Read: Ken Chee's Value Investing for Beginners

Title: Value Investing for Beginners: How to build a Multi-Million Net Worth as Simple as ABC
Author: Ken Chee
Publisher: 8 Media Pte Ltd
Designed and Printed by: Worx Printing and Packaging Pte Ltd
ISBN: 978-981-09-3982-3

This book is indeed for the beginner because the concepts of value-investing were explained in a fairly easy to understand fashion. It was written with new retail investors in mind.

As written on the book's back-cover, the book discusses the following:
- Why one needs to start investing?
- The universal theory for investment
- How to unearth and invest in good business that will generate consistent and sustainable returns?
- The 3-R process in evaluating stocks.
- The difference between valuation versus the price of a stock.
- Ways to proceed with one's investing journey towards financial freedom.

When I laid my hands on this book, I read it from cover-to-cover while I was commuting on the public transport, and I gladly completed a good read of it within two consecutive days.

Long-time value-investors may find this book an easy book to read during bed-time so as to revise the concepts of value-investing. Just be mindful that seasoned value-investors may not learn anything particularly new from this book. Then again, I believe in the power of repetition. What is useful is still worth reading over and over again, even though there is nothing particularly new.

To get yourself a copy of this book, you could visit: http://www.millionaireinvestor.com/store/

Value Investing in Growth Companies

Image source: http://www.millionaireinvestor.com/store/

Title: Value Investing in Growth Companies
Authors: Rusmin and Victor Chng
Publisher: Candid Creation Publishing (2011)

Earlier this year, I gave myself a challenge to learn more about value investing so as to enhance my level of financial literacy.

This book by Rusmin and Victor encapsulates the authors' personal experiences as value-growth investors and their knowledge on the subject. The examples that were given are relevant to the Singapore context and this makes it easier to relate to the examples. I like the way that the authors explained the differences between a value investor, a growth investor and a value-growth investor.

In this book, the authors discussed the following topics in the various chapters of the book:
1. The Making of a Value-Growth Investor
2. The Secrets of Successful Value-Growth Investors
3. The Jigsaw Puzzle - 4 Pieces to Value-Growth Investing.
4. Business
5. Management
6. Numbers
7. Valuation
8. Screen - Buy - Monitor - Sell
9. Portfolio Management for Growth Companies
10. Avoid Common Mistakes
11. Case Studies of Growth Companies using Jigsaw Puzzle Model

In general, I have found the language accessible. This book is generally easy to read. I may not recommend readers of the book to dive straight into investing after reading just this very book unless they have also done sufficient homework and 'scuttle butting' after reading the book. Nevertheless, this book is a fairly good way to initiate the reader into value-growth investing in the Singapore context.

While writing this reading log, I came across other reviews of this book. There were reviews that were favourable and there were reviews that discussed the limitations of this book. If you are only looking for the one and only ultimate book on value-investing (though I think it is rather limiting to read only one book and expect to learn everything about value-investing) then it helps to read through all the reviews of books on this subject matter before you start the read. For me, I would rather start with reading books that are accessible.

One of the good news for the authors, this book has been selected to be launched worldwide by one of the world's largest book publishers, John Wiley and Sons, Inc. To some extent, it speaks well of the quality of the book! Congratulations to the authors!

Read: Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits

Image source: amazon.com

Title: Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits
Author: Philip A. Fisher
Publisher: Wiley, John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

This year, I set for myself a challenge to learn more about value-investing which is relatively new to me. It is through learning that we each grow better as a person. To learn more about this subject, I set myself a goal to read at least four books that are related to value investing this year. This book by Philip A. Fisher became the third book related to value investing that I have read. The choice came about because it was a book that was available for loan from one of the public libraries that is located near my home.

This book was first published in 1958. Given that this work was written a few decades before I was born, I thought it was pretty accessible for a book that was published in the 1950s. While it took me a while to get used to the writing style, there was wisdom in every chapter from Philip A. Fisher. It was touching to read the author's son Ken Fisher writing the extended preface and introduction for the edition of the book that I was reading.

This book offers jewels of wisdom for people who are interested in the qualitative aspect of analyzing and identifying whether a company is an outstanding one. The author also offers an investment plan that was derived from his personal experiences. This book also discusses the method of "scuttlebutt".

Perhaps the only weakness of this book is that Fisher's method of "scuttlebutt" may not be easily achievable for the individual retail investor. This is so since "scuttlebutt" requires talking to employees, key staff and management of the company that one intends to invest in.

Overall, I think this book has merits in presenting wise ideas related to investing in quality companies. Considering that it was first published in 1958, I think that the author has written a book whose relevance still stood the tests of time. It is no surprise that Warren Buffett "was impressed by" Philip A. Fisher and his ideas.

Please also see this review which summarises some of the key essence of the book, and this book by Fisher is worth many good reads:
http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~prewett/writings/BookReviews/CommonStocksAndUncommonProfits.html

Read: The Little Book of Value Investing by Christopher H. Browne

Title: The Little Book of Value Investing
Author: Christopher H. Browne
Publisher: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

To learn more about value investing, I decided to make time to read books on this subject matter. This book by Christopher H. Browne is a relatively easy to read book on the subject matter. Although it does not deal with the specific details of value investing, it does cover the concepts of value investing pretty clearly and matter-of-fact. He illustrated the importance of ensuring a margin of safety when conducting value investing.

Christopher H. Browne gave examples to demonstrate why he thinks value-investing is the way to invest. In this book, he clearly stated that "patience is sometimes the hardest part of using the value approach". He acknowledged that it is sometimes tempting to give in and relax one of the criterion of value investing just a bit. However, he argued that patience shall be rewarded.

This is a relatively accessible book on the subject matter for anyone who would like to appreciate the basic concepts and philosophies behind value-investing. It offers a glimpse of the thoughts behind Christopher H. Browne who has the reputation to be one of the best value investors in the world.

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While writing this post, I came across a good review of this book by Trent in The Simple Dollar: Review: The Little Book of Value Investing.

Read: Value Investing for Employees

Source: kinokuniya.com

Title: Value Investing for Employees
Author: Clive Tan
Publisher: Candid Creation Publishing (Jan 2012)

Some time last year, I attend a work-related course on practical financial counselling. Other than the concepts of saving, creating new sources of income, debt-management and protection, I also learnt the concept of investment. That course got me to be more aware that my level of financial literacy needs to be greatly enhanced.

In an effort to gain more financial literacy and to figure out what value investing is, I found myself getting a copy of the above-mentioned book to give it a good read. It took me more than three weeks to read the book as I still find the technical concepts such as current ratio, cash ratio, price to earning ratio requiring more time to fully understand.

The other sections of the book that focuses on the foundations of value investing, the investment principles and investment process were much more accessible to read and to understand. I appreciate the examples that were used in the book to illustrate the concepts though I admittedly still find myself struggling a bit with the technical concepts.

Nevertheless, this is a relatively accessible and good read for anyone who would like to get themselves started on learning about value-investing so as to find out how it could be applied. Many thanks to the author, Clive Tan, for putting this book together. The fact that he is a Singapore citizen makes this book even more applicable to our local context.

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For more information on value investing, you may wish to visit: http://www.millionaireinvestor.com

Read: Value Investing for Women

Title: Value Investing for Women
Author: Pauline Teo
Published by: 8 Media Pte Ltd
Produced by: WORX Design and Communications Pte Ltd

I had meant to read this book at a later date. However, two female friends who had read the book highly recommended it. They claimed that it was easy to read. So I read it. I felt very pleased that this book is written in an accessible and easy-to-read manner. It took me less than a few days to read this book from cover to cover.

The concepts of value investing were explained in an easy to understand manner. This is perhaps one of the best book that I have read thus far on value investing. It is presented in a way that females are likely to find it easy to relate to. Males may find this book easy to find to read too although this book was written in a way that would appeal to females who prefer the technical aspects of value investing to be explained in the layman language.

This book reminded me to take charge of my own finances, and learn to work towards financial independence.

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Also see:
http://www.millionaireinvestor.com/store/