Die Broke: A Radical Four-Part Financial Plan
Posted on February 27th, 2010 @ 4:21 pm
Recently I read Die Broke, by Stephen Pollan. Well, I read some of it, anyway. The book is broken into four basic concepts:
- Quit Today
- Pay Cash
- Don’t Retire
- Die Broke
This book had a few good concepts, but unfortunately they were mixed in with some terrible concepts, or at the least, concepts that were inadequately explained. If someone just blindly followed the advice in this book, they would end up having a miserable work life.
Let’s take a quick look at the four concepts:
Quit Today
The basics of this concept is to emotionally divorce yourself from your job, treating it only as a source of income, nothing more.
Really? You want to be emotionally detached from something you spend around 1/2 of your waking weekday hours on? Wow. Sounds like an employee I’d love to have working for me. (That was sarcasm, people.)
Let’s be realistic. Well rounded people are at least somewhat emotionally invested in what they do for a living. Unless you plan retiring young (and Pollan suggests you don’t retire at all), you’re going to spend a huge chunk of your life at work. And what a boring, meaningless existence it would be if your job is nothing more than a cash machine to you.
Pay Cash
Okay, here’s the one nugget that’s pretty much untarnished good advice. Buck the current credit trend and pay cash for everything. You may be self-disciplined enough to pay that credit card off each month, but most people aren’t. And even if they are, most are living paycheck to paycheck, so if there’s an emergency, the credit card is the first thing to be put off. I personally don’t think anyone should have a credit card.
(Note: My wife slightly disagrees with me on this one, so there is some compromise in the Priebe household for the sake of marital harmony.)
Don’t Retire
So while you’re supposed to emotionally remove yourself from your job, you’re also supposed to work forever. I think you’re kind of dumb if you do both of those things. If your job is a temporary thing where you make tons of money, fine. Just retire early. Or if you love your job, then work forever. But not retiring from a job you hate sounds like a recipe for an ulcer.
Die Broke
The title of the book was interesting, and actually why I bought the book. But the author’s reasoning assumes that his readers are incapable of teaching their children fiscal responsibility. Granted, many rich people lose that somewhere between the second and third generation of rich kids, so I guess spending all your money and dying broke could be a back-up plan of sorts.
If you hadn’t guessed, I think a much better plan is just to be a responsible parent and teach your children about money early on.
To be fair, I only read about a third of the book before putting it down. So it’s possible the author gets much better in the rest of the book. But somehow, I doubt it. Smart readers can probably pick out the good advice from the bad, but really there’s a dozen other places you can go that only have the good advice.
My advice: Don’t bother with this book.
Tags: book review, die broke, money, stephen pollan
Mentor: The Kid & The CEO
Posted on December 17th, 2009 @ 6:41 pm
Several months back, I was introduced to Tom Pace, the author of Mentor: The Kid & The CEO (shameless affiliate link). Soon after meeting him, I picked up a copy of his book.
I actually sat down to read it one night while Leann was watching Dr. Quinn. I figured I’d read until she finished the episode she’d just started, then watch a show myself. But by the time her episode was done, I was half done with the book, so I just spent another hour and read the whole thing. So it’s definitely a quick read, along with books like The Go-Giver.
The book had a great story, which is based on the real life experiences of Tom Pace. The story was entertaining and compelling, a definite page-turner. The book tells the story of a CEO mentoring a young man in prison, something Tom himself actually does on a regular basis. The events in the book of the CEO influencing the young man, then the young man helping the CEO through a rough patch in his business, really do parallel the experiences Tom himself has had. And the story was very compelling, with each chapter ending in a cliffhanger of sorts.
One of the great things for myself as a reader was the extensive list of other books to read as well. There were a few books listed throughout the story, then the end had a much longer list of recommended books for people looking to improve themselves.
I do recommend the book as a quick read, and it’s definitely a good start if you’re looking to begin building up a library of books on how to improve yourself. And it’s a great book to buy larger quantities of for high school age students, which is something they’re actually trying to promote. You can buy large quantities directly from Mentor Hope, the publisher.
Tags: book review, quick read, Tom Pace
Free Prize Inside, by Seth Godin
Posted on November 4th, 2009 @ 1:47 pm
I just finished off another of Seth Godin‘s bestsellers, Free Prize Inside: The Next Big Marketing Idea (shameless affiliate link warning). It was good stuff, which is par for the course with Godin.
If you’re not familiar with Seth Godin’s books, a frequent focal point of his is basically that it’s a lot easier to market something that’s remarkable and does way more than just differentiates you from the competition. He has referred to this as a purple cow in the past, and here uses that term and that of a free prize. That’s a drastic simplification of what Godin has written several books about, but that’s the gist of it.
So a lot of Free Prize is Seth Godin’s same mantra as always. So if you’re looking for tons of new Godin ideas, you’ll probably be disappointed. However, as usual, he gives plenty of great stories to back up his ideas. The one fairly new thought in this book, however, was his advice on how to champion ideas.
As usual, a lot of his thoughts are “Duh, I could have thought of that.” But it doesn’t matter, because you didn’t. Not only that, but Godin organizes the thoughts so well and has researched so many examples.
If you enjoyed Purple Cow, or any of Godin’s books, I would recommend taking a look at Free Prize Inside as well. And it’s a decent starting place if you’re looking into how to market your own business, but a great place if you’re wanting to know how to better champion your ideas in general.
Tags: book review, marketing, Seth Godin
