ies separate from each other. The truly excellent ones rise up to the top of the rankings, and the bad ones sink like stones. Every time.

Bonus Points are awarded for third-party opinions, such as Wall Street's analyst ratings. They do not comprise a high percentage of the company's total score, but they can be useful and should not be ignored.

In a nutshell, that is how excellent companies worthy of your consideration are identified. Scoring a company takes about an hour the first time you do it, while periodically updating the score takes maybe 10-15 minutes.

Most investors today want to invest sensibly, but many are not sure how to get started. Well, the first stage is to identify excellent companies as possible candidates for your investment dollar. One way to do this is to use a point-based scoring system, such as the trademarked Easy-Rate system presented in the new book, ''Sensible Stock Investing.'' This approach enables the individual investor, in a reasonable time, to score companies and rank them against each other.

There are three categories in which a company can score points:

--The company's Story.

--The company's Financial Picture.

--Bonus Points.

The company's Story is a few sentences about what it does and how it makes money. Famed investor Peter Lynch said that before buying a stock, he liked to create a two-minute monologue about the company: what's good about it, what's necessary for it to succeed, what pitfalls it faces. Lynch said, ''Once you're able to tell the story of a stock...so that even a child could understand it, then you have a proper grasp of the situation.'' The book Sensible Stock Investing shows you how to construct the story and how to score it. A handy questionnaire helps you to focus on the important facts. Answer those questions, and you'll have the company's Story down cold.

The importance of the company's Financial Picture should be obvious. The time-pressed individual investor needs to home in on the most important data and ignore the ''noise.'' Financial information is abundant and free these days. The danger is getting lost in the deluge instead of extracting meaning from just the right elements. Sensible Stock Investing shows you how to score the five most important financial factors in a company's record, plus how to rate its dividend policy. The book also provides a formatted way to record this information to make scoring the company easy. Even if you know nothing about finance and accounting, filling out the form is straightforward and fun. Sometimes your eyes will pop out as the financial picture takes shape--because not all highly touted companies are as sound as you might think, while others that you hardly ever hear of have beautiful businesses that are virtual cash-generating machines. In scoring the financials, you will literally see the companies separate from each other. The truly excellent ones rise up to the top of the rankings, and the bad ones sink like stones. Every time.

Bonus Points are awarded for third-party opinions, such as Wall Street's analyst ratings. They do not comprise a high percentage of the company's total score, but they can be useful and should not be ignored.

In a nutshell, that is how excellent companies worthy of your consideration are identified. Scoring a company takes about an hour the first time you do it, while periodically updating the score takes maybe 10-15 minutes.

>--The company's Financial Picture.

--Bonus Points.

The company's Story is a few sentences about what it does and how it makes money. Famed investor Peter Lynch said that before buying a stock, he liked to create a two-minute monologue about the company: what's good about it, what's necessary for it to succeed, what pitfalls it faces. Lynch said, ''Once you're able to tell the story of a stock...so that even a child could understand it, then you have a proper grasp of the situation.'' The book Sensible Stock Investing shows you how to construct the story and how to score it. A handy questionnaire helps you to focus on the important facts. Answer those questions, and you'll have the company's Story down cold.

The importance of the company's Financial Picture should be obvious. The time-pressed individual investor needs to home in on the most important data and ignore the ''noise.'' Financial information is abundant and free these days. The danger is getting lost in the deluge instead of extracting meaning from just the right elements. Sensible Stock Investing shows you how to score the five most important financial factors in a company's record, plus how to rate its dividend policy. The book also provides a formatted way to record this information to make scoring the company easy. Even if you know nothing about finance and accounting, filling out the form is straightforward and fun. Sometimes your eyes will pop out as the financial picture takes shape--because not all highly touted companies are as sound as you might think, while others that you hardly ever hear of have beautiful businesses that are virtual cash-generating machines. In scoring the financials, you will literally see the companies separate from each other. The truly excellent ones rise up to the top of the rankings, and the bad ones sink like stones. Every time.

Bonus Points are awarded for third-party opinions, such as Wall Street's analyst ratings. They do not comprise a high percentage of the company's total score, but they can be useful and should not be ignored.

In a nutshell, that is how excellent companies worthy of your consideration are identified. Scoring a company takes about an hour the first time you do it, while periodically updating the score takes maybe 10-15 minutes.

w to score it. A handy questionnaire helps you to focus on the important facts. Answer those questions, and you'll have the company's Story down cold.

The importance of the company's Financial Picture should be obvious. The time-pressed individual investor needs to home in on the most important data and ignore the ''noise.'' Financial information is abundant and free these days. The danger is getting lost in the deluge instead of extracting meaning from just the right elements. Sensible Stock Investing shows you how to score the five most important financial factors in a company's record, plus how to rate its dividend policy. The book also provides a formatted way to record this information to make scoring the company easy. Even if you know nothing about finance and accounting, filling out the form is straightforward and fun. Sometimes your eyes will pop out as the financial picture takes shape--because not all highly touted companies are as sound as you might think, while others that you hardly ever hear of have beautiful businesses that are virtual cash-generating machines. In scoring the financials, you will literally see the companies separate from each other. The truly excellent ones rise up to the top of the rankings, and the bad ones sink like stones. Every time.

Bonus Points are awarded for third-party opinions, such as Wall Street's analyst ratings. They do not comprise a high percentage of the company's total score, but they can be useful and should not be ignored.

In a nutshell, that is how excellent companies worthy of your consideration are identified. Scoring a company takes about an hour the first time you do it, while periodically updating the score takes maybe 10-15 minutes.

n a company's record, plus how to rate its dividend policy. The book also provides a formatted way to record this information to make scoring the company easy. Even if you know nothing about finance and accounting, filling out the form is straightforward and fun. Sometimes your eyes will pop out as the financial picture takes shape--because not all highly touted companies are as sound as you might think, while others that you hardly ever hear of have beautiful businesses that are virtual cash-generating machines. In scoring the financials, you will literally see the companies separate from each other. The truly excellent ones rise up to the top of the rankings, and the bad ones sink like stones. Every time.

Bonus Points are awarded for third-party opinions, such as Wall Street's analyst ratings. They do not comprise a high percentage of the company's total score, but they can be useful and should not be ignored.

In a nutshell, that is how excellent companies worthy of your consideration are identified. Scoring a company takes about an hour the first time you do it, while periodically updating the score takes maybe 10-15 minutes.

ies separate from each other. The truly excellent ones rise up to the top of the rankings, and the bad ones sink like stones. Every time.

Bonus Points are awarded for third-party opinions, such as Wall Street's analyst ratings. They do not comprise a high percentage of the company's total score, but they can be useful and should not be ignored.

In a nutshell, that is how excellent companies worthy of your consideration are identified. Scoring a company takes about an hour the first time you do it, while periodically updating the score takes maybe 10-15 minutes. Updating should be done every few months. This is time well spent for the huge leg up it gives you on investors who do not do this most basic of homework.