The Motley Fool UK Investment Guide. A jpoc book review

The Motley Fool formula is simple. We would almost all be better off if we invested more in the Stock Markets and did so without recourse to so called "active fund managers."

While this philosophy is shared with the original US based incarnation of the fool, this book is not just a copy of the US Guide with a few UK addresses tacked on.

In the first part of the book, the authors describe and justify their philosophy. They explain why saving is important and then show that stock market investment is a much better form of saving than the traditional UK solution of the building society.

They then look at the ways to invest in shares and conclude that buying into a traditional active unit trust is not a good idea.

Having painted this picture, they then set out ways in which you can implement the strategy that they outline. In this part, they are refreshingly undogmatic. Accepting that people have diferent amounts of money, skill and time to devote to their investments, they suggest a range of strategies. These start with the use of a low cost index tracking fund and end with a description of the way to analyse a company and determine whether or not it would make a good investment.

Throughout, the book is written in the open and approachable style that is now expected of 'net savvy self help materials. Do not be misled though, there is a lot of real hard information and advice in these pages and it is easy to get at.