The Intelligent Portfolio: Practical Wisdom On Personal Investing From Financial Engines

"This is one of those rare investment books that actually raises your investment IQ. Christopher Jones's ten basic rules get investors focused on what really matters. You may have heard some of these investment truths before, but probably never in a way that is so powerful and intuitive. Filled with practical and insightful examples, this book is a real eye-opener for anyone serious about planning for a bright financial future."
--Jane Bryant Quinn, columnist for Newsweek and Bloomberg.com and author of Smart and Simple Financial Strategies for Busy People

"Books on personal investing are a dime a dozen. But if we add them up, all those dimes come to plenty of money. This book is worth all that and lots more. With its strong foundation in theory, the depth of its insights, the power of its message, the clarity of its exposition, and the value of its examples, The Intelligent Portfolio is worth many multiples of anything else in this overcrowded field."
--Peter L. Bernstein, author of Capital Ideas Evolving

"Christopher Jones gives investors a guided tour of the inner workings of modern portfolio theory. If you prefer to look under the hood and kick the tires of your retirement plan, this hands-on manual can help you turbocharge your portfolio."
--Mary Beth Franklin, Senior Editor, Kiplinger's Personal Finance

"Jones provides his readers with a refreshing investment guide, chock-full of pithy and pertinent advice. Can you ignore expenses if a manager exhibits excess performance? His no-nonsense advice, 'the view that you can ignore the impact of fees is just a bunch of hooey.' And for those chasing yesterday's hot funds, he reminds us that 'good funds are not defined by how well they have performed in the past, but how well they are likely to perform in the future.' A quarter century of experience tells me readers will be better investors if they heed his easily digestible investment wisdom."
--Harold Evensky, CFP, President, Evensky & Katz

A must-read book on making informed and confident decisions with your nest egg

"The Intelligent Portfolio" is an easy-to-read guide to intelligent personal investing drawing upon the insights of Financial Engines (FE)--a leading independent investment advisor founded by Nobel Prize-winning economist William F. Sharpe that makes advice available to millions of retirement plan investors at America's largest companies. In this book, FE Chief Investment Officer Christopher Jones uses state-of-the-art simulation and optimization methods to demonstrate the often-surprising results of applying modern financial economics to personal investment decisions. By illustrating the realistic range of possible investment outcomes, Jones reveals how today's decisions impact future results and helps investors maximize their chances of reaching goals. Challenging conventional wisdom that often leads novice and experienced investors astray, "The Intelligent Portfolio" discloses the most important factors for investment success using insights familiar to large pension funds, foundations, and endowments, but often mysterious to individual investors. Specifically, readers will discover how to: avoid common investing mistakes; prioritize the most important factors to simplify decisions; understand the tradeoffs that underlie investment choices; build high performing portfolios; critically evaluate the investment advice they receive; and much more. In addition to the information outlined throughout these pages, readers may also become a user of the online advisory service at FinancialEngines.com for one year, so that they may apply what they've learned to their own personal investment portfolios.