Investment Clubs: How to Start and Run One the Motley Fool Way
No longer one of America's best-kept secrets, the number of investment clubs has soared in recent years. You may have been thinking about joining or forming a club yourself -- and if you haven't thought about it, you certainly should. Investment clubs offer many advantages to inexperienced and experienced investors alike. If you want to learn more about investing but are too afraid to jump in on your own, clubs offer a way to learn in a group setting, with members helping each other understand new concepts. Even if you're a savvy and seasoned investor, a club can save you a lot of number-crunching time, as you regularly share your research on promising companies. Enter Investment Clubs: How to Start and Run One the Motley Fool Way. This guide aims to help you form a club and start trying to beat the market. It should even prove useful to existing clubs, as its many suggestions can help club members focus on learning and improving results. (We know how tough it can be to keep club members involved and to keep the boat pointed toward market outperformance.)This guide covers all the basics of forming and running a club, including such topics as:*Deciding whether you should join or form a club*Recruiting members*Drafting your formal agreements*Designing your agendas*Electing officers*Planning educational components*Selecting companies to study*Keeping track of club accounting*Evaluating your performance*Dealing with member turnover*Keeping interest highIncluded in the book are:*Several sample agendas and meeting minutes from actual investment clubs*A list of online and print resources*A discussion of common perils and pitfalls*A glossary of investing terms*A review of tax issues related to investment clubs, including sample tax forms filled out*Sample by-laws and a sample partnership agreement that you can adapt for your own clubAlso discussed in the book are variations on traditional investment clubs, such as online investment clubs and "faux" investment clubs (which share information and research ideas but stop short of actually investing money together as a club). You owe it to yourself and your financial security to learn about stocks and start investing. Investment clubs are one of the best ways to get started. This book will help you get a club up and running efficiently and profitably.