Money Masters of Our Time (John Train) 1 comments

There is a saying that there are only three things that drive men: an appetite, an idea or an inspiration. Quite often achievements of higher quality are derived from the latter two, as they derive less from the personal wants of the individual and draw on spiritual energies which are often more enduring.

But I digress. The reason why I mentioned the above quote was to illustrate the use for a book such as "Money Masters" for a budding investor. As the title suggests, it is a book which explores the recognised masters of investment, which in this book is mainly (and thankfully) focussed on equities. The reader can draw inspiration from interviews with these famous personalities of the investment world. I found that the sections that interested me most were those of some lesser known investors, such as John Neff and his value- and low PE-oriented approach.

There are 17 money masters in the book who are given their separate sections. There are the familiar personalities like Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch and George Soros; there are also lesser known ones like Richard Rainwater and Mark Lightbrown (though some more knowledgeable investment world insiders might differ). The book provides a concise summary of the investment techniques, experiences and even personal lives of these individuals, and provides better breadth of coverage; many other investment books focus on single personalities who are more well-known and offer greater depth of coverage. In this aspect it fulfils a niche. Budding investors can learn about the variety of investment "roads" that can lead to "Rome", and then read up further on the investor who best personifies their favourite technique/philosophy.

John Train writes with an easy style where he first provides a general summary of the investor, outlines his history and track record, describes the investor's appearance: he gets the reader comfortable with the investor as a person before he delves into the meat of the section: the investment techniques, philosophies etc.

This is one investment book worth reading for the starting investor. It is available at the libraries (NLB Catalogue) so you don't have to fork out your money.