Review: Higher Returns from Safe Investments: Using Bonds, Stocks, and Options to Generate Lifetime Income

Higher Returns from Safe Investments: Using Bonds, Stocks, and Options to Generate Lifetime Income by Marvin Appel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

To the good, the book packs a lot of information and financial strategies into a short length. It covers a variety of strategies that tend to the conservative – investing in bond ladders, bond funds, munis, TIPS, preferred stocks, writing covered calls, and ETFs for dividend income. The author suggests specific investments. The book was written soon after the last bear market, and takes the results of that event into consideration.

To the bad, the book is a bit dated. Those specific recommendations might not make sense currently, but at least the author includes his reasoning behind those picks so you can plug in your own current numbers to pick investments. The tax changes will likely also impact the author’s recommendations were he to update them. The current global financial environment, with rising interest rates and their possible negative impact on bond and stock prices at the same time, is not really considered.

Overall, a nice combination of topics for those looking for investments that tend to be more conservative than all-equity portfolios. As with all books that provide specifics, the advice is dated and should not be followed without research.


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