Fail-Safe Investing

There are a couple premises in this book. One is that nobody can predict the future. Even advisors that have a stellar track record could fall flat tomorrow. Speculative investing should be avoided, or limited to money you are not afraid to lose. Instead, a four part investment technique can keep you gaining over the long haul with minimal risk.

Browne thinks you should split your investment into complementary areas such as gold, treasury bills, stocks, and bonds. Any one of those could be falling. But usually the complementary ones would be rising at that time. And vice versa. You can take advantage of occasional big gains from any one of those categories. These are holdings you can acquire and forget.

Browne also has some side notes. You should keep some funds in a foreign account. Don't make any money overseas so you don't have to report the earnings. Don't leave a trail or link that account to your other current accounts. And don't get any regular correspondence from the foreign bank holding your funds.