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2018 Updated Edition FINANCIAL FYSICS HOW MONEY AND INVESTING REALLY WORK By Don McDonald Dedication This special edition of “Financial Fysics” is dedicated to a group of passionate financial educators who are willing to speak the truth to fiscal power. Far too many people in the media and even academia have sold their souls to the devil of easy wealth. Some of the better-known names in this distinguished group are the Wall Street Journal’s Jason Zweig; Ron Lieber from the New York Times; Professors Eugene Fama and Kenneth French; my friends, Dan Solin and Paul Merriman; and my best friend and business partner, Tom Cock. There are many more whom I am sure I neglected to mention, but they, too, have my thanks. I hope that my work on the behalf of investors and the larger community can come close to matching their efforts. Finally, my lifelong gratitude to my wife, Debie, who has stuck with me through multiple successes and failures. i Copyright © 2010, 2018 Don McDonald and Vestory, LLC All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. However, I tend to be prefer allowing reproduction with appropriate attribution. Just ask me: [email protected] Published by Vestory LLC 2821 Northup Way, Suite 150 Bellevue, WA 98004 vestory.com 800-386-3004 Interactive edition created using iBooks Author in the good ol’ USA i Preface Does the world really need another long, boring, confusing, contradictory book about investing? So, how about a nice, short, easy-to-read, multimedia book instead? There are a lot of investing books out there. I have read many ticularly patient bunch of people (for the most part). I figured of them, and from my less than scientific sample, I would that instead of trying to fight the crowd, why not write invest- guess that at least 90% are utterly worthless. As a matter of ing books that people may want to read? After all, my goal is fact, most of them are downright dangerous—particularly to teach as many people as possible the right way to manage those that deal with trading, timing, flipping, or wealth without and invest their money. Plus, the basic concepts aren’t all that risk. difficult to grasp or put into practice. There are a few genuinely extraordinary works available from To try to determine the best way to teach financial topics, in a host of thoughtful, intelligent authors. Some of those books book form, I looked to the experts on education: teachers. are relatively easy to read. Others are frustratingly compli- Not surprisingly, we learn in a variety of different ways. cated and/or long-winded. Straight, unadulterated reading tends to be one of the least effective means of imparting valuable information. Most re- When I wrote “Financial Fysics,” back in 2010, I wanted to cre- search has shown that the most effective learning comes from ate something different than the typical, somewhat tedious, a combination of methods. several hundred pages long investing tome. Reading about investing is the last thing most people want to do in their Reading and seeing information is more effective than read- spare time. I would know. I’ve discussed it countless times. Al- ing alone. Reading, viewing, and some type of interactive most to a person, everyone I ask rolls their eyes or cringes at work improves comprehension even more. Adding motion the thought of picking up and reading a 300-page disserta- and sound to the mix further increases our ability to learn. tion on financial matters, no matter how well written it might As I began to contemplate the best way to build a printed be. guide to money and investing, I realized that I had been prac- Like it or not, we are a sound bite listening, drive-thru eating, ticing this multi-pronged approach to teaching for many years YouTube watching, immediate gratification craving, not par- in my investing classes. Combining the words that I spoke ii with the words on the screen, the images and videos I showed sion. The title is my tongue-in-cheek name for the basic con- with audience interaction, could actually create a powerful cepts of investing. These simple truths (at least from my per- learning experience. spective), I call the “Laws and Theories of Financial Fysics.” To help you differentiate between these and the real laws of phys- I also discovered that too much information can be counter- ics, I have taken liberties with the spelling of “physics.” productive. If a class exceeded two hours, my audience started to fade away. Mastering these reasonably straightforward concepts should give you a leg up on most people who either claim to be or If all of these things were true for a live class, why wouldn’t it want to be investors. Despite the apparent simplicity of these follow that a short, visual, interactive book would provide a few ideas, they have been gradually developed over the better and more pleasant learning experience than a tradi- course of a couple of decades. For the most part, these ideas tional book? are subject to revision and clarification in the future (for exam- Well, it turns out, that I wasn’t the first person to come to this ple, this 2018 edition). Your input into this ongoing process is realization, as I discovered when I explored my home library. undoubtedly welcome. Anytime the spirit moves you, please The shorter, well-illustrated, how-to books that I owned were drop me an email at [email protected]. the ones from which I gained the most significant knowledge. Since I mentioned Vestory, I should probably tell you that this Take a look at Amazon or Apple’s iBookstore. You will find that book was created in conjunction with my registered invest- many of the best-selling educational books are those that ment advisory firm, Vestory LLC. Yes, for the past decade I teach “visually” or use brief lessons and illustrations to help have been in the business of providing investment advice, provide information on topics for “dummies.” and I’m proud to be doing so. Vestory is a fee-only registered Rather than writing another plain-old investing book, I de- investment advisor (RIA), offering no-load, low-fee funds in cided to combine the best of all of these concepts into a new the form of well-diversified portfolios explicitly designed for kind of investing book. You are reading the results of that deci- the needs and fears of the individual investor. iii That being said, my first, and longest held commitment is to readers and tablet computers before, the iPad® changed the help everyone become a better investor. For some of you, that industry with its unique and user-friendly abilities (yes, I am a is possible without the help of an advisor. For others, the nec- fan of Apple® products). The iBookstore® also shook up the essary direction and required discipline are far too difficult. In electronic publishing industry, particularly by offering free e- those cases, a reasonably priced, fee-only investment advisor book titles. Other outlets discourage free products and make (one who is required to act as a fiduciary, not a salesperson) it very difficult to offer them. will likely help you reach your investing goals. Another iBook® feature that intrigued me was the ability to cre- It has now been eight years since I wrote the first edition of “Fi- ate an interactive, easily updated e-book, using Apple’s nancial Fysics” and, while much has changed in the world, lit- iBooks Author® program. “Financial Fysics” has always been a tle has changed in the realm of real investing. Therefore, the book that aspired to be both interactive and easily updated as contents of this book have changed very little from its printed financial figures change every year. Since the program’s re- edition. lease, I have wanted to turn “Financial Fysics” into a free, inter- active iBook to help the 1 billion users of iPads® and iPhones® The wealth management firm, Vestory, that my friend and busi- become real investors. However, other projects took prece- ness partner, Tom Cock and I created just a few months be- dence. fore writing the original edition of book, is now one of the fast- est growing registered investment advisers in the country. We Six years later, it’s finally arrived, and I hope you enjoy it. have hosted a top-rated talk show on KOMO radio in Seattle for many years which is also one of the more popular invest- ing podcasts at Apple Podcasts®. The same year that I printed “Financial Fysics,” Apple offered the first iPad to the public. While there had been electronic iv Other Vestory Educational Resources talkingrealmoney.com 401411.com realinvestingjournal.com "Investing is too easy to be this hard." -Me "A classic is a book that people praise and don’t read." -Mark Twain "I’d rather write a book that makes it easy to learn." -Me "An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." -Benjamin Franklin "Understanding a few basic concepts can save you a fortune." -Me How to Use the FiFy PDF This edition of “Financial Fysics” was created using Apple’s iBook Author® program that offers an experience unlike any other e-book.