Reading Recommendations

A cornerstone to successful investing is the application of common sense.

The founder of The Vanguard Group, John C. Bogle, believed this. The term ”common sense” appeared frequently in his writings, across twelve books and numerous essays, commentaries, and speeches.

A few of the tenants of common sense investing that Bogle espoused:

1. Time is Your Ally: compound interest works best when paired with a long-term perspective; investors should avoid short-term noise and focus on long-term growth
2. Diversification is Key: by owning a wide swath of the market, investors reduce the risk of being overly exposed to individual securities or sectors
3. Don’t Try to Outguess the Markets: avoid speculative strategies and favor predicable, rules-based investing
4. Cost Matters: try to keep costs associated with investing as low as possible
5. Focus on What You Can Control: investors can’t control the market, but they can control how they react to market events, how they allocate their portfolio, and how long they stay invested

For those interested in diving deeper into Bogle’s work, The John C Bogle Reader is a good launching point. It combines three of Bogle’s most important books: Common Sense on Mutual Funds; Don’t Count on It! and The Little Book of Common Sense Investing.

I recognize that digesting 1,874 pages of financial subject matter presents a lot of nourishment, and may be a meal enjoyed by some, but not all.

It may suffice readers to know that Bogle’s common sense approach, to which we adhere, continues to ring true: keep costs as low as possible, diversify, and stay invested.

Beyond his financial and business prowess and advocacy for the Main Street investor, Bogle was a thoughtful and empathic human being.

If you enjoy one-to-one interviews and would like to hear Bogle in his own voice, check out this link.

Friend of the firm David Freudberg, who has a long and successful history of producing content for public radio, had the opportunity to meet with Bogle twice. The link above was from his 2014 interview at the Vanguard offices outside of Philadelphia in 2014.

For more of David’s work, which I highly recommend, check out Humanmedia.org and David’s weekly podcast Humankind.

-RK

Michael Lewis was 26 years old when he wrote about his experience as a bond salesman at Salomon Brothers. Liar’s Poker is considered one of the books that defined Wall Street during the “greed is good” era of the 1980s.

Since then, he’s authored more than 30 books on the topics of finance, economics, and sports. He has a unique ability to take complex topics and break them down into stories about relatable people.

His latest work is: Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service.

In a departure from his typical solo approach to writing, Lewis enlists six of his author friends to write a chapter for the book (Lewis himself writes two).

Each chapter is a story about a specific individual, working in a non-glamorous area of government, doing amazing things. Through these stories, the reader is able to develop a better understanding of how government works for the people, through people committed to the idea of public service.

In a recent podcast, Lewis said “all these people (profiled in the book) have found the secret to living a meaningful life. They could all be far wealthier working outside the government, but they choose to work inside the government because they have a sense of mission.”

-RK

James Clear has a seemingly simple life thesis: changes that seem small and unimportant at first will compound into remarkable results if you’re willing to stick with them.

He learned this the hard way, through a slow recovery from a traumatic sports-related accident in high school that ultimately led to success on the college athletic field.

This book resonates with me because Clear takes the idea of compounding, which is simultaneously simple to calculate and remarkable to behold, and applies it to everyday life.

Clear’s extensive research into human behavior helped him identify key components of habit formation and develop a straightforward framework for making change in our lives possible.

He posits that a habit is a behavior that has been repeated enough times to become automatic. The ultimate purpose of good habits, contends Clear, is to solve the problems of life with as little energy as possible.

Clear calls his framework “The Four Laws of Behavioral Change” and presents a simple set of rules we can use to build better habits. They are: (1) make it obvious, (2) make it attractive, (3) make it easy, and (4) make it satisfying.

Since your habits are shaped by the systems in your life, Clear discusses his Four Laws throughout Atomic Habits to demonstrate how to use them to create a system in which good habits emerge naturally.

The author is also a compelling speaker. You can hear James Clear discuss the ideas in this book on The Peter Attia Drive podcast Episode #183.

-RK

Researcher Christine Benz, Director of Personal Finance and Retirement Planning for Morningstar, recently published How to Retire: 20 Lessons for a Happy, Successful, and Wealthy Retirement.

In the book, Benz interviews academicians and practitioners from the world of personal finance and retirement, with specialties in financial planning, tax, estate planning, insurance, asset allocation, Social Security, healthcare, and hospice care.

Each chapter is structured in a Question-and-Answer format, so the reader is able to engage as an observer of an interview.

In addition to lots of good advice about managing finances in retirement, Benz also moves beyond dollars and cents.

She says: “When, and how to retire is less than 50% related to money. Yes, you need to have the funds. But more important, you need:

• A network of people who care about you
• To practice healthy habits and take care of your body
• A plan for your days
• Activities that bring you joy”

The book is both information rich and thought provoking and will be a good resource for those in retirement, or approaching that milestone.

-RK

The journalist Charles Duhigg currently writes for the New Yorker Magazine; has written three books on habits and productivity; and was the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for a series of articles on the business practices of technology companies.

Duhigg is probably best known for The Power of Habit, which posited that behavior, whether of individuals or groups, can be changed by disrupting the “habit loop” of trigger, routine, and reward.

His follow up Smarter, Faster, Better focused on productivity.

In Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection, Duhigg explores the art and science of effective communication, offering insights into how individuals can foster deeper connections and navigate complex conversations.

Duhigg puts forth a framework for understanding the type of conversation an interlocutor is trying to have (Practical, Emotional, or Social), and then explains ways that individuals can align with the type of conversation at hand to promote meaningful engagement.

I found that a lot of the material in the book boils down to the application of common sense.

But I also find it helpful to have a new lens for looking at recurring situations, and practical tools for improving vital skillsets that foster productive communication.

The mid-20th century sociologist Willam H. Whyte said: “The greatest problem with communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished.”

Readers of Duhigg’s book may be better positioned to avoid this “greatest problem”, and instead benefit from clearer communication and, subsequently, deeper human connection.

-RK

The Intelligent Investor, by Benjamin Graham, has been called “by far the best book about investing ever written” by investment superstar Warren Buffett.

Even so, you will be excused if you log onto Amazon, or visit your local bookstore, and choose to make another reading selection.

Graham’s book was first published in 1949 and contains references to companies and situations that may be unfamiliar to the 21st century reader.

But the third addition of the text, released last week, on its 75^th anniversary, might be attractive to financially adventurous readers, in part as an interesting artifact, but also for contemporary commentary provided by the Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Zweig.

Graham was born in London in 1894 and entered Columbia University at age 16. Before the end of his senior year, Graham was offered faculty positions at Columbia in three different departments: English, Philosophy, and Mathematics.

Graham went on to start a successful investment company, in addition to holding university faculty positions.

His most famous student, while teaching at Columbia Business School, was none other than Warren Buffett. In addition, Graham was one of the original supporters of an investment certification program that eventually became the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation – of which I am a proud holder.

HarperCollins Publishers turned to Jason Zweig in June 2003 to revise Graham’s initial text. The second edition was published in 2005, and Zweig took on the new assignment of writing annotations for each chapter in the 3^rd edition.

Among many important concepts, Graham introduced the idea of margin of safety: the belief that an investor should not focus exclusively on how much money can be made but on how much money can be lost, because even the best investors are likely to be wrong roughly 45 percent of the time.

For individual investors, the value in Graham’s “definitive book on value investing” may be more about what not to do, than what to do, with your money.

-RK

David Brooks is a Canadian-born American conservative political and cultural commentator who writes for the New York Times and The Atlantic.

He’s also written for the Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and The Weekly Standard. He joined Weymouth, Massachusetts native Mark Shields from 2001 to 2020 on PBS News Hour and continues to comment on PBS.

In his recent book How to Know a Person, he offers observations and personal experiences that help us become more skilled at the art of seeing others and making them feel seen, heard, and understood.

Chapters include: The Right Questions, The Art of Empathy, and What Is Wisdom?

In Brook’s words: “I’m hoping this book will help you adopt a different posture toward other people, a different way of being present with people, a different way of having bigger conversations.”

-RK