Stocks for the Long Run, Jeremy J. Siegel

The 4th edition of this book is at http://www.amazon.com/Stocks-Long-Run-Jeremy-Siegel/dp/007149470, on Amazon. (I had read the 2nd edition.) Jeremy Siegel has his own site at http://www.jeremysiegel.com/. See http://www.mcnallyrobinson.com/product/isbn/9780071494700/bkm/true, for a review of his book. Siegel has articles on the internet at http://www.econlib.org/LIBRARY/Enc/StockPrices.html.

Even though the book is American and it deals with the US, it can also apply to us here in Canada. I, of course, started investing in stocks long before I had read this book. I also invest for the long run and I have done very well. As near as I can figures, I have made, since I started investing in the 70’s an average annual return of 10.3%.

I am basically 100% invested in stocks, 100% of the time. The one main problem with this is that when good investment opportunities come along, I have no available cash for investing. Take the current situation. The fall in the TSX has presented lots of very good buying opportunities and I can take advantage of few.

However, even with the above problem, over the long term, being investing 100% in stocks has been very good for me and I have made good long term returns. The problem with holding back some cash for good investments is that you never know when these opportunities will come. Look at the bear market we had in 2000, 2001. A stock market crash had been predicted for sometime. Alan Greenspan made his “irrational exuberance remark in December 1996. If I had put money aside, it would have earned little money for over 4 years or more.

So in closing, I should say there is not really good answer about whether or not too keep money in reserves for good opportunities. I did not do this so I really have no idea on how it would have affected my returns. In any event, this is an excellent book to read.

This book review and other books I have reviewed are on my website at books. Also on my website is how to find this book on Amazon if you care to purchase it. See Stocks for the Long Run.

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