No comments about The Beardstown ladies' Stitch-in-time Guide to Growing Your Nest Egg.

No comments about The Beardstown Ladies' Guide to Smart Spending for Big Savings: How to Save for a Rainy Day Without Sacrificing Your Lifestyle.

No comments about The Beardstown Ladies' Guide to Smart Spending for Big Savings : How to Save for a Rainy Day Without Sacrificing Your Lifestyle.

No comments about The Beardstown Ladies' Common-Sense Investment Guide-How We Beat the Stock Market-and How You Can Too.

No comments about Beardstown Ladies Common-Sense Investment Guide: How We Beat the Stock Market-And How You Can Too.

2 comments about The Beardstown Ladies' Stitch-In-Time Guide to Growing Your Nest Egg: Step-By-Step Planning for a Comfortable Financial Future.

1. If ever there were a standard primer for financial information, my vote would be this book. What a wonderful gift this book would make for a newly married couple, or even a daughter who has just graduated high school or college. A son, too for that matter! As someone who has never had much extra money, I just recently graduated from college and am now pursuing full time employment, I know that when I begin bringing in that second income, that I will want to have some education on what to do with it. I bought this book for that purpose. It is a basic information book that provides vital facts and figures to anyone needing advice in regards to insurance, 401K, stocks, bonds, retirement and ect. For someone who has just a limited knowledge of these topics, this book will be a Godsend. A child could read and understand the concepts presented in this book. It gives resources for more information as well. Pick up this book and you will expand your financial horizons! The book is written in a very casual, witty and motherly type fashion. It will make you warm and fuzzy! And perhaps even fatten your wallet



2. The book offers basic information on how to invest and save money, but, that's all it does. The book is more appropriate for someone at a later stage of their life, and for someone who has no idea how one should save or invest money. If you already know the basic information about investing, then this book is not for you.

3 comments about The Beardstown Ladies' Guide to Smart Spending for Big Savings: How to Save for a Rainy Day Without Sacrificing Your Lifestyle.

1. OK, Now that it is official that they didn't beat the market, they have reversed gears and try to address the savings part. Nothing to differentiate this from a zillion other such books. I should grant them one thing, they know how to market their name to catch on the gullible.



2. This book has a lot of every day hints that are timeless.



3. This book has a wealth of information on how to save money.
   It is directed to middle age and elderly people. For instance,
   the book provides car buying checklists, brand name equivalents,
   repair or replace decision-making criteria, insulation R value
   statistics and the priority pyramid . The priority pyramid
   ranks spending categories by order of importance. There is a
   section of mail order drugs and comparative pricing to local
   pharmacies. This book is worth the price of admission in every
   respect. It will help you in your personal planning and
   routine purchasing decisions.

2 comments about The Beardstown Ladies' Little Book of Investment Wisdom.

1. Irrelevant one-liners and drawings from a bunch of underperforming pseudoinvestors with a superiority complex, written in a condescending grandmotherly tone. It was hard to keep a straight face while reading it. Save the wear and tear on your nerves by not reading this book. I didn't buy it, neither should you.



2. Well, here is your polar oposite view of the other comment on this book. I found it wonderful! These are not Wall Street MBA's giving you advise. These are everyday people trying to figure out how to invest their money. Over time, the Ladies have done pretty well! If you find them a bit brash, okay! A small price to pay to get their wisdom. Buy the book!

4 comments about The Beardstown Ladies' Pocketbook Guide to Picking Stocks.

1. A funny thing happened in the bookstore today. I picked up theBeardstown Ladies' Pocketbook Guide to Picking Stocks and read theback cover to see if it was worthwhile reading or buying the book. "My goodness", I thought, "23.4% these ladies know how to kick A..." Then I found a white card inside where they sheepishly confessed that it was really only 9.1%. This confirmed by an article found on the CNN financial network. It seems these financial geniuses are "mathematically challenged". If these ladies and the publisher had any integrity, they would recall all the books, have an educated, certified competent financial analyst review and redo all their calculations and republish an HONEST copy.



2. For anyone who is interested in investing in stocks for long-term growth, this is an excellent, well-laid out book for analyzing companies, and helping you determine where to start looking. It is not for the lazy investor who wants to make a bundle on a quick "tip" or magical formulas. If you're willing to take the time to really research a company before you invest in it, this book lays out the steps and the methodology in a very clear, step-by-step methodolgy. It's not the "how-to-make a million overnight" type of book, but rather, how to sensibly invest your money for the long-term in the stock market. I highly recommend it.



3. From 1975, when a "full-service" broker sold some loser stocks to me, all the way up to January 2000, I thought the stock market was an unknowable morass of pitfalls for the "ordinary" working person. Then I read The Beardstown Ladies Pocket-Book Guide to Picking Stocks. Their straightforward style encouraged me to study further, then to join the National Association of Investment Clubs (as an individual member), and to start studying, picking, and buying stocks through an on-line discount broker. Thanks to the Beardstown Ladies, I now believe it will be possible for me to someday retire.

   I recommend this book without reservation. I just wish I had found a book like this 35 years ago. And I wish I could locate some more copies of the book, since mine is getting dog-eared and worn because I return to it constantly as a REFERENCE, of all things! Also I want some copies for gifts to younger family members.

   Buy this book. It explains common-stock investing in a very clear and engaging style.




4. With the well known clerical errors in computing their investment returns, why would anyone waste any time, not to mention money, on these "unlucky" ladies advice.Try instead, any book by Larry Swedroe, John Bowen, William Bernstein, or Charles Ellis.

5 comments about The Beardstown Ladies' Common-Sense Investment Guide: How We Beat the Stock Market-And How You Can, Too.

1. Allow me to chime in a little, too. The ladies were probably running a ponzi game. It's hard to say whether it was intentional or not, but am I glad they are totally forgotten at this point. This episode does prove that not everything in print is true. A cynic's corollary: most things in print are not true.



2. If you are planning to read this book to learn about some "Beardstown Ladies magical formula to beating stock market", then forget it. This book is not for you.
   
   "The Beardstown Ladies Common-Sense Investment Guide" is a self-glorifying book by the "Beardstown Ladies", about the "Beardstown Ladies". In brief, this book is all about how some small town ladies got lucky in the stock market.
   
   In no way can this book be considered a "Investment Guide". Most of the ideas presented in this book are self evident and already known to the general public. There are no specifics on how much they made but based on some of the numbers quoted, it does not look like they made millions or anything close to it. Again the pompous ladies have quoted just the beginning and ending numbers, so it might seem that they got good overall returns, but if you try to find the compounded rate of returns, it turns out to be mere few points above or close to the market and that too over a not so long period.
   
   The book just talks about its so called "great" successes. But fails to tell any of their failures.
   
   This book should probably have been renamed as "Beardstown Ladies book of recipes".
   
   All you can take from this book is ... If some small town ladies can make "some" money in the market, you too can :-)
   
   -Sachin



3. The S&P 500 Index returned 14.9% per year. The Beardstown Ladies, when their returns are calculated correctly, earned 9.1% per year. See A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton G. Malkiel, quoted by en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beardstown_Ladies



4. Forget trying to beat the market. Most people can't do it over the long run, no matter how many hours of work you put into it. Instead just put your money in an S&P 500 or Total Stock Market index fund and forget it.



5. When you think of your grandma do you associate her with being savvy with the stock market? This group of 16 women aged primarily in the 50 to 80 year old range began an investment club in the early 1980s for the purpose of learning more about the stock market and as a good social outlet. Among the group was a school principal, a secretary, a pig farmer, and assorted other professions.
   
   Some of them had a general understanding of the stock market prior to meeting together and some did not but all of them gained a much better understanding of investing and business in general over the course of the club meetings.
   
   The structure was such that they met once per month to discuss various companies and the pros and cons of investing in them. They used various financial metrics on income statements, balance sheets, and analyst opinions to make informed decisions about stocks to invest in. Each member contributed $25 per month to the club and when enough money had accumulated shares of stock were purchased.
   
   Each member of the group was assigned a company to track and perform research on through various methods such as observing local businesses like Walmart, reading the Wall Street Journal, watching financial shows on television, and the nightly news.
   
   From 1984 to 1993 they claimed to have earned more 23% in the stock market but later audits revealed the actual percentage to be closer to 9%. Regardless of the actual return the women became substantially more knowledgeable about the stock market and much more savvy about investing.
   
   The club also provided them with a great social outlet where they swapped recipes and stories in addition to investing money. Many of these women were widowed and the club gave them a great deal more confidence when managing their finances.
   
   The first half of the book describes the club structure and how they originally started and the second half deals primarily with their investing principles and how they went about selecting stocks to buy, hold, and sell. Interspersed throughout are the ladies personal comments about various investing and other topics. There is also a recipe section towards the end of the book.
   
   This book provides a good vehicle for learning how investing clubs work as well as general tips on growing one's knowledge of the stock market and how to evaluate individual stocks. The beginning investor would do well to first thoroughly research mutual funds and their benefits prior to investing in individual stocks.