I just got my preorder copy yesterday, and spent all day reading it. You *know* that a book which opens it's preface with "Enough is never enough!" - Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #97 has got to be good! :D

And it is! The book starts off by discussing the concept of being infinitely wealthy, and how everyone can obtain the infinite wealth level in anywhere from 6 months to 5 years. It gives you exercises which objectively assess where you are at based on passive income and current living expenses.


The first section of the book covers this, setting up a saving strategy, eliminating debt, and then restructuring your nonproducing assets to either be eliminated or to become producing assets. This section was great for me because I was able to put a monthly number to what my income should be from investments, royalties, real estate, etc, in order to never have to "work" again. It also gave me a good "attaboy" in that the recommended strategies for saving and debt elimination I was already doing. It challenged me to look at the things I currently have in a new light; can I sell some stuff? can I make it earn money for me? do I *really* need this new gadget?


The second section of the book covers strategies which are usable in the stock market. It discusses issues surrounding mutual funds, how to determine what the market is doing (bear, bull, flat), how to find good stocks depending on what the market is doing, etc. This section gave me some much needed understanding about tracking macro trends in the market place. It also gave me some great ideas about how to safely and simply profit in any market condition.


The third section of the book discusses macro issues such as inflation and deflation, currencies, and interest rates. It also gives strategies for investment opportunities such as investing in gold, real estate, foreign currencies, and commodities. This section really opened my eyes about other types of investments, and when they are appropriate. The stock market isn't always a good place to have your money, and this tells you when that is the case, and suggests alternatives during bad times.


The fourth section discusses risk assessment, position sizing, and understanding your strategy; how effective it is, when it is and isn't effective, etc. Most of the risk assessment and position sizing information I already knew, from Van's former work Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom but it was good to see it in a new light. The chapters about understanding your strategy were very helpful for evaluating systems.


The fifth and final section is about you and the future. It discusses psychological issues about accepting responsibility for you actions, admitting and dealing with mistakes, training a solid financial building habit into your children, and wrap up. Having 4 girls, this last section was really good to see how I can get my kids started in a habit to build their finances. By starting them now, they could have a $4,000 / mo income from investments by the time they are 30, but more importantly, it will help teach them to ignore the consumerism spirit that is so prevalent in America.


The book is great! I highly recommend it! It gives tons of practical, applicable, concrete advice, and more importantly it helps you to learn how to think outside the box in order to become infinitely wealthy.

Anthony

Interesting review. I've read <i>Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom</i> and looked at this book but I didn't appear there would be much new in it. I don't need to read about stuff like eliminating debt, I've done that already. Is there really any new information on risk and position sizing that isn't in the trading book?

The position sizing section is mostly a rehash of the first book; although it is easier to understand in this one (not that it was hard in the first place...)

He does go into some detail about different objectives for systems, like "Make the most money" or "Make 50% return, with only a 10% draw down" and then how to use position sizing to meet those objectives. (When I was first reading TYWTFF, I remember wondering what he meant by "objectives.") Mostly, he explained the concepts with a different twist, which seemed to help me understand them better. I skimmed a lot over the 2 position sizing chapters.

Some of the real value I got out of it was how to assess macroeconomics in order to determine where you should be investing at the moment. For example, they go into detail about inflation and deflation; which of the two are in control, how to predict whether it's going up or down, and in what situations you should be investing in various markets. (e.g. when inflation is rising, historically, the stock market has done poorly, while gold, hard assets, and commodities have done very well.)

One of the things I concluded was that if I'm going to be in the stock market, it will be in a lot of short positions. I'm also looking at investing the Australian Dollar, because the USD is falling in comparison to it (and most likely will continue to fall for awhile), and the Bank of Oz is currently paying ~5.0% interest.

Hope this helps some.

BTW, thanks for the stock book recommendations on your weblog site!

Anthony