Thursday, February 23, 2012

Study, Think and Plan Daily

My article: Study, Think and Plan Daily was featured today on James Strock's Serve to Lead blog. Jim's blog is an excellent and constant source of articles and information that is motivating, inspiring, educational and interesting. Check it out.

Wishing you success and prosperity,

Daniel R. Murphy
Helping People Learn to Build Wealth
www.Books2Wealth.com

Sunday, February 19, 2012

The Smartest Money Book You’ll Ever Read by Daniel R. Solin

Book Review:  The Smartest Money Book You’ll Ever Read by Daniel R. Solin 

Synopsis of Content:  

Similar to his prior books in The Smartest Book You’ll Ever Read Solin provides a succinct and short chapters on how to manage your money and plan your finances.  

Solin begins with a discussion of the bad things that can happen to us all that will lead to financial problems or even crisis. This section is no doubt influenced by the severe economic recession of the past four years. After that the book covers and basics for smart money management including: 

·         The importance of managing your money and saving;
·         Understanding your financial position through focus on net worth and budgeting;
·         The importance of paying off and avoiding debt;
·         The pros and cons of investing in your home, or what he calls the Home Dilemma;
·         The pros and cons of insurance;
·         The pros and cons of the investment industry;
·         Avoiding counter-productive investment strategies including day trading and creating a well balanced portfolio for the long term;
·         Assessing your risk capacity in light of probably returns;
·         Realistic retirement planning;
·         Estate planning basics;
·         A summary at the end to pull all these things together in one checklist of what to do and not do.

Solin repeats throughout this book many of the lessons he provides in his earlier books, The Smartest Investment Book You’ll Ever Read and The Smartest 401k Book You’ll Ever Read however to the extent there is some duplication it is not a bad thing. Much of the hard hitting financial wisdom Solin imparts is worth repeating for one thing and this last book serves as both a great introduction to the more specialized topics in his earlier books and as a means of tying it all together if you’ve already read them.  

I recommend this book for several reasons: 

If you do not know much about financial planning and managing your money this book provides excellent introductory material to bring anyone up to speed on all the critical areas you need to know. 

The book is tightly written and easy to follow. It should be easily understood by nearly anyone. 

For those who do have some education in this area the book serves as a great reminder of some basics we all need to remember and brings some simplification to areas that other authors often over complicate. 

Solin takes on the major financial institutions including banks, financial advisors, brokerage houses, and the insurance industry – he tells you what you need to know about how these industries put their interest in taking your money first and help you avoid getting fleeced.  

Solin also provides the reader with many links to Mint.com articles and other sources for further reading. In fact he highly recommends Mint.com both to manage your finances and for additional information. Not surprisingly Mint.com recommends the book. Solin insists he has no financial arrangement with Mint.com. 

Usefulness:

This book is tremendously useful both as a thorough primer on financial planning and management as well as containing some excellent warnings about the pitfalls of placing blind trust in the financial industries. Even those who think they know a lot about finance and planning can benefit from this book.  

Readability/Writing Quality:  

This book is very readable. It is written in relatively simple English with thorough explanations of the terms used in the financial industry. The chapters are well organized and follow a logical progression. Chapters are very short, many no more than 2 or 3 pages in length and are followed by a crisp summary he calls, “What’s the point?” 

Notes on Author:  

Daniel Solin is vice president of Index Fund Advisors, a for fee financial advisory company. He is a law school graduate who is also a certified financial planner. He is a regular writer for Huffington Post and USNews.com.  

He is author of The Smartest Money Book You'll Ever Read: Everything You Need to Know About Growing, Spending, and Enjoying Your Money, The Smartest Portfolio You'll Ever Own: A Do-It-Yourself Breakthrough Strategy, The Smartest 401(k) Book You'll Ever Read, and The Smartest Investment Book You’ll Ever Read. He is also the author of Does Your Broker Owe You Money? 

Related Website: 

Index Fund Advisors: http://www.ifa.com/

Three Great Ideas You Can Use:    

1. Understanding the basics of financial planning and management can be within the grasp of almost anyone and everyone needs to understand these basics. Those who do not educate themselves about the basics are at the mercy of an industry which can exploit them.  

2. Long proven financial management and investing principles remain sound and should be followed rather than jumping from one new idea to the next marketed by those who ignore the basics.  

3. You must take control over your finances beginning with sound budgeting, planning, and keeping track. Once you’ve done that the next step is to understand what do to and what not to do to save and invest wisely.  

Publication Information:  

The Smartest Money Book You’ll Ever Read by Daniel R. Solin
Copyright: 2012 by Daniel R. Solin. Published by Penguin Group USA, Inc. 

Total Rating Score:
5
Writing Style:
5
Who Should Read This:
Anyone wanting to improve their financial knowledge.
Usefulness:
Highly useful.
Difficulty:
Moderate.
Scoring System:
1: poor / 2: average / 3: good / 4: very good / 5: superior

Disclosure: the author of this book review has no relationship or financial arrangement with the author or the publisher of this book. Some publishers and authors do provide a copy of the book for reviewers to read.

Wishing you success and prosperity,

Daniel R. Murphy
Helping People Learn to Build Wealth
www.Books2Wealth.com

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Exclusive Interview with Chris Camillo

Chris Camillo is one of the world's top-performing amateur investors. He has demonstrated tremendous returns on investments using his original system of identifying promising companies based on criteria ignored by Wall Street.

In 2011 Chris shared his secret for success in the market in his book, Laughing at Wall Street. Read more about Chris' ideas in the exclusive Books2Wealth Interview with Chris.

Wishing you success and prosperity,

Daniel R. Murphy
Helping People Learn to Build Wealth
www.Books2Wealth.com

Friday, January 27, 2012

Great Minds Discuss Ideas...

From Serve to Lead here is an excellent observation from Eleanor Roosevelt. If only our politics followed this rule. Outside of politics we would be well advised to follow it in business and our private lives. Be a Great Mind - discuss ideas or even events... not people.


Read more at Serve to Lead.

Wishing you success and prosperity,

Daniel R. Murphy
Helping People Learn to Build Wealth
www.Books2Wealth.com

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

A Leader's Library

Leadership requires continuous learning – this has become axiomatic. There is more than one way to learn-–but none is more powerful than reading good books.

Merely reading a book and casting it aside is not enough...Read the rest...

Wishing you success and prosperity,

Daniel R. Murphy
Helping People Learn to Build Wealth
www.Books2Wealth.com

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Best Book Reviews of 2011




The Best Book Reviews of 2011

It is always so difficult to identify the best reviews of the year but each December I have tried to do so. Here is my short list of the best I think we have offered this year. If you missed any of these click on the link and read them now. Just click on the link below to read the full review on the internet. 

I will endeavor to bring you a whole new batch of reviews of great books, many reviewed by me and some by our guest authors. My goal will be to have an even better list for 2012.  


















Wishing you success and prosperity,

Daniel R. Murphy
Helping People Learn to Build Wealth
www.Books2Wealth.com

Friday, January 20, 2012

7 Rules of Investing

Let me start by again warning anyone who reads or listens to investment advice that it is always to one degree or another risky. You never know in advance if the advice is good or not. You will only "know" how valid it is in hindsight.

Having said that however it pays to look at different bits of advice, see what seems to make sense, see what successful people like Warren Buffett keep telling us, and see how it performs.

For a very interesting summary of seven rules of value investing take a look at 7 Rules of Investing by Jim Fink. There are some gems in here and some of it straight from the reports of Buffett. Worth a read. It is short and to the point.

Wishing you success and prosperity,

Daniel R. Murphy
Helping People Learn to Build Wealth
www.Books2Wealth.com