Book excerpt: Whether you're a complete investing novice or just confused about all the contradictory advice out there, A Beginner's Guide to Investing is an accessible guide to growing your money the smart and easy way.Throw away the get-rich quick schemes that never work and turn off the financial news and it's constant noise. Whether your dream is protecting your assets in a turbulent market or growing your wealth so that you can retire in style, this book is the blueprint.You can be a successful investor - really.Join Ivy Bytes, an innovative start-up dedicated to creating accessible content on crucial issues, and Alex Frey, a lifelong investor and Harvard MBA, as they show you:- How you can realistically expect to double your money every 7-10 years- Why most investors achieve stunningly poor returns on their money - and how to avoid turning into one of them- How to choose an investment account that you can keep for the rest of your life- How to out-perform the vast majority of professional investors while taking less risk- How to quickly create a portfolio of diversified ETFs (exchange traded funds)- How to put in as few as three to five hours every year on your investing - and still beat 80% of investors- Why you may not be properly diversified in holding the most popular index mutual funds- How endowments like Yale university have consistently beaten the overall stock market - and what you can learn from them- Why the vast majority of mutual funds fail to live up to their promise- Why your financial adviser and mutual fund manager might be getting more rich than you off of your investments- What the terms "beta" and "alpha" mean - and why understanding them is critical to retiring rich- How to maximize your tax savings by using a 401(k) and IRA- When and how to re-balance your portfolio- How to have the confidence to manage your money for life- And more. About the AuthorsAlex Frey has been engrossed in the investing world since the age of 16. He has served previously as a research analyst for a major mutual fund company. Alex has successfully passed all three Chartered Financial Analyst examinations, and has an MBA from the Harvard Business School. He lives in San Francisco, CA. When he is not writing, he enjoys reading, investing, and doing just about anything outdoors.Ivy Bytes is an innovative start-up building authoritative, yet accessible guides to subjects in the fields of politics, current events, economics, and finance. Ivy Bytes books are thoroughly researched and extensively fact-checked, so that you can be sure you are getting the latest in mainstream thought - not misguided conspiracy theories or reckless self-promotion.