Personal-finance

I saw the author on CNBC, talking about how investors could spend 5 minutes reading financial statements and understand stocks like Lucent, WorldCom, Enron. This is a really good book. The examples are easy to understand, the concepts make a lot of sense. Like a lot of people, I'm not a professional investor and my stocks are taking a bath. I don't know if this book could have prevented that but I have some better ideas of what to look for now.

The framework introduced in this book is excellent and the information is broad and thorough. I read a lot of Buffett and Graham; this book gives a very good description of their teachings as well of the perspectives of many other great value investors in the US. However, I thought that the author could have spent more time explaining each of the "five keys" with more examples and perhaps use a few international companies as well.

I got my copy of "The Five Keys to Value Investing" as a graduation gift from my dad who is a longtime professional equities investor. He thought this book would be a good way for me to prep before I start my career on Wall Street. I was not disappointed. The Five Keys is a very good summary of what I learned in business school and much, much more. The author draws heavily from his own professional experiences as a disciple of one legendary value investor and couples it with the value investment styles of other great investors like Buffett and Graham. The experience that the reader is drawn into is very worthwhile; but what makes this book very special is the framework. I have read several investment books over the years, but none like this one. Putting thousands of lessons and teachings of prominent value investors into a solid frame of mind is clearly the draw. In addition, reading along as the author analyzes and dissects companies and few special situations add gravitas to the body of work. The clarity in the concepts and the "conversation-like" tone was particularly attractive to me. In sum, this is a very coherent, practical book on the principles of value investing despite the fact that it is not too objective -- considering the authors' strong unapologetic bias towards value investing.

Mr. Jean-Jacques lead an insightful and meaningful discussion on value investing at the local book store. After picking up the book, it took me just three days to read it and I am glad I did. To be honest, I did not know what to expect prior to reading the book because from his discussion, Mr. Jean-Jacques came across as an extremely bright but private person. Also, I had never heard of him before. He seems to be non-promotional. However, after reading it the book spared nothing and explained the basics of value investing very well supported by very good and real-life examples. Anyone who enjoys following the stock market and value investing in particular will truly cherish this book.

pretty good book but I've read better, fairly simplistic for the proffesional but good overall background info

What a great book! James Wise has a great handle on the financial problems most of us are facing and practical examples of how to improve our lives financially. My wife and I read the book and immediately started implementing some of the ideas with positive results. The practical examples and case studies are great and make you feel like you are not just reading another "health and wealth" book by some financial guru. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to change their quality of life and improve their financial future.