From February 2001 through March 2010, an investment in a

well-run index fund like Vanguard Total Stock Market would

have earned you an annual return of less than 2%. The same

investment in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway would have

netted 6.25% on average per year. Had you invested in Mike

Koza’s portfolio, your total return would have averaged 34%

per year.

Who’s Mike Koza? He’s a civil engineer for the Sacramento

County Department of Waste Management. He’s also one of a

growing number of armchair investors taking control of their

investment portfolios and routinely beating the Street’s biggest

names. The Warren Buffetts Next Door is Mike Koza’s story, and

the stories of nine others like him. And it’s your guidebook

should you decide to take control of your fi nancial future.

In The Warren Buffetts Next Door: The World’s Greatest Investors

You’ve Never Heard of and What You Can Learn from Them,

Forbes’s Matthew Schifrin provides case studies of ten

successful investors—everyday people—who are investing

in themselves, and in the process, experiencing extraordinary

returns. Schifrin details their personal stories, along with their

investment strategies, trading philosophies, and rules for

investing. You’ll learn about:

• CHRISTOPHER REES, who spent close to thirty years of his

life roaming from one town to the next working at any job that

would pay him enough to continue his travels. Since October

2000, his investments have seen an average annual return of

25% versus 0.21% for the S&P 500

• JACK WEYLAND, a former truck driver whose average annual

return since July 2002 is 36% vs. 7% for the S&P 500

• ALAN T. HILL, a retired educational software executive whose

cumulative return since July 2005 is 1,026% vs. 28% for

the S&P 500

There are more than fi fty million online investors. Many of

these “amateurs” are achieving professional results without

the professional commissions. Their names may never be on

the level of a Buffett or a Bogle, but people like Koza, Rees,

There are the famous investors whose names you know—Buffett, Bogle, Soros, Lynch, and Templeton. And then there are the Warren Buffetts next door, those successful investors you’ve never heard of—Rees, Krebs, Koza, Petainen, and Weyland. The Warren Buffetts Next Door describes how these “regular” people—tractor-trailer drivers, radio DJs, and college dropouts—utilize an armament of online information, tools, and resources to routinely outperform professional brokers and Wall Street’s Ivy League–educated investors.

$29.95 USA / $35.95 CAN

J A C K E T D E S I G N : P A U L M c C A R T H Y

J A C K E T I M A G E : © G E T T Y I M A G E S

A U T H O R P H O T O G R A P H : E L I S A B E T H S . S C H I F R I N

MATTHEW SCHIFRIN is Vice President and Investing

Editor at Forbes Media LLC. He oversees money, investing,

and personal fi nance content in Forbes magazine and on

Forbes.com, including its Intelligent Investing and Financial

Adviser Network. Schifrin also manages Forbes Newsletter

Group and Forbes iConferences, and was the founding editor

of Forbes.com’s Best of the Web. As an investigative reporter,

his articles have been featured on the cover of Forbes

magazine dozens of times and he has been a fi nalist for an

American Society of Magazine Editors National Magazine

Award. Schifrin is a frequent speaker at investor conferences

and has appeared numerous times on radio and television.

The W

orld’s Greatest Investors Y

ou’ve Never H

eard of and What You C

an Learn

from T

hemTH

E W

ARREN BUFFETTS N

EXT DOORSCHIFRIN

T H E WARREN BUFFETTS NEXT DOOR

“ Matt Schifrin’s inspiring, easy reading, and eye-opening The Warren Buffetts Next Door shows that exceptional investors come from the wide ranks of normal life—just with intelligence, drive, focus, and commitment. They aren’t Wall Street trained and operate solely for themselves in wildly different ways and could be you—if you just learn what they have to teach—which Matt gives you.”—KEN FISHER, 25-year Forbes columnist, New York Times bestselling author, and

founder and CEO, Fisher Investments

“ Matt Schifrin’s Warren Buffetts Next Door is living proof that the Internet has become a game-changer for many individual investors. It also should send a loud warning to established Wall Street firms.”

—OM MALIK, founder, GigaOM

“ I like the stories, I like the people, and I like the ‘how to,’ which cover many facets of the investment horizon. The Warren Buffetts Next Door is a successful interplay of how individuals have combined a passion for investing into profitable investing.”

—MARIO GABELLI, founder, Chairman, and CEO, GAMCO Investors

“ A first-class reporter, Matt Schifrin has cracked the code on a small group of do-it-yourself investors taking direct aim at Wall Street’s biggest brokers. Their unique styles may not be replicable, but the zeal with which they pursue their passions is.”

—DANIEL P. WIENER, Editor, The Independent Adviser for Vanguard Investors

M A T T H E W S C H I F R I N

“Good investors are constantly trying to learn. Matt Schifrin has detailed the investment journey of a talented group of investors that we can all learn something from. Enjoy the trip.” — J O E L G R E E N B L A T T

The World’s Greatest InvestorsYou’ve Never Heard of

and What You Can Learn from Them

Weyland, and Hill aren’t out to make a name for themselves.

They’re out to make enough money to enjoy a lifestyle of their

choosing. And that’s exactly what they’re doing. And with The

Warren Buffetts Next Door, it’s what you can do, as well.

The only real prerequisite to becoming a good investor is

committing the time to educate yourself. The Warren Buffetts

Next Door offers timeless advice and inspiration for any

investor hoping to profi t by investing in themselves.

( C O N T I N U E D O N B A C K F L A P )

( C O N T I N U E D F R O M F R O N T F L A P )

“Matt Schifrin has written one of the most unusual—and useful—investment books you will ever find. Instead of trotting out some supposedly surefire formula on how to get rich,

Matt has chronicled the successes of ten individuals you have never heard of.”

— F R O M T H E F O R E W O R D B Y S T E V E F O R B E S

HHoww 100 orddiinaryy peeoople coonssisteeennnnttttlllyyy acchhieevvee exxttrraoordinnaary reetuurnssoon thheirr inveesttmentsss ((aannndd hoow yoou can, too)..

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Additional Praise for

The Warren Buffetts Next Door

“How real people make real money from stocks. Forget the Wall

Street hype, read this!”

—Clem Chambers, CEO ADVFN.com, Investorshub.com;

Author of The Armageddon Trade and The Twain Maxim

“Matt Schifrin has written an informative book, demonstrating a

few of the many paths to investing success. In investing, as in many

of life’s endeavors, passion, hard work, and discipline can outweigh

theory and education.”

—Ron Muhlenkamp, Founder and President,

Muhlenkamp & Company; Author of Ron’s Road to Wealth

ffirs.indd iffirs.indd i 9/9/10 6:04:21 PM9/9/10 6:04:21 PM

ffirs.indd iiffirs.indd ii 9/9/10 6:04:22 PM9/9/10 6:04:22 PM

TheWarren Buffetts

Next Door

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TheWarren Buffetts

Next Door

THE WORLD’S GREATEST INVESTORS

YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF AND WHAT

YOU CAN LEARN FROM THEM

Matthew Schifrin,Forbes

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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Copyright © 2011 by Forbes LLC and Matthew Schifrin. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning,

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Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:Schifrin, Matthew.

The Warren Buffetts next door : the world’s greatest investors you’ve never heard of and

what you can learn from them / Matthew Schifrin.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-470-57378-5 (hardback); 978-0-470-91530-1 (ebk); 978-0-470-91529-5 (ebk)

1. Investments. 2. Investment analysis. 3. Electronic trading of securities. I. Title.

HG4521.S35142 2010

332.6—dc22

2010021343

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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To my mother Marcella, whose warmth left us too soon,

and my father, Marvin, who taught me to question everything.

To Susan, Noah, and Elisabeth, who light up my life.

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ix

Contents

Foreword xiii

Acknowledgments xv

Introduction: Thou Shalt Covet Thy Neighbor’s Portfolio xvii

Chapter 1 Vagabond Value 1Tangible Tactics 3

Who Is Chris Rees? 6

Rees’s Rules of Investing 10

Case Study: Abatix Corp (OTC: ABIX) 11

Rees: In His Own Words 12

Refl ecting on the Financial Meltdown of 2008 12

Chapter 2 Options Apostle 15Sell Options, Have Fun, and Make Money 18

Who Is Bob Krebs? 20

Krebs’s Rules of Investing 24

Case Study: Annaly Mortgage (NYSE: NLY) 29

Krebs: In His Own Words 32

On Avoiding the Big Loss 32

A Silver Lining to the Crash of 2008 33

Chapter 3 Lady’s Man 35Knife Catching 37

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x Contents

Who Is Mike Koza? 42

Koza’s Rules of Investing 46

Case Study: Radian Group (NYSE: RDN) 48

Koza: In His Own Words 50

On Comparing the Market to Whitewater Rafting 50

On Professional Money Management 51

Chapter 4 The Sorcerer’s Apprentice 53Magpie Investing 56

Who Is Kai Petainen? 60

Petainen’s Rules of Investing 63

Case Study: Ternium, S.A. (NYSE:TX) 65

Petainen: In His Own Words 67

On Jim Cramer, John Stewart, Stock Analysts, and “Sisu” 67

Chapter 5 Network Miner 69Peer-to-Peer Profi ts 71

Who Is Alan Hill? 77

Hill’s Rules of Investing 79

Case Study: China Energy Corp. (OTCBB: CHGY) 80

Hill: In His Own Words 83

On China’s Emergence 83

On Change 83

Chapter 6 Ramblin’ Jack 85Buying Hiccups 87

Who Is Jack Weyland? 93

Weyland’s Rules of Investing 96

Case Study: Iomai 98

Weyland: In His Own Words 100

On Health Care versus Other Sectors 100

On His Approach to Investing 100

Chapter 7 The Oracle of Manitoba 101Warren Buffett Meets Sir John Templeton 102

x Contents

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Contents xi

Who Is Randy McDuff? 104

McDuff’s Rules of Investing 107

Case Study: Companhia Brasileira de Distribuicao

(NYSE: CBD) 111

McDuff: In His Own Words 114

On Utilities and Recession-Resistant Stocks 114

Post–2008 Crash Investing 114

On Retirement Investing 115

On New Money versus Old Money 115

Chapter 8 Mexican Gold 117From Detective to Deal Maker 120

Who Is Andrew Swann? 124

Swann’s Rules of Investing 129

Case Study: OceanaGold (TSE: OGC.CA) 131

Swann: In His Own Words 133

On Owning Physical Gold 133

On Whether He Is a Speculator or Investor 133

On Living in Mexico 133

Chapter 9 Stock Angler 135Do as I Do, Not as I Say 138

Who Is Justin Uyehara? 142

Uyehara’s Rules of Investing 143

Case Study: Medivation (NASDAQ: MDVN) 145

Uyehara: In His Own Words 147

On His Goal of Becoming a Money Manager 147

On Price-Earnings Multiples 147

On the Market’s Strong Rebound from 2008 147

Chapter 10 Bear Market Hero 149Bear Tracking 151

Who Is John Navin? 157

Navin’s Rules of Investing 160

Case Study: PowerShares DB U.S. Dollar Index

Bullish (NYSE: UUP) 162

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xii Contents

Navin: In His Own Words 163

On Playing Blackjack and Investing 163

On Technical Analysis versus Fundamental Analysis 164

On the Goldman Sachs Scandal Fallout 164

Chapter 11 Legendary Investor Incubators 165Marketocracy (www.marketocracy.com) 166

ValueForum.com (www.valueforum.com) 168

Value Investors Club (www.valueinvestorsclub.com) 170

Motley Fool Caps (http://caps.fool.com) 171

Covestor (www.covestor.com) 172

kaChing.com (www.kaching.com) 173

RiskGrades (www.riskgrades.com) 174

Investor’s Business Daily (www.investors.com) 175

American Association of Individual Investors

(www.aaii.com) 176

FundAlarm (www.fundalarm.com) 177

StockCharts.com (www.stockcharts.com) 178

Other Sites to Bookmark 179

Notes 183

About the Author 187

Index 189

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xiii

Foreword

Matt Schifrin has written one of the most unusual—and useful—

investment books you will ever fi nd. Instead of trotting out some

supposedly surefi re formula on how to get rich, Matt has chronicled

the successes of 10 individuals you have never heard of. He gives

you unvarnished investment insights from people who mastered

this arena on their own. Precisely because they are self-taught, their

stories should have particular relevance—and inspiration—for mil-

lions of do-it-yourself investors.

Several things pop out immediately:

There is no one way to achieve success. Each of these people

has developed his own particular approach.

They do share two characteristics: hard work and iron disci-

pline. They don’t rely on tips from TV talking heads, friends,

or acquaintances. They spend hours digging, and digging hard.

They use the Web. While they take in reams of information

from the Web and elsewhere, they make up their own minds.

Everyone likes to think he or she is disciplined. But most inves-

tors give in to their emotions when the market seems to be rising

relentlessly or plunging sickeningly.

These next-door Buffetts make mistakes—but they actually

learn from them.

Every one of them has suffered a searing market setback. Even

investor John Navin, who had successfully avoided devastat-

ing losses during the 2008 and early 2009 market meltdown,

missed the subsequent market upsurge.

Another thing that comes across loud and clear is the extraordi-

nary phenomenon of the Web. It is truly empowering and liberating

•

•

•

•

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for individuals who didn’t go to prestigious business schools or take

formal courses in fi nance and security analysis. At the end of the book,

Matt helpfully gives readers his take on web sites that do-it-yourself

individuals can employ.

But most of these investors are employing the Web not just for

facts, fi gures, ratings, and lists, but also for interacting with other indi-

viduals. In other words, the Internet allows constant brainstorming.

You may be alone at your keyboard, but in terms of give-and-take, you

could literally be at a stadium fi lled with other interested individuals.

What also becomes clear here is how the Web allows individuals,

regardless of their circumstances, to develop talents that otherwise

would have lain dormant. But while the Web is a great opportunity

creator, it is no guarantor of success. It is a tool—a profoundly help-

ful one—but it is a means to an end.

Thus, the book both inspires and cautions. As always, there are

no quick, easy roads to riches. But now people have unprecedented

opportunities to create meaningful wealth over time—if they have

stick-to-itiveness and the maturity to know there will be plenty of

bumps along the way.

—Steve Forbes

xiv Foreword

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xv

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank all the people who contributed to this book

in many ways.

First and foremost I would like to thank Steve and Tim Forbes

for encouraging my entrepreneurism as an editor. I also owe a

great deal of thanks to my mentor and former editor, the late Jim

Michaels. He set the bar high for Forbes reporters and inspired a

generation of great fi nancial journalists .

This book would not have been possible without a great deal of

help from Ken Kam and his team at Marketocracy. Similar thanks

are due to Adam Menzel and the crew at Ticker Technologies. I would

also like to thank Barbara Strauch and my brother Andrew Schifrin

for helping to get this project started. Thanks is also due to my

friend Jason Zweig for helping me come up with the book ’ s name.

I am also grateful for the support I got from Laura Walsh and Judy

Howarth at John Wiley & Sons.

I would especially like to thank Tina Russo McCarthy, one of the

unsung heroes at Forbes , who spent tireless hours in her spare time dis-

cussing this book with me and making sure that all of my i ’ s were

dotted and t ’ s crossed .

Last but not least, I would like to thank my family, Susan, Noah,

and Elisabeth, for putting things on hold while I worked on this book,

and for being a great sounding board for my ideas.

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xvii

I N T R O D U C T I O N

Thou Shalt Covet Thy Neighbor ’ s Portfolio

In February 2000, at the peak of the bubble in dot - com stocks, I wrote a

story in a special edition of Forbes magazine that had a provocative

blurb on the cover posing the question: “ Will the Web Produce the

Next Warren Buffett? ”

The article chronicled several amateur investors who were riding

high during that raging bull market. One of them was a 47 - year - old

housewife who lived on a cattle ranch in Nebraska. After seeing her

family nest egg languish in the high fee mutual funds that her broker

had sold her, she went online to a site called ClearStation.com and

taught herself about price - earnings multiples and moving averages.

Another success story was a schoolteacher from Wisconsin, and yet

another was a Vietnamese immigrant who worked for the phone

company by day but trolled sites like Yahoo and Briefi ng.com for

stock ideas at night.

A little more than a month later, the dot - com bubble burst

and most of the tech stocks these amateurs had big profi ts in came

crashing down. The party was over for these bull market heroes.

Or was it? There were fi ve million online investors when I wrote

that article. Today there are an estimated 50 million in the United

States alone. I now think of the amateur online investors I profi led

in February 2000 as merely an early wave in the gathering troops of

self - directed investors. Today ’ s online investors are equipped with

great technology and a seemingly endless armament of informa-

tion, tools, and online resources.

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Some have made grand predictions of how the onslaught of

self - taught investors will break down the walls protecting the mighty

fi nancial institutions that have dominated the fi nancial landscape for

a century. That investors are on a mission to free themselves from the

yoke of high commissions and fees and middling advice. Could be,

but I think individual investor goals are a lot less ambitious.

Self - directed investors are merely looking to improve their lot

in life, to be able to afford to take a family vacation each year, to

buy that lakefront house, or to send their kids to a good college.

They want to ensure that they will have enough income to last them

through retirement. Investors are beginning to realize that devoting

time toward making your money work for you is a lot smarter than

working for your money. After all, the tax code, which favors long -

term capital gains and dividend income, encourages this behavior.

What is clearly changing is the notion — ingrained in our psyche

for generations — that only qualifi ed fi nancial professionals are

capable of directing our investments prudently — you know, the ones

with diplomas from Wharton and Harvard who illustrate their invest-

ment strategies with polished PowerPoint presentations. “ Better

leave it to the professionals, ” is the common refrain. Unfortunately

that didn ’ t work out so well in 2008.

This book is living proof that regular people have the ability to

become outstanding investors in their own right. Sitting at home

with a Web - connected computer, you can now produce the kinds

of investment returns most believe are only attainable at the most

sophisticated and exclusive hedge funds. The 10 “ Warren Buffetts

Next Door ” profi led in this book can pick stocks better than the

vast majority of all professional fi nancial advisors and money man-

agers employed by fi rms like Merrill Lynch and Fidelity.

On February 26, 2010, the most famous investor in the world,

billionaire Warren Buffett, released Berkshire Hathaway ’ s 2009 results

in his much - anticipated Chairman ’ s letter. In the year following one

of the worst stock market declines in history, mighty Berkshire ’ s book

value increased by 19.8 percent. The results were pretty good, but

what really counts for shareholders is the performance of Berkshire

Hathaway ’ s New York Stock Exchange listed A - shares. In 2009,

Warren only delivered a 3 percent gain on his shareholders money,

and no dividends. The S & P 500 gained 27 percent.

I am not using this example to challenge the notion that Warren

Buffett is the greatest investor of all time. His 45 - year record and

his personal net worth are proof enough for me. But I am saying

xviii Introduction

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that the investing intelligence that he and others like him have per-

fected is spreading.

About 1,350 miles away from Buffett ’ s Omaha headquarters in

the suburbs of Sacramento, California, Mike Koza, a 51 - year - old civil

engineer for the county department of waste management applies

many of the same Graham & Dodd value principles in selecting

stocks for his personal portfolio.

Since February 2001, he has been able to achieve an average

annual return of 34 percent per year. 1 An investment in Berkshire ’ s

stock would have gotten you 6 percent per year. An investment in a

well - run index fund like Vanguard Total Stock Market? Less than

2 percent on average per year.

Koza is not alone. Another Warren Buffett wannabe profi led

in Chapter 1 named Chris Rees practices concentrated deep value

investing from his ocean - view home on the balmy north coast of the

Dominican Republic. His verifi able average annual return since he

began being tracked online in October 2000 is 25 percent. 2

Jack Weyland, 33, of Reno, Nevada, has developed an expertise

in health care and biotech stocks. He has had an average annual

return of 36 percent since July 2002. Neither he nor Rees ever com-

pleted college, and Jack Weyland has spent much of his time picking

stocks while on the road driving a tractor - trailer.

But investing success is not just about returns versus an index; it

is about affording a lifestyle and attaining your goals. Alan T. Hill,

profi led in Chapter 5 , was able to secure a golden retirement with a

single smart stock pick that created a windfall allowing him to build

an adobe - style dream home in Placitas, New Mexico. Alan is no fl ash

in the pan either. Since he retired as president of an educational

technology foundation in 2005, Hill, 71, is making more money

investing than he ever did during his career.

All of the people profi led in this book are risk takers. But they

are also supersensitive to losing their own hard - earned capital, so

the investment risks they take are carefully calculated. The Warren

Buffetts Next Door profi led in this book come from all walks of life,

but every single one of them is smart about using the Web as both a

resource for investor education and as a tool in sourcing and fl esh-

ing out stock ideas. The Web, along with rock - bottom commission

schedules at e - brokers, has truly been transformative.

Online investing and all that it entails is eliminating the need to

have some special advantage in life as a prerequisite for investment

success. In the late 1960s it took a lucky golf caddying assignment

Introduction xix

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to get Peter Lynch in the door as an intern at Fidelity Investments.

Then it took Lynch nearly a decade more to acquire the skills

necessary to become the portfolio manager of the Fidelity Magellan

Fund.

Thousands have attended elite schools like Buffett ’ s alma mater

Columbia Business School, and others have toiled for hours in pur-

suit of Chartered Financial Analysts designations trying to learn to

become great investors. But imagine how quickly Benjamin Graham ’ s

lessons on securities analysis would have spread in the world of

Google, Twitter, and YouTube?

The excellent, but relatively unknown investors profi led in this

book are just ten of thousands more armchair investors out there

taking control of their own portfolio decisions. For the purposes

of fi nding my candidates for The Warren Buffetts Next Door, I relied

on Web - based sources for verifi able track records. Marketocracy

.com , a site created in the summer of 2000 with rigorous standards

for monitoring investment performance, was my number one source

because its data is deepest and goes back the farthest. I consider

Marketocracy.com to be an incubator of legendary investors, and

you can fi nd out more about them in Chapter 11 .

I also used another Web community called ValueForum.com

to fi nd candidates for this book. I have spent hundreds of hours

reviewing web sites as investing editor of Forbes and before that as

editor of Forbes Best of the Web . It would be diffi cult for me to name

a smarter, more collaborative community of self - directed inves-

tors than this small subscription web site. In fact, ValueForum has

held community stock - picking contests since January 2004, and as a

group its members are up 88 percent versus 16 percent for the S & P

500. 3 The men I selected from ValueForum.com are all highly rated

in the online community and have proven to be outstanding long -

term investors. Each is living an enviable lifestyle as a result.

Some may argue that a few of the investors profi led in this book

are paper tigers because it is their virtual portfolios that are being

used to judge their investment success. This is a fair point because

virtual money and real money are not the same thing. Still, the virtual

portfolios I cite in this book are being held to rigorous standards — in

some ways more stringent than returns touted for hedge funds and

other professional money managers.

For example, Marketocracy won ’ t let its money managers execute

a trade for more than 10 percent of the average daily volume of any

xx Introduction

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stock. This keeps them from stuffi ng their portfolio with illiquid

penny stocks over a short period of time (it also limits the size of

any one holding to 25 percent). Marketocracy managers ’ perform-

ance fi gures are also reported after deducting commissions of $0.05

per share and management fees of 1.95 percent.

After interviewing candidates for this book, I found that in cases

where the virtual managers had suffi cient investment capital, they

were mirroring their real - life portfolios in their virtual funds. And

if Marketocracy fulfi lls its pledge, these paper tigers may one day

brandish some real teeth. Marketocracy ’ s asset management affi liate

is currently putting real capital to work in the stocks of its best -

performing virtual money managers.

When reading about each of the Warren Buffetts Next Door in

this book, it is a good idea to pay attention not only to the strategy

lessons, investing rules and case studies in each chapter but also the

biographical information. Mike Koza, for example would not have

discovered his amazing talent for picking winning stocks if not for

his wife Maria, whom he met at age 40. I fi rmly believe that per-

sonal histories and life situations are as important to investment

success as are say, clear thinking and an affi nity for mathematics.

To be sure, some of the great armchair investors profi led in

this book may fl ame out in the coming years. I will do my best to

keep you updated on their investing successes and failures on

Forbes.com.

However, even if some of these successful Warren - wannabes

crash and burn, there will be dozens more outstanding self - taught

investors to take their place. In a world where the vast majority

of professional money managers fail to even perform as well as a

stock market index fund, it ’ s worth it for all of us to consider that

you don ’ t necessarily need someone else ’ s advice to improve your

fi nancial well - being. You can learn to be a great investor, a Warren

Buffett Next Door, and you don ’ t need a lot of money or fancy

equipment to do so.

Ever since the government encouraged corporate America to

abolish defi ned benefi t pension plans in favor of defi ned contribu-

tion or 401(k) plans, most of us have unwittingly been handed the

keys to our fi nancial future. The devastating stock market collapse

of 2008 has woken us up to the fact that parking what ’ s left of your

nest egg in an index fund, or handing it over to an expert , may not

be the best solution.

Introduction xxi

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