Book · 2014
If You Can
by William J. Bernstein
William Bernstein's free sixteen-page PDF telling you to save half your paycheck and buy three index funds, no purchase required.
What does Reddit think of If You Can?
Calling this a book is generous, and the corpus keeps making that point without meaning to. r/Bogleheads links the actual PDF more than it describes what's in it. ↑123 is a bare link and nothing else. ↑163 buries the recommendation inside a list of "summaries by topic" next to Ferri's All About Asset Allocation, as if If You Can were a single entry on someone's syllabus rather than a standalone recommendation. The comment that earns its upvotes (↑112, r/financialindependence) compresses the whole thing into one line: "buy index funds. Pretend it's $2K and add three zeros." That's the entire booklet, joke about scale included. r/Bogleheads' ↑162 comes closest to a review, calling it "awesome" but immediately qualifying that as the version for "those that dont want to read a whole book", a compliment with a size limit built into it. Nobody disagrees with the content here. The only live question is whether sixteen free pages deserve a Reddit rating at all.
Community feedback & reader fit
Themes
- · A free, sixteen-page distillation of index investing
- · Save half, spend half, then automate and rebalance
- · Framed as the free preview before longer Bernstein or Ferri titles
- · Cited more often as a link than discussed as prose
Common praise
- + r/financialindependence compresses the entire booklet into one sentence and a joke about zeros.
- + Costs nothing to check, which removes the usual excuse for not reading investing advice.
- + r/personalfinance's lone mention treats it as the actual entry point for someone who fears money entirely.
Common criticism
- − Most citations in this corpus are bare links, not commentary, so the book gets shared more than discussed.
- − r/Bogleheads' own ↑162 comment frames it as what to read only if you don't want to read a whole book, a low bar.
- − A narrow group seems to be doing most of the recommending, repeatedly, across the same two subreddits.
Who it's for
Sixteen free pages, no library hold, no excuse. Read this before spending money on The Four Pillars of Investing, since r/Bogleheads keeps treating it as that book's free preview rather than a real substitute. If you're already rebalancing a three-fund portfolio without help, you've outgrown it; the comment volume here thins out fast once someone already knows the four sentences the whole thing is built on. Total beginners scared of their own statements get the most direct value, per the r/personalfinance entry recommending it first.
Mentions over time
Top subreddits
Which Reddit comments matter for If You Can?
The most relevant excerpts across the subreddits where this book is mentioned — opinionated, argued takes first, then top-upvoted mentions. Click through to read the full thread.
“I'm 66 and still working. I've been 100% stocks until this year. I read Bernstein's *Intelligent Asset Allocator*, and it convinced me that a stock/bond allocation with periodic rebalancing makes a lot of sense. If I had it to do over again, I would have done 90/10 or 80/20 rather than 100% stocks. …
“Other summaries by topic Start Here If You Can by William Bernstein - Asset Allocation
“William Bernstein's IF YOU CAN which is a short, free PDF download on the internet and is awesome. Same message for those that dont want to read a whole book.
“If You Can by Bill Bernstein
“Read "If You Can" free PDF by William Bernstein. Buy index funds. Pretend it's $2K and add three zeros.
“William Bernstein’s If You Can booklet is an excellent brief intro. Another book option aside from the ones you mentioned is The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing.
“Go with the 3-fund or 2-fund portfolios as bogleheads would recommend. No need for personal advisors. If you haven't read it yet, please read "If You Can" by William Bernstein. It is small article, not a book.
“I highly recommend reading If You Can by William Bernstein. It’s available free here: Some consider his allocations out dated but they’ll work well enough until you develop your own opinion.
“I think a first primer is the quite short free PDF If You Can (warning: direct link to PDF) by William Bernstein. The general idea …
“The best books for beginners would be The Bogleheads Guide to Investing and The Four Pillars of Investing. The second one is better, but the first one goes into more basic stuff. If you want a fast read, search for If You Can by William Bernstein (the same author of The Four Pillars) and you can re…
“Yes you should read it. I'd also recommend 'Little Book of Common Sense Investing' by John Bogle, and 'If You Can' by William Bernstein.
“Become your own money guy. Read this forum, our FAQ, the Prime Directive over at r/personalfinance, and start out with William J. Bernstein's "If You Can: How Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly". PDF is free, google it. There's no reason to get a "money guy" if you're not even out of college; early car…
“You don’t say your age. I’d set up a vanguard account and move it into one of their retirement by date funds appropriate for when you’ll retire. More targeted to new investors but I’d recommend William Bernstein’s “If You Can”. It is short (16 pages), intended for those starting out, and free Lin…
“I still advocate for Bernstein's If you Can as a good starting point. You can read it in under an hour - and it's a free PDF.
“If You Can by William Bernstein.
Convinced? Pick up If You Can
Readers also mention
Books that share discussion threads with If You Can — counted from the comments, not curated.
Guides featuring If You Can
Ranked best-of lists and editorial guides where this book's tracked mentions place it.
If You Can — frequently asked
Is If You Can actually a full book?+
No. It's a free sixteen-page PDF, and r/Bogleheads' own ↑162 comment calls it the option for people who "dont want to read a whole book," treating the booklet format as the selling point rather than a limitation. Multiple top comments (↑123, ↑76) just link the PDF directly instead of describing content, which matches its actual length.
Should I read If You Can before The Four Pillars of Investing?+
Yes, per how r/Bogleheads treats it. The ↑163 comment lists If You Can alongside Ferri's All About Asset Allocation and Bernstein's own longer work as an early "summaries by topic" entry, functioning as the short version before the longer books. Nobody in this data argues for skipping straight to the longer titles first.
What does If You Can actually tell you to do with your money?+
Save roughly half your income, buy a handful of index funds, and rebalance periodically. r/financialindependence's ↑112 comment reduces it to one line: "buy index funds. Pretend it's $2K and add three zeros," which is a joke about scaling the advice up, not a simplification of what the booklet argues.
Is If You Can worth reading if I'm already deep in Bogleheads-style investing?+
Probably not much. Every displayed comment treats it as an entry point for people newer than that, from r/personalfinance's fear-of-money framing to r/Bogleheads' brief-intro label (↑76). If you're already running the three-fund portfolio it describes, there's nothing here arguing you need to go back and read it.