Rating: 
Summary: Strong Foundations For Investors
Review: After reading Larry Swedroe's excellent second and third books I felt compelled to return and read this, his first book. My urge to do so has been more than adequately rewarded by this excellent text.Larry Swedroe lays strong foundations by focusing on three major areas. First, he summarizes the results of several studies indicating that passive investment strategies outperform, over time and by a wide margin, active investment management. Second, Mr. Swedroe offers the individual investor a through overview of Modern Portfolio Theory and its subset, Efficient Markets Theory. Third, Larry provides a guide to the construction of a portfolio and discusses the roles investment advisors may undertake for the individual investor. While some of the material in this first book is duplicated and updated in the second and third books, I recommend all three of these texts to individual investors. Larry Swedroe possesses the knack to take recent academic research and pass it on in an understandable, common sense manner to the many individual investors who do not possess advanced degrees in statistics. My own library of "good books" on investing has grown to nearly 20 different texts. All three of Larry Swedroe's texts make my "good book" list. (I have rejected over 100 other texts and not included them on my "good book" list.) I highly recommend all of Larry's books, together with additional texts by Burton Malkeil, Peter Bernstein, John Bogle, Bruce Temkin, Roger Gibson and others. Larry's three books greatly assist the individual investor to build a solid base of knowledge to understand what works (and the many things that don't work) in investing. I highly recommend this book, and all three of his books, as key additions to every serious investor's library.
Rating:
Summary: Strong Foundations For Investors
Review: After reading Larry Swedroe's excellent second and third books I felt compelled to return and read this, his first book. My urge to do so has been more than adequately rewarded by this excellent text. Larry Swedroe lays strong foundations by focusing on three major areas. First, he summarizes the results of several studies indicating that passive investment strategies outperform, over time and by a wide margin, active investment management. Second, Mr. Swedroe offers the individual investor a through overview of Modern Portfolio Theory and its subset, Efficient Markets Theory. Third, Larry provides a guide to the construction of a portfolio and discusses the roles investment advisors may undertake for the individual investor. While some of the material in this first book is duplicated and updated in the second and third books, I recommend all three of these texts to individual investors. Larry Swedroe possesses the knack to take recent academic research and pass it on in an understandable, common sense manner to the many individual investors who do not possess advanced degrees in statistics. My own library of "good books" on investing has grown to nearly 20 different texts. All three of Larry Swedroe's texts make my "good book" list. (I have rejected over 100 other texts and not included them on my "good book" list.) I highly recommend all of Larry's books, together with additional texts by Burton Malkeil, Peter Bernstein, John Bogle, Bruce Temkin, Roger Gibson and others. Larry's three books greatly assist the individual investor to build a solid base of knowledge to understand what works (and the many things that don't work) in investing. I highly recommend this book, and all three of his books, as key additions to every serious investor's library.
Rating: 
Summary: This book will change your mind about investing
Review: Along with the latest edition of Charles Ellis's book (Winning the Loser's Game : Timeless Strategies for Successful Investing), Larry Swedroe's book will drive you away from actively managed mutual funds and toward passively managed index (and more sophisticated asset-class allocation) funds. Swedroe builds a convincing case, not only by marshaling the extensive academic evidence showing that active stock pickers do not persistently beat their passive benchmarks over time, but also by demonstrating that you CAN beat the "market" by allocating your passive investments to achieve the optimal return for the risk you are willing to bear. He also provides specific portfolio recommendations for several standard risk levels. My only criticism is that this book -- like nearly all investment books with the exception of Ellis's -- is so heavily padded with anecdotal fluff that it interferes with a reader's capacity to grasp the essentials quickly. Even so, the book is well worth the price. It may permanently alter the way you think about investing.
Rating: 
Summary: Too Theoretical, not practical
Review: I bought this book because of such positive reviews it had. Unfortunately the book is not as practical as it may sound. Its too theoretical. There is far too much emphasis on why active funds are bad, and more than 50% of the book is about why not to go for active funds. As a layman to investing, I found the book too technical in explaining concepts about index funds. Good for theory, not for practice.
Rating:
Summary: Swedroe is one of very few honest folks in the business
Review: I read this and his first book. It changed the way I invest completely. There is far too much conflicting interests on Wall Street. From Wall St Houses, Mutual Funds, Investment advisors, analyst, on and on. They are all driven by getting a share of your investment dollars - performance is secondary. (Just look at returns from the mutual funds and the fees they charge - it is criminal). Passive management is so logical. Especially when so few of these advisors and funds EVER beat indexes on a consistent basis. Swedroe's books are both excellent. The second devotes more time to asset allocation - which is important even in a passive management structure.
Rating:
Summary: I wish I had read this book 20 years ago
Review: I've read this book several times since buying it. It explains why we can expect superior returns from passive management of our own portfolios, how the financial media profits from confusng investors, and how to build a portfolio. I think it is easy to read and contains many charts, etc. to explain concepts.
Rating:
Summary: Simply the best money you'll ever spend
Review: If you are an investment neophyte or an index fund guru, this book will expand your knowledge. The research is in and the results are unequivocal, indexing beats active management over time and by a significant amount. The only people who contest the evidence are active fund managers who don't want to lose their paying customers. Larry Swedroe provides the evidence in a fully documented book that explains not only why index investing outperforms active fund management, but also how you can put the information to work for you. In eleven easy to read chapters, Mr. Swedroe explains Modern Portfolio Theory, research that won the Nobel Prize for economics in 1990. But this isn't an economics book. It's a book written for the layman that explains index mutual fund investing and how to do it most effectively. Information you don't know can cost you dearly. Be an informed investor and stop paying high fees to fund managers who can't outperform their comparable indexes. Read the book today, you can thank me later.
Rating:
Summary: THIS will be the LAST book about indxfunds you need to read!
Review: If you enjoy spending lots of time researching mutual funds and being charged high costs (compared to index funds)to own them...and love to get stressed out chasing last years winners, then I strongly suggest NOT reading this book. This book contains compelling arguments on why investing in 'index funds' is really all you need to know about investing. I've read many books on mutual funds, especially index mutual funds, and this book, without a doubt, is the superior writing. And, although the author is passionate in his effort to educate, the content is straight-forward and easy to understand and relate to. Holding a master's degree in economics is not necessary to appreciate this 'no-brainer method of investing' the author conveys to the reader. I've read the book twice as well as given it as gifts! Again, there are many books on the subject of 'Index Mutual Funds', and believe me, this one is by far the best. This book hammers-home the strategy that Index Funds should be the foundation of every investment portfolio. This was the first book on index funds that I bought/read and subsequently purchased several more books on the subject before I realized that I wasn`t going to find another book as good as this one.
Rating:
Summary: Swedroe
Review: One of the best books on investing in index funds you'll ever need. The model portfolios are a big help too, and Swedroe's strong cases and academic studies supporting his ideas; it really convinces you to why you should invest in index funds. After interacting with the author, who, is one of the smartest men on investing, I can't wait to read his other books.
Rating:
Summary: This is the ONLY book to read!
Review: The author has done an excellent job of helping explain the myths of active fund management and the huge fee game being whipped on the average uninitiated investor. Swedroe does a fine job of bringing the investor/reader to a point where he can answer for himself the dubious benefit of using actively managed funds -- "am I getting what I'm paying for (fees), because I'm certainly paying for what I'm getting (in fund results)!
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