I just got a piece of mail from Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, of which I am a subscriber, offering free annual reports and prospectuses of many publicly traded companies and funds at http://kpf.ar.wilink.com. They even ship them to you for free. However, many popular companies are not available (I searched for Costco (COST)).
A better option is AnnualReportService.com, which doesn’t ship but shows you the .pdf version of reports for many more companies. You’ll need to log in to see them, but feel free to use the one I just made (cut & paste):
email: mrozohiams@kriocoucke.mailexpire.com
password: mymoneyblogcom
Next question was, how do I read them? I’ve gotten lots of these thick pamphlets full of numbers and dense statements, and promptly circular-filed them. But I just ran across this article on How to Read an Annual Report on MoneyChimp. It’s pretty nicely done – brief, easy to understand, and complete with purty diagrams.
I downloaded the Costco Report from AnnualReportService, and I’ll see if have time to use this article and glean any interesting bits.
If you want back issues of Money, Business Week, or Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, let me know. I’ll send them to you for free.
Again, very cool blog. No wonder it was voted the best one by WSJ. For some reason PFBlogger is not as interested in new books to read or serious investment opportunities. Being a Microsoft employee isn’t that great, except for some extra benefits they receive. Keep it up, and thank you for the book references you’ve provided. I would recomend “The intelligent investor” by Benjamin Graham as a future addition to your list. It’s on the same scale (if not higher) to bogle’s and buffet’s writings. Graham was definetely a highly respected personality in the investment world and was very conservative, but correct in his assumptions.