Entries Tagged 'Book Review' ↓
August 15th, 2008 — Book Review
Ben Stein is a well known personality that many consider to be a genius. His book, How to Ruin Your Financial Life is incredibly concise, coming in at under 130 pages, and most of it reads, as the title would suggest, as a guide to how to end up in debt over your head. It’s a funny read and you’ll probably find yourself nodding your head at many points, especially if you recognize similar behavior in his anecdotes.
The basic premise of the book is that it is advice in reverse. Stein points out that few of us listen to sound financial advice anyway, so why not write a book outlining how to ruin your finances instead of how to save them. He certainly gets points for originality, but at times, we were worried that a lot of readers may not get the lesson. The anecdotes are amusing, but there are spots where some readers may just not pick up on the subtleties.
The book definitely scores with its short form and engaging style. The chapter titles are as pithy as Stein is, and illustrate exactly what you should not do if you want to be financially stable. The chapter on “Convince Yourself That You Can Beat the Market Without Knowing Anything About It,” was very telling and should probably be given to anyone that has ever thought about making a killing in the stock market.
It’s interesting to base a whole book on a cautionary tale, and you’ll find plenty within its pages. It’s a good read, verging on a little bit dull at times, but we did find ourselves chuckling at many of the points. The sad thing is, most of us are guilty of at least a few of these financial mishaps, and it can serve as a great check point if you are finding that you just don’t have enough money left at the end of the month. In this case, you really can learn a lot from the book and it does serve its purpose quite well.
Overall, this was a pleasant read that was quite funny in spots. However, you could pretty much assemble your own copy by paying attention to the news and reading about how Americans spend too much, save too little and fritter away our lives. Is it essential reading? Probably not, but it’s still good for a laugh. It’s a great book to pass along to teens or college grads that are just getting started in life. They may learn a few great lessons and at the cover price, it won’t cost you much.
If you’re look for financial advice or a step-by-step guide on how to manage your finances, it’s probably best to look elsewhere. However, if you feel the need to reaffirm your commitment to getting your finances on track, it’s a great book to have around and revisit from time to time to make sure you’re doing things the right way.
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August 8th, 2008 — Book Review, Personal Finance
Wiley Publishing has put out a series of “Little Books” but this one may be the most important. If you are looking for ways to logically increase your wealth and secure your financial future, this is definitely a great starting point that will get you going in the right direction and help you avoid some common pitfalls along the way. We appreciated the no-nonsense style of writing and found that unlike many personal finance books, this one actually contained information that anyone can use, regardless of their current financial status or their knowledge of finance in general.
If the process of finding out which companies are the best to invest is somewhere between Greek and Sanskrit for you, this book offers a true guide to figuring out on your own what you need to do. From breaking down complex investing theories, to providing you with the tools to know when a deal is a good buy and when to walk away, this book has it all. Rarely have we seen a book that worked so hard to make it easy for anyone, and we really mean anyone, to invest.
You’ll learn how to spot economic moats as well as what may appear to be a moat, but is in actuality something else. The book uses real world examples to illustrate their points, such as the failure of Pets.com, to national clothing makers that investors thought were solid, only to have their clothes end up in discount stores within a few years. This is the kind of information that you need, especially if you are not working with a broker, or if you want to try figuring out the markets on your own.
The best section was the tools for valuation, which provides investors with easy ways of figuring out whether or not a stock is a good buy. This section alone is worth the cost of the book and we walked away with information that we could put to use right away. Another must read several times is the section on knowing when to sell. Many first time investors make the mistake of bolting when they need to hold on, or holding on too long. This chapter will help them find the right balance.
Overall, we loved the book and found it to be a resource that you can turn to again and again. It was very well written and engaging, which can be difficult for a book that is about facts and figures. We also fell in love with the fact that the book did not focus on get rich quick schemes, investing in insurance policies or investing in the housing market using shady deals. Unlike many books, the advice in here is proven and it really works. When it comes to making more money, this book can definitely get you started and you’ll have the benefit of working with the same techniques that Warren Buffett has used. You really can’t get any better than that.
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August 1st, 2008 — Book Review, Income Streams, Personal Finance
This was an absolutely fascinating read and its one of the few books that we truly recommend, especially to those with families. The main premise of the book is that our current system of having to have two incomes to make ends meet is what is driving individual family economic meltdowns. How can more money end up being a bad thing?
Warren, who is a professor of economics at Harvard, and her daughter Amelia, a business consultant, present a very strong case, backed up by numerous statistics that show we really are in trouble as a society, but it’s not our fault. Instead of falling back into the old line of complaining that American’s are overspending and dripping in debt, the two show that it’s not that at all.
According to the Warrens, it is what we’re spending that second income on that is the problem. The main case in the book is that the push to send our children to good schools has led to an incredible jump in real estate prices, especially near the best schools. In order to get into those schools, hefty tuitions must be paid. This system is perpetuating itself and creating a problem that many families cannot break away from.
Who wants to send their kid to a bad school, right? They claim that in the past, Mom was the financial “safety net,” where as now, most of her salary is going towards inflated house payments, car payments, and school tuitions, instead of into savings or investments as it should be.
With 80% of Americans living paycheck to paycheck right now, this book raises some very valid concerns. Unfortunately, there really is not a solution, barring sending your kids to public schools as avoiding pricey neighborhoods. However, if more families did that, it would free up more disposable income that could be spent freely.
We would have liked to have seen the book focus more on having “Mom” work on developing passive streams of income that would replace the need for that second salary, but overall, we found that the book was a refreshing and thought provoking read. If you are one of the millions of families that is struggling to make ends meet on two salaries, it is well worth the read.
It is rare to find a personal finance book that doesn’t encourage over-frugality, or get rich quick schemes that never work. We found this book to be hard hitting, filled with all the right facts (that were verifiable) and certainly well worth the time spent reading it. It may just open your mind up to some new ideas and help you develop a plan to break free of that trap, start creating a more passive stream of income and figure out how to get your family’s finances back on the right track. All of this boils into a lot less stress and financial hardship and that is something every one of us can use.
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July 25th, 2008 — Book Review, Personal Finance, Wealth
Everyone loves a true rags to riches tale, and although we’ve had some with the dot com boom, there were few that echoed the stories of immigrants that moved to the big city with a pocket full of pennies and a dream. We were thrilled to read this book and discover that the American dream is still alive and well, and this modern day rags to riches story was not only heartwarming, but packed full of advice that everyone can take to heart.
The author was twenty two when he decided to live his dream of making a million dollars by the age of 30. This Georgia native packed up what little he had and headed off to New York City to make his fortune. His family was not exactly supportive of his wild ideas, but within a space of six years, they were amazed to find that Corey managed to get the job done.
What we liked best about this story was that Corey didn’t find his wealth by getting lucky, nor did he make tons of money in the tech world. He did it the old fashioned way, and worked the same 9-5 job for that entire six year period. He simply managed his money, found good investments and watched as the balance in the bank grew to seven figures.
You really get the feeling after reading this book that anyone, given the right mindset and drive, can become a millionaire. There are few books that are this inspirational and helpful on the market, and there is a lot that can be learned from this story. The author did a great job of telling his tale, and it feels more like a memoir than a dull tome about personal finance.
However, even though this reads like a heartwarming novel, there is an incredible amount of advice contained in these pages that the reader can put to immediate use. While not all of it may be attainable, such as buying and wearing only one pair of shoes a year, there are some tips that everyone can use.
One of the biggest failings keeping Americans from realizing their dreams of wealth is overspending. You’ll sure be able to look at your budget in a whole new way after reading through Corey’s Cheapskate Strategies. While these can be modified to reduce their overall severity, chances are if you do follow them, you’ll be able to put quite a bit of money aside.
Overall, there are few books that have this much merit in the personal finance genre and we highly recommend this book. While you may not be able to follow all of Corey’s advice, even a small portion of it will help you get on the road to realizing financial security. A big part of Corey’s success is due to the fact that he was willing to sacrifice quite a lot before he was thirty, but now, he’s pretty much set for life. That’s a pretty small trade off in the grand scheme of life.
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July 18th, 2008 — Book Review, Personal Finance
Although this is a book by a chess expert, don’t let that fool you. There is some hard hitting advice here that can help you in many different areas of your life. If you are trying to learn more about managing your money and becoming a success, this book is one that definitely deserves a spot on your shelf. It covers, in a nutshell, how we learn and what techniques you can use to start learning more effectively. These same techniques can be carried over to any subject in your life and by following the methods prescribed in this book, you can easily start to achieve anything you put your mind to.
The name of Josh Waitzkin may be familiar to you. His father wrote the book, Searching For Bobby Fisher, and Josh is the chess genius from that book and the resulting movie. As a child, he was able to go up against the best minds in the game, and this book is the story of how he managed to do that. Each one of us thinks and processes information differently, but we can train our brains to some extent, and by sharing his methods, Waitzkin illustrates that we can be taught to be smart and to handle any obstacle in our lives.
The tone of the book is quite engaging, and the read goes very quickly. By taking what he learned from Chess and martial arts, Waitzkin helps you build a mental plan to handle all the facets of your life. The exercises are a bit dogmatic at first, but if you keep it up, you’ll find that you do actually see results. So many people want to be a success, and they want to understand how to make money, but most books fail to address how to get to that point with your mind. This was a refreshing change of pace and we loved every minute of it.
Using the theory of applied human performance, Waitzkin illustrates precisely how to start thinking the smart way, and how to literally train yourself to become more intelligent and more successful. Unlike so many other self help books, the techniques inside can be used by anyone and with great results. It was nice to see that the book didn’t delve into pop psychology or new agey terminology. Much like the author, it is intelligent.
Overall, we found this book to be an incredible resource that was fascinating to read. We appreciated the fact that author came from an entirely different place – not from the financial world – but from the world of chess. In a way, he ended up writing the ultimate book to help you learn about managing your money, because you are learning to manage your mind first. By tackling that, you can do anything. We highly recommend this book to anyone, regardless of their personal interests. It is time well spent, and may just change the way you think.
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July 11th, 2008 — Book Review, Debt, Diversification, Income Streams, Leverage
Douglas Andrew’s book reads like a rejected first draft of Rich Dad, Poor Dad and right off the bat, it’s kitschy premise (ripped right from the above book) falls more than a little flat. In order to illustrate his points, the author relies on his sons and their imaginary friends – and the discussions they might have about finances. We’ll leave that whole imaginary friend thing alone – that’s just too easy, and focus on the advice that is tossed around.
From the start, with the title, you’ll think you’ve got your hands on a great blueprint that will have your financial future secured by the time you hit thirty. Well, unfortunately, that’s just not the case. There is some really great advice for those that are just starting out, but unless you are completely new to financial planning, the book will most likely fall short of your expectations. It certainly fell short of mine.
This is the perfect book if you want to get into real estate investment – since this appears to be the only way that the author believes you can make a million by the time you hit thirty. Obviously, the book was written before the housing crash and did not take into account the current state of the market. Many people that delved too deeply have ended up financially ruined thanks to similar advice.
Whenever you try to create multiple streams of income, the key to their success is diversity. Just ask the people who sunk all of their cash into real estate. Right about now, they’re probably wishing they had spread out their investments a little more. The basic premise is that you need to purchase first a home of your own, second a vacation property and then buy more rental properties.
The main problem is the age group we’re talking about here. Most twenty year olds are not ready for the responsibilities of owning more than one home – heck, most are strapped enough as it is with an apartment. There is a lot of responsibility that comes with owning your own home, and unless you’ve got a solid job, trying to keep up on property taxes and insurance for that many properties is going to be a stretch, especially since the first two really won’t be earning any money.
It gets even worse however. Although the author is a proponent of using debt leverage to make more money, he recommends frequent refinancing of your homes. Again, this advice really wasn’t well thought out given the state of the housing market right now. In addition, constant refinancing will not do your credit history much good and you’ll end up with far too much risk in my opinion and far too little return.
If you read the book with the right mindset, there is some good advice mixed in with the bad. Granted, hindsight is always twenty-twenty, but smart investors know that good markets never stay good forever and he could have done more to address how to handle down markets.
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July 3rd, 2008 — Book Review, Debt, Leverage, Money
Marian Snow’s book had a lot of promise. First, it discusses equity harvesting and how to get the maximum amount of equity out of your home without being taxed on it. Second, it discusses how to use that money to make more money. Sounds great on the surface, but this book failed to deliver and ended up being a major disappointment. The subtitle: How to Safely Leverage the Equity Trapped in Your Home and Transform It Into a Constant Flow of Wealth and Security seems a bit macabre now, in the wake of the housing crisis and one wonders how many people are regretting that they ever picked this book up.
Let’s start with first things first. The author is encouraging people to “free” all that nice equity in their homes and put it into something that will actually earn money instead of depreciate. Sounds good – but can be risky if you don’t pick the right investments. Quite honestly, leveraging the roof over your head is never a solid idea, especially if you only have one stream of income. Lose your job – and poof – there goes your house. But, so far, so good with the book.
It’s the next part that lost me. The author wants readers to pull out their equity and invest it into this wonderful, magical tax-free fund that will reap huge rewards, and produce it’s own sunshine and lollipops. (Ok, maybe not the last two.) Keep reading and you’ll find out that this wonderful mythical fund is nothing more than life insurance. The book did provide an interesting study into a theory I’m developing however.
Books that encourage readers to harvest equity and place it into a magical fund usually wait until the absolute last second to reveal it’s nothing more than life insurance. Slap a different title on any one of them and you basically have the same book. That pretty much blew the whole premise for me from that point on. The main problem is that there simply isn’t enough of a return to warrant risking the equity in your home.
Whenever you’re using debt leverage to create a new stream of income, you’ve got to make sure that the return is going to be worth the risk. Given that tax laws could change at any time for insurance funds, this is a hair raising prospect that any smart home owner should avoid – at least for now.
There are dozens of other ways to leverage debt into multiple streams of income and they don’t include life insurance funds. While there is some benefit to investing in these funds, it’s never a good idea to go whole hog. You’ve got to diversify. Any fifth grader that sat through a basic course on financial planning would understand that.
Overall, I cannot recommend this book. It unfortunately gets thrown in the pile with the numerous other books that all promise big returns and end up selling you life insurance – sort to speak.
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June 27th, 2008 — Book Review
Douglas Andrew’s book targets the baby boomer generation and tries to convince them that it is not too late to become a millionaire and avoid living on soup kitchen handouts to survive retirement. That’s a pretty tall order and a lot of authors have failed at this exact same premise. While Andrew’s book is well written and contains some good advice, there is just not enough here to make it stand out from the other books in this overcrowded field.
The first part of the book is dedicated to the art of financial planning and if you can wade through it to get to the parts you really want to read – bravo. Personally, he spent far too much time covering this area and it started to feel a bit like filler halfway through. With a catchy title, most readers are going to want the goods pretty quickly and forcing them to sit through half a book of financial planning advice is not a good idea if you want them to stay connected.
He constantly stresses frugality and the importance of not consuming. Well – good luck with that. We all have to consume, and if we didn’t the economy would implode. I’m certainly not saying we should all throw caution to the wind and spend every last dime, but over-frugality doesn’t make much sense either. It’s the happy medium that counts when it comes to managing your finances, not the extremes.
Once he does finally get to the point, you’re treated to advice that you should rip your money out of its nice safe little IRA and throw it into life insurance investments. It doesn’t take long to wonder whether the author has a vested interest in this since the tone of the book shifts to a full on sales pitch. While life insurance investments can be useful, it’s certainly not a good idea to go blow your entire IRA on them. Another disturbing point is the fact that he acknowledges that tax laws for life insurance investments “may” be changing and he “thinks” that if you invest now, you’ll be grandfathered in.
I’m sorry but “think” is not enough to get me to cash in my IRA, thank you very much. While he does include some figures to illustrate his points, in my opinion, this is simply far too much to ask of any reader. In addition, while he did cover the importance of annuities, and other safe investments, there was no attention paid to the importance of having more than one source of income.
Baby boomers are being phased out rapidly from companies all across the country and many are finding that financial ruin is looming after being laid off. There is also a lack of advice on how to leverage debt (which is vital for readers that may not have plush savings accounts) to create more income for retirement.
The book failed on many fronts, and honestly, I cannot recommend it to anyone.
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June 20th, 2008 — Book Review
There has been a lot of hype surrounding Douglas Andrew’s book, Missed Fortune 101. Many people gushed that it unlocked the secrets to becoming a millionaire, so I went into the book with high hopes. I was pretty disappointed to discover that much of the advice is already well known and let’s face it, a bit on the mundane side. We all know it’s important to have a 401K, but few of us have the potential to turn that into a million dollars.
While the book does serve as a useful guide for those that are just starting out, it kind of defeats the purpose and the target audience. The title itself leads readers to believe it’s written for those of us that are past the starting years and facing the ugly truths of retirement planning. Unless you have absolutely no concept of financial planning, I’m afraid this book will be a bit of a disappointment.
It is well written and the author does have a lot of enthusiasm, which is helpful considering some of the mundane advice that is doled out. Quite honestly, I felt that the author focused far too much on taxation and although I acknowledge that understanding tax law and avoiding overtaxation is important, it’s certainly not going to turn you into a millionaire. You may save a few thousand here or there, but it’s not the silver bullet that the hype built up. That said, there are a few good tips on how to avoid having your savings funds taxed into oblivion, but again, it seems as though the author was missing the point.
My main issue with the book is that it encourages readers to leverage the money from their homes into “special funds.” Finally, it’s revealed that these “special funds” are nothing more than investment grade life insurance policies. Personally, I believe it’s a bad idea to encourage people to endanger their homes with this type of investment, and quite honestly, the returns are not that good to warrant that kind of commitment.
The author encourages readers to build up as much mortgage debt as possible – which may have sounded good at the time, but as the latest news has proven, was really bad advice. Although he did discuss leveraging that into the investments mentioned above, it’s just not a sound enough premise to warrant anyone rushing out to adopt it. In fact, I worry that readers who took this advice to heart may be facing foreclosure right now.
Overall, while the book was well written, it fell horribly, horribly short of its promise. Perhaps if it had a different title, I would have come away with more praise. As it is, the hype is nothing more than that – empty hype that will get you no closer to realizing your dreams of financial independence. In that vein, it’s really not worth your time and there are far better books that cover the basics of dealing with taxes and finding ways to invest your money.
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June 6th, 2008 — Book Review, Personal Finance, Wealth
Thomas J. Stanley’s follow-up to his well-received book The Millionaire Next Door, follows a pretty interesting premise. It basically picks the brains of millionaires to find out how they got their wealth and how they keep it. It certainly offers an interesting read and I do recommend it, but not as a book that is going to teach you how to go out and make money today. It serves its purpose as a guide to help you understand how the rich think, but if you’re looking for step-by-step advice on how to make more money right now, it falls a bit flat.
This is basically a series of interviews that cover how some people managed to get rich. Unfortunately, it really doesn’t go very in-depth into these techniques. Instead, we get a whole chapter devoted to the process of picking the right spouse. What’s love got to do with it indeed? This rather antiquated view of picking the kind of spouse that will support you and be advantageous to your career is a bit out of place in today’s society. While there is a lot to be said for marrying someone who is going to stick it out with you, it lost me when it got down to bypassing the standard reason that most people do get hitched - love - and boiled it down to a merger.
Next up, the author discusses the importance of picking a vocation that you can truly be passionate about and one that is not already too filled. This is all well and good if you’re just starting out, but the primary audience for this book is most likely already well established and it’s a little too late to start thinking about changing horses in midstream. I would have liked to have seen more discussion on alternate streams of income that can supplement your existing paycheck.
Frugality plays a big role in this book as most real millionaires don’t live high on the hog. If they did, they wouldn’t be millionaires for long. The problem is most of us already get that. We know that if you spend money like water, it won’t be long before the tank runs dry. That knowledge is as old as the hills and about as useful. It is all well and good to teach reader’s about being frugal and not overspending, but this is a concept that most of us over the age of 30 (again, the intended audience) already get.
Due to this reason, this book is best classified as an interesting volume on how rich people think and it is well suited for those who are just starting on their financial journey. For those of us that were hoping for a book that would unlock the secrets of how these people made their money, it falls a bit flat. It’s still worth the read, but only as a reaffirmation of what most of us already know. It certainly won’t show you how many of these millionaires managed to spin straw into gold, and that is what most of us want to know.
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