Drawing on lessons learned in the past few turbulent years, the revised Motley Fool Investment Workbook shows how The Motley Fool's popular investment strategies continue to help regular people beat Wall Street's best money managers -- in good times and in bad. Updated to reflect today's whipsaw economy, you will learn how to evaluate a company's financial performance, which mutual funds make sense, and where to find havens for your retirement savings. Demonstrating how to value companies in a roller-coaster era -- and providing more useful work sheets and space for tracking goals than ever before -- this new edition gives you all the information and calculations you need to make smart investment moves now, including how to: Figure out how much money you have to invest Devise a sensible -- and profitable -- investment strategy Select winning stocks Purchase stocks in the cheapest and fastest way possible Protect your investments and learn when -- if ever -- to let them go Brimming with worksheets, charts, and real-world examples -- all wrapped up by The Fool's trademark sense of humor -- The Motley Fool Investment Workbook will help you take control of your own financial destiny one step -- and one dollar -- at a time. " Humorous and savvy.' – The Wall Street Journal " Funny and flip while containing solid information and advice for individual investors.' – The Washington Post David Gardner learned from his father how to invest, and with his brother, Tom, started The Motley Fool in 1993 with a mission to educate, amuse, and enrich. Today, the Fool works to empower individual investors, reaching millions every month through its website, premium services, podcasts, radio show, newspaper column, and more. With Tom they have coauthored several books, including You Have More Than You Think , Rule Breakers, Rule Makers, and The Motley Fool Investment Guide for Teens . Tom Gardner learned from his father how to invest, and with his brother, David, started The Motley Fool in 1993 with a mission to educate, amuse, and enrich. Today, the Fool works to empower individual investors, reaching millions every month through its website, premium services, podcasts, radio show, newspaper column, and more. With David they have coauthored several books, including You Have More Than You Think , Rule Breakers, Rule Makers, and The Motley Fool Investment Guide for Teens . The Motley Fool Investment Workbook By David Gardner Fireside Copyright © 2003 David Gardner All right reserved. ISBN: 0743229983 From Chapter One WHY ARE YOU HERE? Turn on any investing show on television. (OK, you might never have done this before, but humor us.) Chances are that at some point in the next half hour you'll see a person looking quite knowledgeable make a prediction about the stock market. He or she might say something like, "The market is entering a push-pull phase, as evidenced by the inverse parabolic formation that is occurring in the advance-decline line. The Dow will drop 342 points over the next two months, starting Monday." The interviewer nods gravely and sympathetically. You, of course, are mystified, and so is everybody else (including the interviewer). Is it any wonder that, for decades, most Americans haven't thought they could handle investing on their own? The good news is that, despite how intimidating investing might seem, never before have so many been this interested in it and never before has the information been so accessible. These days a lot of us are successfully directing our own retirement money through things like 401(k) plans and individual retirement accounts (IRAs). And most of us expect that in our lifetimes we'll save enough to buy a house, put our children through school, and cover unexpected expenses. But did any of us think we could expect some Foolish fun along the way, too? Hopefully, you've realized that managing your money can be extremely entertaining and enlightening. Others, however, have not yet taken to saving and investing?either because the stock market seems indecipherable or because they consider "money watching" a petty, self-interested pastime. Oddly enough, because of their failure to save or invest, they tend to be the very sort who eventually worry most about how they're going to make it to and through retirement. For them, the stock market is a bugaboo. Unlike gaining interest in a savings account, they know, making money through investing in the stock market is not guaranteed. "I could lose it all!" they cry. While this may be a common worry among those who've never invested in stocks, their catastrophe mentality is equivalent to never crossing the street because they might get hit by a bicycle. Granted, watching financial "experts" on television probably does little to put one's mind at ease; but the first thing we want you to know is that the experts know a lot less than they think. And you know a lot more than you'd ever believe. Thank