Pulling Weeds to Picking Stocks

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Teen authors The Beatty Brothers offer an account of common financial insecurities in their inspirational how-to, Pulling Weeds to Picking Stocks. Heeding their parents advice, David, Devin, and Deric Beatty have spent their childhood and adolescent years pulling weeds for extra cash, preparing and presenting marketing strategies, picking stocks, and investing in their future. Pulling Weeds to Picking Stocks includes their easy-to-follow tips for being rich at fifteen, thirteen, and seven, such as budget worksheets, work ethics, asset liability evaluation, and tithing. No matter what age, you can follow these practical guidelines to make cents of the change in your life.

Customer Reviews: Read 15 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Shows Amazing Potential for Our Youth August 25, 2008
20 out of 21 found this review helpful

This book is a very to-the-point narrative that left me feeling positive about an excellent parenting technique. This shows the amazing potential that everyone possesses regardless of age. I'll be re-reading this when I need inspiration, and will encourage many others to read this to help motivate them to realize their potentials. This is a very fast read, and can be educational to children and adults alike.

2 out of 5 stars

Mediocre Capitalist Porn for Kids August 26, 2008
18 out of 120 found this review helpful

Unlike most of the reviewers here, I've actually read this book. I'm not making assumptions about that either; almost all of the reviews say something like "I think this is just great! I can't wait to read it!" Obviously you're not going to get much other than vacuous assertions from this audience anyway. Plenty of people will buy this book because it reassures their fantasies about the Capitalist gang-bang, but I doubt many will read it.

I read the book in about an hour. I was hoping the book would not be 100% predictable, but unfortunately it was. I certainly applaud the boys for writing a book about something that interests them at such a young age. Any young person writing a book with competency on any subject would deserve a few stars simply for that. Bravo.

However, it is one of the worst books I've ever read. The writing is awful. I wouldn't normally fault a group of kids too much for poor writing, but the subject matter is even worse. It is the unremarkable story of 3 white, middle class boys, with apparently no noteworthy obstacles or challenges, setting out to make a bunch of money and...making a bunch of money. I don't recall any point in the book in which the authors put value on anything other than money, which I find particularly horrifying behavior especially for children of this age. Nowhere in the book do we read about how such wanton accumulation of personal wealth benefits the community or even the individual in any real way, other than the repeated, empty catch phrase of "investing in yourself." This is basically the core of the book.

One thing that bothers me about all of the "buzz" surrounding the book is that many people are suggesting that the boys are selfless in some way. For instance, one review here says:
"I kept thinking about my nephew, whom only thinks about himself and his personal entertainment."

I don't understand how the activities outlined in this book are anything but selfish. Picking stocks may be a more constructive form of selfishness than playing video games, but it is selfish and self centered none the less. The boys themselves say on their blog "We are kids, and we want things." I see nothing selfless, heroic, or even remarkable about that. I also see nothing desirable about the possibility of our children, at younger and younger ages, becoming capitalist prostitutes that value nothing but money. I applaud the boys for donating the profits from this book to families that were affected by senseless war, but even that effort comes off as an advertising gimmick more than anything.

And to all of the reviewers throwing "God Bless" around...remember that "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

1 out of 5 stars

Not very unique. August 26, 2008
11 out of 37 found this review helpful

Borrowed it from the library. Nice but nothing that couldn't be easily found with some google searching. I guess if you need to keep your kids off the internets this could be a good book. My kids had all this information from their 9th grade civics class already, and that was even from a inner-city public school...shocking government did something right!. better to support our troops with something else.

5 out of 5 stars

Great Pick of Juvenile Nonfiction September 5, 2008
9 out of 9 found this review helpful

"Pulling Weeds" is a time-honored way for entrepreneurial boys to make some pocket money. More than that, pulling weeds taught the Beatty brothers (David, 16, Devin, 14, and Deric, 8) lessons about service-based jobs. From these nitty-gritty lessons in personal finances, they moved on to reading books, asking questions, listening to others, and putting what they learned about personal finances into practice. Setting goals, cutting expenses, avoiding debt, writing business plans, and investing their savings in the stock market have become a way of life for them.

"Picking Stocks" and investing in the stock market is an uncommon way for even the most enterprising of boys and girls to make money. The Beatty brothers are an exception to the rule. Sometime ago, Dad Beatty gave his boys $1,000 in make-believe money to invest in the stock market. He pointed the boys to Yahoo! Finance and the boys took it from there. First, they learned to look up stock tickers and read about companies. Then they advanced to comparing businesses and ranking industries. Step-by-step they picked up the jargon of Wall Street, a language not taught in their public schools.

"Pulling Weeds to Picking Stocks" is a small book filled with plain and simple lessons for life. Credit cards? Don't use them. In debt? Get out of it. Got income? Account for it. Spending money? Document it. Got a surplus? Invest it.

The Beatty brothers offer practical, sound advice for success in life. Live your life like you were running a business. Write a personal business plan for your life. Set goals. Believe in yourself.

Unexpectedly, this is a book with an unassailable lesson on tithing -- not just tithing your money, but tithing your time -- giving of yourself to help others. Helping begins at home, assisting Mom and Dad with the household chores. Then it expands to helping others. Peers may laugh at you but older people will appreciate you. The habit of tithing your time to help others will enrich your life, so say the Beatty brothers from their exemplary personal experiences.

My Favorite Beatty Quotes: (Dad Beatty) "Help others without looking for praise." (Mom Beatty) "You have a brain, use it!" (Beatty boys) "Give without being caught."

Bottom Line: This is a book about learning -- learning about businesses, learning about industries, learning about finances, learning about markets, learning about investing, and learning from mistakes. But chiefly, this is a book about learning self-reliance.

There is nothing in this book that I don't already know as an investor and as an informed senior citizen. But the lessons came much later in life for me. My interest in the stock market germinated in my twenties, not in my teens. My investments in the stock market commenced in my late thirties, not at pubescence. All I can say about the Beatty brothers is, "Wow!"

Do you know a youngster or two in middle school or junior high? I believe this book would make a significant gift that just might empower them for life.

5 out of 5 stars

Kudos to the Beatty Boys! September 6, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

I loved this little 5x7 104 page book. Even though I was aware of most of these principals of how to succeed in life just by being on earth so long, immediately after reading it I decided to start making my own bread, keep a written account of where every penny goes and have advertised on Craigs list about a small start up business I've been thinking about - just for starters. These boys got me up off my 70 year old, newly-retired-tiny-income backside to make a better life for myself. Thank you Beatty Boys. And.... when you go on the television shows to tell the nation about your book, please bring along your parents. They are extraordinary parents!!! I said 'EXTRAORDINARY'! What fabulous hands on help and direction they have given you. I would love to meet them. The best to all of you and I will be looking to hear wonderful things about you.

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