WHERE’S YOUR MONEY?

MAKE ROOM ON YOUR  BOOKSHELF FOR THIS ONE

BY MATTHEW J. MEYER

FOR THE FREE LANCE–STAR

ANYONE WHO plans to  retire—ever—needs  to read Ken Fisher’s “Plan Your Prosperity,”  a slim volume about the investment aspect of financial planning. Its goal is to help you help yourself,  particularly  in its  focus on money management in an era when dividends and returns have stagnated.

What makes this book different from other books on investing? It helps you think clearly and non-emotionally about your  investments—no matter how small or large they are now.

Fisher is a world-class expert with outstanding credentials on investing. He begins with defining the importance of a benchmark, explains what asset allocation is and then leads the reader through a plan to choose these for yourself.

He offers:

Insight on appropriate and inappropriate ways to increase the odds that your long-term asset allocation will meet your financial goals.

A better understanding of the difference between cash flow and income.

The pitfalls of relying on all high-dividend stocks to fill your portfolio.

Tables of sample portfolios that demonstrate the impact of specific annual cash withdrawals  on how long they will probably last.

Fisher provides a guide to building your own balance sheet and how to calculate inflation’s impact on it.

“Plan Your Prosperity” is a refreshing change.  The financial industry is constantly pumping out self-serving misinformation for the unsophisticated, gullible investor.  Here,  Fisher, a Wall Street insider,  offers nuts and bolts that everyone can apply right away.

But don’t look for get-rich-quick schemes or undisciplined shortcuts here.  On the contrary, this book will appeal to those looking for the true how-to-think-about-investing mindset.

It is needed most by the  99 percenters, those of us for whom a financial adviser is not cost-effective but who still need a good understanding of the fundamentals.

Fisher’s advice is built on top of and dovetails  into the theories of other financial greats, such as Benjamin Graham, who was Warren Buffett’s mentor, and Burton G. Malkiel, the author of  “A Random Walk Down Wall Street,” to name just two.

What this book will show you is how and why to take the long view on investing; and it will make you think (if you choose to).

It provides a rich concentration of advice from a recognized expert standing on the shoulders of financial giants, all  in a single compact volume.  It is a valuable addition to anyone’s personal financial library.

Matthew J. Meyer is a freelance reviewer in Spotsylvania County.

PLAN YOUR  PROSPERITY

By Ken Fisher

(Wiley, $26.95, 180 pp )

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