Stocks for the Long Run
Jeremy Siegel, 1994 - Irwin

N.B. Professor Siegel has a new book coming out in March 2005: The Future for Investors

If you are not yet convinced that equities are the best retirement asset, this is the book to read. Siegel, a professor of finance at the University of Pennsylvania will convince you: he has the data, the proof. Here are a few statements from Stocks for the Long Run, A Guide to Selecting Markets for Long-Term Growth to give you a feel for the type of book it is.

"over the last century, accumulations in stocks have always outperformed other financial assets for the patient investor" 5 You noticed, of course, the words 'always' and 'patient'.
"In the long run, not only do stocks have higher returns than bonds, but also lower risk." 297
"when measured on a real inflation-adjusted basis, dividend income has been the largest component of total returns" 14
"Many investors avoid stocks because they cannot bear to buy an asset which stands a good chance of falling in price. For these investors the assets of choice are bank CDs (GICs in Canada), Treasury bills, and money market mutual funds. But one pays dearly for assets which are 'safe'-assets with which it is impossible, at least in monetary terms, to end up with less than one puts in." 28
"The percentage of your portfolio that you put in stocks is dependent on both the horizon over which you plan to hold your investments and your willingness to trade off risk and return. Because the risks of holding stocks decrease over time, the percentage of your portfolio committed to stocks rises substantially as your horizon increases." 299

From Seigel's Conclusion on page 308 "To be a successful long-term investor is easy in principle, but difficult in practice. Easy in principle since to buy and hold a diversified portfolio of stocks, foregoing any forecasting ability, is available to all investors, no matter what their intelligence, judgement, or financial status. Yet it is difficult in practice since tales of those who have achieved great wealth quickly tempt one to play a very different game than the long term investor."