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.Also available as a Random House AudioBook and eBook.

The Wall Street Journal's list of best-selling business books - week ended April 29.
BusinessWeek Best-Seller List - Hardcover, June 2006
BusinessWeek Best-Seller List - Hardcover, August 2006

Get Motivated!: Overcome Any Obstacle, Achieve Any Goal, and Accelerate Your Success with Motivational DNA by Lowe, Tamara
The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book On Value Investing, Revised Edition by Graham, Benjamin

Contradictions
Ok, Its an easy to read, motivating book, based on fundamentals mixed with MACD, Stocastic and Moving Average. Sure, you can make a 15% a year, but in somehow I don't belive the sistem an here is why: 1.- Let's assume you find a Wonderful Firm Stck 2.- Let's assume the big 5 numbers are really great for the past 10 years, 5 and 1. 3.- Let's assume you proyect the price with the equity groth bla bla bla. 4.- Let's assume you calculate the MOS (margin of Security) and the market price is below that MOS. 5.- LET'S BUYYYYY!!!! But.... How is it possible, if the sistem works, to find a bargain of under 50% MOS price if the company has gone so well in the past 10 years? Isn't it supose to have been increasing in a 15% compound during those 10 years if someone has bought it 10 years ago? The 5 big numbers say so. How is it going to work for the next 10 years if you have found it for a 50% discount? That is why I don't belive in the sistem!!!!