Index Funds and ETFs: What They Are and How to Make Them Work for You

Perhaps I'm being a little unfair by giving this book three stars. I bought this book with the intention of learning how ETF's/Index Funds work and what they are exactly. Based off the title, I think I fairly expected this. I docked two stars because I feel like as a very-much beginner investor a huge portion of the content in this book made no sense to me. I think before reading this I need to read something titled "Finance Jargon for Idiots." If you don't have a strong foundation to work off and can't delineate securities, from mutual funds or define DCA, hedge funds, NAV, etc. then I would recommend a more rudimentary text. I do think this is a decent book overall. I especially liked the author's view on the financial world as it relates to the retail investor. I'll probably come back to this book once I've learned a little more about finance.

I've ridden this bull stock market for the past 9 years and have made a large profit. But, in the recent months I have gotten more and more concerned about a future bear stock market and what that would do to my profits. Further, I tried talking with my investment adviser who charges me 1.5%. I tried to get her to do a more conservative portfolio. Her only advice was to wait it out and keep on going. It seems like a dumb plan to me.So, I fired her, bought several investing books and started to read. I quickly became lost in all the possibilities and paralyzed with fear that I'd do the wrong thing.David's book was the most simple, most insightful book of all that I read. I feel confident applying the plan he laid out.Many thanks!

Tries to cover the ins and outs of index funds without actually being thorough enough. Structure of the book was pretty messy and there are grammatical errors in many places. You can tell when he really knows about a certain topic and when he doesn't. However, even when he does, the analysis does not really goes that much in depth. Some examples he uses are also misleading when you actually take a look at the sources he provides. For those who are completely new to index funds try The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by Bogle.

David Schneider’s approach to investing is unique and developed through insider experience that puts the decision making in the hands of the investor. I now understand how the 80/20 approach applies to the world of ETF’s. I will definitely be paying closer attention to global events that open low risk opportunities with index ETF investing. This book changed my perspective on index investing and my approach, patience, execution and timing of trades.

Excellent book. I recently decided to invest some of my cash in equity via index funds. I've read few books about passive investment and they all appeal to my way of thinking. However, I got the feeling that after you read one book about passive investment, you read them all. They all sounds very familiar and repeat basically the same thing: "buy and hold diversified market and in the long run that market will keep going up".While this sounds awesome, I was missing the counter arguments which non of these books even hinted about. Reading David's book, I now understand better the dangers, risks and possible gotchas of passive investment. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know about the cons and not just the pros of passive investing.

I own several index funds from Vanguard and some ETF funds too, but until I read this book I didn't really understand exactly how they worked or how bad managed funds are on average compared to them and why.I also didn't realize that the funds have to pay the indices in order to use their secret sauce formula for how much of each stock is in the fund. How the funds mirror the index cheaply is very clever.I also learned some of the dangers of index funds and a better investment plan.David has a clear writing style and tells great stories in the chapters that keep you engaged in what otherwise might be dry financial info. Recommended.

David makes the complex topic of index fund investing easy to understand for beginners. I appreciate his well reasoned and researched explanations and counterintuitive ideas. It's always important to get different ideas and David provides several that I plan to incorporate into my personal finance plan.

This author does a great job of giving background on the market itself, not just index funds and ETF's. It is a must read for anyone in the early stages (or any stage) of investing in the market. He exposes much of the hype and evaluates the reasoning behind many of the things that are commonly accepted in the industry. He concludes with some good advice based on the conclusions drawn earlier in the book. A very educational read.

the book told me nothing. it's not a practical book that will help you chose ETF or index funds or build a portfolio. I read the book to cover to cover but it was a complete waste of my time. If you are serious about investing then the 'FT Guide to Exchange Traded Funds and Index Funds' is a far better book and it is aimed at the UK audience.

Very good book to learn the risky side of investing.If you are interested in investing, this is a useful tool but you will need to read other books to actually learn to invest in Etfs. This wasn't the purpose of the author.

For beginners and seasoned pro's. Every trader should have a copy

As I said. Really heavily lays in! However that may not be a bad thing given the big love around index funds. Personally I still bought them. His best comment is something along the lines of 'don't buy what you cant afford to lose' and I'll stand by that.

Follow up this book from millionaire teacher.Brings it all back to earth. Last chapter a must read if you are about to dive into etf’s and index funds. Excellent sound honest analysis. Was sold on index funds and etf’s. They are good but read this book. Got it on kindle for $8.67. Probably saved thousands on reading the last chapter.