START WITH $100: Common-Sense Investing

A more provocative title for this would have been How To Be Your Own Security Analyst for that is actually what the author sets out to do- and to a large extent succeeds in doing. Here is the ABC of investing, the weighing of the pros and cons and a few ""simple"" rules describing major methods and their effectiveness, teaching a system of approaching handling of ones own financial resources that has proved useful, and presenting the salient facts in the area of investment. The opening chapters discuss the basic essentials:- saving, knowing where your money goes, budgeting, consolidating your debts, weighing the different ways of investing your savings once your cash reserves are established, insurance taken care of. He then goes into the matter of the necessity of security analysis, the different kinds of investment, the balance in an investment portfolio. To some his ""carefully digested statistics"" and his ""meaningful tests"" must be taken at a slow pace. But in the main here is sound advice -- not on what to buy- but on how to determine what to buy. He is (if one can venture an assumption) pro Common Stocks, cautious on Mutual Funds, enthusiastic about Canadian securities, etc., etc. But he does show how to study sources of financial information, how to read charts, company publications, financial statements, how to assess the risk in speculative stocks. He urges careful determination of an investment policy and the specific methods that fit the individual needs. A useful book-which would be more useful if it had a glossary of terms that he is inclined to assume are universally understood. Heavy publisher promotion.