The Dick Davis Dividend

As part of my work here at About.com and as Chairman and CEO of my private holding company, Kennon Green Enterprises, I do a lot of reading - somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,000 to 5,000 pages a month in a light season. One of the books I just finished is called The Dick Davis Dividend: Straight Talk on Making Money from 40 Years on Wall Street. It's unlike almost any other investing book I've read in that the basic thesis is: You can't beat the market, buy low cost index funds, but keep around 20% of your money in a stock trading account so you can enjoy selecting individual companies or other assets. It's an interesting premise and, to be honest, probably the right choice for a large majority of investors because they have a hard time dealing with their emotions when they see their retirement accounts plummet 50% in a year (if you've been reading the site for a long time and own good, quality, well-diversified investments, you know that those are the very times that you should be most excited about buying stocks!).

One of the best assets is probably the model portfolios, including the names of specific index funds, that are included in the latter part of the book. Take a moment to pick up a copy; you'll enjoy the reading. Get a copy...