Wise Up!

This book will make better investors of people who have a lot, a little or
absolutely no experience in the stock market, but want to use their
intelligence, common sense, and knowledge and curiosity about the
world to make better and more profitable investment decisions. There is
no simple formula for successful investing. Successful investing is part
common sense, hard work, knowledge, and art form. Hopefully what
follows will impart some of these qualities to those who read it.

Although I am a professional investor, I wrote this book in an easy to understand
style. As my college professors can attest, I was a poor student of finance
and accounting-I found the subjects extremely boring. Once in the
working world, though, I discovered that finance was exciting and
dynamic. However, having been through the drudgery of textbook and
classroom learning, I wanted to write a book for others that would make
finance and investing easy to understand, interesting, useful, and relevant.

This book will primarily address the skills and knowledge needed to
successfully invest in publicly traded stocks, but some of the topics
discussed will also aid the reader in evaluating investments in other asset
types, such as real estate, private businesses, and fixed income
instruments, such as bonds.