WE ARE WIRED TO FAIL WITH MONEY AND INVESTING. Do You Have $1 on You? BEFORE YOU START READING, please reach for your wallet. Take out a one-dollar bill. Do you have it? Look at it, hold it up, put it in front of you. Now imagine you save $1 each month (which few do). Imagine that your $1 earns 7% annually on average over thirty years. At the end of the thirty years you will have almost $1,200. Needless to say, if you put away $1,000 each month, you'd have almost $1.2 million in thirty years. It's secondary if you are just starting your family fortune--or if you already have it and want to keep it and grow it. If you do nothing with that dollar, inflation will eat away at its value. It will be worth less than two quarters in twenty-five years and less than a single quarter in fifty years and a nickel in one hundred years. Can you afford to do nothing? Do I have your attention? Most books misinform, or intimidate the reader, and often are not backed by real life experience. This book is a one of a kind, comprehensive, straightforward, and easy to follow guide to investing. It’s written by an experienced investor trained in the value investing, Buffett-Graham school of thought. Like no other book, it covers both the intellectual and emotional discipline needed to be a successful investor. It provides the proper philosophy, shows the path, and emphasizes the principles required to keep and grow your wealth over a lifetime. “Over more than a decade, Bogumil has assiduously assembled a set of rules from the writings and the speeches of the world’s most lastingly successful investors: these rules have become his chosen investment discipline. […] He has written a great road map for young investors as well as a thoughtful and very readable guide to spare older neophytes the most common investment mistakes.” — François D. Sicart, Founder and Chairman of Tocqueville Asset Management. “Now comes his book. Obviously, Bogumil was augmenting what we were teaching him over the years about the investment process with extensive readings by the great thinkers on this subject. Unlike some of these tomes, however, Bogumil’s “Outsmarting the Crowd” is an easily digestible, common sense approach to a subject that is too often wrapped in jargon made to make it appear more difficult and less intuitive than it actually is.” — Robert W. Kleinschmidt, President, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of Tocqueville Asset Management. KIRKUS REVIEW A short, comprehensive coaching manual explains the intricacies of personal investment. Baranowski places his debut guide to money and investing on bedrock factors that are psychological rather than financial: the human desire to grow and innovate and the human weaknesses of insecurity and greed. This underscores the broad-based aim of his book, which is plainly aimed at young investors and which opens with sentiments so obvious as to be banal, things like "Find something you like doing, get paid for it, save, and invest that money" and "Over time, good things will happen." Or "aim high, go for it, and be a little smarter today than you were yesterday." Even his more specific advice and strategies often retain a refreshing relativity; in these pages, Baranowski consistently tries to avoid prescription in favor of encouraging his readers to break step with the crowd and follow their own instincts. The principles he lays out for the most part are very basic (although, as he rightly points out, that doesn't stop most people from failing to follow them): spend less than you earn, avoid debt, save, let your money work for you, etc. He advises investors not to overthink things: "Shamelessly go for the easy picks," he writes. "If it is too difficult, it is likely not worth it." He gently admonishes investors who chase fads, urging them to have a distinct purpose behind each choice: "What you want is a nice, clean, focused portfolio." Deftly combining the lessons of financial self-help books, Baranowski stresses the main enemy of personal wealth remains inactivity; inflation will inevitably erode even the largest fortune if the owner simply sits on the money. The lucidly written book's second half takes the reader calmly into the deeper waters of business-investing complexities, all explained in a clear, accessible voice and illuminated with many real-world examples. Beginning investors--especially those who've come into some kind of sudden windfall and need to know what to do with it--will find a great deal of useful information presented here. A clearheaded and invaluable walk-through of how to handle money and make it work for an investor. "Outsmarting the Crowd is a guide that gently initiates you onto the path of successful investing. Baranowski has a clear and unpretentious style and his genuine passion to help others shines through the pages. [...]The book is structured around three pillars: philosophy, path and principles. It starts out with a terrific chapt