Review If You Can: Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly
by WILLIAM BERNSTEIN
Description
Book If You Can was written out with the intention of helping young people achieve and secure their dream retirement without having to worry about financial instability. This was the goal of the author as he thinks there are still hopes for most of the millennials compared to the status of their boomer parents. The key is as simple as allocating 15% of the salary to low-cost budget finance or to a simple triple funding index allocation that will range for 3 to 4 decades. Such a technique is very much synonymous with losing weight, that if one refuses to eat more and live on a tight meal, he or she will eventually lose 30-40 pounds.
Though this strategy looks very simple, it is hard to execute not because millennials knew very little about money management and finance but because they often got trapped to the five dilemmas of personal finance: the inability to save money wisely, lack of knowledge about financial theories, minimal knowledge of financial history, weak psychology, and the capitalism ever-present in the investment industry.
If You Can serves as a guidebook to lead the younger generation of investors, and what’s very much interesting about this book is it’s ultimately free. Anyone wanting to have adequate financial knowledge can resort to reading this as financial intelligence does not always come with a price.
About the Author
William Bernstein, Ph.D., M.D., is a former neurologist in Oregon. He gained popularity from his online site that discusses asset allocation, money management, portfolio theory, and other financial theories helpful for young investors. Bernstein is also an associate in the company called Efficient Frontier Advisors, with a specialization in money management. In line with his profession, he has published financial and history books, which later on became best-sellers, and was often used as references in the national financial media.
Table of Contents
Introduction
But you’re still screwed.
How to read this booklet
Hurdle Number One:
- Even if you can invest like Warren Buffett, if you can’t save, you’ll die poor.
Hurdle Number Two:
- Finance isn’t rocket science, but you’d better understand it clearly.
Hurdle Number Three (with apologies to George Santayana):
- Those who ignore financial history are condemned to repeat it.
Hurdle Number Four (with apologies to Walt Kelly, creator of the Pogo cartoon):
- We have met the enemy and he is us.
Hurdle Number Five:
- The financial services industry wants to make you poor and stupid
What about the nuts and bolts?