The Smartest Investment Book You'll Ever Read: The Simple, Stress-Free Way to Reach Your Investment Goals - Daniel R. Solin, 2006

Here's the same basic investment advice you'll hear from the few smart-and-honest money people out there: index mutual funds with low expenses, folks. So why do we need another book about it? Because people still choose active over passive investments. Why do they do that when study after study has shown that nobody can beat the market consistently?* Because media companies of all kinds make money on financial pornography, and dull doesn't sell; the very adjectives "active" versus "passive" fit into that paradigm. Solin instead calls them "hyperactive investing" and "smart investing" styles. It's a quick read and an extremely worthwhile one if you have any money at all to invest. The meat is in the chapter telling you exactly what funds to invest in, and to rebalance twice a year. (For Vanguard, Total Bond Market 80%/60%/40%/20% from low to high risk, rest in Total Stock Market Index and Total International Stock Index, 2.33:1 ratio). If only the library's 401(3)b was in the "smart" TIAA-CREF instead of the "hyperactive" Putnam Investments (with correspondingly high fees). Aaargh.

*Unless they are actually getting involved in the company's future, like Warren Buffett. Thas was fascinating to read about--I think it might have been Andrew Tobias who explained it, but I can't remember.