Rating: 
Summary: A somewhat educational SALES BROCHURE!
Review: Developing and implementing a solid long-term financial plan for whatever your goals may be, requires an understanding of numerous financial, investment, and psychological principles. The author does a good job covering the basics, and if you are looking for an introductory book, (which many people desperately need) this one is fair.Ordinary People, Extraordinary WEATH can be summed with the following points: 1) Carry a mortgage on your house, even if you can afford to pay it off. 2) Don't diversify among different asset classes, the money you throw into a 401k 3) Invest whatever you can, lots of little investments add up to a lot. 4) Buy and Hold 5) Ignore the Dow, S&P, NASDAQ 6) You don't need to spend lots of time analyzing your money 7) Talk with, and educate the family about money. 8) Tune out the fodder the analysts are constantly spewing. Generally speaking, good principles to follow. If you want to read explanations for each of these, then read the book. Half of the 300+ pages of this book is "In Their Own Words" consisting of clients reinforcing what the author talks about. The cocky writing style the author utilizes gets annoying, as do the constant plugs to buy to more of the authors books. Bottom line: Even though this feels like a sales brochure, it is better than many of those published during the net bubble (because its realistic). Half of it could be cut out without losing anything. It's a two or three star book at best.
Rating: 
Summary: Recommended for any young investor
Review: This book provides a good survey of where to start thinking about your investment possibilities, and offers some good advice on what to do and what not to do. The most valuable part of the book is the personal experiences shared by the financially successful individuals at the end of each chapter. I agree with another reviewer that this booked was basically a sales brochure, however, it offers some good advice. Recommended if you have no clue what you're doing but know you have to do something ASAP.
Rating: 
Summary: 8 secrets on how 5,000 people achieved financial success/
Review: The fact is that the 8 secrets revealed in this book have already worked for over 5,000 people. That is a pretty impressive record. Some of the tips you will learn include: How to turn your mortgage into a wealth-enhancing tool Why small investments work better than big ones How to max oout your employer sponsored retirement plan Your investments: when to hold them and when to fold them Financial news: when to pay attention and when to turn it off And a whole lot more. This book was written prior to the Clinton Stock Market Crash that occurred in 2000 but as a reader of Ric Edelman, I am happy to say that after following Edelmans's advice, I was a victor not a victim. I listen to Ric, not self serving brokers or out of touch magazine authors who think they are qualified to write on personal finance.
Rating:
Summary: A great addition to The Millionaire Next Door
Review: I've noticed that several people are comparing this book to The Millionaire Next Door and making it as a either/or deal.I ve read The Millionare Next Door as well as this book and I believe they compliment each other, even though they also contradict each other. Who says that anyone has a corner on truth or that there is only one way to become financially successful? The Millionaire Next Door beats the frugality concept to death and shows how ordinary people can become successful via frugal living.Ordinary People/Extraordinary Wealth also shows how ordinary people achieve extraordinary wealth only with a slightly different method.Edelman, and his successful clients, recommend not paying off your mortgage early (I did but took out a home equity line of credit later) I didn't initially agee with Edelaman on this, but I do now.A paid off mortgage may make you feel good but it ds you no good. It's like money in a shoebox generating nothing.Some people also compared Edelmans book with the poular Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, another great book. Kiyosaki emphasizes that a house is not an asset and that money is better used to invest in real assets as opposed to paying off a non asset---mortgage. In this regard, Edelman and Kiyosaki are very similiar.To me it makes more sense to invest in assets like rental properties and equities than to pay off your mortgage to be debt free (you are also cash flow free). Although I wouldn't have said that 10 years ago--live and learn!All three books: The Millionaire Next Door, Rich Dad Poor Dad and Ordinary People Exxtraordinary income make great, highly instructional and profitable reading.These books deliver only if you follow through on the advice given.If you are new to Edelman, I highly recommend that you read The Truth About Money first, then move on to Ordinary People Extraordinary Wealth.
Rating:
Summary: A Big Improvement over The Millionaire Next Door
Review: Mr. Edelman used survey techniques in this book to find the common characteristics of how his firm's 5000+ clients acquired substantial real estate and financial assets with middle and upper-middle class incomes. The author modestly gives the clients the credit for their success, rather than his firm or himself. The lessons are distilled into 8 key points (which the author explains so you understand the benefits were created), and are fleshed out with quotes from clients about those points. The conclusions are at odds with many popular books on financial planning. The book is simple to read, to understand, and to apply. For the most part these people do not own their own businesses and do not work for Internet start-ups. Rather they average 57 in age, $120,000 in annual income, have $500,000 in savings, and own a home worth $256,000 with a mortgage of $142,000. These people carry a long-term home mortgage, even though they could pay off their mortgage. The benefits are that they are more liquid financialy should job-related adversity strike, get more tax deductions, and have more funds to invest. They invest their retirement accounts into a diversified set of stocks. That asset allocation decision gives them the ability to compound money rapidly over time. They make frequent, small investments (usually through monthly savings) that give them the benefit of dollar cost averaging -- which gives you more stock when the prices are lower. They rarely trade. They have helpful mental habits, too. They focus on a goal of how fast they want their money to accumulate, rather than comparing their results to market indices. This allows them to avoid taking on risks or getting emotionally confused. Further, they spend little time thinking about their investments. They track costs to trim them, rather than doing elaborate budgeting. Many use Quicken to help them. There are several other valuable sections. One is on how to avoid making mistakes, which identifies stalls that can cause losses from harmful emotional states like fear, greed, overconfidence, lack of confidence, regret, loss aversion, and fixation. I especially liked the section on the biggest mistakes that people had made in their lives (not starting investments soon enough, making a bad investment, getting bad financial or tax advice, and taking on too much credit card debt). There is also good material on what people did right. The book's main weakness is that it does not give any advice on how to create greater wealth through entrepreneurial activities. Most of the wealthy people I know are entrepreneurs, not people who saved money while earning normal incomes working for someone else. With a slightly different methodology, Mr. Edelman could have helped his readers with that information, as well. I graded the book down one star for missing this important area. See Rich Dad, Poor Dad and Cash Flow Quadrant if you doubt the importance of this point. After you finish reading this book, ask yourself how the future will probably be different from the past so that you should adjust what you do to create a more favorable risk-reward ratio. Copying what worked well in the past is seldom a perfect recipe for future prosperity.
Rating:
Summary: Start saving now in your 401k
Review: Getting rich is a process of consistent saving program/investing program and keeping a job long term. The author presents three share price patterns: high to low, high to low to high, low to high.
Lets look at the high to low pattern. Suppose an individual invests 100 dollars a pay period in the high to low scenerio; what would be the break even point? Total invested/number of shares is the break even price with the point being that the break even price is significantly lower that the average share price. So long term investing and dollar cost averaging allows the investor to buy cheap shares and profit handsomely as the price swings to higher prices. So the focal point is not paying off the mortgage, it is accumulating wealth through saving and investing. Analyze how to divert as much money as possible to your 401k: live cheap, don't eat out, and reduce recreation. Accumulate your wealth through sacrifice and then live off your money.
Start saving now. Start investing while your young. Invest the maximum amount the 401k will allow. Be care not to overinvest in a company stock. Don't invest all your money in a single stock, instead result risk by diversification. Suppose, an invest buys a 100 dollars worth of a stock for 1 dollar per share that would increased by a 1000 percent and bought it cheap and when the stock reached the 1000 percent sold it and profited with 900 dollars. Ok, thats not enough to retire on. If you repeated the pattern three times then retirement is possible. The author asks the reader what would be the likelihood of finding three stocks with this potential and aggressively investing the complete fund into each investment opportunity? There are so many pitfalls: seeing financial patterns where no pattern exists, following hot tips that turn out to be error, economic predications that become errorenous, and compartimentalizing thinking that cause error. These points suggest how complex investment selection can be. If this pattern could be broke and new emerging techniques followed, we should discover immediately many penny stock billionares. How many do you know? Index funds can swing from top position to bottom position and bottom position index funds can rise to the top. The constant shifting of index position over time producing a complex matrix with very little pattern to predict which type of index that will be on top. So the point becomes to balance with a healthy cross section of indexes, money markets, bonds and treasuries, and precious metals. The author does not think market timing will generate wealth for the average investor. Suppose you market time for 100 years with a 100 percent accuracy, you'd own trillions of dollars. The result, all wealth would be owned by one person. The problem with market timing is that investing technique becomes purely a emotion function of greed or fear. Investors can be disillused by what they feel, selling when they should be buying, buying when they should be selling; lacking expertise to intrepret technical analysis, company fundamentals (retain earnings, earnings per share, consumer demand), and overvaluing media information. The authors investor spend 3 hours a month thinking about finances. So, we return back to the basics: 1. invest now 2. invest consistently 3. invest longterm 4. leave your money alone. The author does like rebalancing strategies because he considers that technique market timing. Instead the author prefers diversification and compounding as a source of wealth generation.
Rating: 
Summary: Edelman's marketing tool
Review: Edelman's dedication to his clients as follow tells it all: "To the Clients of Edelman Financial Services Inc.
I am priviledged to be associated with these fine people, for they truly are the backbone of America. Being permitted to serve them is the greatest honor." Few good ideas. Overall writing style is annoying.
Rating:
Summary: Almost the Perfect Book -- from the Library
Review: If you, the reviewer reader, like the drivel that Suze Orman pushes out, you'll probably love this book. If you liked The Millionaire Next Door or the Millionaire mind, you'll find yourself confused by the contradictions between this book and them. If you like Robert Kiyosaki's stuff.... just pass on by! This book is light reading, humorous at times, and for every idea Mr.Edelman throws out there (don't pay off your mortgage early), he tends to follow them up with confusing, mish-mashed examples that do NOT convince the reader. Then, when he gives a backhanded slap to The Millionaire Next door, any crediability flies out the window. In short, this book is the result of thousands (apparently) of questionaires Mr. Edelman put before his clients (he's a financial planner by day), and has compiled and analyzed the habits that these middle-income families practice that allow them to save staggering sums of money (I remember reading about one lady who saved $200,000, and another that had like 1.2 million...impressive, but hardly earth-shaking).
Again, some of the points are thought-provoking, and if they cause you to step back and look at your life, then the book is at least worth reading. But it would be a complete waste of money to purchase. If you're truly interested in the habits of the wealthy, grab the Millionaire Next Door. Otherwise, this is light reading, with about 50% of the book being quotes from Mr. Edelman's clients, not his actual narrative.
Rating:
Summary: where are they now?
Review: I would like to know what these same people are doing now that the market is down. My friend's "success" was very similar. COUld've been an example in this book. My friend bought a house and that house has TRIPLED in value. The mortgage payment was very low but, as Ric says, that house had a lot of money "in the walls," and he could get a bigger return if he invested that money. Now he has a big mortgage bec. he refinaced, which was a good thing, took out some cash and invested it in a variety of ways. Diversified. His mortgage payments are pretty high, but not too high for the income this man has had for the past 10 years. Now, the market is down, he seems to have lost money, well, as Ric says, hang in there and the market will go back up. Yes, that is true. But wil it go up ENOUGH in my friend's lifetime? Now, my friend ws managing pretty well but then he lost his job. Got laid off, company had some losses, they downsized. Not too much of a problem, my friend has -- HAD -- 8 months of cash reserves. That was 10 months ago. He hasn't found work in his field. He used to be able to. He had offers from other companies. So, he sold his vacation home, cashed in some of his investments at a big loss and he is paying his mortgage but he still hasn't gotten the job he needs to be able to make his payments in the future. He's working but for 1/6 of what he was earning before. Before, his story could've fit into this book. My friend wanted to retire "early" - sometime in his 50's but unless some wonderful things happen, he won't. His IRAs are down, even though he thought they were in relatively low risk investments. Remember, just because some one tells you something is a good idea, doesn't mean it's a good idea for YOU.
Rating:
Summary: Would his ideas work NOW?
Review: Interest rates on mortgages are low, but so are returns in the stock market. Schemes like Ric's work sometimes but don't give the security most people want.
| 
