Book on investments 21 January at 2:07PM in Pensions, annuities & retirement planning 15 replies 640 views

Pat38493

Can anyone recommend some good books to read about investing and investment strategies?  This is so far my weak knowledge area.  Because of this I'm kind of minded to put all or most of my money into high equity tracker funds when I stop working (as a couple we have a pretty good underpin of guaranteed DB and SP income).

However I think it would still be useful for me to have more knowledge about investments generally - I know what equities, bonds etc means generally, but I see a lot of things talked about on forums like this that I am clueless about like "wealth protection fund" and "investment ladders" and so on.  This could be useful background for me once I am winding down my working.

The most obvious first one that comes up is "investing for dummies" - of course there is literally that book, but I don't know if it would be too simple for my needs.

coastline

Not a book but a decent read .

Home (occaminvesting.co.uk)

Again good content

Bond ladder.

Creating A Bond Ladder For Passive Income - YouTube

PensionCraft - YouTube

PensionCraft

Wealth preservation IT's and UK inflation . Most posters will point to CGT and PNL 

Chart Tool | Trustnet

Capital Gearing Trust

Home - Personal Assets Trust (patplc.co.uk)

older_and_no_wiser

Most people recommend Smarter Investing by Tim Hale. 

A number of good YouTube channels including:
Meaningful Money
Damien Talks Money
James Shack

Also use the MSE Savings and Investments forum. Some great advice and advisors on there.

Audaxer

Pat38493 said:

Can anyone recommend some good books to read about investing and investment strategies?  This is so far my weak knowledge area.  Because of this I'm kind of minded to put all or most of my money into high equity tracker funds when I stop working (as a couple we have a pretty good underpin of guaranteed DB and SP income).

However I think it would still be useful for me to have more knowledge about investments generally - I know what equities, bonds etc means generally, but I see a lot of things talked about on forums like this that I am clueless about like "wealth protection fund" and "investment ladders" and so on.  This could be useful background for me once I am winding down my working.

The most obvious first one that comes up is "investing for dummies" - of course there is literally that book, but I don't know if it would be too simple for my needs.

Smarter Investing by Tim Hale is a very good starter book. However you may already have most of the level of knowledge it covers, as I can't recall that it has much on Wealth Preservation Funds or bond ladders.

gm0

After Tim Hale and some in introductory video content.  Here are a few more to consider.

Rational Expectations (Bernstein) - for asset allocation discussion

Random Walk down Wallstreet (Malkiel) - more general introduction

Living off your money (McClung) - very drawdown deaccumulation methods focused but inevitably covers a lot of similar ground.  Very detailed and backtesting and market simulation focused.

I think it is generally helpful to read up from a range of different perspectives around the major ideas. One of the merits of this forum is the contrasting investment philosophies and perspectives of regular posters.

Passive investing (Bogleheads, Monevator low cost index investing picks, Lars Kroijer on youtube)

Golden butterfly/permanent portfolio articles (nothing specific springs to mind)

Haven't read much on wealth preservation funds other than debates here about RIT, PNL, CGT etc.

Bond ladders of individual bonds are a bit more of a faff than routine fund and ETF investment.
And yet for the "hold to term" purpose they are proposed there is no easy fund based alternative that actually behaves the same.
It is (somewhat) a minority interest for DIY drawdown coverage so resources about it do seem to be quite limited.
For bonds more generally there is a fair amount of content around on interest rate sensitivity and yield to maturity and how bonds are described. 

JohnWinder

I put up a list of books, most of which have also turned up as free online versions, all decent which you can scan, browse or read for free as needed. https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79637394#Comment_79637394

However, my experience is that you won’t find much about wealth preservation funds and laddering assets in any book; but you’re probably clued up enough to evaluate and manage those things yourself.

Marven Appel wrote a chapter for a book, on bond laddering which is not rocket science if know your way around a spreadsheet. Images of his spreadsheets you can see online. The bogleheads wiki has bond laddering.

NlghtOwl

Meaningful Money - podcasts and you tube videos. I really recommend 

Malthusian

Pat38493 said:

However I think it would still be useful for me to have more knowledge about investments generally - I know what equities, bonds etc means generally, but I see a lot of things talked about on forums like this that I am clueless about like "wealth protection fund" and "investment ladders" and so on.  This could be useful background for me once I am winding down my working.

"Wealth protection fund" is a marketing label for certain actively managed multi-asset funds. Buying a book just to find out what it means would be a waste of time and money. By the time you finished reading it, the active fund management industry will have invented another meaningless label.
The quickest and best way to find out what it means is probably to ask the MSE forum. I won't say "just Google it" because for a question like "what is a wealth preservation fund", Google is likely to return a load of marketing guff that will leave you with more questions than answers, much of it irrelevant (and often US-based).

ader42

I’ve read many. Top of the list for me in terms of sensible advice for most people is Money : Master the game by Tony Robbins

Anonymous101

Loads of good content on blogs particularly Monevator.

Books wise there's already been plenty of good ones mentioned above. I'd add to those:

Lars Kroijer - Investing Demystified

Morgan Housel - The psychology of money (not strictly an investing book)

amcc1

I second @NightOwl’s recommendation for the Meaningful Money podcasts, audio book and website. Great practical advice on lifetime finances. There’s a large back catalogue of seasons, some more focused and some more chatty, Two IFAs (Pete and Roger), generously giving insights and encouraging us to take control ourselves where possible.
Very much of the passive persuasion.

This week’s FT ‘money clinic’ podcast by Claer Barrett with Jonathan Hollow and Robin Powell (new book) is well worth a listen too.

I also quite liked the audiobook version of the Morgan Housel book - mentioned above by Anon.

Another interesting website not much mentioned here is occaminvesting.co.uk - some very deep dive stuff but also covers the basics. Again, mostly passive in general and vanguard in particular.