November 14th, 2008 — Book Review, Personal Finance
I had some pretty high expectations going into this book. It rocketed to the top of the best seller list within days of its release and all the buzz surrounding it prepared me for a read that was going to change my life and make me rethink everything. Unfortunately, the only thing it made me rethink was my purchase of the book.
Let’s start with the good things first. The primary audience is those who are looking to break free of the corporate rat race and live their own lives according to their own rules. On the surface, the book promises to help them make it happen. However, it reads more like an inspirational Chicken Soup for the Overworked Soul. While it does offer some very good tips on how to start working less and making more money, it’s pretty much inspirational reading only. If you’re looking for hard hitting and proven methods of making more money right now, you’ll undoubtedly be disappointed.
While it is important to inspire people, it’s dangerous to fill their heads with notions that success is easy and that reading this book is going to make it happen. If you read it with the intent of getting started on your own, then great. But don’t look to this book as the end all and be all of how make tons of money. It serves its job as an inspirational text, but when it comes down to delivering the goods, it definitely falls short.
If you’re already established and making money on your own, then this book will serve as a good way to maybe rethink some new techniques, but you really won’t learn much. The author seems to be using this book as yet another income stream and for that he should be commended, but then again, it really doesn’t deliver on its promises.
While there is nothing wrong with writing a book to help people make more money, this certainly should not be used as the definitive bible. It serves a purpose mainly as inspirational, but you can get inspiration for a lot less money than this book costs. If it makes you take a chance and get out there on your own, terrific. However, you’re going to need a lot more help to be successful than this book can offer.
Overall, it was a pretty quick read that did cover some very good points. However, it fell down when it came to using debt in a smart way to make more money. It is a proven fact that leveraging your debt and managing it correctly is a way to create alternative income. I would have liked to have seen more coverage of this and a lot less pep talk.
Bottom line, if you’re looking for a tome that will shout rah rah at you, look no further. If you’re looking for factual advice you can turn around and start using right now, there are better books out there.
Related Articles
Related Stores
November 12th, 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.
Related Articles
Related Stores
