~ Mark Bridge ~

The economic crisis has prompted many people to seek help from personal finance books, with Amazon reporting a significant uplift in sales. Classics of the genre promise a quick route to riches, while recent examples, written since the start of the downturn, tend to be more cautious and realistic in their claims.

Times Money has looked at the five bestselling financial self-help books at Waterstone’s and asked financial planners for their views on the key ideas, rating the books from one to five stars. All have a snappy style and are accessible to the novice, but some are considerably more helpful than others.

Note that the recommended retail prices shown can be beaten easily. All the books are selling at a discount at Amazon, and the fifth, by Richard Templar, is half price at Waterstone’s.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki
Sphere, £8.99
This 1997 book, the centrepiece of the author’s self-help empire, tells the perhaps allegorical story of two fathers: Kiyosaki’s own and his best friend’s. The former, poor dad believed in working hard for a company and keeping “secure”. He died penniless. Rich dad chose to own businesses and boosted his income “passively” by investment, becoming one of the richest Hawaiians and leaving tens of millions of dollars.

Kiyosaki admires the “positive-thinking” guru Napoleon Hill (see below) and touts mantras such as “I choose to be rich and I make that choice every day”. The focus is on getting rich, rather than being comfortable. He explains that his “personal basis” is property.

Expert’s verdict
Zac Ghadially, of Yellowtail Financial Planning, says: “Building an investment income stream can work, but not for everyone. Also, we are advising people to scale down on property at the moment — to use it to meet their life goals, but not as an investment.”

Times Money rating (out of five): 1 star

How to be Smart With Your Money by Duncan Bannatyne
Orion, £12.99
This new book has the advantage that it was written for a British market with the credit crunch in mind. It offers a comprehensive guide to earning, spending, borrowing, investing, saving and budgeting — with sections on choosing a savings account and buying a car, for example. It also has a list of questions to ask when shopping for a loan. There is no get-rich-quick carrot or big “secret” to success.

Bannatyne takes a more cautious line than Kiyosaki, writing, for example, that “the golden rule of investment is to spread your risk” — a strategy dismissed by the American as for people who “go nowhere”. He emphasises that readers should stop worrying about money and start to think about it and make changes.

Expert’s verdict
Mr Ghadially agrees that thinking about money is the first step to healthier finances, and says that Yellowtail asks its clients to complete a written review — something readers of Bannatyne’s book can do on a shoestring using its budgeting charts.

Times Money rating: 5 stars

Think and Grow Rich Napoleon Hill
Vermilion, £8.99
This was first published in 1937 to spread the author’s “secret” to those who, without it, might “go through life as failures”. The secret is never spelt out but will “jump from the page”, apparently. The book is big on popular psychology, particularly positive thinking and the importance of identifying goals.

Hill’s style is rambling, with lengthy diversions on telepathy and the “transmutation of sex energy” — something apparently achieved by the author’s namesake, the French Emperor. The tone is old-fashioned and some of the specific advice is out of date.

Expert’s verdict
Jason Witcombe, of Evolve Financial Planning, says: “We start with the premise that everything is possible. Clients come to us in a financial mess because they don’t know what they want from life. Any book that makes you think about that is a good thing.”

Times Money rating: 2 stars

The Naked Trader by Robbie Burns
Harriman House, £12.99
The cover of this 2007 edition sets the laddish tone, showing the author naked at his laptop.

Burns says that anyone can make money trading shares. He explains how by outlining the mechanics of trading online and listing “winning strategies” and rules, with the classic caveat: “Only play with money you can afford to lose.”

Much of the other advice is conservative, too. For example: “My research involves finding out everything I can about a company before I consider buying.” He does offer some more original tips, such as to consider shares in companies moving up from an AIM listing to the main stock market.

Expert’s verdict
Mr Ghadially has doubts about “anyone” being able to make significant sums in the markets. He adds: “If he had a ‘system’ to make easy money, he would not be writing books.”

Times Money rating: 3 stars

How to Spend Less Without Being Miserable by Richard Templar
Pearson, £9.99
This is another book that is written with the recession in mind and offers 100 money-saving tips. These range from the very general, such as “get organised” and “remember the glass is half-full”, to specifics such as suggesting that you go out later in the evening to reduce your beer bill. Some suggestions are a little extreme. For example, readers are advised to fill old jars and bottles of premium-brand products with supermarkets’ own-brand alternatives to trick fussy loved ones into eating them.

The theme is lifestyle, rather than broader personal finance, so there is no overlap with Bannatyne’s book. Overall, the advice is uncontroversial, but may irk readers who are already fairly savvy. For example, a reviewer at Amazon.co.uk writes: “There is absolutely nothing in this book to justify its existence. It is full of banality, such as do not shop when you are hungry and use any vouchers you might have. This must be some kind of joke. Avoid at all costs.”

Expert’s verdict
Mr Witcombe says: “Your grandma told you ‘look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves’. It’s not true. You have to look after the pounds first — addressing big issues such as debt. It’s good to reduce day-to-day spending by cutting out things such as coffee, but do not put off going for a drink with friends. You won’t be happy and that impacts on everything, including your finances.”

Times Money rating: 2 stars

By Janet Bodnar

It’s a challenge for adults to create a financial Web site for kids that offers age-appropriate information and is entertaining enough to hold their attention. To mark National Financial Literacy Month, I’d like to mention a few that are worth a look.

For elementary-age kids. Meet the “Centsables” (www.centsables.com). They’re six super-hero friends — named, fittingly, Franklin, Jackson, Grant, Hamilton, Penny and Suzie B. — who live in Centsinnati and can “grow to gargantuan height, run like the wind, and control the elements.” And they do it all in the service of giving kids super money-management skills. Mark DiPippa, president of Norm Hill Entertainment and creator of the project, has ambitious plans to produce it as an animated TV series.

For now, kids can enjoy the Centsables online in a series of games and comic books. The target audience — children ages 6 to 11 — can probably handle the activity pages and comic books on their own. Younger children may need a hand from parents to navigate the lessons, which include “How kids earn money” and “Taking stock of the market.”

For middle- and high-school students. CareerForward is a free, innovative online program developed by the Michigan Department of Education, Michigan Virtual University and Microsoft’s Partners in Learning unit.

The curriculum is designed to take about 20 hours to complete and may be directed by a teacher (Michigan requires all students to have at least one online learning experience before they graduate), a volunteer or an interested parent.

CareerForward isn’t focused exclusively on financial education. But there’s a unit on managing money, including lessons in budgeting and a salary calculator for future jobs.

What I like about the program is that it gets kids thinking about what they’d like to do beyond high school — the education and skills they’ll need to earn a living in the global workplace. And that, after all, will determine how much money they’ll have to manage and what their standard of living will be.

For college students. Though not an interactive Web site per se, the “Playbook for Life” guide may be downloaded or ordered at www.playbook.thehartford.com. Originally developed by The Hartford insurance company in conjunction with the NCAA, the idea was to educate student athletes about the importance of financial planning.

But the lessons are equally valuable for all college students and young adults, with sections on purchasing a house, buying (and maintaining) a car, saving for retirement, buying insurance and paying taxes.

And when your kids are ready to go out on their own, there’s a lot of useful information at Kiplinger.com in the Starting Out section.

Read more here:
Sites That Foster Good Money Skills

Life is like a game of chances. You can win or you can lose. Everyday, we are faced with challenges, which can either lead us to become a winner or a loser. Learning financial literacy is essential to increase your chances of winning the game of life. Consequently, it is best to play the cash flow game to gauge how well did you grasp the concepts in winning the game of money.

Recently, I watched another video again of Robert Kiyosaki as now he talks about the so-called Game of Money where he described the four quarters of financial life dividing it into 10-year horizons and asked, “at which age will you win the game of money?”

Let’s view the four quarters of life with some inputs so that we know how will we win the game of money and retire as young as we can be.

1st Quarter (25-35 years old) – By this age, you’re probably done with your college education. Most of us start our careers when we land on our first quarter of life. We want a high-paying job, buy a car, have our credit cards and enjoy life. While many of us just want to enjoy life after graduation, it is advisable for us to:

Savings should be our top priority. When you receive your paycheck, take out a certain amount and deposit it in a savings account. Once you accumulated enough savings, transfer the bulk of it into a higher yielding deposit account. Compound interest will help it to earn more interest.

Get Insurance. Get insurance especially if you now have family and kids to support with at this age. The higher and the healthier you are, the cheaper insurance costs will be.

Learn Investment Options. Think of investment options where you can invest your extra cash. You can invest it in stocks, mutual funds, real estate, bonds, etc. Start to educate yourself financially.

2nd Quarter (35-45 years old) – By this age, you are probably at the top of your career and definitely earning much more. But this quarter may also be the time when you’re starting to have your own family so that also means higher expenses. It is advisable to:

Plan for children’s future. You are now working not just for yourself but also for your children. Plan for your children’s future by getting an educational plan or open a time deposit that’s under your children’s name and deposit an amount into it regularly.

Make sure you have enough for your emergency fund. Emergency fund is amount totally dedicated to emergency expenses such as health problems, etc. A good amount would be equal to six months up to 1 year of your monthly income. Place it in an easy accessible type of investment so that when your need arises, you can easily withdraw it.

Have a business. By this age, you could have probably known a lot of networks from friends, colleagues, acquaintances, etc. And since you’re earning much higher, then you could start your own business. Gauge yourself on what business you should start. Examine your passions and skills in choosing the right business for you.

Half Time – Kiyosaki referred after the 2nd Quarter as half time because you are in the middle before retirement. It’s also called as “mid-life crisis”. It is now time to examine yourself. You are not getting any younger anymore. Have you had enough savings to cover for your future? What did you accomplished in your life?

3rd Quarter (45-55 years old) – By this age, you are probably on top of you career, possibly a manager or vice president of the company. You could be earning more and your children may be in their college years or are already working. Retirement is just around the corner waiting for you. In this quarter of life, it is advisable to:

Allocate much of your income to investment capital. Review your investment portfolio and ask yourself if you need to transfer your funds into a higher earning investment scheme. Just be sure to have a through due diligence before you transfer your funds.

4th Quarter (55-65 years old) – By this age, your children may well be on their own now with their respective families already. You are now at the age where you can retire. You may choose to still be employed but it should not be on stressful work as you are now prone to health problems brought about by old age, which means higher health care expenses. In this age, it is advisable to:

Protect your capital. Try to preserve your capital so that you can live with on its interest. And make sure to make your last will in order.

Over Time – Kiyosaki referred after the 4th quarter as over time. If you haven’t had any accomplished things when it comes to your financial future, then that would be a great problem because sooner or later you would be “out of time” and the game of money will be “game over”.

We don’t want to retire old. As much as we could, we want to retire young so that we can still enjoy the things that we want. How could we enjoy it if we are already old with a lot of health problems associated with old age?

Personally, just like what Kiyosaki did retiring at the age of 47, I also want to win the game of money and retire on the second quarter of life. I want to enjoy life as early as I could without having to worry on going or having to work. And that is the very essence of financial freedom.

View original post here:
Game of Money – Four Quarters of Life

I’ve read my fair share of financial books but there are a couple which really stick out in my mind as having a major impact on my outlook. One of these is Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.

There are many things I have been able to take away from this book which have challenged my thinking. The greatest challenge however is Kiyosaki’s idea of “good” debt and “bad” debt. Kiyosaki believes that you should leverage other people’s money to make money for yourself. How you leverage other people’s money is by borrowing from them, another way to say you have to go into debt. Although I understand his outlook and it does make sense to me I really had to stop and match up this concept with concepts from the Bible.

The logic behind leveraging debt makes sense. If you buy an apartment complex with borrowed money from the bank and turn a profit on that regularly, a profit that more than pays for the monthly payment you now have to the bank, then this processes will gain you money in the short term and probably in the long term. Mathematically it’s sound.

Another example is leveraging 0% offers to make money. It is argued that you should take 0% offers on credit cards or other debt opportunities because this can also make mathematical sense. If you have $2,000 on a credit card with 0% interest it would make more sense to put $2,000 in an interest bearing account than to pay off that $2,000 credit card.

I tend to be a very logical person who likes to run the numbers on everything. I think that’s why it was so hard for me to see the truth in this instance. The truth is, the end doesn’t justify the means. Just because going into debt could earn you more money or because it makes mathematical sense when you run the numbers, doesn’t make it right. This was, and sometimes still is, a very hard concept for me to grasp.

God is very clear about his stance on debt in the bible, just check it out for yourself (Romans 13:8, Proverbs 22:7). Although it never says going into debt is a sin, it makes a very clear case for why you don’t want to do it. It doesn’t make any concession for debt that makes you money or for debt that doesn’t have an interest rate.

The really tricky part in all of this is truly applying it to my life. What does that mean about buying a house? It can’t possibly mean that you shouldn’t buy a house until you can pay for it 100%…. right? Well, from reading what the bible says, I have to conclude that’s exactly what it means. The same thing goes for buying cars or furniture or education.

As you know by now, if you’ve been reading this blog, I do have debt. So I have not followed what the Bible has to say on this. To be honest with you, even now knowing what the Bible has to say I don’t think I would follow it when it comes to the house. The truth is I’m impatient and don’t want to wait the 5 or 10 years it would take to save up that kind of money. It’s harsh reality but I have to be honest with myself.

I’ll just leave it as something I’m working on. I’m not perfect yet. I hope to not get into debt again, now that my choices are made. I will work hard on getting out.

Read more from the original source:
Does the End Justify the Means?