A first book on building a portfolio you can actually hold
This collection takes the core of a first course in investment and rebuilds it around the decisions an ordinary saver actually faces: what to own, how much of it, and how to keep holding it when prices fall. Rather than marching through a syllabus, it works one question at a time — what a return is made of, what risk really costs, and why time and cost decide more than stock-picking ever will. The material is reorganised into short, self-contained articles that keep the substance and drop the theory that exists only for its own sake. You finish able to build a simple portfolio, explain why each part of it is there, and recognise the traps that quietly drain ordinary investors.
Coming soon
Inflation, time, and the reason money left alone cannot carry you.
Inflation, time, and the reason money left alone cannot carry you.
Cash, loans, businesses, buildings, metal — each pays you in a different way.
Cash, loans, businesses, buildings, metal — each pays you in a different way.
What can go wrong, how much of it you can remove, and how much you can live with.
What can go wrong, how much of it you can remove, and how much you can live with.
Compounding, fees, timing and tax — four forces that never appear on a statement.
Compounding, fees, timing and tax — four forces that never appear on a statement.
Allocation, diversification, and the correlation that makes the whole thing work.
Allocation, diversification, and the correlation that makes the whole thing work.
Index funds, active managers, and what the evidence says about who beats whom.
Index funds, active managers, and what the evidence says about who beats whom.
A century of returns, and the honest limits of reading it.
A century of returns, and the honest limits of reading it.
The discipline gap, and why investors trail the funds they own.
The discipline gap, and why investors trail the funds they own.
Borrowed money, hot tips, packaged products, and the things sold rather than held.
Borrowed money, hot tips, packaged products, and the things sold rather than held.
Accounts, orders, debt, advice, and the plan you write down.
Accounts, orders, debt, advice, and the plan you write down.
“Investing explained for the person who has to make the decisions.”
There is no shortage of investing advice, and little of it explains itself. This collection does: it builds from what a return is made of to how a portfolio is assembled and held, and it is honest about the evidence on active managers. The articles on cost and behaviour will stay with readers.
Nano College takes the ground of a university course and turns it into short, self-contained pieces you can actually finish. We keep the substance the course covers and the rigour it insists on; what we leave out is the padding that only exists to fill a semester.