Rule #1: The Simple Strategy for Successful Investing-in Only 15 Minutes a Week!

Phil Town

Mar 2006 · Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by Phil Town

About this audiobook

Phil Town is now a very wealthy man, but he wasn't always. In fact, he was living on a salary of $4000 a year when some well-timed advice launched him down a highway of investing self-education that revealed what the true "rules" are and how to make them work in one's favor. Chief among them, of course, is "rule #1": "don't lose money." Other rules are: don't diversify...think like an owner, not an investor ... never, ever be seduced into thinking the market is efficient. Town also believes strongly in "betting on the jockey," putting your faith in managers who've proven their financial mettle. Not only does Town reveal fresh methods for identifying who the truly reliable managers are, but he shows you how to test whether they really have faith in the businesses they're running.

By far, the most controversial of the audiobook's assertions will be that giant 401(k) type mutual funds can't help but regress to the mean, and in the next twenty years, the mean could be very disappointing indeed. There's a very real chance that a 401(k) investor could see his holdings not grow at all in the next few decades. Fortunately, Town's stockpicking techniques are meant to walk investing phobes through the do-it-yourself process, equipping them with the tools they need to make quantum leaps toward financial security.

Rule #1 says something new, and it says it in a way that every listener can understand.

Ratings and reviews

This book has helped me to learn to start investing in a more diligent, non-speculative manner. There was a good degree of exposure to financial formulas and metrics that we should be looking at. I used to buy companies based on emotions and graphs. Now I actually review their financial metrics, know what the numbers mean, and can get a far better idea if I'm buying a "wonderful" company, or a scary unpredictable company. I've listened to the whole book, but in truth, I've not yet extracted 100% of everything yet. There was so much content in here, a lot to learn. But I am much better prepared for the market, and continue to try to utilize the Rule #1 style to evaluating companies, identifying the wonderful companies, and only buying when they're trading below their Fair Value to enough of a degree, that I have a sufficient margin-of-safety. I love that you've broken down the financial myths, and got down to the specifics of how to invest properly, in a detailed manner that is useful, while still approachable for the layman. I'm still a beginner. But as of a few days ago, I have a 16% ROI on my last year's worth of investments. I largely attribute this to the information you exposed me to. My study is still incomplete, I still need much practice, but this book definitely served as an excellent starting resource. Explaining the concept of Value investing, the Big 5, and how to approach investments in a wise and reasonable manner. One that ensures you can make money no matter what, even in a market downturn. (Especially in a market downturn)

Did not enjoy it.

Sawcho

About the author

He isn’t your typical Wall Street guy. An ex-Green Beret and former river guide, Phil Town is a self-made millionaire several times over and America’s 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, Town’s life changed radically. He was guiding trustees from the educational program Outward Bound down the nastiest rapid on the Grand Canyon’s 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: Don’t 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.