Malkiel and Ellis teach the principles of investing in a straightforward manner in this audio book.  The authors focus on the long term goals of investing, instead of how to play the ups and downs of the daily market.  Unfortunately, the five key factors presented in the book may only help a small percentage of investors, especially in today’s economy. They give savvy investors advice on diversifying one’s portfolio in the wake of this past year’s economic downturn, include the best IRA picks, and offer new index products investors may not have considered before.

This audio takes about two hours of listening time, and I would advise that if you are interested in working toward financial freedom, you devote the entire two hours to focused attention.  From the beginning of the CD, I was put off by the material.  The narrator was precise, but the material was presented in a very robotic manner that could put off some listeners who are not astute at market information.  The material itself may be something that we all need to know, but the presentation is clinical at best.  The narration became somewhat monotonous over time.  If attending seminars is your thing, then you may get a lot out of this audio book.

Patterned after Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style, a mainstay on any writer’s shelf, it is a reference book.  But, compared to the old tried and true Strunk & White’s Elements of Style for writers, I personally think Strunk & White’s is much easier to understand and more to the point as reference material than The Elements of Investing.

Trying to listen to this in an audio form for the new investor may be trying.  Such informative and docu-style material is more easily understood when it is digested from the written word. I think that a person interested in financial advice may be better served to buy the book as well. It gives the reader time to assimilate and reread the information if it is not at first easily understood.