The Power of Passive Investing: More Wealth with Less Work Hardcover – December 7, 2010

This is the first book I've read from Rick Ferri and it won't be the last. Mr. Ferri jumps into the debate whether passive investing outperforms active investing over time. He sticks a fork in active investing starting in Chapter 1 and by the end of the book it's a virtual blood bath. Ferri slays the active management zombies in this comprehensive book covering decades of academic research into the subject.I'll submit that the writing was a bit intense and academic at times. But I don't think the author had much of a choice when presenting his case. His precise and detailed writing style was necessary to counteract decades of sales and marketing messages from Wall Street. At the end Ferri's victory is so lopsided that you feel kind of sorry for the active investors of the world.My favorite section of the book was Part I: The Active vs. Passive Debate. While I had heard many of the arguments before, I've never read such a concise summary of the debate. And at the end it really crystallized my understanding of the market and how active funds under perform the market relative to their costs.I highly recommend this book to all investors. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it as a first book on investing. I know Mr. Ferri has written other books which may be more suitable to new investors. But it's a great resource to new investors that understand the basics of investing.

Some investors do too little, by not becoming informed about large scale issues ("What is asset allocation?") or by delegating all their investment decisions (e.g. to an actively managed mutual fund). Others do too much, by chasing last year's winners or imagining that reading advice columns is a good substitute for immersing oneself in really understanding companies and their economic sector, i.e., quitting the day job to gamble in the market. This book, like others in the genre, urges us to learn enough so that we understand the value of investing, of diversifying our investments, and of reducing both costs and risks through passive investing in broad index-based funds... and of exercising the discipline of doing nothing, once the big-picture issues are understood and sensible investments made. After that, rebalance periodically. When? How often? Well, that is another murky area. Good luck to us all.

This book is terrific if you need a thousand arguments and facts that back up his case that passive investing is the way to go for most investors, including individuals and trustees of pension funds and other large accounts. However, it felt like I was reading a thrilling murder mystery, only to find out the last two pages of the book were ripped out. When I bought and read this book, I thought I was going to get two things: 1) reasoned case for passive investing (got it) and 2) a "how to" of sorts that would tell me how I could apply the lessons in this book to my own investment portfolio (didn't get that). However, I was left with nothing to do to my own portfolio unless I read a few more of his books, OR I could just go hire someone to do the job for me, because it's obviously just too complicated. Frankly, if you couldn't explain it to me in this book, why would I rush out and go buy your other books?

This book is a real eye opener and should be required reading for every investor who would like to retain their investment balance and maximize gains through passive index investing. The author relates in easy to understand language how investors are giving away their money unnecessarily due to advisor fees and hidden costs associated with their accounts.The compounding affect of the money saved by reducing investment fees is staggering in the long run. Richard Ferri should be commended for his integrity and valuable advice. That all proceeds from this book go to military relief organizations is proof that Rick has no personal motive for his advice. He honestly wants to help refocus the industry to its original goals through staying the course with periodic re-balancing as an investment strategy.

Having read all but one of Ferri's other books, this one is among the best. Written in plain English with a bibliography that could keep one reading more about the subject for years to come.I'm already a believer in passive investing so the only reason I even purchased the book was to learn a little more about the theory. I was not disappointed in the least.The "but" has nothing at all to do with the content and I would not take away a star for it. However, like many other books converted to the Kindle format, I find the tables/charts very difficult to read. Subtle shadings between various graph lines really don't come through very well and the font seems to remain smaller no matter what I try. A bit of a nuisance.

This is a really good book by Rick Ferri, though it slows down a little at the end.

I purchased both this book and the same author's "All About Asset Allocation" at the same time. In "The Power of Passive Investing" Ferri sells the benefits of passive investing in just a few pages. The remainder of the book, on ways to implement this strategy, soared considerably over my head and I found the other book, "All About Asset Allocation," far more usable. Other readers with more investment knowledge, and particularly those who can digest chart-laden chapters on such subjects as alpha without severe attacks of eye-glaze, will no doubt benefit from this book more than I did. Therefore, my 3-star rating probably says more about me than about the book, but "me" is all I have to go on.