Beardstown Ladies Common-Sense Investment Guide: How We Beat the Stock Market-And How You Can Too [Abridged] [Audio Cassette]

Leslie Whitaker (Author), Marilyn Pittman (Narrator, Contributor), Beardstown Ladies Investment Club (Corporate Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1995

With a portfolio worth more than $90,000 and an impressive average return of 23 percent, the Beardstown Ladies' Investment Club has the secret recipe for investment success. Now they reveal their money-making secrets in this audio book--a profitable and accessible strategy to investing that even inexperienced investors can follow. A two audio cassette guide.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The "Ladies" here are 16 women, average age 55, of an Illinois river town whose investment club, since 1980, has scored an average 23.4% annual return (59.5% in 1991) on a portfolio of 20 carefully selected stocks-twice the rate of the bellwether S&P 500 index. Opening monthly meetings with a prayer and closing with a recipe, the Ladies pay no heed to current market trends, preferring to buy shares after researching companies that have sustained moneymaking growth. Dividends are reinvested. The book is chock-full of family-finance anecdotes, firsthand reports on regional industry, case histories of stocks bought and sold, recommended research tools and the actual minutes (with portfolio changes) of meetings during that banner year of 1991. This well-organized, down-to-earth investment guide will make many readers feel they have never experienced such pleasant instruction. Freelancer Whitaker is a former Time magazine reporter. Author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Following the success of their best-selling Common-Sense Investment Guide, the grandmothers of the investment world, the Beardstown Ladies' Investment Club, enter the audio market. They offer a very understandable and wise approach to sound investment principles that have nonetheless been covered elsewhere in countless investment advisories. Topics include IRAs, mutual funds, budgeting, social security benefits, stocks and bonds, and other issues in financial investing. In addition, the principles of saving, personal discipline, sacrifice, and patience are emphasized. Although the unnamed main narrator is not "one of the gals," the delivery is crisp and lively and the ladies add their charming 2? worth in clever "stitches" at the close of each topic. Although there's nothing new here, the rise in interest in investment clubs and the particular success of the Beardstown club will make this a sure winner in public libraries.
Dale Farris, Groves, Tex.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (a); Abridged edition (August 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671541862
• ISBN-13: 978-0671541866
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,558,677 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #68 in Books > Books on Cassette > Business > Investing

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars What a crock, November 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Beardstown Ladies' Common-Sense Investment Guide: How We Beat the Stock Market-And How You Can, Too (Paperback)

The folksy advice sounds too good to be true--and it is. How couldn't someone--anyone--have seen that the so-called "returns" on investment are rigged? The media waited too long to expose the fact that the authors included club fees in figuring how they supposedly "beat the market." In fact, the market beat THEM. Don't waste your time or money.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Bah!, August 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Beardstown Ladies' Common-Sense Investment Guide: How We Beat the Stock Market-And How You Can, Too (Paperback)

Ok, the ladies did get people interested in investing, but they really screwed up in the end. I can't believe that they still do speaking engagements about investing--to me, they're the Milli Vanillies of the investment world!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars how can you trust a book with an error in the title?, March 21, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Beardstown Ladies' Common-Sense Investment Guide: How We Beat the Stock Market-And How You Can, Too (Paperback)

News reports are now saying that the Beardstown Ladies club annual investment returns were under 10%, rather than over 20%, because of a mistaken calculation. Whopping blunders are not the way to inspire confidence in their advice.