the same great motley investment lessons, but unfortunately awash in a sea of wordy babble and silliness. save yourself some money and download the free '13 steps' PDF from the motley fool website -- you'll get 80% of everything in this book, and you'll get in in 60 pages instead 300, for free! that last 20% you can find on the motley site anyways. i haven't read the other motley books but if you're heckbent to buy a book i've got to believe 'the MF investment guide' is better than this.

The Motley Fool- You Have More Than You Think- is full of sound advice that really got me interested in finaces and investing. The book basically presents two key things- fundamental concepts of investing and saving your money, and information on the best ways to go about doing that, when you don't have the slightest idea on how to do it. The key information in this book could probably be very much compressed down, but it's really not too difficult to make it through the 300 pages. In fact, pretty much each chapter presents one main idea and expands upon it, it's a very easy read. David and Tom Gardner, when not relentlessly plugging their website, fool.com, set out to make the book actually funny and interesting to read, and I think they managed to do it. I never want to have a credit card after reading this book. The biggest strength of the book are definately the step-by-step instructions on how to save money whilst making big-ticket item purchases like cars, homes, and college tuitions. It's a great resource for students and parents.

This book is very easy to read and is entertaining to boot. It's full of practical advise on how to invest, handle debt and even buy a car. I used their method of buying a car with great sucess.

This book only has common sense ideas in it. I generally like the motley fools products. However, this book should be purchased only by those who do not have a basic understanding of how to save or prepare for college. We all know it is best to start saving early and talk to people at the schools about how to get a scholarship.

This book tackles a daunting financial topic and makes it easy to digest. Best of all, it's only 125 pages, so I didn't have to commit hours and hours of my time to learn what I needed to know. The book offered charts, tables and plain English, distilling topics such as the Education IRA (now called the Coverdell ESA), 529 Plans (there are two main kinds of these and you can sock away up to $100,000 or more in them -- who knew??) and even paying for elementary school and grad school. Oh -- and did I mention that it's funny, too?

Don't waste your time and money on this one. If you've read any of the Fools' other excellent investing books, this one will do nothing to enhance your knowledge of Dow Dividend investing. I agree completely with the review below....this should have been a pamphlet. This book gets two stars only by virtue of the fact that there are some readers out there who may have never heard of the Dow Dividend approach. If you are one of those, the Approach is thoroughly explained, but is sandwiched in between 150 pages of filler.

This modest new book from the Fools gives a clear, easy-to-read summary of the Dow Dividend Approach to investing in stocks. In addition, there is some good background material about the Dow. A big chunk of the book is devoted to tables showing how variations of the approach performed from 1963 through 1997. This text is a good place to start for a new Roth IRA investor who is considering an online broker and stocks instead of mutual funds.

I have read several of the Gardner brothers investment books before reading this one. I like their straightforward and witty style.

This short book is a distillation of their Dow Divident Approach to investing. Their point of view - invest in selected Dow stocks while they have dipped down for the moment - is very simple and perfect for investors who don't want to hang on the daily ups and downs of the stock market. They lay out their strategy immediately, back it up with some easy to understand tables and charts which compare their Dow Divident Approach to results obtained by the S&P 500 and the Dow stocks as a group. They make a convincing argument for investing in selected Dow stocks over time.

I listened to the first tape of this two tape series. I could not beleive what I was hearing. A Harley biker who lost his shirt in the downturn was given the advise that he should have stuck to what he knew: invest in Harley-Davidson stock. Great 20-20 hindsight! I kept listening through the end of the first tape, and could not take any more. Incredible nonsense. With their advise and $... you can buy a capucino.

I didn't want to go to a one because some of it was useful. Their admission on how poorly they performed in the market downturn says it all. So now they're saying, along with countless others, "We have the best hindsight of anybody!", rings absolutely hollow. Very bland humor too.

If you've read or heard them before, there's no need for this one. Try to find somebody who has beaten these bad times.

I got the audio version of this (although abridged...I think a book like this will separate the grist from the meat and potatoes of the real information...and since most people need to review and hear stuff 3-4 times to get the information...this is a good way to do it). CD 1 is stories of their past and others to explain the lessons that they have learned... fairly entertaining at times... and needs several listenings to get the full impact (especially about their Fool.com and their foolish expansions of what they were not good at.) At one point they explain a chart that they say is worth the cost of the whole course...if only they or the publisher had thought to include a little packet of the graphics they were refering to in the front cover...but enough listenings to it and you get it.
CD 2 are all their suggestions of what to do with your money and to get yourself financially secure... so if you just want the information and none of the filler (like you can with self help books) then skip to the end (or CD 2 in this case). It helps me to focus on what I want to do with my money and why I am out of debt now but not able to save any (another good book for getting out of debt is "GET OUT OF DEBT, STAY OUT OF DEBT AND LIVE PROSPERSOUSLY"... which I consider a very good book and along with the Fool Brothers has helped me to pay off the credit cards and have the potential for saving and living hapilly.
Cool Runnings to you.

While minimally entertaining, it has the feel of "hey we have the best hindsight of anybody!" They admit they lost big time during the Market downturn. I gave them two stars because there were a couple of things said that not everybody else was saying.

I'm looking for information on how to avoid or benefit from the market, without listening to all the losers. Anybody know of someone who continued winning even during the downturn. Now that would be valuable information.