Ho! (Another Ben Graham book sold?:-) Good articles! Between the two of
them they hit on two very major topics that stand between the
undersized investor and oversized gains.

After digging up that Siegel article on Yahoo's page
(where we find that the long run real return on
equities is around 6.7%), I poked around a bit and,
like one who cannot help but look at a car wreck,
couldn't keep from reading Kiyosaki's last three
columns. Ignoring his whining about political correctness,
there was this gem:

http://finance.yahoo.com/columnist/a...ichricher/9262

Mutual Funds Are for Losers

Today, there are millions of working people who are afraid of losing
their jobs and of losing money in the stock market. That means they
may never be able to retire.

These are the people who fall victim to the investment-and-advice
gurus who recommend that they work hard, save money, get out of debt,
invest for the long term in mutual funds, and diversify. Is this
advice for people who play to win, or for people who play simply not
to lose? I'll say it again -- grow up.

Look at the performance records of mutual funds and you'll see who the
winners are, and why salespeople recommend that you invest for the
long term. Over 40 years, most mutual fund companies retain
approximately 80 percent of the gains while investors receive a paltry
20 percent. Investors also put up 100 percent of the capital and take
100 percent of the risk.


For a somewhat, er, different point of view, here's an
exceprt from a Ben Stein column on that same site:

http://finance.yahoo.com/columnist/a.../yourlife/8168

Peace of Mind is a Hot Commodity

Finally, a note for the CFAs, CFPs, stockbrokers, sellers of variable
annuities, and mutual fund salespeople who read this column:

You're not hurting people when you call them up or send them letters
asking them to make sensible, carefully chosen, prudent
investments. You're not wasting people's time when you urge them to
prepare for retirement instead of letting them put it off for another
day.

You're doing them a major favor by helping them with an often
unsettling but always necessary task -- preparing for economic
security and, by so preparing them, taking the fear out of their
future.

You're helping them just as much as if you'd told them to eat more
fruits and vegetables or get more exercise or quit smoking or get
regular checkups from their doctors. You're helping them as much as if
you'd told them to get a good night's sleep. When you sell, you're
selling safety and two of Franklin D. Roosevelt's greatest goals:
freedom from fear and freedom from want.

When you sell a good product at a fair price that takes the terror out
of growing old, you're doing everyone a service. Be proud of doing it,
and know that you're doing it for the customers' good. It is no shame
to sell peace of mind.

They key here, of course, being "good product at a fair price".

I just spent some time the other day reading in great detail
the prospectus for a variable annuity product. I can easily
see how the pretty graphs, the eye-popping numbers, etc
could be used to get folks to buy this thing, but under the
hood, it was probably innapropriate for almost anyone. I
could probably come up with a contrived scenario where it
might make sense, but, jeez, somebody tried to sell that
monstrosity to someone I know.

Anyway, compare and contrast and enjoy.


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