My Worst Investment Ever Podcast Enrich Your Future Conclusion: Larry’s Timeless Guide to Smarter Investing
In this episode of Enrich Your Future, Andrew and Larry Swedroe discuss Larry’s new book, Enrich Your Future: The Keys to Successful Investing. In this series, they conclude the lessons from the book.
LEARNING: Investing isn’t about chasing the next hot stock—it’s about building a resilient, well-diversified portfolio you can live with in good times and bad.
“Once you have enough, stop playing the game as if you don’t. Reduce risk, enjoy life, and make your money serve you—not the other way around.”
Larry Swedroe
In this episode of Enrich Your Future, Andrew and Larry Swedroe discuss Larry’s new book, Enrich Your Future: The Keys to Successful Investing. The book is a collection of stories that Larry has developed over 30 years as the head of financial and economic research at Buckingham Wealth Partners to help investors. You can learn more about Larry’s Worst Investment Ever story on Ep645: Beware of Idiosyncratic Risks.
Larry deeply understands the world of academic research and investing, especially risk. In this series, they conclude on the lessons from the book.
Enrich Your Future: Larry’s Timeless Guide to Smarter Investing
If you’ve ever wondered how to cut through the noise of investment hype and build a portfolio that actually works for you, Larry’s Enrich Your Future is the blueprint you’ve been looking for. Here’s a distilled look at the wisdom from his book.
Start with core principles
Larry insists there are only a handful of fundamental truths in investing—and if you master them, you’ll avoid most costly mistakes:
- Markets are highly efficient – While not perfect, markets price assets so effectively that consistently beating them on a risk-adjusted basis is near impossible. So don’t engage in individual security selection or market timing.
- All risk assets offer similar risk-adjusted returns – Whether it’s US stocks, Thai stocks, or corporate bonds, the relationship between risk and return holds steady over time. Invest in assets based upon your ability, willingness, and need to take risks. If you’re willing to take more risk and have the ability and maybe the need to, then you can load up on more risky, higher expected-returning assets. It doesn’t mean they’re better assets; rather, they have higher expected returns at the cost of higher risk.
- Diversification is non-negotiable – Since all risk assets have similar risk-adjusted returns, it makes no sense to concentrate all of your risk in one basket. Concentrating your risk in a single asset class or geography is a recipe for trouble.
Build a portfolio that fits YOU
Forget cookie-cutter solutions—Larry believes the “right” portfolio depends on three factors:
- Ability to take risk – Your financial capacity to weather market downturns is influenced by factors like investment horizon and job stability.
- Willingness to take risk – Your psychological comfort level with market volatility.
- Need to take risk – Whether you require high returns to meet your financial goals.
Larry’s rule? Let the lowest of these three determine your equity exposure. If you don’t need to take big risks, don’t.
Think global, but stay rational
A total global market portfolio is an ideal starting point—currently about 65% US, 27% developed international, and 8% emerging markets. Adjust only slightly if you have a reasoned view, but avoid drastic tilts that imply you “know better” than the market.
Beyond stocks and bonds
Larry is a big believer in alternative investments—if you can access them at reasonable costs. These include:
- Private credit – Lending directly to companies, often with double-digit returns and lower volatility than equities.
- Reinsurance – Returns tied to natural disaster risks, uncorrelated with stock markets.
- Infrastructure funds – Assets like toll roads, dams, and utilities with stable cash flows.
His own portfolio now includes a significant allocation to alternatives, reducing reliance on traditional stocks and bonds.
Focus on risk sources, not just labels
Instead of obsessing over “asset classes,” Larry advises analysing the risks each investment brings—economic cycle risk, credit risk, inflation risk—and blending assets with low correlations to one another.
Integrate factors, don’t isolate them
While factor investing (such as value, small-cap, quality, and momentum) is powerful, buying single-factor funds separately can create costly and contradictory trades. Larry favours integrated factor funds that combine multiple factors into one systematic strategy, reducing costs and improving efficiency.
Master your behaviour
Even the best portfolio fails if you can’t stick with it. Larry warns that there is no one right portfolio. The right portfolio for you is the one you are most likely to stick with.
That means:
- Avoid assets you can’t hold for at least 10–15 years.
- Expect long stretches of underperformance from every risk asset.
- Continue to buy during downturns to maintain your target allocation.
Don’t DIY unless you’re truly qualified
Less than 1% of investors have the skill, time, and emotional discipline to manage their investments entirely on their own. Larry recommends working with a true fiduciary adviser—one who:
- Is paid only by you (no commissions).
- Invests in the same funds they recommend.
- Backs every decision with empirical evidence.
Education beats ignorance every time
You don’t need to read all 18 of Larry’s books, but three or four will give you the foundational knowledge to make better decisions. Investing ignorance, he warns, is far costlier than the price of a good book.
The takeaway
Enrich Your Future: The Keys to Successful Investing isn’t about chasing the next hot stock—it’s about building a resilient, well-diversified portfolio you can live with in good times and bad. Follow Larry’s principles, and you’ll not only protect your wealth but also position yourself for long-term financial peace of mind.
As Larry himself says:
“Once you have enough, stop playing the game as if you don’t. Reduce risk, enjoy life, and make your money serve you—not the other way around.”
Did you miss out on the previous chapters? Check them out:
Part I: How Markets Work: How Security Prices are Determined and Why It’s So Difficult to Outperform
- Enrich Your Future 01: The Determinants of the Risk and Return of Stocks and Bonds
- Enrich Your Future 02: How Markets Set Prices
- Enrich Your Future 03: Persistence of Performance: Athletes Versus Investment Managers
- Enrich Your Future 04: Why Is Persistent Outperformance So Hard to Find?
- Enrich Your Future 05: Great Companies Do Not Make High-Return Investments
- Enrich Your Future 06: Market Efficiency and the Case of Pete Rose
- Enrich Your Future 07: The Value of Security Analysis
- Enrich Your Future 08: High Economic Growth Doesn’t Always Mean High Stock Market Return
- Enrich Your Future 09: The Fed Model and the Money Illusion
Part II: Strategic Portfolio Decisions
- Enrich Your Future 10: You Won’t Beat the Market Even the Best Funds Don’t
- Enrich Your Future 11: Long-Term Outperformance Is Not Always Evidence of Skill
- Enrich Your Future 12: When Confronted With a Loser’s Game Do Not Play
- Enrich Your Future 13: Past Performance Is Not a Predictor of Future Performance
- Enrich Your Future 14: Stocks Are Risky No Matter How Long the Horizon
- Enrich Your Future 15: Individual Stocks Are Riskier Than You Believe
- Enrich Your Future 16: The Estimated Return Is Not Inevitable
- Enrich Your Future 17: Take a Portfolio Approach to Your Investments
- Enrich Your Future 18: Build a Portfolio That Can Withstand the Black Swans
- Enrich Your Future 19: The Gold Illusion: Why Investing in Gold May Not Be Safe
- Enrich Your Future 20: Passive Investing Is the Key to Prudent Wealth Management
Part III: Behavioral Finance: We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us
- Enrich Your Future 21: Think You Can Beat the Market? Think Again
- Enrich Your Future 22: Some Risks Are Not Worth Taking
- Enrich Your Future 23: Seeing Through the Frame: Making Better Investment Decisions
- Enrich Your Future 24: Why Smart People Do Dumb Things
- Enrich Your Future 25: Stock Crashes Happen—Be Prepared
- Enrich Your Future 26: Should You Invest Now or Spread It Out?
- Enrich Your Future 27: Pascal’s Wager: Betting on Consequences Over Probabilities
- Enrich Your Future 28 & 29: How to Outsmart Your Investing Biases
- Enrich Your Future 30: The Hidden Cost of Chasing Dividend Stocks
- Enrich Your Future 31: Risk vs. Uncertainty: The Investor’s Blind Spot
Part IV: Playing the Winner’s Game in Life and Investing
- Enrich Your Future 32: Trying to Beat the Market Is a Fool’s Errand
- Enrich Your Future 33: The Market Doesn’t Care How Smart You Are
- Enrich Your Future 34: Embrace the Bear: Why Market Crashes Are Your Silent Ally
- Enrich Your Future 35: Market Gurus Are Just Expensive Entertainers
- Enrich Your Future 36: The Madness of Crowded Trades
- Enrich Your Future 37 & 38: The Calendar Is a Crook & Hot Funds Are a Trap
- Enrich Your Future 39: More Wealth Does Not Give You More Happiness
- Enrich Your Future 40: Why Passive Investing Gives You Back What Wall Street Steals
- Enrich Your Future 41 & 42: DIY Investing or Hire an Advisor? How to Avoid the Costliest Mistakes
About Larry Swedroe
Larry Swedroe was head of financial and economic research at Buckingham Wealth Partners. Since joining the firm in 1996, Larry has spent his time, talent, and energy educating investors on the benefits of evidence-based investing with an enthusiasm few can match.
Larry was among the first authors to publish a book that explained the science of investing in layman’s terms, “The Only Guide to a Winning Investment Strategy You’ll Ever Need.” He has authored or co-authored 18 books.
Larry’s dedication to helping others has made him a sought-after national speaker. He has made appearances on national television on various outlets.
Larry is a prolific writer, regularly contributing to multiple outlets, including AlphaArchitect, Advisor Perspectives, and Wealth Management.
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Connect with Larry Swedroe
Andrew’s books
- How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market
- My Worst Investment Ever
- 9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
- Transform Your Business with Dr.Deming’s 14 Points