I was hugely encouraged by the positive response to the first edition of Investing Demystified, from people with a wide range of financial expertise, and thankful that it seems to have made a lasting impact in people’s lives. Building on the success of that book, this edition addresses some of the questions that were brought up and also reflects my desire to emphasise and outline the simple and powerful investment thesis of the book. Compared to the earlier edition I have downplayed the addition of non-essential elements of the book and moved to the Appendix a number of more tangential points, while keeping the core elements and focus of the rational portfolio unchanged.

Since Investing Demystified is my first time writing about investments in a semi-technical way I have needed more help than the professors or personal finance professionals who often write about this topic. I am thrilled and honoured that such an accomplished and insightful group of people spent their time helping me. To start, I want to thank my wife, Puk Kroijer, for continuously supporting this project from the stage when it was still rumbling in my head. Soon after the rumblings were verbalised the publisher of my first book, Chris Cudmore, encouraged me to write a book and he, Eloise Cook and the team at Pearson Education were again excellent at seeing the project through to conclusion.

A number of friends were also instrumental in the book’s completion by giving comments on early drafts as I stumbled towards a coherent argument: Steven Felsher with his extremely thorough system of numbering each paragraph (there were 8001 in one draft), former office mate Edwin Datson, Mark Hunter, Stuart Hamilton, Chris Rossbach with his sharp pencil, Paul Amery from Index Universe, the anonymous editor of the Monevator blog, Coenraad Vrolijk from Blackrock, Morten Bech from the Bank of International Settlements, Stéphane Guibaud from the London School of Economics, and my former professors Andrei Shleifer from Harvard University and Jay Light from Harvard Business School.

I’d also like to thank the many readers of the first edition who reached out to me in various ways. The most satisfying thing about writing this book has undoubtedly been the feeling that I have provided actionable help to make people’s financial lives better and simpler. I really appreciate you letting me know.

Finally, I would like to thank all those in and around the finance industry who consistently encouraged me to write about this subject and helped in various ways. While the book in general suggests investing in ways that lead to lower fees to the financial industry, the people I talked to had their customers’ interests as their first objective. This kind of honest objective bodes well for the future of finance even while it is generally vilified in the popular press and is perhaps in for a rough ride in the years ahead.

Finally, this book is dedicated to Puk, Anna, Sofia and Sydney the dog; my four girls.

Lars Kroijer