Book Review: The Beardstown Ladies' Common Sense Investment Guide: How We Beat the Stock Market and You Can, Too

I saw the Beardstown Ladies' appearance on Oprah several years ago, and so I was eager to read this book when I managed to get my hands on it as an inexpensive used paperback recently. The glossary in the back gives a good basic introduction to the workings of the stock market, etc. but, having been published in the 1990s, it is now somewhat dated; some of the "rules" of the game, such as stock prices being listed in the paper with "points" or fractions of a dollar, have been changed in recent years. (There is also no mention of "technical analysis" a recently more popular stock-picking methodology/philosophy, which has its adherents and detractors).

Additionally, there are more options and less sexual, social, or economic discrimination as far as actually getting into the market is concerned (a point made in the narrative in which some of the Beardstown Ladies gave accounts of past encounters with brokerage firms which did not want to handle small individual investors, women investors, etc.).
While investment clubs are still around, and perhaps a preferred option for some people (for the purpose of gaining knowledge about the workings of the market, socializing, pooling funds, etc., many now prefer to do their trading and keep their profits for themselves ...I would have liked to have read about the investment club deciding how to spend its accumulated group earnings to benefit some charity that needed the funds, or something that conferred some group or public benefit...to me, at least, making money and just holding onto it as this investment club appears to do is completely pointless...if you're going to accumulate money, it should be spent for _something_) , these days, stock trading for individual investors is a lot more easily accessible than it was in the past, and not only has there been a proliferation of discount brokers, but online stock trading accounts where no brokers are directly involved with customers at all.

The information about how to start and operate an investment club and the stories of individual womens' experiences with investments in particular and finances in general were a relevant and interesting part of the book. The 'human touch' is very nice and something people respond to. However, those responsible for editing/compiling the book went a little too far with this when they asked these selected senior members of the Beardstown Ladies Investment club for their personal favorite recipes as well as their biographical information and financial experience. I salute one particular member of the Ladies' who had the guts to report that her favorite was to select a frozen dinner from the supermarket and put it in the microwave!