The book was written by scholars Gordon Murray and Daniel Goldie in 2011 and it publishing at New York-Boston. It emphasizes on the need of making an investment today in anticipation of better life in the future. It has valuable information that greatly helps the reader experience and upward data acquisition trend. The primary agenda of the writers coming up with the book was to change people’s perception on how to reason about investment.
The book focuses on five major decisions that an investor has to lay much focus on thus ensuring sustainability as well growth. The first decision is Do-it-yourself that incorporates the need of an investor seeking professional guidance on matters regarding investment. According to Murray, and Goldie, (2011), through an acquisition of relevant information, one stands in a better position to make most appropriate portfolio combinations likely to yield high returns.
The second decision is the asset allocation that plays a paramount role in ascertaining how well an investor should allocate his resources. The review of this ruling answers this puzzle and makes it possible for the available assets to get the appropriate allocation. One gets to know where to allocate his assets and eventually ends up investing them in most profitable areas. Through a complete understanding of this decision, one ends up knowing the right percentages of assets to invest in projects with fixed and variable returns.
Diversification of asset decision is the third aspect addressed in the book. Through reading this chapter, one gets to understand the need of risk diversification fully. Through investing in a combination of assets with differentiated risk levels, one can come up with the best portfolio mix. It discourages investors from subjecting their funds in only one project (Iske, & Boersma, 2015). The main idea is ensuring that an organization ever remains profitable irrespective of the prevailing market conditions. Through well-tailored asset diversification decisions, investors result in distancing themselves from any projects believed to have a negative rate of return.
The book also discloses comparison between active and passive decisions in investing. Through the development of logical approaches inclined towards success and eliminating bias, an investor eventually knows the right investment decision. An apparent discrepancy between active and passive decisions results in getting revelation (Wang, 2014). An investor decides whether to use active approach targeting at outsmarting the market or passive mechanism eyeing on delivering market-like returns. All these aspects get conducted in line with assessing the volatility of the market. Skillful analysis results in bringing the relevant remedies of preventing any market differences likely to trigger wrong investment. The book emphasizes on 100% efficiency in the investment plans and how risks mitigation should end up getting an enhancement.
Finally, the book airs opinions on the rebalancing decision. It is confident that market dynamics are ever affecting the firm’s ability to operate. It, therefore, means that organizations must strive hard in coping with the environmental changes whether internal or external. In making the final decision, an investor understands the right time to sell and buy the assets available in his portfolio mix (Marglin, 2015). Through understanding this concept, proper timing takes precedence, and an investor eventually avoids the risks of losses. Because of balancing decisions, no single investor results in owning assets with negative returns as the appropriate disposal period remains in getting a stipulation.
The book is of great significance to investors and helps them through imparting relevant information. Decision-making process ought to be independent; otherwise, an investor might end up making wrong decisions. Through the numerous aspects addressed by this book, an investor results in standing in the most appropriate position of understanding the projects with positive NPV. In the end, investors end up in eliminating any fears that might lead to poor decision making.
