks, value stocks, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds. But these are just building blocks; the real strength of the book is its detailed, step-by-step approach to structuring a well-diversified portfolio and understanding how to protect and preserve its value over time. Along the way, Minnucci covers such key concepts as diversification (with a stimulating discussion of “the principle of compromise” and “the principle of correlation”), portfolio optimization, dollar cost averaging, tax-loss harvesting, and, perhaps most important, portfolio rebalancing, which he calls “the secret sauce.” He targets his investment discussion specifically to those thinking of retirement, focusing heavily on reducing risk. To that end, he provides a simple formula for calculating a withdrawal rate, discusses how to reduce expenses, and considers the impact of Social Security benefits on retirement income. One of the book’s more intriguing chapters, “How to Do Nothing,” features a “Rational Decision-Making Pledge” designed to help a retired married couple ensure their commitment to a buy-and-hold investment strategy, supplemented by a “six-step process” to avoid the mistake of making emotional investment decisions. Also included is intelligent retirement investment advice for those who are still working.

A superb how-to manual for the motivated self-investor and an authoritative retirement handbook for anyone who wants to know how to put investment theory into real-world practice. 

Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-9862253-0-7

Page Count: 432

Publisher: Capital Strategies Press

Review Posted Online: June 17, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016

Categories:
Next book

NUTCRACKER

This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:
Next book

TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.

Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955

ISBN: 0670717797

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955

Categories:
Close Quickview