And to save everyone the trouble, his "new found" way of investing is:

The book asks readers to make just five decisions.

First, will you go it alone? The two authors suggest hiring an adviser who earns fees only from you and not from mutual funds or insurance companies, which is how Mr. Goldie now runs his business.

Second, divide your money among stocks and bonds, big and small, and value and growth. The pair notes that a less volatile portfolio may earn more over time than one with higher volatility and identical average returns. “If you don’t have big drops, the portfolio can compound at a greater rate,” Mr. Goldie said.

Then, further subdivide between foreign and domestic. Keep in mind that putting anything less than about half of your stock money in foreign securities is a bet in and of itself, given that American stocks’ share of the overall global equities market keeps falling.

Fourth, decide whether you will be investing in active or passively managed mutual funds. No one can predict the future with any regularity, the pair note, so why would you think that active managers can beat their respective indexes over time?

Finally, rebalance, by selling your winners and buying more of the losers. Most people can’t bring themselves to do this, even though it improves returns over the long run.

If you think the article is full of filler, wait 'til you see how filler-chocked the book is!

If I had brain cancer and had a book to write, I would almost certainly err on the side of brevity.

Aren't 2 and 3 fairly basic and obvious?

Perhaps yes, but the old ideas were that diversification was for the incompetent. Literally the more competent you were, the less diverse your portfolio would be. If you keep only a handful of high-strong earners, you're golden.

Consider that if you invested $5,000 in Apple in early 2003 you'd have around $212,000. If you sold a 1/4 million dollar home and invested it all, you'd have 10 million dollars.

If you're Prometheus, you might have enough foresight and intelligence to play the market amazingly. If you kept money in stocks like Apple that are making like 60% growth annually, you'd be able to invest $1 at 18 and retire with 15 billion dollars at 68.

However, given that homeless people don't suddenly move into mansions by playing the stock market is a clear illustration that this doesn't work in the real world.

It actually appears to be a PR piece for Dimensional Fund Advisors.

See also http://www.portfolio.com/executives/features/2007/11/19/Blai...

He even said “Everyone wants to hear what you have to say…” when you have a brain tumor.

Apparently NYTimes still has the romantic notion of banker noblesse oblige.