Last revised in 1995, the guide takes aim at a new game in town--online trading. By all means, use the Internet for buying a car or for research, Tobias says. But avoid cyberspace brokers, he says. Point and click enough and you will get slaughtered by commissions, spreads, taxes, and human nature. "It's so easy to click 'OK' a few times and make a $10,000 bet," he warns. "Look how mesmerized we become on a stool in front of a slot machine. Internet investing positively teases you to play." Tobias's favorite new entry is the Roth IRA, which allows you to withdraw your money tax-free when you retire. It's far better than a traditional IRA, he asserts. "Save yourself the trouble of agonizing over the choice and go with the Roth IRA," he writes. "Forget the worksheets." Sometimes caustic and always a skeptic, Tobias believes readers can shape their own financial futures. Just stick to the basics, he says. "By and large, you should manage your own money, via no-load mutual funds," he writes. "No one is going to care about it as much as you." It doesn't matter if it's 1978, 1998, or even 2008. The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need still is exactly that. Some things never change. --Dan Ring

Product Description
Thoroughly revised and updated, a new edition of the classic financial planning handbook furnishes guidelines for investing in insurance, stocks, bonds, real estate, collectibles, and more, along with information on taxes, budgeting, pensions, and other vital topics.

In "SIMPLE MONEY SOLUTIONS: 10 WAYS YOU CAN STOP FEELING OVERWHELMED BY MONEY AND START MAKING IT WORK FOR YOU" Nancy puts on paper more of the savvy advice that she regularly shares with Bob Edwards on "Morning Edition." While every one else in the financial press is telling consumers to switch from a credit card to a debit card, to stop writing checks and start using online bill-paying services, and to swap their credit card debit for a low-interest rate home equity loan, Nancy is the only one telling about the costly downsides and increased risks that you will take on with these money moves. Both books are eye openers.


listen up kiddos, don't get too greedy   January 15, 2005
 27 out of 28 found this review helpful

Andrew Tobias weaves through the dizzy world of T-bills, municipal bonds, alternative minimum taxes, and a host of esoteric personal finance topics. But the bottom line he preaches is simple: be happy living on less than you make, and save the rest in safe no load mutual funds, diversifying between domestic and international stocks. Tobias tries to assure most of us average Joes that we are a fool if we think we can outsmart the Warren Buffetts of the world, so don't go crazy speculating on individual stocks. At best, you will make a broker happy. At worst, you will lose your shirt. There now - I just saved you $14 you can add to your no load mutual fund account (lol).


Entertaining. But useful?   May 19, 2007
 21 out of 25 found this review helpful

This is a fun book and a great start if you know nothing about investing. But if you know the basics (stocks, funds, real estate, etc) you won't learn much.

I doubt you can get rich or even have a comfortable retirement by simply not losing money, but it doesn't hurt and that's the best part of this book. Again, if you know you should pay off your credit cards, buy large quantities at Costco, drive a small used car and get plane tickets from Priceline, you won't find much new.

But what about building some wealth? Now here, we have a problem. The correct "answer" is, you start putting money in a Roth IRA and an index fund, when you are in your 20's. In just 30 or 40 short years you will have a pile of dough. Even better, with 30 or 40 years, no matter what the stock market does, you can ride it out.

But alas, hardly anybody in their 20s or even 30s has money to put aside and leave untouched for all those years. Say you're 40 and decide its never too late. As I write this, the stock market is hitting a new high almost every day. Yet the news about jobs, housing and Iraq is all bad. So sooner or later (and probably sooner) the market will tank and it may take 10 years to recover. Now you're age 50 and you've got just 10-15 years to earn enough for retirement.

Its not the fault of this book that there is no solution to this dilemma. But I think a more realistic approach would be to offer these four possible "solutions". (1) Inherit lots of money. (2) Be very lucky in the stock market, (3) Get a job that offers a pension, preferably written into law so they cannot screw you or, best of all (4) Get a high paying job early in your career, so you can put all that money aside.

The strength of this book is in what it tells you not to do. But minimizing mistakes only takes you so far.