Unconventional Success by David F. Swensen

Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment (Hardcover)
by David F. Swensen (Author) "John Maynard Keynes wrote, "Worldly wisdom teaches that it is better for reputation to fail conventionally than to succeed unconventionally..." 

Swensen lays out six "core" asset classes that should form the basis of an individual investor's portfolio, each of which should comprise between 5% and 30% of the portfolio. Below is the "generic" target portfolio outlined in the book:
1. Domestic Equity (30%)
2. Foreign Developed Market Equity (15%)
3. Emerging Market Equity (5%)
4. Real Estate (20%)
5. U.S. Treasury Bonds (15%)
6. U.S. Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (15%)

Swensen also discusses "non-core" asset classes and why each should not be a part of an individual investor's portfolio. These "non-core" asset classes include:
1. Domestic Corporate Bonds, 2. High Yield (Junk) Bonds, 3. Tax Exempt (Municipal) Bonds, 4. Asset-backed securities, 5. Foreign Bonds, 6. Hedge Funds, 7. Leveraged Buyouts, and 8. Venture Capital.

Under Mr. Swensen's 20-year stewardship, Yale University's US$15-billion endowment has earned annual compound returns of 16.1%. Every dollar entrusted to him on June 30, 1984, had, by July 1, 2004, grown into nearly $20.