Do You Want to Make Money or Would You Rather Fool Around? [Hardcover]

John D. Spooner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1999

Are you looking for the next big thing?

In these sixty-plus short pieces, prominent investment advisor and writer John D. Spooner shares an invaluable collection of insights and proven strategies you can use to make-and keep-more money in the market.

In a world overwhelmed with investment advice, Spooner offers something more precious-hard-won investment wisdom. He shares over 30 years of experience-in markets ranging from disastrous to unstoppable-along with savvy lessons that will lead you to a sound and highly profitable investment strategy.

You will also get a vivid behind-the-scenes look at the investment world's volatile and fascinating mix of people, money, cunning, and luck-and a better understanding of how the pro's really make more money on Wall Street.

If you're ready to move beyond chasing the latest high-flying stock or over-hyped IPO, and get serious about making money, this book is a great place to start!

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Best common-sense investment advisor since Peter Lynch." -- Tom Stemberg, Chairman of Staples

"Spooner is a stockbroker with a gift of gab...diverting reading for both those enthralled by the stock market and those appalled by it." -- New York Times

"Spooner, known nationally as the author of Smart People, Sex and Money, and Confessions of a Stockbroker, is a phenomenon, as much as psychologist and futurist as an investment advisor." -- Inc. Magazine

"Judging a book by its cover... can really pay off." -- The Chicago Tribune

Charming and engaging. ". His tone is charming and engaging...Spooner's book is remi niscent of the 1980s bestseller, 'All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.' These are great anecdotes." -- USA Today

Clarifies, not mystifies. John Spooner writes to clarify - not mystify. A refreshing call for common sense investing. -- Franklin W. Hobbs, Chairman Walburg Dillon Read

Clever and witty!John Spooner is intelligent, clever and witty, and unique in tha t he not only writes with style about making money, but he actually mak es money for his clients. -- Strauss Zelnick, President and CEO of BMG Entertainment

Devilishly funny insights. John Spooner's devilishly funny insights into greed, fear and in vesting in the stock market are right on target. His book is therefore not only entertaining but enormously valuable reading for any sensible investor. -- John Berendt, Author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Now Spooner has summer up his distinctive approach to personal investing in a little book called "Do You Want To Make Money Or Would You Rather Fool Around?" It offers very different counsel from the myriad accounts of fabulous wealth creation in Silicon Valley that are now tumbling off the presses.... Instead, it is a deep and cheerful probing of the psychology of personal investing from the point of view of someone who helps manage half a billion dollars of other people's money. -- David Warsh, Boston Globe, October 19, 1999

Playboy calls him "Playboy's wizard broker..." -- Playboy Magazine

About the Author

John D. Spooner is the only investment advisor/novelist in America. His bestselling nonfiction includes Confessions of a Stockbroker, Smart People, and Sex and Money. His work has appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, Playboy, The Boston Globe, and many other publications, including Boston magazine, where he is currently the Financial Editor. A Senior Vice President of Salomon Smith Barney, Inc., Mr. Spooner has appeared on numerous TV and radio programs including Wall Street Week. He watches over assets in excess of 500 million for clients all over the world through his Smart People management business. A graduate of Harvard, he lives in Boston, MA.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Adams Media Corporation; 1st edition (September 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580622453
• ISBN-13: 978-1580622455
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,903,751 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John D. Spooner is the only investment advisor/writer in America. His best-selling nonfiction includes Confessions of a Stockbroker, Smart People, and Sex and Money, and novels including Class and The Foursome. His articles have appeared regularly in magazines such as Playboy, Town and Country, The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, Time, and The Boston Globe. He has been a director of The Atlantic Monthly and David Godine Publishers, and has been a member of the Massachusetts Cultural Council which distributes all arts funding for the Commonwealth. He has been honored with the Literary Lights Award, given to New England's most distinguished writers by the Boston Public Library.
A Managing Director for a major investment firm, Mr. Spooner was the creator of A Book For Boston; a celebration of Boston's 350th birthday. He lectures widely and has appeared on numerous TV and radio programs including, Wall Street Week, Fox News, and NPR, on the philosophy of investing. Currently he is a guest commentator on Bloomberg National Radio. Spooner is on the board of the Harvard Alumni Association and was a co-founder of The Curious George Foundation.
Inc. Magazine has said about him, "Spooner, known nationally as the author of Smart People, and Confessions of a Stock Broker, is a phenomenon, as much a psychologist and futurist as an investment advisor." Robert B. Parker, author of the Spenser series, has said that "Spooner is one of the best writers in America," and The Boston Globe has said that he is "a national treasure." He has been a contributing editor for Worth magazine, and has been the Business Editor of Boston Magazine. His book, Do You Want to Make Money or Would You Rather Fool Around? has been a Boston Globe bestseller translated into foreign editions in Hungary, China, and Japan. The Improper Bostonian magazine voted him "Boston's best investment advisor." Barron's named him one of the '100 Best Investment Advisors in America.'

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stand on your own two feet as an investor., November 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Do You Want to Make Money or Would You Rather Fool Around? (Hardcover)

Great writing style. I'm surprised to say this about a financial book, but it was a real page-turner.

This book teaches you when to trust your own observations as a consumer an investor, and also supplies a few good rules to fall back on. It's investment advice, with a bit of personal advice mixed in. There are comical stories which help you realize how insane and irrational our financial markets can be. It helps you understand the psychology of Wall St., while keeping a healthy distance from Wall St.'s incestuous institutions of research.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars War Stories from a Full Service Stock Broker, June 22, 2000

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 110,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Do You Want to Make Money or Would You Rather Fool Around? (Hardcover)

"Investing is a psychiatric profession. It deals more with emotion than with balance sheets and income statements." John Spooner shares that insight at the beginning of the book, and his stories certainly bear out that perspective.

The title of the book is explained in the first story about Big Arthur, who really did just want to fool around. It turns out that stock investing is primarily entertainment for most of Spooner's clients. If he tries to provide them with good investments, they get annoyed and leave him. He has to be careful in figuring out what their real objectives are. One woman tells him to invest conservatively for current income, then gets angry when he doesn't beat the S&P 500. She finally quits him.

The stories are done in a style reminiscent of Adam Smith in The Money Game, except these stories aren't quite as funny or illuminating. They certainly resonate with me, however. I've known a lot of people these stories could have been written about.

Spooner's real opinion is shared succinctly in the middle of the book. "People are mostly good at making money but terrible at investing it." "And not one of them . . . was capable of managing his or her own money." As a result, he tells you to hire a broker and to do what the broker says, or fire the broker.

He has three key questions to ask in deciding which full service broker to use. I think you could be misled by these questions, as I was when I hired a talented, well educated man to be my full service broker in 1968. He clearly passed these three tests, and was a nice fellow to boot, yet 80 percent of my money was gone within a year. He put me into three of the worst dogs you can imagine.

For perspective, I suggest that you also read John Bogle's, Common Sense About Mutual Funds. If you seriously want to make money, buy index funds. If you want to fool around, find a full service broker who will amuse you. The choice is yours.

This book provides a valuable perspective on the stalled thinking that affects people's ability to invest. You can either make most of these mistakes yourself in the future, or learn them by reading this book. It's much cheaper to buy and read the book. I suggest that you decide to make money with your money. Save your entertainment for other parts of your life where the cost isn't so high.

Live long and prosper!

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Put your money into the market, not into this book, October 31, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Do You Want to Make Money or Would You Rather Fool Around? (Hardcover)

From this book I learned with whom the author has played golf and how much alcohol the author consumes during lunch. I learned essentially nothing worthwhile about investing. What you get in this book is a series of short, disconnected, sometimes inconsistent anecdotes, unsystematic, lazy "wisdom" from Wall Street's old school. I honestly can say that I learned nothing from this book which will help me with my investments. Do I sound too harsh to be true? Here's my bottom line: Scan through it in a book store or library before you spend your hard-earned dollars on it. If I could give this book zero stars, I would.