Business Money Books

I just read this for the solar chapter, but found the company information quite good. Thank you.

I'm an experienced investor and found this book useful as an overview of the state of green investing. The advice seems objective and fair.
SW

Green Investing is a good primer on this emerging market. It's very well organized with loads of information on specific companies. it was worth the 15 bucks.

Its a great reference for the green investor with tips and advice for how to go about finding and choosing investments.

Jack Uldrich creates an interesting and very well researched guide for those attracted to clean technology; both the beginner investor wanting to make
environmentally aware investments and experienced investors looking for information on wind, solar, biofuels and other clean tech will benefit from this book. I would recommend for those people interested in environmental investing in specific technologies like biofuels (chapter 4), solar investing (chapter 5) or wind investing (chapter 6) read that chapter first. Then proceed to chapter
7, Alternative Energies, where Green Investing covers geothermal, fuel cell, wave and clean coal investment opportunities.

In my opinion chapter 8 on energy conservation shows the most promise for short term investing, in regards to clean technologies, and make the purchase
price of the book a great investment - well worth the purchase price.

To go on the author, Jack Uldrich, does a great job of presenting facts and research on the green tech companies and to his credit he keeps the passion (hype) out of the presentation. Having read several of his books, and heard him speak on a few occasions, if you want passion on future technology you
can't go wrong with one of his other books, in fact you must read: "Jump the Curve" (2008) and "The Next Big Thing is Really Small" (2003).

I declared in 2002 and was devastated. I'm sure everyone is but my morale and my sense of security were rotten. I had just moved to a new city on the other coast and strolling through unusually small bookshops, I came across the first edition of this book. It was illuminating to me, someone who had no credit education at all. I wish I read it before and I'd never have needed it later. But the real clincher came when I went to his seminar, freely offered. I was somewhat suspicious but after going there I left with real hope. I signed up for his regular email bulletin and I've participated in 1 phone conference since then. He has dedicated himself to the postbankruptcy recovery period and keeps current. So even if his own bankruptcy was a long time ago, his information keeps being upgraded. His dynamic personality ensures that he has connections and so you will be able to find lenders to help you during the difficult period of no credit to bad credit to mediocre etc. He has contacts and they respect him, so that coming to them through Steven shows them you are a better risk, someone who is trying to do things properly. Knowing that I could get a car, while mine was rapidly falling apart, was a huge relief. The second edition of this book was not as exciting to me, since I've learned much more since then. It is not fair to evaluate it. I wish it had more of a directory, with names and numbers etc., which he gives you at the seminar. But since his seminars focus on specific geographic areas, it is easier than say keeping the entire USA in one place. I get the limitations. So, my 5 score rating is for the whole package. I don't know how someone new to the process would feel reading the book but it gives you hope, tips, and a simple plan to follow that will help you. Now if you can't or won't follow them, that is another story and discovering why will probably help you lots. The other thing is it presumes a drive that many people may not have. You have to have a certain personality to be willing to go out there and advocate for yourself and not just be feeble and submissive but to keep your head up, not give up when you hear "no", and keep on going till you get "yes". That isn't for everyone. In some cases, it may not be feasible if you live in a small town. Your options are limited. But in this day and age of internet, maybe it isn't so limiting. Anyway, there is no cookie cutter approach and you have to adapt these principles to fit your needs. And the religious stuff is so innoccuous. I hate when people preach to me but it is really inoffensive. Every spiritual tradition believes in the idea that if you give, you will get. And it is very true. The money we waste can turn into positive karma if we mindfully donate a portion of it to a worthy cause. And mindfulness about money can only be helpful for the recovering person.

This is one of the most strange books I have read. The author is sexist and out of touch with modern society. He differentiates betweeen "men's work" and "women's work", pushes religion, and among his 32 ways to cut living expenses he recommends finding new homes for your pets and other strange suggestions (like not sending Christmas cards but writing more letters throughout the year). I also find it alarming how he touts leasing cars, and he apparently does it quite often as he speaks of his third car, his wife's fourth car, etc. Why not just buy a decent used car and pay for the upkeep? Really bizarre and a complete waste of time. Like another reviewer mentioned, there is much more complete and up to date information available all over the web. Also, try your local non-profit credit counseling office, they generally offer free classes and educational material.

This is a good book for someone who filed bankruptcy this book has given me a lot of insight on thing

This book is FULL of commercials but void of any specific information you can apply to your life. His advice on everything from getting credit cards, auto loans, installment loans, mortgages, what ever, is to research everything out there and interview every loan officer, credit mangager etc out there, and find the best deal.
This book, his internet site, and his "free" seminar are all in effect teases to get you to buy his "Increase Your Credit Scores - Improve Your Lifestyle" course which costs $497. Presumably, some actually utilizable information is in that.

There is a moderate amount of useful information about life after bankruptcy. Probably half of the information can be found on the internet. However, the author should not have used the bankruptcy information as a cover for preaching his religious beliefs. I felt mislead.

The Internet Cash Machine is an excellent book for anyone wishing to get into the Internet business. It was here that I first learned about affliate merchants, as well many other things I had no idea about when it comes to the Internet. Another book I would strongly recommend is Intenet Millionaire. Read this one first. It's a good lead-in to the Internet Cash Machine. Since I've read these two books, I have registered my first Domain name and am in the process of setting up my website.

I really enjoyed Joe Vitale and Jillan Wheeler's book Your Internet Cash Machine. For someone who doesn't know much about online marketing and how to make cash with selling information, this books explains it all. For me, it has built an interest to know more. There are suggestions to helpful websites and lots of stories and practical advice on, among other things, how to set up your website, bulid lists, and write hypnotic copy. A great nuts and bolts book!

If you want to start a business online and don't know how to begin, BUY THIS BOOK. I have been looking at starting an online business and was overwhelmed with trying to figure out all the pieces to the puzzle. Your Internet Cash Machine gives great advice and examples on every aspect - from setting up a site, to managing lists, to affiliate programs. I expect to use this information to get started and go back to it as I grow my business. Thank you Jillian and Joe! Tara[...]

This is a typical Joe Vitale book template.
Formula:
Feel Good Chapters
Self/Peer Promotion
Fluff and no Stuff

Rinse and repeat. After reading the book you feel as though you need to speak with someone on getting advice on starting a web business as this book is primaraily filled with "success stories" but not how they actually did it.

Alot of "go to this site" , "go the that site" but no real blueprint.

Pass

I have nothing to say other than this book is nothing but a waste of time. The meat, if there is any, can be gained in 5 minutes of reading while in the bookstore. I definitely would not buy before looking through this book.

This is a wonderful book. It is highly probable that you will learn a lot from the Money Masters. I bet that you will read it more than once. If you buy it and don't like it then I will buy it from you at my average cost.

like the Investment Gurus book in that it interviews great investors.

very good food for investment thinking. boring to read though took many times to open it to finish it

I have read Mr. Train's earlier books The Money Masters and The New Money Masters and found them informative and interesting, gaining insights from some of the worlds most sucessful investors. Mr. Train's research seemed to rely heavily on personal interviews of these Masters often providing the reader with unique investment philosophies not readily available elsewhere. I especially recommend Mr. Train's first book in this series The Money Masters because this book moved me away from the trading of stocks and futures as practiced by Robert Wilson the short seller and Stanly Kroll the great commodity speculator. The techniques they employed seemed too elusive and fraught with risk and if this was the basis of the trading game it was not the game for me. I was instead attracted to the similer philosophies of mentor and student Ben Grahman and Warren Buffett. Looking at a stock as a share of a business not a piece of paper with a number on it. This was the first time I had been exposed to the wisdom of these two investors and I am grateful to Mr. Train for revealing to the public their methods. The problem I have with the current rendition is that it really adds nothing new. In fact Mr. Train seems to have copied parts of the first Money Masters and spliced them into this version. I may be wrong but it doesn't seem that the effort or creativity that went into the original went into this work. Another sort of irritating quality in this instance thankfully not present in the first book is Mr. Train's need to psychoanalyze some of his subjects especially Mr. Buffett. This adds an edge to the book that is not worthy of Mr. Train.

The people who are looking to gain valuable insight as to the workings of the market from this book are sadly mistaken. This is a book, along the lines of James Grant's book, that gives a number of vignettes and minature biographies of the leading money makers of our times, such as T. Rowe Price, Buffet, Templeton, Rainwater, Cabot, Fisher, Graham, Lightbown, Neff, Robertson, Rogers, Soros, Carret, Steinhardt, Wanger, Wilson, Lynch. You will essentially find that there is no "one" style that is successful, which lends credence to the theory that the markets are quite efficient, and some of these guys are victims of luck as well as skill.

The fact that it was written in early 2000 is a plus, not a minus, as you can trace what happened to them after the crash.

GOod book, the author is a bit preachy, egotistical and gossips about his subjects, but that's OK.

The idea of this book was great but unfortunately it was disappointing. It does not go into enough detail into any of the managers' investment processes to be able to apply them. I would suggest reading instead The Intelligent Investor, John Neff on Investing, or The Warren Buffet Way.

I love this book because it have a lot of good information for you to think about for a startup. This book has fill in templates to help get you on the right track. This book is not about writting a business plan. It's about the things you need to do that is critical to your startup business. It may be simple, or you may say i knew that, but i know there are alot of people in business that did not do the things in this book.

This book was an easy read and recommend it to anyone that doens't have owning their own business experience.

Rhonda Abrams lays the down the bear bones of starting a business. She lists what you need to do and provides a lot of the forms that need filling out, etc (but these may be outdated so you should check) and in plain english, explains how to get thing done...but that is all this book is...nothing more, nothing less.

The title is enticing. Anyone that has started a business knows that 6 weeks is ambitious. This 6 weeks does not take hold ups that may be out of your control into account. For example, if you send you LLC formation paperwork to the Secretary of State it may take 3+ weeks to be filed, whereas if you go to the Secretary of State you may be complete in one day. Always assume the fast track if you aiming for things to be doen in 6 weeks.

This book is a great, simple, non-threatening place to start but this should not be your only "small business" book on your shelf.

Maybe if you are business-retarded this book might give you some ideas about the process of starting a business. But most of the material can be found worded differently by online articles or by using some common sense. Therefore, the book really does not provide any unique perspectives or tricks. Anytime a book gives you the impression that you can achieve something in a short period of time or simplifies it in a few steps, you know the author has watered the topic down so much that it ends up being a waste of time. But, hey its a good marketing strategy; it got me to buy it!

I'm a technology guy looking for a high-tech start-up book that really teaches you the "ins and outs." Does anyone have any recommendations?

Has some good tips, but there is a lot of fluff just to fill pages. There numerous worksheets to fill out, but there is no assistance is analyzing what you filled in on the sheets, other than to just think about it. You will not start most small businesses with this book's approach.

I agree with the previous reviewer, this book is a great book for kids and it's also great for newbie adults too. I've read at least a dozen investment books and some just give you lots of data (that you don't really care about/understand) and others don't leave you with steps or anything that you can apply in a practical way. I found this book easy to read and if I had a kid I would sit and read it with him/her. Currently, I recommend this book to my friends who are also starting to invest/take control of their finances.

Maybe it's just me, but all I ever learned about money growing up was that it should be earned from a job and saved in a bank. This is what most parents teach, because it's what most parents know. And so as a twentysomething college graduate, I have learned more from this book than from any other financial advice book that I've ever read. Most books made for adults start from where the authors believe we adults "should" already be: semi-knowledgeable about money and investment basics and simply in need of more detailed advice. Those types of books always confused me with their jargon and concepts, even when I was a business major in college. This book takes a wide range of topics including basic economics, stock/bond/mutual fund investments, banking, and budgeting and makes it all, well, easy enough for a kid to understand. In doing that, it also serves as a good resource for adults who are true beginners in money management and investing. I wish that I had received this information as a kid, but I think that by reading this book I now know more about money than my parents and plenty of adults ever will. If you are a parent, this is a great way to start your kid on a path to financial literacy. If you are an adult who, like me, was often intimidated and overwhelmed by the world of personal finance, give this book a try to build your confidence and become familiar with various concepts. I don't think that you will find any book intended for adults so willing to break things down the way a children's book does. The funny thing is, most kids that read this book will end up knowing more about money than most adults!

Buy this book if you would like to take a look inside the world of investment banking and how security analysts really operate. After reading this book you will not take buy and sell recommendations as seriously. This book recommends that when a strong buy is reduced to a buy it is a warning to institutonal holders and it is a good time to sell, and when a buy is changed to a sell it is a good time to buy due to all the bad news being out.
The author tells about his daily experiences as a stock analyst, his schedule, amount of travel, and that only 20% of his time was spent in research, the majority of tim is spent keeping clients of the investment bank happy. You will learn all about the conflicts of interest that exist in ranking stocks and the politics involved. The author gives his opinions on how the industry should be cleaned up by making resarch separate from the bank and the analysts should be held accountible on how their recommendations perform. The author gives solid investment advice through out the book, but it is rather basic. I was a little disappointed in not getting the inside insight that I believed he may have.

Legendary investor Gerald Loeb on stock analysts:
"In a bull market,you don't need them, in bear market, you don't want them."

Stephen McClellan's keynote speech and book are both informative, easy to understand, and entertaining. Finally, somebody is addressing the needs of the small investor. In the book he explains how Wall Street really works. Definitely worth reading.


Author of Knockout Presentations

Brokerages did not even track the accuracy of their analysts' opinions until recently. A 2007 survey found stock-picking 10th (out of 12) in priority of analyst attributes - ranked by their employers. Not surprisingly, their track-record for accuracy is often atrocious.

Problems begin with the fact that rating definitions differ between firms, and are usually overstated (in code) to pacify affected executives (eg. "Hold" = negative). Upgrades are usually late, rarely value-oriented, and usually momentum-driven. Unclear, but suspected issues (eg. lack of confidence in management's estimates, concern about untrustworthy management) are not put into writing, and may only show up in an analyst's body language or tone of voice.

Analyst coverage overemphasizes large firms (obviously greater interest in them), is biased towards the short-term (6 months, or less), misses Titan shifts (eg. moving from film to digital), reaches individual investors late (vs. media, and institutions).

Analysts generally ignore economists' projections - they're changed too often (and wrong). Analysts are reticent to downgrade a stock, fearing institutional holder retaliation via commission allocations.

Since 2000, the number of analysts has declined about 40%, and is en route to falling another 30% by 2008.

Best investments are those that are safe (low multiples, healthy balance sheet, not falling), small-cap, innovators, viewed for the long-term, and in a rising industry. Avoid IPOs (only dogs are offered to the little people), limit the number of holdings, firms with executives that blame external factors for their firm's problems, and those with flashy personal style.

"Full of Bull" does not address the question of the relative importance of timing vs. stock selection. In today's obvious down market (and prior boom markets), timing seems much more important.

This book is what I needed. It kindof reinforces what I have always thought, and makes me feel more confident as an independant investor. I like the straight forward style and the candid insight of wallstreet by a guy who knows what really goes on. A must read for todays market, or any market.

I heard about 'Full of Bull' while listening to Money Talk with Bob Brinker. I trust Brinker, so when he recommended the book and did an interview with the author, it got my attention. I never really understood how detrimental how some of Wall Street's actions can be to my personal investing. This book describes these practices and has helped me learn how to avoid taking what brokerage firms say literally. I never knew why Wall Street analysts are such bad stock pickers, or that emphasis lists are useless, or that stock price targets are just a guess. These guys are just trying to keep the big institutional investors happy. The stories the author tells are very candid and amusing. What I really liked was that after identifing all the land mines, the author gives some really solid, conservative investment advice. Own only a few stocks, don't diversify, no turnarounds or IPOs, and always look for dividends. The most important advice pertains to protection of capital. No one else really talks about this in detail. I wish the book was longer, had a few charts and tables, and that I had discovered it sooner. This is one of the most intriguing, informative books on the stock market.

This book obviously caught my attention because of the title. The author of the book has many great strategies for individuals in business; strategies that will help aspiring entrepreneurs climb to the top financially. It was also interesting to learn that there are five levels of entrepreneurs I always thought entrepreneur defined anyone owning their own business. Brad waste no time distinguishing between all 5 levels and the impact each level has on the way you think about business and finances is astronomical. I am a new start up company and I am glad I read this book before opening the doors to my new business. I will have an advantage over many who have not read this book and those who are unaware of these concepts.

Recently heard Brad Sugars do a workshop on wealth creation. Having read the book several times already the workshop, his 'billionaire in training' global series really cemented many of the concepts for me. For example what type of business to buy first (a franchise vs. starting something from scratch), the math on how much you can take out of a profitbable business to invest in real estate and other investments, and on and on. Simple,\ and straight forward making it very possible for just about anyone to execute. Some had said that it's so basic that you can find the information anywhere. Then why aren't they all wealthy?

If you're thinking of starting your own business, read this book first! If you've been "around the block" in business for a while, read this book yesterday. I was absolutely blown away by the inspiration I got from reading this. Brad Sugars discusses the 6 Levels of Entrepreneurs, the 7 Rules for Buying a Business, the 5 Ways to Super Profits, and the 4 Ways to Build Leverage. Along with all this valuable information is an all-important journey into the mindset of entrepreneurs and the opportunity for the reader to discern his/her own purpose in business. This experience has radically changed my perspective and focus, and all for the better!

This book is a advertisement for his company. Action International Team is a global network of business coaches, and this book tells you how his team will really help your business grow.
He has good ideas, but I felt cheated at the end.

This book is nothing but superfluous stuff that you can easily find on your own. No real world specific examples. He uses his books to sell you his "coaching services" and nothing more. This guy is a BS artist....save your money. Do a search on Brad sugars books on Amazon; they all have "5" star ratings....hmmm, what a coincidence! IMO, the ratings are fake, and put there by his own people.

It's a great idea by Donald Trump to encourage people willing to pursue entrepreneurship to support them with specific 'how to do' books. Unfortunately, this books lacks depth. While the book covers many subjects and its basics it lacks an indepth analysis of issues. I'm not saying that it has to become academic, I just need more information on an individual subject. Anyone who has read 'Extraordinary Entrepreneurship' knows what i mean. It's approximately 3 times thicker but contains 50 times more information on the art of entrepreneurship.

An entrepneurship book worth your time and money! This book is more of a crash course in strategic entrepreneurship. The author is extremely qualified and passionate about the subject. The chapters are loaded with smart tips and valuable tools. I recommend this book for anyone who wants to be a global business leader. Finally, this book will get you thinking in ways to be a better entrepreneur.

Although I studied Entrepreneurism and now teach the subject at Waseda University in Tokyo Japan, I learned a number of things and synthesized a few things using Gordon's models that made it much easier for students to digest. This is the best book/text I know of to teach upper level undergraduates or beginning graduates students in management. I started an apparel company in 1989 and I wish I had this book as a guide. I made a lot of mistakes that I could have avoided using the information in this book.

If you ever thought of starting your own business and wanted to test, develop and launch your idea against a variety of practical and proven market scenarios, Michael E. Gordon's Entreprenuership 101 positions you for stellar success.

Crafted in an engaging and illuminating literary style, Gordon's book and the man himself, walks the talk! As a veteran entreprenuer who broke out of the corporate confines of bureaucratic lethargy, Gordon followed the glint in his eye and built and sold a company on an idea that had all of the hallmarks of a true opportunity. What exactly is a real opportunity and how do you know if you've got one? Read the book, understand Gordon's customer model and get ready for the ride of your life! This is truly a life-changing handbook for anyone with even the slightest inclination towards entreprenuerial freedom.

Gordon's Entrepreneurship 101 is one of the best books I've ever read! This all-in-one business book ranges from the entrepreneur's mindset to the actions taken. It develops a series of unique frameworks, models, and tips for essential entrepreneurial "thriving forces," the forces that not only lead the entrepreneurs to be successful, but also shape their business to be promising. Through a systematic approach and interactive learning model professionally designed by the author, the book enriched me more solid skills of HOW to turn our idea into a money machine that produces sustainable long-term profit more easily. Another feature of this book I particularly like is that the various analysis tools briefed in charts and exhibits can be downloaded from the website for our personal use.

I also appreciate the writing style in clear and direct presentation, which sort of exposed me to quick digesting, to quick absorbing, to quick thinking, to quick acting, and to quick changing. The best part of this book is the "Action" section at the end of each chapter. After getting the entrepreneur's mindset and being trained to think and act like an entrepreneur, you can't wait to take actions to be a real, ambitious and successful entrepreneur!

I highly recommend this book to all my friends, business partners and the people who are reading my review: don't miss this book; this book may also work its inspirational magic on you! As a venture capitalist, I can confirm with you that the people who possess the spirit of Entrepreneurship 101 are our investment targets!

-- review written by Janice Wang

This book will change the approach of many peaople that are close or in the retirement. Valuable information with especific direction.

This book is primarily a sales pitch aimed at getting you to borrow against your home to buy indexed universal life insurance. The author advises you to not only not contribute to a 401(k) or IRA but encourages you to withdraw the funds to buy insurance. His illustrations regarding the tax consequences of distributions from your tax deferred retirement accounts are simplistic. He also omits entirely the tax savings you have when contributing to a 401(k). If you contributed $20500 (the limit for 2007 for someone age 50 or over to a 401(k) and were paying a marginal tax combined state and federal tax rate of 33%. (A rate the author uses in many of his illustrations) you would save $6765 in taxes immediately. The tax savings can also be invested in either a taxable account or possibly a Roth IRA or even a nondeductible traditional IRA. You would then have $26,765 (not including the employer match) working for you instead of just the $20500 that you would have paid in premiums for the universal policy. The author does not mention this possibility at all. He compares a pretax 401(k) contribution to an after-tax insurance premium. He states that the 401(k) distributions are taxable when received (a true statement)and therefore you have not improved your retirement situation. However, you will have been able to save more than 30% more each year than you would have put into the insurance policy and since a significant portion of the total retirement balance will have already been taxed you can pay taxes from that side of the savings.

The author is several places compares the returns of a mutual fund to the universal life policy by assuming a 10%-11% return to both investment vehicles, conveniently ignoring that you must pay substantial insurance expense and mortality charges from the returns. If both a index mutual fund earns 10% and index universal policy earns 10% before expenses, you must compare the two vehicles after charges and expenses are deducted. In that case the mutual fund may have a 9.5% return while the insurance policy would have a 7-8% return. Although the policy credits are not subject to income taxes, the net after-tax difference is not as large as first appears. However, this is only comparing the after-tax rate of return on the policy. You must also compare the balances which will earn those returns. You will pay substantial commissions (loads) to buy an index universal policy (generally 5%-12% of the premium). After commissions you will have considerably less money working for you. You could pay as much as $24,000 in commissions on a $200,000 premium. This means that your policy will have a much lower balance than your investment for several years. See the author's illustration of values on pages 292-293. While looking at that table also note that the illustration has an initial premium payment of $62700 while he compares it to a 401(k)/IRA contribution of approximately $35,000 for a married couple (and ignores the tax savings which can also be invested). He also assumes that the 401(k)/IRA are subject to 3% sales charges and a 1% expense ratio. You can buy no-load index mutual funds all day long with no sales charge and expense ratios of less than 0.25%. In this illustration he assumes contributions to the alternative investments all cease after 10 years at age 60 and that the couple will retire at age 70 and begin taking distributions. Having shown a comparison of smaller contributions to a 401(k) with larger contributions to the retirement account, he then "proves" that the insurance policy will last longer than the 401(k)! I can present an analysis to my clients which shows that the same after-tax investment in a combination of a 401(k) and taxable account will be far superior to the insurance policy.

The advice to continue refinancing your mortgage ignores the costs of refinancing. You will incur transaction costs in refinancing. Although some mortgage brokers will advertise no closing costs you must compare the effective annual percentage rate of the loans offered. The mortgage brokerage business can be just as deceptive as the insurance brokerage business. The author also ignores the itemized deduction phase-out and alternative minimum tax consequences of his strategy to refinance and use the proceeds to buy life insurance.

I could go on for hours about problems with this author's strategies and the misleading arguments he makes. The long-term rate of appreciation on residential real estate is aproximately 6% or 3% above inflation, which coincidentally, is approximately the market rate on conventional mortgages. The current housing credit crunch is a product of strategies such as those presented in this book.

If you wish to assure an insurance agent and a mortgage broker of a good retirement, follow the strategy. Otherwise consult a good fee-only financial planner for sound planning advice. You can buy a lot of advice for the commissions you will incur following this author's sales pitch.

I can't help but wonder if Andrew would have written the same book a year later. I'm adding this review because the two highest reviews when I checked today are seven months old, and the real estate world has changed a lot in those seven months. As noted in the other reviews, the gist of the advice is to get as much equity out of your house as possible and invest that money in universal life insurance instead of a paid-down mortgage.

Today, you'd have a hard time getting an interest-only loan, let alone a negative amortization loan, at an interest rate that's competitive with other investment options. In many parts of the country, real estate is not appreciating and may not recover its 2007 valuations for years. I don't do "money math" myself; I pay a financial advisor to help me. So do your own number crunching.

Mostly? For the best ROI, get the book from the library. The logic of NOT paying off a mortgage is informative, and I'll discuss my own retirement plans with my advisor a little differently as a result. I may not pay off my HELOC ahead of schedule; I might do something else with the funds I'd earmarked for principle-only payments. But the alternatives and actual mechanisms of what to do instead of paying down a mortgage are probably already out-of-date.

Finally, the content of the book could probably be reduced significantly if all the times the author says, "I'll tell you how to do this in a later chapter" were cut out. Another plus for libraries, IMO.

Many, if not most, older Americans are ill prepared for retirement. They have less than $50,000 saved and most have far less. So there is a real need for a book that will help this large group learn to catch up. Unfortunately, this book does not live up to that promise.

The bottom line: Buy insurance. I don't think so. While I'm not a financial genius, I do know that you don't use insurance as an investment. Not the way the book describes.

There are many ways to accumulate money and one must look for ways to pay as little tax as possible. So to that extent, I agree with the author. But the book is a lot of fluff and very little substance.

If you follow the author's advice, you could get into some trouble. And, having sold insurance myself, I can tell you that there is no insurance product designed to provide a tax free income or any income short of an annuity and disability income. And an annunity is of limited value and only to some people.

In addition, one could argue the value of a home and mortgage payments as tax deductions. There are other authors (for example Ramsey) who will advise you to pay off that mortgage and be free of it; that it's not that much of a tax deduction.

I'm not taking sides on that issue. But I'm merely saying that you can get both sides and each makes good arguments.

I don't see how not taking out an IRA at any age could not be a good thing. As long as we must pay income tax, why not put all we can in an IRA or SEP-IRA or whatever and pay less taxes? Of course it's tax deferred and not tax free. But one would assume that when one actually takes out the money, one will be in a lesser tax bracket. And yes, there are rules and regulations that can be harsh. But there's no way to beat the system. It's too bad we have to plan our lives around taxes to begin with!

I got nothing from this book that would help me. Perhaps you will. But I wouldn't count on it.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I have not read The Last Chance Millionaire. BUT, I have read Mr. Andrew's previous two books including the substantially more lengthy and detailed Missed Fortune which was written for financial advisors. I am assuming, based on my cursory once-through in the book store and the numerous reviews I have read here, that this book contains much of the same information as Mr. Andrew's previous two books as well as the same recommendations.

Although the many proponents of Mr. Andrew's financial strategies (many of whom use his strategies to sell mortgages and life insurance) might think, I have nothing against Mr. Andrew personally and no axe to grind. I wish that I, too, could in good conscience use Mr. Andrew's strategies to help my clients meet their financial goals and sell boatloads of life insurance. But I can't. Still, my only reason for writing this review is to warn potential readers (and consumers) about the potential risks of following the advice and recommendations in Mr. Andrew's books, including this one. I am in full agreement with the other reviewers who have complained about Mr. Andrew's consistency in glossing over the many potential risks of following his recommendations.

That said, I must admit that I agree with many of Doug Andrew's assertions regarding retirement plans, future tax rates, reasons to keep equity outside your home and the need to prudently and effectively manage your home equity. And I discuss those concepts with my financial planning and wealth management clients. However, I do NOT agree that taking money out of an IRA, qualified retirement plan or your home to invest in equity-indexed life insurance is a prudent, one size fits all strategy. Why? You might ask. Visit either or both of the following webpages and you'll know why... in great detail.

[...]
[...]

Before you consider following any of the strategies in Doug Andrew's books, you should read the article on the webpage below from the Salt Lake City Weekly about Kelly Bills, a Salt Lake City financial advisor who has developed a reputation for helping the scores of individuals (many of them elderly) who have been hurt financially by Mr. Andrew's firm and his financial strategies to get some or all of their money back. Once you've read the article, you'll think twice about blindly following Doug Andrew's financial strategies or seeking out one of his "qualified" financial advisors.

[...]

Good luck.