Learn to Earn: A Beginner's Guide to the Basics of Investing and Business, Hardcover

"Public companies are everywhere, and they surround you frommorning to night. . . . Nearly everything you eat, wear, read, listen to, ride in, lie on, or gargle with is made by one. Perfumeto penknives, hot tubs to hot dogs, nuts to nail polish are made bybusinesses that you can own." --from the Introduction.

McDonald's, The Gap, Circuit City, Gillette, CBS, and thousandsmore . . . anybody can own part of big and small companies. Ascompanies grow and prosper, you can too. Whenever burgers areeaten, sweaters are purchased, batteries are used, and faces areshaved, you've got a piece of the action. From Alexander Hamiltonto Warren Buffett, people have been making big money by investingin the corporations and institutions around them.

Mutual-fund superstar Peter Lynch and author John Rothchild explainwhat's not normally taught in high school --how the stock markethelps you and how it helps the country. By understanding how andwhy the stock market works when you buy a share of a company orpurchase a mutual fund, you can make informed --and profitable--decisions. Whether you're saving for college, a house, a trip, orretirement, there is no better method to secure a sound financialfuture than to invest. Young or old, there is no better time tostart investing than now.

"Investing is fun. It's interesting.

It can put you on the road to prosperity for the rest of your life.. . ."

Learn to Earn gives you the expert guidance you need to make theright start. Lynch and Rothchild cover the gamut on investmentfundamentals and principles, from choosing stocks, to picking abroker, to reading an annual report. Learn to Earn reveals how todecipher the stock pages and how to evaluate the pros and cons ofthe five basic investment vehicles --savings accounts, collectibles, houses or apartments, stocks, and bonds. Yet, thereis much more to investing than just the principles, and there ismuch more to Learn to Earn than just the fundamentals. Opportunitycomes in many forms, from many sources, with many histories.Brimming with stories and parables, Lynch and Rothchild alsoexplain:
* Why the world as we know it would collapse without investors . ..
* How capitalism, from the time of the American Revolution on, hasshaped the past, and how that affects us today . . .
* How Coke, Campbell's Soup, Ben & Jerry's, Microsoft, andother big companies got started, who gets rich from them, and howthey got that way . . .
* How to know the real story behind the price of a stock

About the Author:

PETER LYNCH is the former manager of the Fidelity Magellan Fund andthe coauthor of the bestsellers One up on Wall Street and Beatingthe Street, both of which he wrote with John Rothchild.

JOHN ROTHCHILD is a columnist for Fortune magazine and the authorof A Fool and His Money.