The Idiot Millionaire by Derek Foster – Review and Giveaway
Derek Foster is back again with his fifth book – The Idiot Millionaire (link). This book follows a common theme about investing,with the focus on “idiot proof” stocks rather than exclusively dividend achiever type stocks. To Mr. Foster, idiot proof stocks are those that have global brand recognition and have a distinct competitive advantage.
For those of you who follow Derek Foster, you may know of the most recent “controversy” surrounding him where he sold all of his long term positions just before the market bottom in 2009. As he’s been asked about this many times over the past couple years, he dedicated a section in the book to explain what happened, and what he did after he sold. It turns out that he didn’t make out so bad (more on this in the next post).
Who is Derek Foster?
Derek Foster is known as Canada’s Youngest Retiree when he retired at the young age of 34. How did he do this? Through starting young and sticking with his investment plan of buying strong dividend paying stocks. He feels very strongly about his strategy and rightly so as he has achieved great success. His first book Stop Working: Here’s How You Can is a Canadian Best Seller.
Foster currently lives off and supports his family through dividend distributions, book sales, and a rental property (sold). Note that he retired before publishing his first book. You can read more about him in my book review of Stop Working: Here’s How You Can.
About the Book
As previously mentioned, this book focuses on stocks that have a long term competitive advantage by pointing out and explaining the authors favorite stocks in each sector. The chapter outline includes:
- Why you should invest in idiot proof stocks
- Bank Stocks and other Financial Companies
- Pipeline Stocks
- Tobacco Stocks
- Food and Drink Stocks
- Consumer Stocks
- Hygiene Stocks
- Oil Stocks
- Entertainment Stocks
- Transportation Stocks
- Business to Business Stocks
- Education Stocks
- Buying Bargain Stocks
- Where to Look for Idiot Proof Stocks
- Taxes and an update on the authors portfolio
While this book did give me some ideas on stocks to add to my watch list, Derek’s first book is still my favorite. Perhaps it’s because I’m a little more experienced now with investing and that I’ve read about a lot of the same concepts before. I would say this book is geared for someone just starting out in their investing journey and looking for ideas on which companies to look into.
Want a Free Copy?
The author is offering Million Dollar Journey readers the chance to win a free copy of the book. The details are below:
- New and Existing Money Tips Newsletter Subscribers will be drawn at random for a free book (you can subscribe here). (+1 entry)
- Leave a comment in this post by clicking here. (+1 entry)
- Only one comment entry per person (valid email addresses only please – privacy policy).
- Contest will end Sat 5pm EST Jan 29, 2011 and the winner, drawn randomly, will be contacted shortly after!
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if everyone in the whole world did this…could we all “retire”?
i 2 invest in cos and live off the income am disabled get pension i own this house so they work well for me
I agree. Derek’s first book is also my favorite. I’ll be picking up this book mostly to learn how he fared in the 2009 bottom and his decisions to sell. I think the biggest “controversy” around Foster is how he can claim to be retired while cranking out investment books which give him more income to invest. Regardless, I love reading his books.
Richard
Confidence in yourself. You must have a plan and comfortability, veer too much away is not good. Ultimately, in and out before herd…..are you smarter than the buyer when selling and smarter than the seller when buying.
Good title…considering the author is a massive idiot himself. After Derek completely contradicted his entire investing philosophy in 2009, why would anyone listen to a single word that he has to say?
interesting, yet simple. genius!
This morning I heard Derek saying: “People brush their teeth every morning”. It actually gave me an idea about his “idiot proof stocks”. I was getting more and more interested about dividend paying stocks, but needed just basic knowledge from person who actually started from scratch and successfully built his fortune without high-paying job. Would be really nice to read this book.
Yay, free book!
Sounds interesting.
I enjoyed Mr. Foster’s first book “Stop Working”. It was a light read, made some good points, laid out a simple and actionable plan, and provided inspiration from a young Canadian who achieved early financial independence.
“The Lazy Investor” was redundant, in my opinion. “Money For Nothing” is a good addition to his overall strategy and I’ll probably end up buying “The Idiot Millionaire” for a friend even if I win one here. The books are inexpensive and are easy to digest for people who, unlike myself, don’t read a lot of financial books or forums.
I’ve read lots about him but never anything by him, would love to read this.