Victor Chiu

The narrative makes you believe you are actually at Victor Chu's mom's kitchen table sharing some food and talking about investing. The use of informal, every day language makes it very comfortable to read. By relating investing subjects to food and cooking, it brings cognitive ease to this otherwise complex subject. Another nice thing is that there's a box at the end of each "visit" (chapter) with the most important points discussed. It also asks you to do some homework, simple tasks that can help you materialize those concepts. For example, buying a lottery ticket to better differentiate gambling from investing.

I think this book is clearly aimed at women with no prior knowledge about investing. A couple of points makes it more useful for people living in US or Canada, but other than that, it's fairly useful for anyone interested. It does a great job at presenting the big picture about investing, with minimal amount of financial terminology. Certainly more research is needed afterwards, if you so decide to start investing. This book alone shouldn't suffice, but it's a nice start and I'm glad it's kept simple and approachable. As an educational book it is extremely well made. Oh, and it does include recipes at the end of the book.… (more)

This first person folksy story tells how an immigrant to Canada used savings to invest in the stock market. Ignore penny stocks and invest in blue chip stocks. ”Mom” started with investment in banks and transportation before moving onto pharmaceuticals. The main strategy after the initial investments is to use any gains to either reinvest in the company or to diversify and invest in other companies. Throughout there are references to do your homework, buy low, sell high, and maintain course during the down turns. This uncomplicated guide will be helpful to someone thinking about investments for the first time. A collection of recipes, appendix, acknowledgments, and index are provided.… (more)