Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed
Review: I was very disappointed in this book. First off, the average age of the people profiled was 57 with an average income of $120K and net worth between $300K-$500K. According to Stanley and Danko, these people are average, not extraordinary. Worse than that, about half of this book are quotes from the clients. Without these semi-useless quotes, this book would have been half its size. Edelman's other book, the Truth About Money is alright, but don't waste your money on this book.
Rating:
Summary: Would a truly successful/wealthy person recommend this?
Review: I'm quite successful and it's not from following Edelman's advice. Quite the contrary. There is very little I would do his way. Now, if I wanted to sell advice, maybe he could give me some hints. But this book? What worked for some people may not work for you. Carrying a large mortgage and taking
the money out to invest, use for college, buy a car, pay off credit card debt is not a good use of the equity. You wind up buying your house all over again. And remember, the savings on your taxes do NOT equal the interest you're going to pay on that mortgage. Yes, Edelman will advise carrying all kinds of insurance and he will also advise refinancing and carrying a big mortgage. Guess what! He has his own insurance company! He has his own mortgage company! What a conflict of interests. His strategies seem to have worked when the stock market was hot, but now? No. Oh sure, he has some good suggestions, but the rules of money are NOT different from your parents' day and if you really have what it takes to be wealthy, you wouldn't be reading his book. HE knows how to get wealthy -- Selling books. Now, I found the books by Suze Ordman (I know that last name is spelled wrong) to be better. Much more realistic. It wasn't that I read her book and thought, "what good ideas, I'll try this," but that I skimmed through two of her books and thought, "that's just what I did." Edelman offers a lot of unrealistic dreams.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, but Contradictory
Review: I thought that Mr. Edelman's book was very interesting and held a lot of good information, but I noticed that he contradicted himself numerous times within the book. I did not understand his "sarcasticness" if you will throughout the book because it made his points either confusing or meaningless. The 8 secrets that he mentions contain good advice to young people who want to try and earn as much money as possible. A few of the secrets, however, were confusing and did not make much sense to me. For instance, the Secret number 2, "They don't diversify the money they contribute to their employer retirement plans", what Edelman was saying made sense in the context it was written in, but he contradicted himself throughout this chapter. His contradictions made the book hard to follow at times. Personally, I disagreed and agreed with various points within the text. I disagree with the Secret number 6, "They devote less than 3 hours per month to their personal finances, including time spent paying bills and never bothering to budget". I think that some people may need to spend more than 3 hours looking at their personal finances. I also think that it may be better to budget, rather than not knowing where your money is going. I did agree with Secret number 5, "They don't measure their success against the DOW and S&P 500" because unless your stock is within either of these, then it is pointless to research these in order to discover how well your stocks should do.
Overall, the book presented me with a lot of interesting information that may or may not be helpful to me in the future. Also, I did enjoy reading the sections of "In Their Own Words" because what these people had to say was truly their situation.
Rating:
Summary: Totally agree with the reader who mentions that the tone of
Review: the book is condescending.For instance, on page 33, Ric mentions N.A.V. and how we should know what that means because by now we are more knowledgeable about investments and own mutual funds. Then he mentions how we may still *not* know what N.A.V. means, even if we *do* own mutual funds. So he says to find out what it means you would have to go somewhere else -- to his other book. You think he'd be joking, and will eventually explain what N.A.V. is in *this* book. He never does. He meant it; you have to get his other book.
Rating:
Summary: Mixed bag of good and bad advice
Review: Ric's emphasis on saving, investing, and analysis of zero dollar averaging is at least as thorough as you'll get anywhere. But his major advice on keeping a large mortgage since the mortgage interest costs you less than you will make (cost you 7%, but you could make 11%), in the long run, in the stock market on the surface appears sound, but he has a couple major contradictions. First, he says by not paying a large monthly pmt and putting a small amount down you will have disposable income in the event you lose your job - da, I thought that was the money being invested in the stock market to justify your small down payment? Now it's suddenly liquid? If you just have $10-15,000 laying around you're earning far less on it and should therefore pay down your mortgage. He also is making a big leap in faith that such liquid assets won't be spent. And those people that have equity in their home, Ric says if they lose their job, the equity does them no good...so why isn't the advice to get an equity line of credit while you're still employed? Also, he's making a big assumption that stocks will continue as they have in the past - the last 2 years indicate that he was wrong. Try to find another investment that will guarantee a return of 6-7% other than paying your mortgage. The reality is, given today's economcy, this is not good advice.
Rating: 
Summary: Why argue with success?
Review: This book could have been subtitled; "8 Steps to Financial Freedom-by people who have made it." I have long been a believer in getting as big a mortgage as possible but unlike advised here, make extra principal payments. But, if the money that would have gone to the mortgage is used to invest as opposed to spend...why not?I strongly suspect that the 1 stars are from people of the JBQ camp whose financial education is limited to reduce debt, invest in treasuries and read out of date books AND STAY BROKE AND FRUSTRATED.This book is excellent. I also recommend Discover the Wealth within You, Edelmens newest book.JBQ people...get a life!
Rating: 
Summary: PRODUCT IS ALL
Review: I believe our boy ric is just cranking out product at this point. This book is all filler and bad advice for most people. Hello? Stocks are a gamble, don't tell me about 12% over the last half decade...what have you done for me lately? I know a few people who won't be retiring as planned based on the beatings the market took in the last two years. And to tell people not to pay off their mortgage ASAP is a disservice. Period. A ... mortgage paid off in thirty years will cost you [more]. It does not make sense to pay 3x what something is worth. Even if it appreciates 200% all you have done is broken even. Except to have a horn to blow, I can't imagine why ric continues giving this same advise in every book that has his name on the cover. Every one of his books is a rehash of the same few concepts he seems to maintain a ... grip on beyond all sound financial reason. I can understand why he was broke once, he followed his own advise.
Rating:
Summary: good book, but not enough info...
Review: This book was good at illustrating that slow and steady win the race. The books is broken into 8 habits or rituals that wealthy people have in common. The habits were interesting enough, but this book was way too long. Have you ever gone to a 3 hour movie and thought that it would have been much better at about an 1 and 45 minutes. That is what this book is like. This book includes too many testimonials.... way to many testimonials. When and if you read it, you will know what I mean.
Rating:
Summary: Pass on "Ordinary People, Extraordinary Wealth"!
Review: I've read almost 3/4s of, "Ordinary People, Extraordinary Wealth" and quite frankly, there is nothing extraordinary about the investing principles provided by Mr. Ric Edelmen. I think the concept of breaking these principles into merely a few piece parts is savy, but the content itself is practically common sensical. In closing, I found Mr. Edelemen self-agrandizing way and continual promotion of other material he has produced to be, well, shameless!! Your money will be better spent elsewhere!!!
Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary Gambling for the 21st Century
Review: To me, this is not a very good book on money management. I could only interpret the author as saying to essentially: delay paying off your mortgage in order to continue having a tax-deductible item, spend very little time on your finances, and believe that the stock market will somehow fix itself. I don't know about you, but this does not look like a recipe for long-term success. With a weak economy and a highly publicized ENRON scandal that seems to be tying in our Commander-in-Chief more and more, America has reached a point where I'm happy to go with a more conservative route of money market accounts, CD's and government-issued bonds. This approach may not yield a high rate of return, but the returns are nonetheless positive. Yes, we would like a quick approach to wealth, but folks, some people just happen to be at what might appear as the right place at the right time. If you want to learn fiscal responsibility and know what to do if your monetary assets head south, go with Your Money or Your Life by Dominguez and Robin as well as internet resources with informative links such as The Dollar Stretcher. At least these items have an extraordinary wealth of information with sound advice for people, ordinary or not.
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