Table of Contents
Introduction: A Lesson from Einstein xi
Part 1 The Wrong Way
1 A Battle for Your Brain 3
2 In Bizarro World, These Traits Would Be Valued 7
3 Investing Without Eddie O'Neal 12
4 Join a Wise Crowd 15
5 Trading Against Goldman Sachs 18
6 What You Can Really Learn from Dr. Doom 20
7 The Myth of the Lost Decade 23
8 The Myth of the Excellent Company 26
9 The Myth of Holding Individual Stocks 29
10 The Myth of Holding Individual Bonds 32
11 The Myth of Skill 34
12 A Potpourri of Other Myths 37
13 The Cost of Believing Investing Myths 44
Part 2 The Smartest Way
14 Superior Returns Are Within Your Grasp 49
15 The Right Focus 52
16 Taxes and Costs: Stealth Enemies 57
17 Rebalancing: Sense and Nonsense 60
Part 3 The Smartest Portfolios
18 The Four Smartest Portfolios: An Overview 65
19 Fama and French Are SuperSmart 68
20 The SuperSmart Portfolio: Designed to Produce Higher Returns 76
21 The SuperSmart Portfolio: Chapter and Verse 79
22 SuperSmart Portfolio Returns 84
Part 4 Smartest Alternative Portfolios
23 The Smartest Target Date Portfolio 91
24 The Smartest ETF Portfolio 96
25 The Smartest Index Fund Portfolio 103
26 The Bottom Line 107
Part 5 Going It Alone or Getting Advice
27 Asking the Wrong Question 117
28 Fooling the Fans, but Not the Players 123
29 An Unlikely Source of Returns 127
30 Don't Confuse Knowledge with Success 130
31 The Dimensional Difference 133
32 The Takeaway 136
33 Says Who? 139
Glossary 171
Appendix A Constructing the SuperSmart Portfolio 179
Appendix B Raw Data Used to Produce Risks and Returns 181
Appendix C Fidelity and T. Rowe Price Fund Options for the Smartest Index Fund Portfolio 187
Acknowledgments 195
Publisher's Note 197
Index 199