Stephan Weinberger and I have been talking about investing for more than four decades. We first worked together in 1984 at a value-oriented investment firm in Westport, Connecticut. In 1985, I left to attend NYU’s business school, earning an MBA in finance, and in 1986 I co-founded the firm that would become Matrix Asset Advisors, where I have served as Chief Investment Officer since inception.

Stephan was an English major at the University of Colorado, Boulder, received a Higher Diploma in Anglo-Irish Literature from Trinity College Dublin and then an MBA from the University of Chicago. Over the years, even while working at different firms, we continued our ongoing conversations about stocks, portfolio construction, market cycles, and investor behavior. Those conversations—mostly weekly, sometimes daily—never stopped.

Stephan joined Matrix in 2010. Today, he and I serve on the firm’s six-member Investment Policy Committee. We both love this business. We have spent our careers helping clients grow their wealth and, just as importantly, helping them stay disciplined through market cycles.

Why We Wrote This Book

The goal of this book is simple: to give you the knowledge, background, and tools needed to save and invest successfully over time, so you can meet your life goals and financial needs.

This book is designed to help readers who want to take an active role in their financial lives, whether that means managing investments entirely on their own or working more effectively with a trusted advisor. If you are inclined to manage your investments yourself, and your temperament allows you to stay disciplined through both good markets and bad, we believe the lessons in these pages can set you up for long-term success.

You will see the same themes repeated throughout the book, and for good reason—they are the keys to success:

• Start early
• Develop a plan
• Live within your means
• Stay invested
• Stick with your plan through market volatility, bear markets, and unsettling headlines

The biggest mistakes we have seen over the years rarely come from a lack of knowledge. They come from abandoning a sound plan at exactly the wrong time.

Do-It-Yourself vs. Working with an Advisor

While this book is written to empower do-it-yourself investors, we also believe strongly in the value of working with a good investment advisor. Having spent our careers managing money and working with thousands of investors, we have seen firsthand how valuable the right advisory relationship can be. A skilled advisor can help build a proper long-term plan, coordinate many moving parts, and—most importantly—provide guidance during difficult periods when emotions run high.

Doing it yourself can work very well. But it also increases the risk of missing important details or making costly mistakes, especially during stressful markets. If you choose to work with an advisor, the key is to find someone who:

• Has experience and a strong professional background
• Acts as a fiduciary, always putting your interests first
• Charges reasonable, transparent fees
• Focuses on long-term planning rather than short-term speculation

We devote Chapter 26 to helping you think through how to choose the right advisor.

A Quick Note on the Glossary

Investing has a vocabulary of its own, and we introduce a fair amount of it in these pages. Often a term appears in passing well before we take it up in depth—sometimes several chapters before. You should not have to wait to understand what you are reading. If a word or phrase is unfamiliar, turn to the glossary at the back of the book for a plain-English definition, then pick up right where you left off.

One Final Note on Examples

Throughout the book, we share examples drawn from more than 40 years of experience. These examples are based on composites of real client situations—reflecting patterns, decisions, and outcomes we have seen repeatedly over time. When we refer to individuals, we are not describing any one specific person. They are drawn from the collective experience of many clients in similar circumstances. The situations are real; the individuals are representative.

We are glad you are here. If this book helps you invest more confidently, stay disciplined when it matters most, and reach your long-term goals, whether on your own or with professional guidance, then it has done exactly what we hoped it would.

—David A. Katz and Stephan J. Weinberger

If you are reading this, you have already taken the most important step: you have decided to take control of your financial future. Many people drift through their financial lives hoping things will just work out—waiting for a raise, for a break, for “someday” to arrive before they start saving or investing. But nothing happens until you decide that your future is too important to leave to chance.

This book is built on one simple truth: you do not need to be brilliant or lucky to become financially independent. You just need to get started, commit to a sensible plan, and stick with it.

We have spent more than 40 years helping people invest their money. Our clients have ranged from young people opening their first Roth IRA to retirees wondering whether they will have enough money to live comfortably and leave something for their children or a charity they care about. Some came to us with millions; others with a few thousand dollars. We have seen every kind of financial situation. And we can say, with complete confidence: What matters most is not how much you start with—it is that you start.

Getting Started

You Do Not Need a Lot of Money—or Expert Knowledge—to Get Started

One of the biggest myths we encounter is the idea that investing is only for wealthy people, or that you need to be a financial expert before putting money into the stock market. Let’s clear that up right now: all you need is a few good habits and a basic understanding of how investing works. That is it.

In fact, some of the worst investors we have ever seen were highly educated professionals—lawyers, doctors, even finance people—who tried too hard to beat the market or outsmart the system. Because they were overconfident, they took on too much risk. And some of the best investors were people with modest incomes who lived within their means, bought index funds, and let compounding do the work.

Everyone Starts Somewhere

There is an old Chinese proverb: “The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second-best time is today.”

A client once told us: “I feel like I’m too late. I should have started saving ten years ago.” She was 43. She had just finished paying off her student loans and was finally ready to focus on her future. We told her what we are going to tell you: you cannot change where you have been, but you can change where you are going.

That client now has two children in college and a retirement account that grows every month. She is not beating the market. She is not getting rich quickly. But she is financially secure, confident, and she sleeps well at night.

If you are 25 and just getting started—great. You have time on your side, and this book will help you use it wisely. If you are 45 and feeling behind—that is fine. You have earning power, life experience, and the ability to catch up faster than you think. If you are 60 and wondering what comes next—we have helped plenty of people in exactly your situation take smart steps to preserve and grow what they have.

It is never too late to make a better financial decision. But the sooner you start, the better off you will be.

What This Book Is—and What It Isn’t

This isn’t a book about getting rich quickly. We do not offer secrets about picking home-run stocks, promises of no-risk guaranteed annual returns, or a roadmap to retiring in five years with no savings. We believe all of those are fictions—and recipes for financial disaster.

We will not tell you how to make money in meme stocks, options trading, leveraged investments, digital currencies, or house flipping.

What we are going to do is share the principles and tools that have worked consistently over the last four decades. Simple strategies. Clear advice. Real-life examples.

You will learn how to:

• Build a solid plan without needing a finance degree.
• Avoid the most common mistakes that cost investors time and money.
• Choose investments you can understand—and stick with.
• Use the power of compounding to your advantage.
• Stay disciplined when the world feels especially unpredictable.

We will share stories of people who succeeded—not because they got lucky, but because they stayed on course when stocks went down and headlines were scary. And we will share some of our own missteps too because we have made them and learned a great deal from them.

The Power of a First Step

Let’s say you are 30 years old and invest $100 a month in a low-cost index fund. That is $1,200 a year, for a total investment over time of $42,000. It may not seem like much. But over 35 years, earning an average 8% return, that small monthly investment grows to over $230,000. That is without any fancy timing or big windfalls—just small, regular contributions and time.

Now imagine if you can save more. Or start earlier. Or avoid panic-selling during a downturn. The numbers grow quickly. The earlier you start, the more powerful compounding becomes. But even if you start later, consistency matters more than perfection.

We have seen investors who never made more than $80,000 a year retire comfortably—not because they got lucky, but because they invested regularly and did not quit when the market dipped. That is the theme you will see throughout this book: start where you are, use what you have, and keep going.