Synopses & Reviews
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 youre 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 youve got your nest egg tucked away in funds—especially the type found in most 401ks—your egg wont 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 thats too small to accommodate your visiting kids.
In this book Ill 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 wasnt 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 dont lose money. Through an intriguing process that Ill 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, its because the mind-set Ill be introducing you to leads not to bets but to certainties. Believe me, if there were anything genius-level about this, Id 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 todays new Internet tools, which drastically reduce the “homework factor.” (Were 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 dollars worth of a business.
What I wont 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.
Synopsis
In this book, self-made millionaire Phil Towns will show you how he turned $1,000 into $1 million in only five years, and then proceeded to make many millions more.
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.
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.
About the Author
He isnt your typical Wall Street guy. An ex-Green Beret and former river guide, Phil Town is a self-made millionaire several times over and Americas most widely sought-after speaker on investing. In his new book,
RULE #1, he describes the Rule #1 personal financial strategy in detail so that anyone, even first-time investors,can get-and stay-rich.
Phil Town is the classic Everyman, albeit one whose education and resources were more limited than most. An average high school student, he completed college on his fourth try. Of his early working years, he says he “mostly got dirty for a living,” taking on jobs such as digging ditches and pumping gas. Town spent three and a half years in the Army. He returned from the Vietnam War and found a job in the States as a river guide.
Drifting through California, Utah, and Idaho, he subsisted at poverty level, combining his wages from the guiding season and unemployment. He wore black leathers, sported a goatee, lived in a teepee in the woods near Flagstaff, Arizona, and “drove around in a really loud black Harley Davidson.”
In the early ‘80s, Towns life changed radically. He was guiding trustees from the educational program Outward Bound down the nastiest rapid on the Grand Canyons Colorado River, when his split-second decisions
saved a boatload of people from a whitewater disaster. A grateful and financially astute client returned the favor by guiding Town into serious, successful investing using the first rule of investing as ascribed to by Warren Buffett: Dont lose money. Within five years, Town had built a borrowed $1,000 into $1 million. His fortunes improved radically, and rapidly, from then on.
Phil Town appears regularly on the same dais as Rudy Giuliani, Jimmy Carter, and Colin Powell as part of the “Get Motivated” touring success seminar. He speaks to more than 500,000 people annually about Rule #1.
Town lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.