Business Money Books

I'm really pleased to have discovered this book. It's aimed at people like me who have a hard time dealing with the "cold, hard facts" of money. Part I helps you look at your history with money and the reasons you might have difficulty with it. Taking an emotional and spiritual approach to wealth, the first part of the book gets you grounded in a new sense of confidence and excitement about tackling the challenge of mastering your financial life. Part II starts to give you the practical knowledge you'll need to put your new confidence to work for you. This is a great combination of the "soft" and "hard" aspects of money.

A really useful book - on many levels. At first I was afraid this might be a little "touchy-feely" for me. But after reading the entire book, I realized that I had learned a lot. I don't mean only about practical details of investing, credit management, etc., but also about myself as a person. I especially appreciated the Money Scripts. It's great to be able to put a name to the stuff I struggle with. Now I'm figuring out my girlfriend's type!

True wealth takes a 'holistic' approach to working with money, and TRUE SELF, TRUE WEALTH: A PATHWAY TO PROSPERITY covers not only business sense but spiritual and psychological security and practices, using the emerging field of neuroeconomics to link emotions to economic choices. Recommended for both new age and business collections alike, TRUE SELF, TRUE WEALTH offers quotes from spiritual teachers and financial gurus, exercises, and examples of finding a different kind of financial security in life, and is a choice new age libraries especially will find popular.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Great book. I found this book to be highly information and motivational. The motivational part is especially self-satisfying. It really breaks any fears or lack of confidence away in simple and easy to understand language. Basically everyone is empowered to master their own financial destiny. Some practical advice also, particularly about organizing your own money management system, PALS. It even encourages you to DREAM about your financial success! Part of book was a bit long on the financial record keeping part, but overall a recommended read.

This is a very good book with lots of ideas on how to improve your finances. Some of the material can be found on other books on finances. What makes this book stand out are the exercises in each chapter of the book, plus the wealth-building forms at the back of the book. On page 208 of the book, it provides a variety of things to do in the 8 minutes a day program to reach your goal of creating wealth.

One point the book made is the advice that who you are has nothing to do with how much or how little money you have at any given time in your life. An excellent chapter also is chapter 5, "Transforming Your Personal Money Myths).

I didn't find anything that I disliked about the book. I will keep this book and re-read it on my journey with money.

I particularly enjoyed the part about setting up effective financial records and "getting my house in order." The book provides practical guidance for how to gain control of your finances and start aiming toward your dreams. Most importantly, it realizes that while each person reading the book is coming from a different situation, all readers have the same aspiration: control of your financial future. The book is non-judgemental and teaches readers not to judge themselves based on their past money-management successes or failures. It helps readers re-program their thoughts to become their own reliable financial advisors.

This is the best program out there, and believe me I have tried them all! I was able to stop behaving like a teenager with my money and become an adult financial planner in a very short period of time! I even attracted a new job and doubled my income because of the affirmations I used from this program. Don't wait, buy it now, and use every word and piece of advice. It was easy and I have been reluctant for years to do this because I didn't want to see how bad my financial picture was. Ron and Mary taught me to let go of past judgements about myself and my ability to manage money! This is the one!

I love this book. I didn't realize how much until I found myself checking it out and renewing it endless times at the library. It's too bad it's out of print. This book gives you everything you need to get started right away. You really don't need any other book to get control of your finances. After spending a little bit of time logging my expenses (the forms are included), I was able to get a clear picture of what I was spending and making. I needed only the forms included in the book, a copier and a few other simple materials (listed in the book) to get my self in shape. It helped me get rid of that sinking feeling I would get when thinking about money.

This book is already a milestone.
Simple and concrete, you will save a lot of money by following its common sense-hard to to find advice.
Read it, and your financial advisor will never seem ET anymore.

This book is a must for anyone that wants to get started with his or her investment portfolio or take it to the next level. The author covers a lot of material and a broad spectrum of investment options in a pretty short space, making sure that the reader understands the basic principles of the investments and a few of the finer points that savvy investors should understand. The book manages to both explain concepts thoroughly and not make you feel like the author is speaking down to you, which is a hard accomplishment to manage. I think that is why it works so well for beginners and also people that are a little more comfortable with financial concepts. I found the book quite easy to understand and that it flowed quite well. I was fairly confident in my investment portfolio, but this book has made me realize that I could be doing a lot more and I am excited to get started.

Fischer lays it out in plain language -- thankfully. I like the way he breaks up the information into sections and shows us options. I feel like this is pretty complete in terms of the important information that I should have, especially as a new corporation. I know plenty of professionals who should have it, too. This is worth checking out.

The author does a fantastic job in discussing the various methods and ways of investing/saving one's money. Unlike many other books, this one does not assume that certain business language is understood by everyone, and goes the extra mile in explaining and discussing all the necessary terms and methods in detail. The examples used can be traced back to real life situations and are presented in a logical and straight-forward manner. In other words, if you are a experienced investor and know your way around dealing with your finances, this book allows for a perfect re-fresher item. Additionally, there are numerous interesting aspects ands ideas portrait in this book about saving and investing even a well-seasoned business man/woman can learn from. If this is your first attempt at investing/saving, this book will set THE most important milestone in understanding how to best make use of your money.

My reason for writing this review is to hopefully save someone from buying this book based on the 5 star reviews alone, as I did. I'm sorry to disagree with the other reviewers, but I am half way through "Saving and Investing" and it has become hard to follow. I am a novice at financial matters, so I bought the book based on the 5 star ratings and reviews that kept saying it was easy to understand. From my prospective if you don't already have a fair grasp of how the investment vehicles he discusses work, then you will soon be scratching your head as the material becomes more complicated. As for examples, Mr. Fischer starts out with a very good one that is pretty easy to follow as he shows how gains and losses occur by changing the scenario a bit. Later he rarely gives examples and by then you can't follow him without already having some background in how the markets work. The book also has a lot of sentences in bold print which I didn't find to be helpful at all.

This is probably the best book that I have ever read on getting rich. Reason: It gives you a clear plan. If you can achieve Level 1, as stated in the book, you are really more than half way there. Achieving level 1 is probably the most difficult accomplishment for most people. Other books give you a piece here and a piece there, this book gives you a good workable track. The plan takes discpline, tenacity and desire. If you have these qualities or can develop them with the help of this book you will achieve your desired goal - becoming wealthy

I purchased this book based on the reviews of other readers, and must admit I was very skeptical about it. But nothing ventured, nothing gained... This ventured really paid off.

I haven't even read the entire book at the time of this review, but I have to give it 5 stars. This book takes away the smoke & mirrors about investing, and the author's enthusiasm about investing in contagious.

I was a Suzie Orman fan and I'm sure she's a great person, but she comes off kind of arrogant: it's her way, or no way at all. Every couple of years Suzie has to repackage her advice into a new book. I've read most of her books: same song, maybe a different tune.

Larry's book straight plain English with no BS: here's what you need to do, displicine is needed if you're serious, stay way of these investments, when you reach these milestones here are the considerations needed, etc.

The book changed my outlook on investing. You don't need a full service broker. Buy this book, and forget paying commissions. A little research and you can just as good as the pros, provided you do your homework.

Great book. It emphasizes the importance of saving and then goes on the give good investing advise. A novice all the way to a sophisticated investor will learn a lot from this book. I bought 3 copies and am loaning them out to family and friends.

This book works! I bought the first edition years ago and just bought the 3rd edition as a gift for a freind. The advice works! It is written in clear language. The author does not try to intimidate the beginner. He is trying to make the reader feel confident that they can do this too!

This was my first investment book. Many more have followed but this one influenced my life the most. Great book!

This contains a lot of good advice about how to begin accumulating wealth and increase the same.

It has good information about investing in stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. It also has a lot of advice for those who are starting or building a business.

Although it is good, I think that there are other books on building wealth that are far better. I would particularly recommend 'The Total Money Makeover' by Dave Ramsey. It is written in a more user friendly style and has a great plan that is workable for virtually everyone.

Aunque Kiyosaki en todos sus Libros me han parecido excelente como motivador, de nuevo cae en la repetición y no llega a concretar más. Quizás sea su política o plan (no le crítico por ello) de dar un poco de información en cada libro para que sigamos comprando los demás en busca de más detalles.
Mi queja principal no sería referente al libro sino a la traducción. Por citar uno de muchos ejemplos se menciona la compra por parte de un cliente de Kiyosaki de unos "chips azules" haciendo referencia a una de las Empresas o Compañías de gran capitalización que son llamadas en el argot de la Bolsa "Blue Chips", el que no está al tanto puede llegar a pensar que es una Empresa que se dedica a fabricar "Chips azules".
La Editorial o traductora puedo haber encargado de la traducción del Libro a alguien con conocimientos en finanzas y haber hecho uso de los comentarios al pie de página para explicar cada término. Por mi parte recomiendo comprar la versión en inglés para saber entonces a qué se refiere el autor en cada caso.
Finalmente el libro si representa una buena lectura. Hay mejores libros? Si, siempre es posible.

He tenido oportunidad de ller varios libros de Robert Kiyosaki. En lo personal este es el que me ha parecido mejor. Aborda el tema del dinero desde diferentes perspectivas y nos deja con una excelente percepción de la forma en que se mueve el dinero y lo importante que resulta apoyarnos en expertos que nos permitan ir aprendiendo practicando la empatía.
Cada perspectiva que menciona nos ayuda a comprender los complejos factores que motivan a las personas y la forma en que cada uno percibe un mismo elemento.
Las cosas no las vemos como son, las vemos como somos nosotros.

This book goes into detail on the problems of globalization, debt relief for developing countries, the international flow of capital, the World Bank, and the IMF. The book makes a very good case for debt relief for poor countries. As Toussaint points out, in most cases the borrowed money went straight into the pockets of dictators and corrupt officials, and was never invested in the country at all. It therefore seems nothing short of ridiculous to expect repayment from the present governments and peoples of these countries, who never saw any of the money. Do we really expect developing countries to shut down their school systems and courts to be able to make payments on these debts?

Toussaint is also convincing on the subject of radical reform or outright elimination of the World Bank and the IMF. These institutions have consistently failed in the economic stabilization and development of poor countries that was their supposed mission. Today they are more of a force dragging down developing countries than pulling them up. Toussaint is very good on the need for a Tobin tax and other controls on the international flow of capital.

Toussaint misses the boat on some economic issues. He points out that GDP is a poor measure of economic growth, but doesn't discuss more accurate statistics such as the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW). Toussaint wants growth so that the developing countries can be lifted out of poverty. What he doesn't mention is that if growth is accomplished by overexploitation of natural resources and pollution of the environment, as it usually is these days, in the long term this will mean more poverty. Since GDP does not account for changes in population, exhaustion of resources, or declining quality of life, increase in GDP is certainly not evidence of prosperity. I think the best we can hope for is the steady state economy; further economic growth is just not possible. This is not necessarily a bad thing. For more on this, I would suggest Herman Daly's book "Beyond Growth."

Toussaint is a fan of low prices for consumer products, apparently out of concern for the poor. I see the difficulty here as that low prices exacerbate the exhaustion of natural resources. Developing countries today are being systematically cheated out of the true value of their resources. An example is oil, today found mostly in developing countries. Given that a barrel of oil takes millions of years and tons of plant material to make, an accurate price would be nearer $700 a barrel than today's $70 a barrel.

Toussaint also wants the developed countries to open their borders to migrants from impoverished countries. This is totally wrongheaded. Such opening would very likely bring on a worldwide ecological collapse. Toussaint is being way too optimistic here about the worldwide economic future. The next decade is likely to see very substantial declines in the standard of living in both developed and developing countries, due largely to climate change and the passing of the global oil production peak. The developing countries are not going to be able to export their people or their problems to the rest of the world. Developing countries do have some advantages in these times, in that they are less oil-dependent than the developed countries are. Developing countries need to capitalize on their advantages, reduce their populations, and focus on their local markets. Dependence on international export for development is a futile exercise. In the developed countries, reducing unsustainable populations is equally necessary, and refocusing from global to local markets will be a must. For more on this, see Kunstler's book "The Long Emergency."

Toussaint also takes aim at the global patent system. Toussaint sees the patent problem as another example of the rich countries exploiting the poor, making drugs too expensive for people in poor countries to afford. The reality is that high-tech medicine in rich countries has long since reached the point of diminishing returns. The fact that a drug is under patent does not necessarily mean it is better than other drugs; in fact, the opposite is often true. In any case, most drug patents have surprisingly short lives, no more than a few years. The health care systems of developing countries would be better off if they forgot about patented drugs and focused on more-value-for-the-money health care improvements.

Toussaint opposes privatization of government assets and in some cases supports nationalization or re-nationalization of such assets. Toussaint makes a good case that in some countries privatization has been botched. I don't see, though, that the problem is privatization as such; more that the process should generally proceed slowly and that controls on the international flow of capital are a necessity. These assets, after all, were not contributing anything to government coffers when they were under government control; quite the contrary, they were a drag on the budget.

The book itself is rather unfocused, and is dull and academic in spots. It addresses many important issues, though. Some of Toussaint's proposals are excellent, others would only make matters worse. I would recommend the book for anyone with an interest in globalization and world poverty. Read it with a large grain of salt, though.

If you want to learn as much as possible in one publication about pre campaign feasibility studies, this is the book for you.
Norman Olshansky (Info@nfpconsulting.com), President: NFP Consulting Resources, 07/13/2008

The Fundraising Feasibility Study: It's not about the Money Edited by Martin L Novom, CFRE An AFP Fund Development Series Publication Reviewed by: Norman Olshansky: President NFP Consulting Resources, Inc. Sarasota, Florida If you want to learn as much as possible in one publication about pre campaign feasibility studies, this is the book for you. While I do not agree with the jacket cover that states that "nothing has been left out", this publication is an excellent overview of the issues, practices, challenges and opportunities available to organizations as they consider and implement pre campaign planning and feasibility studies. Ten consultants contributed chapters to this book, published in 2007 by John Wiley and Sons, Inc. It is part of the Association of Fundraising Professionals Fund Development Series. There are 13 Chapters, 15 appendixes and an extensive index. This is a book that is best to read in its entirety rather than to use as a reference book or "how to" manual. However, the index and appendixes are presented in detail and can be a helpful resource for follow up. A very important statement in the first chapter, '"there are more nuances to feasibility studies than most realize"' should have been dealt with in greater detail within the book. While most of the basics of campaign planning, strategic readiness, and studies are indeed covered extensively and very effectively, there could have been more space in the book devoted to the "nuances" related to how different leadership styles, individual staff, key donors and others may drive the process of campaign development, timing and/or implementation in directions contrary to "best practices" or what might be in the best interest of the overall organization. More attention could have been spent on ways to cultivate, engage and motivate volunteers involved in the pre planning and feasibility process. Likewise, more emphasis could have been given to the importance of a well crafted case for support to be tested as part of the study process, including detail on budget justification, how the campaign will add value to the quality and quantity of services provided, and/or enhance the overall mission of the organization. Often organizations only present their construction, furnishing and fixture costs when establishing a capital campaign budget and neglect items such as a reserve for doubtful accounts, construction contingencies, moving and relocation expenses, business interruption, building maintenance reserves, start up costs, financing costs, administrative, fundraising and marketing costs, to name a few. It would have been helpful to have more attention in the book devoted to the identification of potential obstacles which could hinder success or derail a campaign during the early planning stages. Despite the comments above, the book is an excellent overview on how a well planned and executed capital campaign can enhance ongoing, long term fundraising and why its so important to look at organizational readiness prior to initiating the feasibility study. For organizations which have not conducted capital campaigns or have, but not in a long time, a well planned and executed campaign can be a transformational event in the organization's development when properly prepared. This book is an excellent resource that will greatly contribute to an organization's readiness to initiate a successful campaign. Chapters deal with the why, what, how, and when of feasibility studies, including topics such as: A. Readiness B. The Case for Giving C. Use of Consultants D. Tasks E. Selection of Interviewees F. Interview Process G. Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations Sample plans, letters, forms, scripts, questionnaires, etc are also provided. I highly recommend this book for staff and lay leaders considering a major gifts capital or endowment campaign. It is not only a book about feasibility studies but it is also a very good resource to explore organizational development, planning and readiness issues which need to be addressed prior to implementation of a major fundraising campaign.

I strongly recommend this book for every investor. It covers all the major market timing techniques and does a great job in explaining them. The book is comprehensive, well organized, and well explained. There is only one chapter that I really hated --chapter 16 which talks about the relation between trends in woman beauty and the market. This chapter should just be removed from the book; luckily it is only 10 pages long!

THIS BOOK IS GREAT ! NOT ONLY TELLS YOU WHY BUT ALSO GIVE THE FACTS AND SHOW TO YOU HOW YOU CAN READ THE MARKET AS THE PROFESSIONAL MONEY MANAGERS DO IT ALL THE TIME. YOU ALWAYS WANT TO BE IN THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE MARKET, THIS BOOK TEACHED ME HOW TO DO IT. THANK YOU DEBORAH !!!

I'm on my second reading and taking notes. This is the book you want if your interested in which market to be invested in and when. Inside information about the way fund managers think and act. Knowing when to be in stocks, bonds or gold is the most important information one can have when putting your money on the line....Deborah Weir's book,Timing the Market: How To Profit in the Stock Market Using the Yield Curve, Technical Analysis, and Cultural Indicators, does just that. My advice after being in the financial markets for over 45 years is...don't invest without this knowledge.

I bought this book awhile ago. Studied it. It all sounded so good. And then I tried to recreate the buy/sell signal data.... If you already own the book and are using it to make investment decisions, be sure to try this exercise and answer the question at the end.

Go to Appendix 2.1 on page 333. Let's dig into the sell signal on "2000-08-01" as an example. First of all, as Weir explains in her book on page 15-16, the Treasury data is a monthly average. The Three-Month Bill entry is 6.09. That is an average of the 3-month yields from 8/1/2000 to 8/31/2000 (using the daily rates from H.15 3-month Treasury Bill secondary market rate data). Since that is an average, it is known on 8/31/2000 at the earliest. The same is true for the Ten-Year note and therefore the yield spread. Other than the misleading date name in the table (2000-08-01), so far so good.

Now we have a signal to Sell on 8/31/2000, right? The S&P 500 Index for 8/31/2000 is 1517.68. (Yahoo's daily historical Prices for S&P 500 INDEX,RTH (^GSPC)). The "2000-08-01" entry in the book shows 1430 which is what the S&P 500 Index was for 7/31/2000, a month earlier. The same is true for all the entries in appendix 2.1.

So the question is: how is it that you can buy and sell an index based on signals you won't know until a month later?

What a scam!!

I approached this book with an inclination to like it. I'm a firm believer in market timing, and I jumped at the chance to learn some new ideas about using the fixed-income markets to time the stock market. I have to say, though, that I came away from Timing the Market frustrated and disappointed. Here's why.

Throughout the book, there is a chart detailing various buys and sells that one supposedly could have made using the author's timing system. However, rather than deriving these buy and sell points systematically, the author seems to arbitrarily choose buy and sell points that would have worked best in retrospect--regardless of whether they fit into a coherent, replicable system or not.

For example, in chapter 7 the author adds buy points to her chart right after the waterfall declines in October 1987, September 1998 and September 2001. What is the rule that guides these choices? Apparently, it is that the Fed lowered the fed funds rate at least one-half of one percent after a crash of some kind. This rule is apparently a sufficient but not a necessary condition of buying because numerous other buy points on her chart don't involve this rule at all. So IF you hadn't already committed funds because of other rules, you MIGHT have been able to buy then.

Later in the book, on the basis of a breadth-based rule about the Dow 30, the author erases the September 2001 buy signal and records a buy signal for her system on July 19, 2002, near the ultimate bottom of the bear market. This is based on the fact that all 30 Dow Jones Industrial Average stocks declined on the same day. I see IN RETROSPECT why she did this, but how would you have known in September 2001 to wait for the later buy signal? The author does not address these kinds of questions at all, as far as I can tell. As I said, frustrating and disappointing.

There may be value in Ms. Weir's concepts, but she has far to go if her aim is to develop a rigorous market timing system, in my opinion.