The First Time Investor's Workbook: A Hands-On Guide to Implementing a Successful Investment Plan

Gave this to a client who wanted to be more knowledgeable about basic investing. She spent the weekend working through the book, and called to say it's the best book she's ever read. She said she placed it beside her Bible as her second most important book for her family!

I read this book to see if I could get more out of it than I was getting at my college investments class. It actually helped me to understand the concepts the complicated text books included. As a student I can see this book being very useful to anybody learning about investing. The graphical depictions are awesome. Really interesting and practical, I'm sending this to my Mom to help her out. Now all I need is some money to do it with!

This book was easy to follow. Fun and insightful. Unlike most investment books its not just a dictionary of investment terms it actually taught me how it all works. I learnt so much about investing, and myself. It was flat out great. I have been investing for some time but this showed me what I was doing wrong. I'm sending it to my kids in college so they get an early start.

As an investor of fifteen years I found this workbook helped me uncover a huge investment problem. I had no idea that my personal risk tolerance was different than my risk strategies. Duran's "Lifeboat drill" opened my eyes and helped me understand this in plane English. I also knew I needed an investment policy but never understood why? I've had different advisors tell me this, but I had to do it on my own. Suddenly, on page 19 it all became clear. Like a light went off in my head. If I knew the type of investor I was and how much risk I was willing to take and then matched that up with one of the portfolios (in the workbook) I could by adding different asset classes, lower my overall risk while increasing my returns. The authors use historical figures for both best and worse case. I'm not in the dark. Now, I can go back and forth to the Investment policy and fill it in and fine tune. Then I compared the returns (that I said I needed) to historical evidence. I was able to lower the amount I was investing each month without taking additional risk. Great job guys.

This book helped me to learn about the rules of investing and has given me a framework to move forward. It will change the way I invest forever.It's really easy to understand and fun to read. Filled with really educational slides that I will never forget and helps me get the big picture. Really great!