These are links to commentators, books, and articles we find interesting, challenging, and thought provoking. We don’t agree with everything you can read through these links – we do find the thinking provocative. [For books, the hyperlink connects to Amazon.com – we have no relationship with Amazon; our approach provides an easy way for you to explore the book further before deciding to borrow it from your library or obtain it from any source you choose.]

Please let us know what you think – email Rick Miller at rick.miller@sensiblefinancial.com

Investing

• Bernstein, William, The Four Pillars of Investing ; The basics of asset allocation, clearly presented in a very readable form.
• Bogle Financial Markets Research Center – John Bogle’s speeches and writings, mostly about mutual funds. [John Bogle is the founder of Vanguard Funds, and the creator of the first (and largest) index mutual fund.]
• Bodie, Zvi, Worry Free Investing; A passionate polemic on the advantages of inflation indexed Treasury bonds.
• Malkiel, Burton, A Random Walk Down Wall Street; The book that gave index investing a public face – updated.
• Siegel, Jeremy, The Future for Investors ; Siegel’s most recent research and ideas, distilled for a general audience. [Jeremy Siegel is a professor of finance at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with a considerable public persona.]
• Siegel, Jeremy, Stocks for the Long Run ; Siegel’s first book, taking the long view of US investment returns.
• Swensen, David, Unconventional Success : A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment ; The chief investment officer of Yale’s extremely successful endowment fund spills all of his secrets, and applies them to your situation as an individual investor.
• Taleb, Nassim Nicholas, Fooled by Randomness : The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets ; a thoughtful and provocative review of the important role of chance in financial markets – along with Taleb’s personal assessment of a wide variety of people and issues.

Public policy issues with financial planning implications

• Kotlikoff, Laurence and Scott Burns, The Coming Generational Storm ; A professional assessment of the difficulties with Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid presented in digestible form.