How To Really Ruin Your Financial Life and Portfolio - Paperback

by Ben Stein (Author)

Hilarious advice on what NOT to do with money, from financial funny man Ben Stein

Everyone's searching for the secrets to financial success, but what about the best ways to lose money . . . fast?! In How To Really Ruin Your Financial Life and Portfolio, bestselling author, economist, financial commentator, and media personality Ben Stein explains exactly what to do . . . to go bust! The ultimate "how-NOT-to" guide, the book gives readers invaluable tips that should be avoided at all costs. Written in Stein's own inimitable style, this hilarious guide provides essential financial advice on what not to do when it comes to managing money.

From reading and acting upon investing newsletters to trading on a margin, from investing in bonds to breathlessly following CNBC, and from buying stock in firms you do not understand to believing in your own genius at stock picking to keeping as little cash on hand as possible, Stein presents the rules that every would-be investor needs to know, so they can do the exact opposite and actually make money. Fully revised and updated, this new edition presents all-new missteps that can destroy any portfolio.

• Fully revised and updated edition of the tongue-in-cheek bestseller that shows investors what not to do with their money
• Written by acclaimed author economist, financial commentator, and media personality Ben Stein
• Loaded with indispensable pieces of bad advice that readers should avoid at all costs

A laugh-out-loud approach to personal finance, How To Really Ruin Your Financial Life and Portfolio is an accessible guide to money from the funniest man in finance.

Front Jacket

The secret to making money is sticking to the basics, but while they might be your best bet for success, they're not exactly thrilling. For years, Ben Stein has extolled the virtues of keeping things simple, but many people--maybe you among them--are too easily distracted by the lure of frills and fads promising quick and easy riches to pay attention. Now, in How to Really Ruin Your Financial Life and Portfolio, Stein takes a tongue-in-cheek new approach, offering advice on how to succeed spectacularly . . . at losing money!

The ultimate how-NOT-to guide, this book highlights the 49 ways in which investors manage to torpedo their portfolios by ignoring the simple facts of finance, to help you reconsider the way you're treating your money before it's too late.

From believing you can outthink the market to assuming that current trends will last forever, and from ignoring your tax returns to shunning financial advisors, this is the advice you absolutely don't need. In his own inimitable style, Stein dispenses the invaluable information that any intelligent investor should avoid at all cost, to help you identify the problems with your own portfolio-building efforts so that you can take countermeasures to get your money working for you.

A laugh-out-loud approach to personal finance, Economist and comic Ben Stein brings you the tips you need to know . . . if you want to go broke. Explaining the rules for failure so that you can run, screaming, in the opposite direction, How to Really Ruin Your Financial Life and Portfolio explains the missteps that can destroy any portfolio to help you keep yours safe.

Back Jacket

PRAISE FOR HOW TO REALLY RUIN YOUR FINANCIAL LIFE AND PORTFOLIO

"A wise man once said, 'All I want to know is where I'm going to die so I'll never go there.' Ben Stein has applied this instruction to the investment world with his special brand of humor and insights. Pay attention!"
--WARREN E. BUFFETT, Chairman and CEO, Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

"I've always thought before you can learn how to become rich, you first have to stop doing the things that keep you poor. Leave it to my friend Ben Stein to smack us all across the face and, just like Cher in Moonstruck, get us to 'snap out of it.' It's an amazing wake-up call from an amazing guy who gets it, and gets us, and now, is trying to help us. Financial advisors charge thousands of dollars for this kind of insight. Talk about how to ruin your financial life! Ben's much, much cheaper, and much, much better."
--NEIL CAVUTO, Anchor and Sr. Vice President, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network

"These are perilous times. Many face ruin and catastrophe. You must read this book to protect your portfolio and to make money."
--JIM ROGERS, author of A Gift to My Children

Author Biography

BEN STEIN is a respected economist known to many as a movie and television personality, but he has worked in personal and corporate finance more than anywhere else. He has written about finance for Barron's, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and Fortune, was one of the chief busters of the junk-bond frauds of the 1980s, has been a longtime critic of corporate executives' self-dealing, and has co-written numerous finance books. Stein travels the country speaking about finance in both serious and humorous ways, and is a regular contributor to CBS's Sunday Morning, CNN, and Fox News. He was the winner of the 2009 Malcolm Forbes Award for Excellence in Financial Journalism.