Fail-Safe Investing: Lifelong Financial Security in 30 Minutes Paperback – January 10, 2001

Interesting and very simple concepts to understand.

Fail Safe investing is a terrific book for those who want to construct a portfolio that’ll whether the storm of up and down markets. The author talks to you like you’re his son/daughter, shepherding you in your investment objectives. I highly recommend this book to everyone, novice or amateur.

Harry tells it like it is. Not sexy. Not exciting. Practical and safe. The permanent portfolio is simple and easy to execute. It's actually quite brilliant in its simplicity and stout in its performance. Very much worth a read for any investor sophisticated or not.

Written during the height of the dot-com mania of the late '90s, "Fail-Safe Investing" is a clarion call for a balanced approach to asset allocation that, twenty years later, has proven to be a resilient strategy. Browne takes a conservative approach to investing, which includes simplicity, a long holding period and diversification among generally uncorrelated asset classes - common stock index funds, long-term treasury bonds, gold and cash. His strategy looks at assets from a macro perspective, judging their historical performance in certain market conditions and extrapolating their possible performance under periods of prosperity, inflation, recession and deflation (depression). Avoiding speculation at all costs, he admonishes the reader to avoid stock tips, buying on margin and market timing. He recommends rebalancing the portfolio to maintain equal weighting.True to his philosophy on life in general, the goal of investing to Browne is to provide the safest means of preserving wealth while not giving up too much time otherwise spent on living one's life. He spends as much time reminding readers of the pitfalls of the 'get-rich-quick' mindset as he does on his overall portfolio recommendations. There is also discussion of legal means of reducing the tax burdens of investing, as well as a friendly warning to some of his faithful libertarian readers who might try to circumvent taxes illegally. The appendices list different funds and their contact information, which twenty years later may be of limited use.In all, "Fail-Safe Investing" does not advertsise to 'beat the market'. In fact, Browne doesn't believe that is possible over a sustained period of time. Instead, it is his attempt to provide the reader with the tools for "Lifelong financial security in 30 minutes." Twenty years on, after backtesting by several firms, it appears that readers who took Brown's advice got exactly what he intended - a return comparable to the overall market return, with a minimum of risk.

I read a lot of books--but rarely write reviews. This one, however, is a game-changer.Before reading this book, I was addicted to all kinds of financial pornography: books, newsletters, investment clubs etc. All of it was in search of the holy grail of investment knowledge...how to beat the market. Sometimes the stress of market volatility would keep me up at night. Then I met Harry Browne and his wisdom.He makes a very strong case that no one can predict the future in financial markets. Even the cockiest fund managers typically perform poorly over the long run. So I asked myself: why am I wasting all this time and energy trying to beat the market? Isn't there a way to get the historical returns of stocks (about 10%/year) with little stress-inducing volatility or my most precious resource--time? Browne says yes...it's called the Permanent Portfolio.It's like that rotisserie chicken oven on late night infomercials: "Just set it and forget it!" All of the economic environments are covered by Browne's Permanent Portfolio: inflation, deflation, prosperity, recession. No matter what people are worried about today, you're covered. You can let everyone else debate (because they don't know anyway). Browne's Portfolio has returned an average of 9.9% (roughly 5-6% over inflation) with extraordinarily low volatility for the last 40 years--which puts your mind at ease so you can go off and live life without worry.That level of peace-of-mind has no value--it's priceless. I'll be forever indebted to Harry Browne for writing this book. I highly encourage you to read it and do a little research for yourself. I think you'll feel the same way.

Every book written by Harry Browne is worthwhile, and this is no exception.'Fail-Safe Investing: Lifelong Financial Security in 30 Minutes' should be required reading for anyone considering investing their funds with 'hot' fund managers, 'winning' advisory services or 'can't miss' trading systems. It also lays out a solid, common sense foundation for lifelong fiscal responsibility and profitability, and should be required reading for all high school students.Harry passed away last year at the age of 73, and he will be dearly missed by those of us who treasure his legacy of liberty, independent thinking and personal responsibility. His life was a one of a kind gift that God blessed our world with.

Uno de los libros que siempre recomiendo a aquellos que no saben por donde empezar. Leer a Browne siempre es una delicia.

Chiaro e semplice

Must read for everyone. The only book on personal finance you should ever need. This tells everything that had to be told and is complete in all sense..

A book which gives you great tips. Easy to read, and simple to understand. Many tips, strategies and tricks about your portfolio.

Truly a brilliant book. Although this is not a new book, the same simple stress reducing strategies for investing are just as useful as when they were first written. Harry Browne was a gentle, philosophical, thinking, man offering great wisdom and lateral thoughts to live a well rounded life. His books radically changed my views on living, to my great advantage.