While there were takeaways from Jim Cramer's Real Money that may ultimately prove themselves valuable, overall I was disappointed with the experience of reading this book.

In the first chapter, Cramer raves about how he is writing a book so that normal people can understand the secrets to getting crazy rich, but then in later chapters, he explains things only vaguely, assuming you have a deeper, pre-existing knowledge of the details than a "normal person" would have. He spends lots of time hammering his tenets of investing, and berating others who don't follow his path, but doesn't really deeply explain the concepts he is laying out.

I feel like this book would better target someone who is just starting out as a Wall Street trader, as opposed to a "normal person".

Read more of my thoughts about this book, and suggestions for alternate books for beginners to read.

Unfortunately, this did very little to make the reader a "real" investing guru. I wasn't convinced that you can get rich quick nor understand stock market details well enough to attempt it. Invest for the long term in mutual funds that index the market.

It's hard to rate this book after immediately reading it, mainly because this is the type of book that you read and then go do. And after you do what the book recommends, you can give it some time and truly evaluate. However, there's a lot of solid ideas in this book for the novice stock investor and Cramer is different in many respects to your typical stock guru. He embraces the gambling/speculating nature of stock picking and does make very good arguments for why the mainstream advice on stock investing can totally wreck a person's portfolio. This book is also 10 years old from the time I read it, so the examples he gives are of course dated and we didn't know in 2005 what sort of calamity awaited the markets in 2008. Overall, the book was fun to read, at least for me being a personal finance/investing junkie and the personal stories he used as examples helped flesh out the concepts.

Something interesting I found in the very last chapter as he discusses shorting and options as "advanced strategies", he never mentions selling call options on stocks you own. He talks some about buying calls to get in on positions when you don't have the cash to buy the stock outright, but never mentions selling the call options when you own the stock. To me, this was a miss on his part - although you can't provide every strategy known to man in this short book. Selling the call options is a very conservative way to make some extra cash flow on your stock positions since the worst thing that can happen if the option is exercised is you have to sell your stock at a higher strike price than when you sold the call originally.

Good general advice about investing in stock.

Fav. Quote, "Nobody cares about your money like you do."

This book is pretty good for the beginner investor and as a refresher for the active trader. Cramer can be tough to swallow some times, but he covers basic trading fundamentals with real life examples. I can't handle watching his show anymore, but this book is a little less in your face.

Lot of sound advice told in a entertaining way.

Excellent read and provided an experts insight in to investing, understanding markets and understanding a company's performance. The "Dummies Guide to understanding how well a company really is doing". Good anecdotes, and wrote at a level that any non financial expert can understand and apply.

My boy Jimmey Chill! Step by step. This is how you do it. (It’s much easier to just subscribe to CMNBC’s investing club. He puts out videos every single day)

Goal setting, analysis, homework, how to trade, when to trade, what to look for and a lot of specific ideas about
stocks, sectors, trends and market timing. Much different than the traditional conventional wisdom. No shortcuts,
study and do your homework. Discipline is your best friend. Throw in a lot of enthusiasm and a little humor for spice.

This guy is amazing - he knows it and he is able to convey it. I believe anyone could follow his advice and make money.
I didn't find anything to disagree with and I'm a tough critic on these matters. I've already put this one down to re-read
next year and reinforce the rules and disciplines that he recommends and followup on my own investing. There are great
ideas, thoughts and experiences in here. The book is way more organized, complete and thoughtful than his TV show
which sometimes drives me nuts.

About halfway through this book 90% of people will probably realize they are too busy to devote 5 hours a week to a truly diversified stock portolio and should get a broker or a mutual fund, lol...but it's still good to know the rules of the game. I'm almost finished with Stay Mad for Life and I think it's much more general and relevant for most people.

Jim Cramer is a top notch entertainer and writes a great book for beginning investors. His explanations are geared to the novice, yet provide sound advice for more experienced investors. He is fun to read.