Young Adults Creating Wealth:

Influence Publishing (Published 2004)

Written By Narida Bell

Australia

Review 2 Stars – Not Good

How the blurb describes the book:

Young Adults Creating Wealth is a simple money book that will show you step by step:

·         How much to save

·         When to save and

·         Where to save for the best interest

It will explain in plain English the different investments, money cycles and job versus business.

You will follow twins Kate and Josh as they save and budget to buy their first car and house.

The 36 tiny activities will help you to check your knowledge and make your choices for investing and planning your life.

It will help you to start on the road to becoming wealthy.

Mr Home Budget’s Review: As you could guess, this book advises young people on how to handle their finances. However at times, the book confuses just how young the person reading the book is. The writing in fact, a lot of the time is written for adults. Sometimes it’s so basic a ten-year-old could understand it, while other times it verges on the Australian Financial Review.

For example, on one page she is talking to kids about starting a business mowing lawns or selling jams. On the next she is writing about the vagaries of the Australian stock market. Most children won’t be able to read this book themselves; they would need an adult to help them.

The book is filled with activities for kids to do. The activities are probably the best part of the book. They challenge the child to think about money, use calculators to work out saving problems and to talk to adults about their views on money. All these outside the box ideas, really do help the child excel.

The other great thing about the book is she talks about things which the school system never does. Like running on a budget, investing in shares, starting a business and the changing world of work with technology.

The whole book follows a story about Josh and Kate— two fictional twins who take slightly different paths to wealth. We start following them at pocket money and right through to saving for a car, getting their first job, and buying a house.

But their stories are far too similar. They both make the correct budgeting choices. She never offset one smart character with a foolish character to show you the reader how their money decisions affected their life.

A good chapter is on delayed gratification. Teaching kids how to restrain from buying things of enjoyment now, so they can benefit later. A chapter addressing the importance of insurance, which lays out the facts for young people on how a small bit of bad luck can destroy you financially.

There is a great line which rings so true to all budgets which I must share with you. “Every $2 is part of $10, and every $10 is part of $100, so every dollar counts. It’s not necessary to wait until you have thousands of dollars before you invest. You can start with as little as $2 and watch it grow.

While the book is not a total loss, it is hard to gauge how many kids will understand parts of what she is talking about, if at all. This book must be read with an adult and child, and at least in this way it could be considered beneficial.

Pros: The activities in the book will help children learn about money and get them thinking outside the square.

Some good chapters and sayings.

Cons: Not sure what age the book is written for, at some points it seems 10-year-olds, but at others it seems like adults.

Some chapters seem totally unnecessary and unwarranted.

The examples of fictional Josh and Kate are way too similar. It’s almost as if they wanted to show two examples of people making all the right moves, but in slightly different ways.

Get Rich Stay Rich (Becoming financially free):

Allen and Unwin (Published 2003)

Written By Martin Hawes and Joan Baker

Australia

Review 2 Stars – Not Good

How the blurb describes the book:

To be financially free is the ultimate goal – to be rich enough not to worry about money or work, and to have little risk of losing your wealth.

A sensible investment strategy will help you achieve a comfortable lifestyle and a secure future, but it won’t give you financial freedom.

So how do you become seriously wealthy? Get Rich, Stay Rich will help you develop the right attitude and skills to succeed in your quest for financial freedom. Start your journey to long lasting wealth today!

Bestselling author and presenter Martin Hawes and business consultant Joan Baker provide individualised wealth coaching and seminars to help their clients become wealthy and free to pursue their dreams.

Mr Home Budget’s Review:

When you review as many books as I have you usually get a sense halfway through the book how many stars you are going to give it. While this might change by the end of the book, it doesn’t vary too much.  However, with this book it was a rollercoaster all the way. At one stage this book was on track to get a four, then a three, then a one, but finally it sat at two. To say it was an unusual read is somewhat of an understatement.

Let’s tackle the good things about the book. Chapter 15 about stopping your mindless spending is an exceptional chapter, not just for this book, but for most books I have read. It walks you down the centre of all the reasons you might be spending more than you earn. And why up to now you probably have not even thought about the reasons why.

Plus the book has some great lines which really make you think. For example: “Other people who give the appearance of being wealthy, in fact are a long way from financial freedom. They have good careers that yield them high incomes. They have very nice cars and a good house in a good area (often with a big mortgage). This is not financial freedom either – as soon as they stop work, the income stops too. Most have little (or no) assets and investments to provide passive income unless they have diverted a good part of their salaries into investments (and very few seem to do that to any great extent).

And “Too few of us take the time to really think about what we truly want in life – we are too often focussed on just getting through the week, paying the next Visa bill, wishing for Friday, or hanging out for the next holiday. Many of us put more effort into purchasing a new fridge or remodelling the bathroom than we put into planning for the rest of our lives.”

But unfortunately, good advice like this is only a drop in the bucket of questionable advice. One thing the book reinforces time and time again is the only way to become rich is to borrow money. And in terms of the book it says, “And you better get used to that fact”. Plus the book says successful business people borrow as much as the bank will let them. We at Mr Home Budget believe this is out of touch.

There are constant statements in nearly half of the chapters which state you need to look for investments which earn 15 percent plus a year. It indicates that these investments are easy to find if you look for them. Well this is all very well and good, but 15 percent per annum is a huge amount to earn on your money. And trust me; finding these sorts of investments is like finding a needle in a haystack. Just an example to prove how good a 15 percent return on your money is. Say you start with $300,000 and you can find this magical 15 percent per year on your investment. Leave this investment for 30 years and you would have $17,272,614. This is without adding one dollar to it by the way!

It tells you that you can achieve this wonderful 15% by owning a business, buying shares, or even by being a property developer. But it never really goes into the nuts and bolts of how to do this. The book’s title is Get Rich, Stay Rich however, towards the end they tell you what to do if your investment does go bad and how to stop the banks taking all your assets. This seems odd if the point of the book is for the reader to stay rich.

The book seems totally unfocussed. With its 66 chapters (yes, that’s right 66). It swaps its point of view from being an employee, to employer, to enterpriser, to property developer and to share trader without giving you the finer details. The bad parts fully outweigh the good parts. Might be a good read if you can pick and choose which parts you believe.

Pros

Chapter 15 on mindless spending is an exceptionally written chapter (had the entire book followed this format, it would have been a five out of five)

Cons

Very confusing with a total of 66 chapters.

They constantly give having debt a good wrap, and make it seem all too easy to get an investment which pays you 15 percent plus.