Comments on: Review: Unconventional Success by David Swenson

By: Larry

Larry — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:10:12 +0000

Didn’t say he was concise.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:30:08 +0000

Monevator: Ah, the old “make the book boring on purpose” trick. I hadn’t thought of that!

Larry: Hah. I think the printer ink may surpass the $50 amazon price at that page count.

By: Larry

Larry — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:22:25 +0000

There are a lot of tables and graphs in the complete book, as well as case studies formatted within boxes. Perhaps you can get a download from someone with a PC and print it out (all 500+ pages, LOL).

By: Monevator

Monevator — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 10:01:50 +0000

I really enjoyed the book. Swensen is dull in those early chapters, but I think that’s deliberate. He wants to make investing feel sober, rather than a shoot the lights out enterprise. I liked the way he cooly defused the case for say corporate bonds.

That section you discuss is great. That unlisted property fund he rails against was a shocker!

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:05:43 +0000

Thanks for the heads-up! I had no idea.

Unfortunately, upon downloading his sample chapter, it appears that on my version of Mac OS, the pdf doesn’t work properly. None of the graphs appear. (At least, I think they’re supposed to be graphs. Everything labeled “Figure 8.x” is just blank white space.) And the bottom of many pages appear to be missing.

Darn!

By: Larry

Larry — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:21:55 +0000

Mike, you can download a PDF of Otar’s book from his site for 6 bucks.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 21:45:27 +0000

Hi Larry.

Otar’s book has been on my Swaptree list for a while. I keep hoping to get it that way rather than shelling out $50 for it on Amazon. I’ll refrain from making any statements either way until I’ve read it. (Though I’ll make an exception to go on the record as saying that annuitizing a portion of one’s portfolio can make a lot of sense if it’s the only alternative to an unsafe withdrawal rate.)

Regarding overweighting small-cap and value stocks relative to their market weights, as mentioned here here, I’m inclined to think that it can make a lot of sense in terms of adding expected return without a precisely corresponding increase in volatility.

As to U.S. vs. international, as discussed here, my own portfolio is roughly 50/50. However, it makes a lot of sense to me for an investor to scale back international allocation as he or she gets older.

All that said, I think Schultheis put it well in his book: “As long as you own a broadly-diversified, low-cost portfolio of index funds, the ones you choose aren’t nearly as important as sticking with the funds you choose, especially when other index funds outperform the ones you own.” (Italics are his.)

By: Larry

Larry — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 21:24:27 +0000

Mike, would you like to do a review of Jim Otar’s “Unveiling the Retirement Myth”? Someone at Bogleheads suggested I read it, and it seems he’s recommending all kinds of things contra to the typical Boglehead philosophy – such as saying asset allocation and diversification are less important than luck of the market, that the optimal time to rebalance is every four years after each Presidential election, and more—including recommending annuities to anyone not in what he calls the “green” zone. Is there anything to this?

I’d also appreciate your comments on the Coffeehouse approach, which seems to weight small and large cap, value and blend, domestic and international, almost equally.

By: Susan Tiner

Susan Tiner — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 19:50:04 +0000

Mike, I had the same reaction to the first section and put the book down. Thanks for letting us know the last part of the book is a good muckraking piece, now I’ll definitely get back to it, that is after I finish the other 10 books I’m reading!

By: Kyle

Kyle — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 18:06:39 +0000

Swensen’s asset allocation is probably one of the better model’s out there. I’m personally more comfortable with a bit more international exposure and a bit less real estate.

My favorite part of the book is when he talks about all the ways fund companies can screw over investors. Definitely the only place I’ve ever seen much of that information.