Invest Like a Couch Potato

SCOTT BURNS is the creator of Couch Potato investing, which advocates for the use of index funds over managed funds or stock picking. As a syndicated newspaper columnist and author, he has covered personal finance, investments, and economics for more than 40 years.

• Introduction: An Easy Stroll to Investment Success and a Better LifeChapter 1 What Happens When An Aspiring Astronaut And Biologist Becomes a Writer 1Part I The Human Life Cycle: We Share More Than You Think 7Chapter 2 WHAT Seven BILLION HUMANS WANT 9Chapter 3 Measuring the Big Sameness in Cash: the Revised Equivalence Scale 17Chapter 4 The Big Sameness in Cash: the Reverse Engineering Way 25Chapter 5 The Snatch Defeat From the Jaws of Victory Industry 35Chapter 6 The Sublime Blessing of Death 41Part II The Long, Glorious History of Investment Failure 45Chapter 7 Weston Wellington and the Wisdom of Not Guessing the Future 47Chapter 8 The Legion of Amazing, but Temporary, Heroes 55Chapter 9 Bogleheads and Fighting Back 63Chapter 10 Turn Off, Tune Out, and Drop in (with Apologies To Timothy Leary) 67Part III How to Invest Your Savings 71Chapter 11 Etfs: You Can Now Invest Almost for Free 73Chapter 12 The Simplicity Portfolio – Couch Potato Investing 79Chapter 13 Occam’s Razor: Riffs on the Couch Potato Portfolio That Don’t Work 85Chapter 14 Riffs on the Couch Potato Portfolio to Consider 93Chapter 15 The Bonus of Low-cost Compounding While Growing 101Chapter 16 The Bonus of Low-cost Investing While Spending 107Chapter 17 Can You Spend More? 117Part IV The Proof Is in the Pudding 125Chapter 18 The Pudding Reports: It’s All About the Cash 127Part V The Rewards of Simplicity for Actual People 133Chapter 19 How Average Becomes Superior 135Chapter 20 The Unspoken Forms of Capital 139Chapter 21 Rising Above Serfdom in An Age of Neo-feudalism 145Part VI The Rewards Found Elsewhere 153Chapter 22 The Big Kahuna: Shelter 155Chapter 23 A Penny Saved Is Much More Than a Penny Earned 161Chapter 24 The Lifetime Compounding of Un-money 167Chapter 25 Health Is All! 173Chapter 26 Should You Strive for Early Retirement? 181Part VII More Couch Potato Cookbook – Exactly How to Do It 187Chapter 27 The Basic Couch Potato Cookbook 189Chapter 28 Still More Couch Potato Cookbook 199Part VIII The Research and Data That Supports Everything I’ve Said 207Chapter 29 Why Couch Potato Investing Makes Sense: A Tour of the Research and Data 209Acknowledgments 225About the Author 227Index 229