Managing your money can be stressful. And confusing and complicated advice from the financial industry just makes it harder. But as the authors of this clear, practical, and enlightening book—part financial guide, part exposé—prove, there are just three simple rules you need to follow and only a few investment products that are necessary for an ideal portfolio. That’s it. And the authors dispense with all that “expert” advice by deftly debunking what they call investing’s Seven Deadly Temptations. By embracing commonsense solutions and rejecting investments that seem enticing but are needlessly complex, overpriced, and risky, you’ll put not only yourself in a stronger position but the entire economy as well.

Michael Edesess is a founding partner and the chief investment officer of Fair Advisors LLC and author of The Big Investment Lie
Kwok L. Tsui is chair professor at City University of Hong Kong and heads its Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management.
Carol Fabbri is a managing partner at Fair Advisors LLC and coauthor of Personal Investing: The Missing Manual.
A 27-year investment industry veteran, GEORGE PEACOCK is a principal at Compendium Financial Investment Advisory, the founder and manager of the Purchasing Power Portfolio, the author of the Yoga of Investing blog, and the managing editor, investments for the online financial site FrankInsight.com. He entered the financial advisory business as an associate at American Express Financial Services (now Ameriprise). He also worked at the Wallace Financial Group, a regional insurance, investment, retirement, and financial planning firm, and Mullin Consulting, advising Fortune 1000 companies on niche compensation benefits for their senior executives. He returned to advising high-net-worth individuals and families when he joined the D.C. office of US Trust, which was later purchased by Bank of America. Mr. Peacock left Bank of America when the firm, like the rest of the investment industry, began relying increasingly on mathematical models whose output depended on a myriad of unknowable assumptions. At Euclid, he immediately established the Purchasing Power Portfolio, a precursor to the Simplify Wall Street approach described in this book. Mr. Peacock is the president of the Georgetown University Alumni Association and is an ex-officio member of the University’s board of directors. He is also a member of the External Advisory Board of the Georgetown University Alumni and Student Federal Credit Union, the largest student-run credit union in the country, and The Georgetown Chimes, an all-male a capella singing group. A part-time stand-up comic, he lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with his four children, Duncan, June, Hayley, and Mackenzie.

Foreword
Preface
Introduction. The Simplify Wall Street Portfolio
Prologue. Why the Financial Industry Will Do Everything in Its Power to Stop You from Doing This

Part I. The 3 Simple Rules of Investing
Rule #1. Simplify Your Options
Rule #2. Look Only Forward
Rule #3. Tune out Noise

Part II. Wall Street’s 7 Deadly Temptations
Deadly Temptation #1. Beat the Market
Deadly Temptation #2. Trust It All to Our Expertise
Deadly Temptation #3. Precisely Calibrate Your Portfolio
Deadly Temptation #4. Sleep Well at Night with Your Risk under Control
Deadly Temptation #5. Use the Strategies That Always Work
Deadly Temptation #6. Do What Wealthy and Sophisticated Investors Do
Deadly Temptation #7. Use Modern Scientific Financial Theory
Epilogue. Systemic Risk, Concentration of Economic Power, and the Financial Industry
Notes
Index
About the Authors