Over the Holidays you may have received a book as a gift, it is likely Warren Buffet did. Mr. Buffett is a reader of newspapers, magazines and books for he does his own research, has a prodigious memory and loves reading. In an article written by Brian Milner titled Reading one’s way to Buffett-sized earnings, Mr. Milner notes high net worth people tend to read far more than the average investor. So what books does Mr. Buffett recommend for investing?

Favorite book: Benjamin Graham’s The Intelligent Investor

Mr. Graham preached that investors should think more like owners than traders when evaluating a company and its prospects. make sure the price includes a margin of safety, avoid trying to time the market and never sell when the herd stampedes for the exists. Mr. Buffett says pay attention to Chapters 8 and 20 which has been the bedrock of his investing activities for more than 60 years.

Other books on his list to read and reread
Security Analysis by David Dodd and Benjamin Graham

The Clash of Cultures by Jack Bogle  (he founded Vangard  – the company who specializes in index investing)

The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by Jack Bogle

Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits by Philip Fisher (the father of Ken Fisher who writes in Forbes – the Fisher Report and runs a fund)

Stress Test by Timothy Geithner (former US Treasury secretary)

The Outsider’s 8 Unconventional CEO by William Thorndike

Linking to dividend paying stocks, all these books outline an approach to take to the market that seasoned people have found fruitful. All of the approaches take time and the idea is to buy companies which are undervalued and become fully valued and continue to do their good things for a long time to come. There are always opportunities and whether you do it through indexing or individual stocks, if you narrow the bulk of your investing to companies that make profits and pay a dividend in the long run you will have more wealth.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.