by Stephen Jarislowsky

If you are just starting to invest*, acquire The Investment Zoo and read pages 152, 90, 99, 111

If you already own BCE, invest in The Investment Zoo and read page 94. It may make you think twice.

If you still use a broker, read the first part of Chapter 6 in Jarislowsky's 152 page book

If you use a financial planner, buy The Investment Zoo and read page 80

If you are thinking of dividend-paying stocks, read the bottom of page 94 and then pages 46, 87, 89, 93…

• Are you interested in learning which common stocks to buy, generally? Buy The Investment Zoo and read pages 93, 96-97, 111, 114, 140-141.

If you think index funds are better, buy The Investment Zoo and read page 93

If you still hold mutual funds, note the thoughts on pages 149, 93, 150, 8, 27, 63, 80-81, 84

If you hold stock purchased years ago that now has a large gain, memorize page 104

If you own bonds read pages 7 and 8, 46 and 47, 88, 111, 150

If you are concerned about your asset mix, buy The Investment Zoo and read page 150

• Stephen Jarislowsky has some stimulating ideas on diversification in The Investment Zoo: 97, 100

If you wish to master how to measure value in a stock, check out page 92

If you want to develop ideas about stock analysis, purchase The Investment Zoo and read Chapter 11

If you are trying to put together a financial/investment plan, peruse page 111 as well as 85 and 86.

If you are a young person, look at pages 85 and 86, 100, 112, 150, 152

If use wish to avoid investment errors, buy The Investment Zoo and read pages 46, 78, 86, 106, 137, 141

• What does Mr. Jarislowsky anticipate might happen in the years ahead? Purchase The Investment Zoo. It was written in 2005 and has a lot of current comments: 33, 92, 114, 100, 150

If you wish to learn more about patience, discipline and controlling emotion study Mr. Jarislowsky's ideas on pages 47, 92, 98, 111, 113-114, 117, 141, 152.

If you consider gold is a good investment, acquire The Investment Zoo and read page 88.

If you are thinking about buying cyclical stocks low and selling high, read pages 93, 103, 140 .

If your are appraising real estate as an investment, find The Investment Zoo and study pages 7 and 87.

• The Investment Zoo is an excellent Canadian book on investing. Do not expect your broker or financial planner, however, to recommend The Investment Zoo. They won't. To test them, ask them about The Investment Zoo by Stephen Jarislowsky. Mr Jarislowsky has been managed money for 50 years. He's now a retired billionaire.

http://www.jfl.ca

* For the starting investor, this book is full of useful ideas. The material on which stocks to buy ( and not buy) is great, as well as the ideas on investment errors and stock analysis. Buy this book. Chapter 10 is titled ' A Sound, Do-it-yourself Approach'. It begins by describing the strategy on page 111: “it gives a good reward while being low risk, simple, non-commission intensive, and exposed to few surprises”. This material is truely terrific. Study it carefully. You'll not find better advice anywhere. Here's one more snippet from Jarislowsky's page 90: “forget what the stock market does as a whole and concentrate just on the companies you own shares in”. “The crux of your success will be selecting leading companies' stocks and then holding onto them for many years.” 98 If you are really not into reading investment books, or are in the middle of a good book like One Step Behind Mandela as I am, you can easily ignore most of The Investment Zoo. Still buy it, though. It should be your investment bible. You must read and study the pages that interest you. These will vary as your investment life develops. For instance, you could ignore Chapter 1 except for pages 23 to 27 read page 33 in Chapter 2 in Chapter 3, read pages 45 to 47

Chapter 4, called Corporate Crooks, is on options; and Chaper 5, about corporate boards, could be skipped but you should know that if management has a lot of options, it might not be good for shareholders; and that if companies have good directors, it is good for shareholders. Chapter 6 is about brokers and mutual funds. You best read that. You have to read Chapter 7 (Investing in the Jungle) a couple of times at least. It's why you bought the book. Chapter 8, only six pages, is about three stocks Jarislowsky bought 50 years ago and how they did. The $2,000 he put into one of them, “not including dividends, has grown to some $1 million.” page 101 If you are not very interested in management of a company, skip Chpater 9, well…except for pages 106 and 110. You have to read Chapter 10.

Chapter 11 is about security analysis. Even I learned a lot here. Jarislowsky, for instance, does not think book values mean too much p.125 And if you are really rushed right now, you could skip through chapters 12, 13 and 14 to the last few pages of the book.

I came back to read all the book eventually and am now reading the good parts over again. Over the last forty years, I've read a lot of books on investing. As I key this, watching a red sun rise over Royal Military College, a couple of dozen of the good books on investing are in the shelf beside me. The Investment Zoo is the best. If you buy and read it and don't agree that The Investment Zoo is #1, I'll buy your copy from you and give it to a friend of mine. I've already bought copies for my sister and my wife's sister and plan to buy more to give to people who have not yet seen the light. I still can't get over that I stumbled upon the light (dividend growing stocks) quite by accident over two decades ago. I started the Connolly Report in June of 1981. Dividend stocks became the main stay of it a couple of years later. It's interesting how life works out. I wish I had read Jarislowsky's book in the 1960s. You are most likely younger than I: learn from the master: purchase, study and relish The Investment Zoo.

Mr. Jarislowsky definately endorses dividend investing. This is another reason you are buying this book. You must believe the strategy is the best so you will keep on the straight and narrow. Mr. Jarislowsky mentions discipline a dozen times. You must believe you are doing the right thing, else you will deviate. Don't take my word for it, take Jarislowsky's.

Reviewed in July 2005 by Tom Connolly at http://dividendgrowth.ca

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