Grandma Sylvia's Guide to the Stock Market

This would be a good basics book for someone who wants to learn about the stock market. It's good at gaining an understanding and help giving someone a jump start.

Very informative, and easy to read. I would recommend it to everyone looking to start investing.
Thank you for the advance copy!

Lots of good advice here, both for first time investors and those who have been investing haphazardly. She shares study materials that helped her, explains how and why she diversifies her portfolio. The final chapters touched on market history and giants of the market that I glossed over.
The subtitle is Win the Great Game and Sleep Well at Night, and Sylvia Auton frequently mentions that she does indeed sleep well at night. Follow her advice.

Auton has written a very realistic guide. Not only does she recount her experiences and opinions on her journey of learning about investing in the stock market, she also includes those of others that she became aware of. As she expresses in the authors note she is writing from her own personal experience. Auton was a mature woman of 65 years, when she decided to dip her feet into stock market investing. Her journey is a remarkable and encouraging one. She had not even contemplated such an adventure before. So why does Auton take up investing? Well, I urge you to read the book and discover this for yourself. It’s interesting that she takes the trouble to calculate how much better off she would have been had she started investing in stocks when she was younger. Doubtless she urges us to seriously consider investing for the future.

Auton makes no claims at being a financial advisor. She is adamant in insisting that she is an ordinary woman like any of us, who mastered this art. This immediately aroused my interest. Could it be that easy to invest? I had assumed that investors lost sleep or at the very least were stressed out. Besides one heard how one could lose money with investing. Isn’t that what the small print said on investing ads. She stresses that she did not take it lightly. Auton researched her market well and she urges us to do likewise. Reading the book blurb aroused my curiosity – How could I possibly invest and sleep well at night. Having read the book, I am assured that this is possible by following Autons methodology. I’m using this word lightly here as Auton herself does not have a secret formula as such. What she advices is perhaps what a judicious person would do. I’m however not going to reveal her advice as it would be a spoiler. Moreover, I could not reveal it in a few lines.

Though simply written without financial jargon she has covered every aspect in detail. She describes her initial journey, the whys and wherefores of having to embark on this adventure and gives the reader a game plan that one could customise for oneself. This is not a complicated procedure rather a simple yet effective plan to decide where one begins and the path one would want to travel on this adventure.

Auton also explores so many other aspects that one might encounter on this journey with her personal experiences, opinions and also other folk’s opinions. What particularly struck me was the extent she has gone to simplify even the most complicated stuff. There is only one drawback for me as I see it. She is largely writing about the US market. I however am in the UK. This does make a difference. I believe I would have to research my own market more diligently. However, her experiences and advice can certainly be applied here with perhaps a bit more due diligence.

An easy read this book is a keeper long after it is finished and would be greatly encouraging to one and all. I believe it is simply marvellous to be able to read about investing without being bogged down with financial jargon. In telling her story Auton actually proves that investing in the stock market is a doable for us ordinary folk who like her at the start haven’t a clue where or how to begin and are overwhelmed by the mere thought of investing. This book could go a long way in solving those issues.