As my retirement nest egg has increased in size, I've grown more concerned about the way that the money is invested. I've been drawn to the Bogle-esque and "Random Walk" focus on index funds, but I've been looking for guidance about which indices to pick and what constitutes appropriate diversification. Swensen's book holds the best answers I've seen to date.

Over the next couple of months, I am going to restructure my retirement investments to be fully invested in index funds and ETFs in six core asset classes: domestic equity, foreign equity, emerging market equity, real estate, T-bonds, and TIPs. I will pick target percentages that are close to the example portfolio given by Swensen, and I will rebalance at least quarterly to adapt to changes in the market. I'll primarily invest in funds offered by Vanguard (except in my 401k, where I have horrible mutual funds to choose from...there, I'll find the least evil and make up for it in my Roth IRAs).

And for the first time, I'll know what to do when bad things like market crashes happen. And I'll have confidence that I can meet my retirement goals.

Unconventional Success is a terrific book, but it's not an easy read. I suspect that many readers would be overwhelmed by Swensen's dense prose and the complexity of the financial discussions. I understood enough to find myself agreeing with the basic points. Five stars for content, three for the writing.