Successful Personal Investing - too good to be true?

elhadders

I recently received a mailshot advertising "Successful Personal Investing" (SPI), purporting to show how to invest successfully and make money. Usual sort of thing, first lesson free, only pay for each subsequent lesson, stop at any time etc etc.

Ordinarily I would just chuck it in the bin, except that it apparently comes with a commendation from former Chancellor Nigel Lawson.

Has anyone come across this, or its parent company, Independent Research Services? I've googled away happily without coming up with anything much.

Thanks.

cheerfulcat

Some info here and here. There's more to look at here. You'd probably get the same advice more cheaply from a well-chosen selection of books ( I am willing to supply a list, if required ) but it might be worth taking the first, free lesson to judge the quality. Oh, and have a look at Incademy, which offers a series of good, free, short courses on investing.

elhadders

Sensational - thank you cheerfulcat! :T One of the reasons why this caught my attention was that I have been half-heartedly intending to try dabbling in investments for a while, but it has always been too daunting a prospect to know where to start learning. I was in a share club once, and it gave me a taste, but the main lesson I learned then is that a very small amount of knowledge about investing is much, much more dangerous than none at all! So I'd like to learn a bit more.

If you would be happy to supply some recommended reading, I'd be very grateful - and I'm checking out the Fool tips in another browser window as I type!

cheerfulcat

Here's a list of books which I found very useful. It is by no means comprehensive; there are hundreds of excellent books about investment, stock markets, economics and so on.

Be your own Financial Advisor
Motley Fool UK Investment Guide
First Steps in Shares
Winning with Shares
Where Are the Customers' Yachts?
Which? Way to Save and Invest
The Intelligent Investor
One up on Wall Street
How to Read the Financial Pages

TMF also has some useful essays on the basics of investing, starting here.

HTH, and happy reading!

Cheerfulcat