Investment Blunders of the Rich and Famous...and What You Can Learn from Them

One thing you should realize about this book is that it is not a detailed investment book. If you are looking for such a book you should pick up something by Bill Bernstein or Jack Bogle. The vast majority of this book deals with behavioral finance (and the stupid mistakes people can make as a result) and colorful stories of huge investment blunders that modern professionals have made. I think it is critical to understand the mistakes that people can make because of their mood, fears, unbridled optimism, etc. This book tries to adddress much of that. The chapters dealing with huge plunders that professionals have made are entertaining and informative. Only one chapter in this book deals with specific investment strategy. Of course, it deals with the subject in a summary fashion. That being said, however, it actually is not a bad chapter, especially if this is not the first investment book you have read. One thing I must point out is that I think that the author's suggested asset allocation chart is wrong. His chart on page 261 indicates that if you want a 10% return over a period of time you should invest 50% of your money in bonds, 12% in cash and 38% in equities. I think if you followed his suggestion you would get a return significantly lower than 10%. I think the chart inflates the returns you should expect for any given allocation and should be ignored. With this one caveat, I highly recommend this book.