This book encourages you to invest most of your savings abroad, away from the imperfect but good protections offered by US law.? I wrote a piece on this idea a few years ago that pointed out the problems with this idea.? (Note to those reading this at Amazon.com, Google “Aleph In Defense of Home Bias” and you will find my article.)

Now don’t get me wrong — I invest in foreign companies.? One-third of the assets that I run are invested abroad, in both developed and emerging markets.? International investment is good, but it is not a panacea.? There is no inherent advantage to investing abroad versus investing in the US.? Even if emerging markets are growing more rapidly, that doesn’t mean they are better to buy. because valuations are higher, and government policies are more fickle.

This book is rather facile about problems in emerging markets.? Problems with Brazil led me to sell my stocks when Dilma Rousseff was elected President.? Lula promoted markets, Dilma did not.

I found this book to be long on cliches, and short on sharp ideas.? If you try to take the advice as an amateur, you will have a hard time doing it.? If you decide to hire an advisor other then the authors, you won’t get what the book offers.? Thus I can tell you that the book is merely a marketing pitch for their services, and so I tell you to avoid it.

Quibbles

Already expressed, though I would also add that the book didn’t feel right.? Too casual in the way that it treated topics.

Who would benefit from this book: Few would benefit from the book; the theory is flawed.? If you want to, you can buy it here: Retirement GPS: How to Navigate Your Way to A Secure Financial Future with Global Investing.

Full disclosure: The publisher sent me the book after asking me if I wanted it.

If you enter Amazon through my site, and you buy anything, I get a small commission.? This is my main source of blog revenue.? I prefer this to a ?tip jar? because I want you to get something you want, rather than merely giving me a tip.? Book reviews take time, particularly with the reading, which most book reviewers don?t do in full, and I typically do. (When I don?t, I mention that I scanned the book.? Also, I never use the data that the PR flacks send out.)

Most people buying at Amazon do not enter via a referring website.? Thus Amazon builds an extra 1-3% into the prices to all buyers to compensate for the commissions given to the minority that come through referring sites.? Whether you buy at Amazon directly or enter via my site, your prices don?t change.