by Hildy Richelson, Stan Richelson
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Product Description
In "Bonds: The Unbeaten Path to Secure Investment Growth", two veteran investors expose the myth of stocks' superior investment returns and propose an all-bond portfolio as a sure-footed strategy that can ensure results. The book, an expanded and updated version of "The Money-Making Guide to Bonds", is designed to educate novice and sophisticated investors alike and serve as a tool for financial advisers as well. It explains why bonds can be the right choice and how to use them to achieve financial goals. It presents a broad spectrum of bond-investment options, describes how to purchase bonds at the best price, and, most important, shows how to make money with bonds.
The wealthiest investors and financial advisers use the bond strategies outlined in this book to maximize the the return on their portfolios while providing security of principal. The strategies can help you determine how to use bonds in your portfolio and take control of your financial destiny. You'll be playing it smart while playing it safe.
Earn 15 hours of credit toward your CFP Board requirement.
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Average Customer Review:
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
 Nothing new here, except no thought of inflation., 2008-04-14
There are no new ideas in this book. It is being hyped to death on the Bloomberg website, billed as some alternative investment strategy. But although it does a decent job of superfically covering the various types of basic bond investments, its only surprising feature is that the authors ignore the effects of inflation. They do not even discuss real rates of return (adjusted for inflation), and many of their recommendations will not even keep up with inflation. That is not only a major oversight; it is a disservice to readers who look to this book for good advice. It's OK advice about various bond investments, but it is woefully inadequate advice for overall investment strategy. I like bonds (within a broader portfolio), but I feel I simply wasted my time in reading this book.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 Bond Basics Primer, 2008-03-27
I purchased this book after reading an introductory article on bonds in the recent American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) article.
I was impressed with the basics of bonds presented in that article and felt this book might be worthy of reading.
My goal was to obtain a beginners view of the bond market and I'd say this book fulfilled that goal quite nicely.
I found the book easy to read and the information to be readily understandable. That's always a concern with a new subject.
I only gave the book four stars because I have no others from which to evaluate it. I guess I'm always hoping for the five star book!
In summary, this book provided the basic understanding of bonds I was looking for and presened it in a usable fashion. For that I give it an A+.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 Simple, effective book on bonds for beginners , 2008-03-25
Overall, this is seems to be an excellent simple first primer on bonds. I have no formal background in investing or finance. With all due respect, I disagree with 'Texas Critic's' analysis of the complexity of bond trading and bond portfolios. Additionally, I think despite getting to the "meat of the matter", much of the value or meaning of book and investment style may have been lost on 'Texas Critic'. I believe portfolio appreciation is not the goal of bond portfolios. It seems that the authors have gone to great length to point that out. Certainly you may see portfolio appreciation, but at the end of the day downside risk mitigation with sustained income seems to be the underlying theme.
The material is dry, succinct and throughly approachable. Moreover, I have found bond traders (through various financial institutions and independent traders) who will buy/sell analyze bonds for you with relatively small portfolio maintenance charges (much less than seen in the leveraged bond funds or most mutual funds). I can not debate the viability of a 100% bond portfolio or any other investments. The ideas presented at worst will force you to think about alternative(s) to current mainstream "dogma" on asset diversification. Particularly useful may be the shift from asset appreciation strategies to liability coverage strategies. I highly recommend this book (and the one by annette thau) if you're interested in learning more about credit markets/bonds. I would emphasize that this is likely a book for beginners who want basics about bonds. I sincerely hope this review is useful.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
No Interesting Insights, 2008-02-14
As an introduction to different types of bonds, this book is very good. But this book purports to be more than just an introduction to bonds. Unfortunately, it doesn't deliver on its key premise: that your portfolio should only have bonds. They say that after taxes and transaction costs, your return from stocks will only be 6 to 7% annually. This argument has three glaring problems: First, many people have the bulk of their investments in their tax-advantaged retirement accounts. Second, there are taxes (except on low-yielding munies) and transaction costs (unless you buy exclusively from treasurydirect, which this book does not really recommend on account of its push for diversification) on bonds too. And finally and most importantly, you cannot even expect 6 to 7% returns from bonds, especially after taxes! Additionally, their characterization of zero-coupon bonds as "growth" vehicles, as opposed to boring old income vehicles, is almost insulting to one's intelligence.
The bottom line is that all the information in this book is available for free. But maybe you like to have it in one place, or you want to read it on the airplane, or you want to build an impressive library. But these investment books have relatively short durations of usefulness; tax laws change over time, and the different classes of bonds will have new rules. In any case, there are no interesting insights in this book. Even the recommended portfolio breakdowns are exactly what you would see if you were to google "bond portfolio." If this book convinced even one financial professional or economist that they should invest only in bonds, then I would be highly suspicious of their credentials.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
R. S., Austin, TX, 2008-01-24
My husband gave me this book for Christmas.When he gave it to me, he told me it was the best gift he would ever give me. Thank you, Ms. Richelson, for writing it. He was right.
You see, my husband is sixty-two, and he is retiring when he is sixty-five--a decision he made when he was ten, I think. I retired when I was 49. Three years ago he took all our money out of the stock market and put it into an all bond ladder of treasuries, agencies, and corporates S & P rated A or higher. The ladder includes both our 401ks and IRAs. I wanted to believe that he was smarter than everyone else, but as the author points out the common wisdom tells you to stay in the stock market pretty much forever. Even though I trust my husband and know he is brilliant, this book has given me the assurance and confirmation that his all bond strategy is sound. There is a great deal of security in that. The book will also be my reference guide if I ever have to manage our bond ladder by myself.
No, it's not easy to read. Yes, I am having to re-read parts and ask questions, but it wasn't easy for us to make and save all that money for years either. Our money needs to last as long as we do, and I need to understand it. We plan to leave our children a substantial amount of money, too.
I have friends who can't believe I am reading this book. They are clueless and rely on their financial advisors. That is really a lot riskier to me than reading this book and understanding it.
Read the book. Stretch your mind. Find financial peace.
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