|
Search Shopping:
Book: Rule #1: The Simple Strategy for Successful Investing in Only 15 Minutes a Week! :: Book
Date: Thursday, 08 January, 2009 :: 18:55
|
Rule #1: The Simple Strategy for Successful Investing in Only 15 Minutes a Week!
List Price: USD $14.95
from USD $8.57
Product Group: book
Manufacturer: Three Rivers Press
Release Date: 2007-08-28
Studio: Three Rivers Press
|
Offers:
|
Editorial Review: Product Description
Phil Town is now a very wealthy man, but he wasn't always. In fact, he was living on a salary of $4000 a year when some well-timed advice launched him down a highway of investing self-education that revealed what the true "rules" are and how to make them work in one's favor. Chief among them, of course, is "rule #1": "don't lose money." Other rules are: don't diversify...think like an owner, not an investor ... never, ever be seduced into thinking the market is efficient. Town also believes strongly in "betting on the jockey," putting your faith in managers who've proven their financial mettle. Not only does Town reveal fresh methods for identifying who the truly reliable managers are, but he shows you how to test whether they really have faith in the businesses they're running.
By far, the most controversial of the audiobook's assertions will be that giant 401(k) type mutual funds can't help but regress to the mean, and in the next twenty years, the mean could be very disappointing indeed. There's a very real chance that a 401(k) investor could see his holdings not grow at all in the next few decades. Fortunately, Town's stockpicking techniques are meant to walk investing phobes through the do-it-yourself process, equipping them with the tools they need to make quantum leaps toward financial security.
Rule #1 says something new, and it says it in a way that every listener can understand.
From the Compact Disc edition.
|
|
Reviews:
Average Customer Review: 
Summary: Strange mixture of fundamental investing and technical analysis
Date: 2009-01-04 - 
Comment: I bought this because I wanted to learn how the author married up value concepts and technical analysis. This is possible, but why bother? if you identify value stocks, then why not hold them as Buffet does through thick and thin. The author suggests timing purchases by using MACD (8day and 17 day), Stochastics (14 day) and a 10 day moving average- this -imho-and I have looked at this on quite a number of charts- is ridiculous. you are using short term timers with long term fundamentals. In an up trending market you will be fine, and yes, you will be out in a down trending market, but in a sideways market (possibly 70% of the time) you will be savagely whipsawed, with severe loss of capital, and the fact that you are in value stocks is likely to make not the slightest difference. The book lacks any credible backtesting, and I therefore wouldn't risk my money on this approach. If the author made his money in the last bull run, I suggest he is making the biggest mistake of all - confusing the tide which lifts all boats with his own approach. Its a good read on the fundamentals, but I would steer very clear of this confused approach to investment. I would tend to use a longer timer say 50 day and 150 day to get in and out.
Summary: Every Investor, Entrepreneur, and Doer MUST Read This Book: Understand What Great Business Is and How to Profit from It
Date: 2008-11-23 - 
Comment: In today's chaotic times, the only person you can rely on is yourself to create the life and the future you desire. Phil Town follows the fundamental and value analysis that have made Warren Buffet, Peter Lynch, and Benjamin Graham legendary investors. He breaks down technical details into simple methods anyone can learn and apply.
The basics of Rule #1 investing are:
1. Find a wonderful business
2. Know what it's worth as a business
3. Buy it at 50 percent off
4. Repeat until very rich
Albert Einstein said the power of compound interest was one of the greatest miracle known to man. Through it, anyone can become wealthy. If you begin with a $50,000 account that returns 15% a year, and you constantly save an additional $300 a month to add to that investment fund, you would have over $1,450,000 in just 20 years. This means you can live off the 15% interest of $215,000 a year, without ever touching the principal of $1,450,000 that sits in the bank and continues to grow for you (27).
Summary: No nonsense disciplined approach.
Date: 2008-11-13 -
Comment: I watched Phil Town speak at a motivational seminar several years ago. His rags to riches story is what compelled me to start investing. Though I didn't follow his advice at first... I rolled my old 401k over to a self directed IRA.. I made and lost money doing my own thing.
I just recently bought his book and it's changed my view, and my account balance for the better. This book has a "investing for dummies" sense about it. It holds your hand thru the process. It's very straight forward and easy to understand and so far effective.
I honestly believe if you follow these tried and true methods for valuing companies, and if you are disciplined enough to play within the rules, you can and will beat the market. This is not a get rich quick scheme and requires patience, but if you can keep a disciplined approach and do your homework you will eventually be rich. It may not be fast or edgy like day trading, but remember the story of the tortoise and the hare? How many "Hare"(Day Traders) are on the forbes richest people list? Warren Buffet and Phil Town share this same kind of tortoise approach.
So in the words of Phil "Now go play".
Summary: Great Foundation to Screen Stocks
Date: 2008-11-09 -
Comment: The best book I have read on investing. I was able to develop a stock screener in MSN Money. If you have an online brokerage account and have access to Reuter's you quickly access 10 year growth rates (as prescribed in his book) without doing any calculation. A formual for picking the soundest investments.
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Summary: Save your money
Date: 2008-09-28 - 
Comment: I don't recommend this book at all. I have read many books on investing recently, and they all agreed on one point - don't invest in a company just because you like the product. Town's advice is the opposite - make a list of things you like, and choose companies that are involved in those things. He also is against Dollar-Cost-Averaging, which every other book I have read tells you of the value of that.
He tells you that he took $1000 and turned that into $1,000,000 in only 5 years. But he doesn't explain how. That raises a red flag for me. He also promises you that you will do better than the best fund managers out there, and promises that you will beat the market. Statistically, only a very small amount of professionals beat the market. It is a absurd to presume that you would be able to out perform all the people who do this for a living (and most of the other books I've read specifically warn against such promises).
He offers calculators on his website to figure out the value of a company. Personally I found them difficult to use (poor design).
There seems to be a lot of overlap between this book and Pat Dorsey's The Five Rules for Successful Stock Investing. I would recommend that you read that book instead. Dorsey explains the concepts so much better than Town does, and you can easily import the calculations into excel for ease of use later.
All in all, there's some good advice in the book, but he's put in a lot of lofty assumptions and exaggerations to advertise his book. Even the title is misleading. The title comes from one page in the book where he tells you that once you've done your initial research (hours and hours), then you might be able to get by on spending a quick 15 minutes a week keeping up on your stocks. But the title comes off as in the book is going to teach you how to invest by spending only 15 minutes a week.
|
|
Similar - People who bought this also bought below
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
Jim Cramer's Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World
The Neatest Little Guide to Stock Market Investing
Jim Cramer's Stay Mad for Life: Get Rich, Stay Rich (Make Your Kids Even Richer)
The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. A Book of Practical Counsel (Revised Edition)
|
|
|
Useful Links:
