Fayetteville investment adviser’s book reaches No. 1 on bestsellers list

Stephen Spicer, founder and CEO of Fayetteville-based investment adviser firm Spicer Capital, recently released an investing advice book that topped the bestsellers list of the Wall Street Journal.

For the week ending Sept. 11, Spicer’s book was No. 1 on the Wall Street Journal’s list of bestselling books and was a USA Today bestseller.

“Stop Investing Like They Tell You: Discover And Overcome The 16 Mainstream Myths Keeping You From True Financial Freedom” was released Aug. 31 as an e-book and is available on websites such as Amazon.com. The paperback release is set for Feb. 22. Morgan James is the publisher.

The 312-page book is an expanded edition of a previously-released book with the same title but a different subtitle. The new book has about 80,000 words or about six times more than the previous.

He decided to write the book after learning that mainstream investment strategies didn’t protect him or his clients as much as he would like.

“That’s where it started was me trying to find those best solutions for myself, and then it evolved into realizing that not many people were talking about this or probably even aware that maybe they should question some of the mainstream advice,” he said.

He spent the past two years expanding on the previous book, which was released in 2017. The new book was written for “the everyday investor,” but investment professionals can benefit from it also, Spicer said.

He explained what makes his book unique is that it delves into mainstream investment strategies and presents the issues with them. The book also includes solutions.

He noted other investment advisers would agree with his investing advice, but they haven’t written a book on it.

Spicer, a certified financial planner, said his focus is to expand the client base of the state-registered investment adviser firm that he established in December 2017. The firm has one full-time employee, excluding himself.