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Smartest 401(k) Book You'll Ever Read: Maximize Your Retirement Savings...the Smart Way ReviewI bought the updated edition (Feb. 2010) from my local Costco store and read the entire book from cover to cover in two hours. (I have a background in investment, but currently unemployed.) I feel rather ambivalent about the author and the book.
On the one hand, I totally agree with his claim that the entire 401(k) system is corrupt, as is the entire investment management industry, and the U.S. government is a willing and active cohort in this scam to rob American employees of their retirement savings. My own 401(k) plans have seen paltry returns over the last 15 years, despite my effort at picking the "best" funds that were available to me. (No, I don't chase past year's performance.) Call me bitter, but from talking to my friends and former coworkers, this seems a commonplace experience, and this book explains why it's the case. The action chapters, esp. in part 3, are also decent, although as another reviewer has said, the entire action plan can be summarized in two sentences: diversify your portfolio, and only invest in low-cost index funds. The author does provide a list of funds to consider, although your plans may not offer them at all (see the "cheat sheet" in chap. 24 of the 2010 edition).
On the other hand, I'm not sure what the author's true motive in writing this book is. Is it really to help us worker bees to save for our (gloomy) retirement? As I was reading the book, I got the feeling that he was writing the book primary to sell the book, kind of doing what the mutual funds he criticizes are doing. For example, he cherry-picks on certain numbers, such as quoting historical returns without mentioning the significant inflationary effect of survivor bias (i.e., only companies that survive get included in calculating market returns).* He compares accumulative returns (using a 40-year horizon -- man, how many readers of this book have that many years to contribute to a 401(k) plan???) between a 2% expense ratio fund and a 0.3 expense ratio fund, but neglects to tell you that the difference is partially tempered by taxation. He does provide a bibliography, which is good, but who knows if he only picked the "research" that he agreed with and omitted anything that contradicts his belief?
The 2010 paperback edition also suffers from certain logic lapses, such as the first chapter about "Wan Ba Shi," as well as typos and grammatical errors.
One warning I should give is, the book's website appears to be mostly a marketing gimmick for his IFA products. I took the 25-question survey. At the end of the survey, I *HAD TO* give them my name, state, home *and* work phone numbers, and e-mail address, in order to see the survey results. The result page itself is titled "Investment policy statement" and contains numerous references to his IFA company and also contains a signature section for me to sign!!! Not a good thing, Mr. Solin, for someone who claims to be impartial and to expose a rigged system.
* He mentions the evil effect of survivorship bias in tabulating active manager returns, but nothing about it when it comes to calculating market returns.
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