All About Index Funds: The Easy Way to Get Started (All About Series)

All The Tools and Techniques You Need to Invest Successfully in High-Yield, Low-Risk Index Funds

The updated Second Edition of Richard Ferri's bestselling All About Index Funds offers individual investors an easy-to-use guide for capitalizing on one of today's hottest investing areas_index funds. This wealth-building resource provides essential information on index funds; expert advice on how to start investing; and winning strategies for high returns with low risk.

The Second Edition of All About Index Funds features:

<li>Updated tables, charts, and data on performance, fees, and new funds <li>Step-by-step guidance on active indexing and discussion of its expanding role <li>Coverage of all new U.S. equity indexes that have changed the dynamics of the index fund marketplace and a new chapter on commodities and commodity index funds <li>Vanguard's revision of the indexes it uses for benchmarking <li>Discussion of the increasing popularity of ETFs for effective asset allocation

Not worth your time reading. This is old ideas that are not relevant in the 2000s.

Try another book. The "All About" series of books in below the information in the "___blanK____ for Dummies" books.

Written well enough, a family member recommend I buy this book, I did, and now know more options for investing my money.

I have almost finished reading this book (happily, borrowed from the library, it isn't worth owning) and I think it has a lot of excellent and useful information. I just finished The Four Pillars of Investing and felt that there wasn't quite enough info on how to create my own portfolio - not only asset allocation percentages but the actual choice of funds, ETFs, etc. So, I had hoped this book would help in filling in that gap, and to some degree it does. Although somewhat narrow in scope, I have learned some interesting and helpful details. So, 3 stars.

However, I began writing this review earlier:

I am only as far along as page 7 and am already dismayed to see such a poor writing style. For example, this is not a sentence: "Measures market weight is simple" - perhaps this is a typo and it is supposed to read "Measuring...". OK.

Next, how about: "....the Dow covered only 12 stocks, people began to view it as an index of stock prices by which to measure stock prices against." Yikes!! "against which to measure stock prices" is some improvement, no?

And this clunker: "Thus so far, we have..."

On page 77 the spellchecker error again, vis - "Broad market funds have better tax-management opportunities in a niche market such as a small-cap..." To make sense of this it (I believe) is supposed to read "...opportunities THAN a niche market..." but who can be sure? How many little errors like this are there? Which ones did you catch? Worse - which ones did you miss?

Now on page 82, all of the data related to the "Tax Swapping" example is missing - it seems two tables of purchase information were intended. One can still get the idea, but having the information (costs/shares/dates) would be quite helpful.

Finally, if you can decipher this, you probably don't need Index Funds and can go ahead and anticipate the market with ease - so buy stocks! ;)

"A successful sector fund investing diversified their portfolio into several sectors so they will not be hurt badly when one sector takes a tumble."

Now on page 252 it gets really frustrating, because here we are creating a portfolio to meet retirement goals. "...we create an asset allocation between stocks and bonds that is expected to deliver a 7 percent return (see Table 14-1)."

But, no that is not what Table 14-1 is about. No as in the next example is Table 14-2 described correctly. So it seems that 2 of the most important tables (how to create a portfolio of bond/stocks that will meet a certain percentage return) are missing. I've read this several times and these tables are related to something else that is discussed further in the chapter.

And the pitch for one of his now out of print books (saddled with a bad title he explains) is really kind of pathetic. He should suggest other books on the topic rather than suggest you look around for used copies of his!

OK. Small potatoes? Maybe. Nevertheless, it makes one wonder about other errors, right? Perhaps the 3rd edition will be more felicitously edited? A little bit less clanging against the ear in terms of grammar? :) And, more importantly, a thorough and precise read through before it goes off to the press? And not just by the spell checker!! I hope so, as these errors and omissions GREATLY detract from a very practical and useful book.

Two stars wouldn't be unfair.

I love Richard Ferri's books. This is one of them.

If you are clueless about financial investment and want to get started on it, then read this book. Also recommended are All about Index Funds, Serious Money, and The ETF Book. Unlike books that promote sales pitch and sell garbages like (IBD: Investor's Business Daily or even Wall Street Journal) Ferri provides sound studies done on investment strategies, sound strategies, expectation and mindset.

However it does not cover all the story. You still need to understand our debt-based economic structure and fractional banking monetary system to avoid heavy losses during severe recession or depression. I recommend The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve and Crash Proof: How to Profit From the Coming Economic Collapse (Lynn Sonberg Books) for that.

I have been doing a self-study on investing topics this year and previously read several books on indexing by Jack Bogle [my hero, and an erudite writer], and Morningstar's Christine Benz [Clear and concise], but I think this is my favorite. Ferri is laser sharp in explaining investing concepts, and reads like you are learning one-on-one from an excellent business school professor. I bought this book because I had already read his also excellent book on asset allocation. This would be a perfect book if it was better edited. The text and content is fine but there are typos, repeated words, etc. Ferri's work deserves better, but I still very highly recommend the book.