Rule #1: The Simple Strategy for Successful Investing-in Only 15 Minutes a Week!

by Phil Town Narrated by Marc Cashman

Overview

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ¿*“The clearest and best book out there to get you on the path to riches. This one's special!”-Jim Cramer, host of CNBC's Mad Money
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“Great tools for anyone wanting to dabble in the stock market.”-USA Today
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Phil Town is a very wealthy man, but he wasn't always. In fact, he was living on a salary of $4,000 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.”*
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In this updated edition to the #1 national bestseller, you'll learn more of Phil's fresh, think-outside-the-box rules, including:
¿*Don't diversify*
¿ Only buy a stock when it's on sale*
¿ Think long term-but act short term to maximize your return*
¿ And most of all, beat the big investors at their own game by using the tools designed for them!*
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As Phil demonstrates in these pages, giant mutual funds can't help but regress to the mean-and as we've all learned in recent years, that mean could be very disappointing indeed. Fortunately, Rule #1 takes readers step-by-step through a do-it-yourself process, equipping even the biggest investing-phobes with the tools they need to make quantum leaps toward financial security-regardless of where the market is headed.

Editorial Reviews

Phil Town asserts that this entire book is built on a simple, easy-to-remember investing philosophy: "DON'T LOSE MONEY!" Without an ounce of authorial pretension, Rule #1 lays out a homework-driven plan for Warren Buffett–style value investment.

Publishers Weekly

For amateur investors who admire the incredible returns produced by Benjamin Graham-Warren Buffett-style value investing but can't figure out how to replicate these billionaires' methods at home, Town's investment guide is manna from heaven. A former river-rafting guide, Town learned how to calculate such crucial numbers as Return on Investment Capital and Equity Growth Rate from "Wolf," a wealthy rafter whom Town saved from a rapid in 1980. Under Wolf's tutelage, Town learned how to turn $1,000 into $1 million in five years, but the selection of lucrative stocks took weeks of library research. In this engaging and accessible book, Town shows readers how to replicate that sort of exhaustive market research on the Internet-and shorten the research time to just a few hours per stock. Fans of The Intelligent Investor will recognize that Town's Rule #1 formula-"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"-is a variation of Benjamin Graham's investment philosophy. (Graham and Buffett are cited heavily throughout the book.) But Town's ability to break down that philosophy into a detailed, step-by-step program that can be understood by any reader with basic math skills is unique. His chummy, reassuring tone ("If you're finding yourself already a bit overwhelmed, take a deep breath") will leave readers feeling empowered and ready to manage their money themselves. (Mar. 21) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

From the Publisher

Town's investment guide is manna from heaven… engaging and accessible… Town’s ability to break down that philosophy into a detailed, step-by-step program that can be understood by any reader with basic math skills is unique… will leave readers feeling empowered and ready to manage their money themselves.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Extraordinarily readable…provides investors with surefire tools to outperform costly advisors. Follow Town’s simple, time-tested precepts, and even unsophisticated investors will leave most mutual fund managers in the dust.” —Arthur Levitt, author of Take on the Street and former Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission

“A really smart, homework-driven read that tells you precisely how to do it. Rule #1 may be the clearest and best book out there to get you on the path to riches. This one’s special!” —James J. Cramer, host of CNBC’s “Mad Money” and Markets Commentator, thestreet.com

“Rule #1 is an investment Bible for our time. In fun, easy-to-understand words, Phil Town tells you how to buy quality stocks at a discount.” —Rich Karlgaard, publisher, Forbes magazine, and author of LIFE 2.0

“For the individual investor, Rule No. 1 should be, ‘Read Rule #1.’ This book debunks a lot of myths in the market and provides pearls of common-sense wisdom…Indeed, Rule #1 rules.” —Gene Marcial, Senior Writer, Business Week

“Rule #1’s common-sense, pragmatic approach is money in the bank.  This step-by-step guide is methodically researched and terrifically accessible … Can you really beat the mutual fund mangers and so-called experts at their own game?  Hell yes!” —Jonathan Hoenig, Portfolio Manager, Capitalistpig Hedge Fund, and regular contributor to Fox News Channel

“Rule #1 is probably one of the most inclusive, no nonsense, fundamental books about investing in the stock market I’ve ever read. This book is a must-read for everyone; from beginner students of the market to super know-it-alls.” —Danielle Hughes, President and CEO, Divine Capital Markets LLC

“A refreshing departure from those boring investing books… If you're tired of being shut out of how exactly the rich guys on Wall Street make money, this important book will teach you how to run with the bulls. It's priceless.” —Elizabeth MacDonald, Senior Editor at Forbes Magazine; regular, “Forbes on Fox

OCT/NOV 06 - AudioFile

With bulletproof arguments and statistics to back up his advice, Phil Town says you can make money choosing individual stocks that you research, understand, and love instead of letting a money manager squander your money in an under-performing fund. Though his narration is flat, there is excitement in the author’s personal story and in this well-crafted lesson. With motivating clarity Town explains how to analyze every conceivable aspect of a publicly traded company--product viability, brand strength, competitive advantages and weaknesses, management, financial soundness, etc. Though his approach is decidedly fundamentalist, Town says it also will help traders--if they do their homework. An energizing lesson to wake up your inner stock-picking genius. T.W. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169465945
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	03/21/2006
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	1,075,371

Read an Excerpt

Before I became “Phil Town, teacher of investing principles to more than 500,000 people a year,” I was a lot like you: someone who viewed individual stock investing as way too hard to do successfully. As a guy who barely made a living as a river guide, I considered the whole process pretty impenetrable, and I was convinced that to do it right you had to make it a full-time job. Me, I was more interested in having full-time fun.

So I was tempted to do what you’re probably doing right now: letting some mutual fund manager worry about growing your nest egg. Let me tell you why that decision could one day make you absolutely miserable.

The fact is, because of natural market cycles, the mutual fund industry is likely to soon be facing twenty years of flat returns. That means that if you’ve got your nest egg tucked away in funds—especially the type found in most 401ks—your egg won’t get much bigger than it is now. Translation: Get ready for a retirement filled with lots of cold cuts, plenty of quality TV-watching time, and a place to live that’s too small to accommodate your visiting kids.

In this book I’ll show you how I turned $1,000 into $1 million in only five years, and then proceeded to make many millions more. I came to investing as a person who wasn’t great at math, possessed zero extra cash, and wanted a life—not an extra three hours of work to do every day.

Fortunately, I was introduced to The Rule.

Rule #1, as famed investor Warren Buffett will tell you, is don’t lose money. Through an intriguing process that I’ll clarify in this book, not losing money results in making more money than you ever imagined. What it comes down to is buying shares of companies only when the numbers—and the intangibles—are on your side. If that sounds too good to be true, it’s because the mind-set I’ll be introducing you to leads not to bets but to certainties. Believe me, if there were anything genius-level about this, I’d still be a river guide collecting unemployment much of the year.

Part of the secret is thinking of yourself as a business owner rather than a stock investor. Part is taking advantage of today’s new Internet tools, which drastically reduce the “homework factor.” (We’re talking a few minutes, tops.) Part is knowing the only five numbers that really count in valuing a potential investment. And part—maybe the most important part—is using the risk-free Rule #1 approach to consistently pay a mere 50 cents to buy a dollar’s worth of a business.

What I won’t waste your time with is fluff: a lot of vague parables reminding you of what you already know and leaving you exactly where you started. This is the real deal, folks: a start-to-finish, one-baby-step-at-a-time approach that will allow you to retire ten years sooner than you planned, with more creature comforts than you ever imagined.

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