Rating: 
Summary: Discovering the wealth to discovering your self
Review: A wonderful book to help you open your eyes to what life can be all about besides the obligations.Discover the Wealth Within You goes beyond offering the financial advise most of us can very well use. It's message is about discovering yourself by taking the time to ask yourself what you really want out of life. Throughout this book, Ric Edelman shows you how to set goals and achieve the things you've always wanted to experience, but never had the guts to persue because you never knew where or how to begin and/or questioned how realistic your goals were. I would recommend Ric's newest book, Discover the Wealth Within You, to all of those who are searching for a more rich and fulfilling life.
Rating: 
Summary: Avoid this book
Review: After reading through Ric Edelman's book, I'm wondering why this guy is such a popular author. Some of his advise is fine, but some is quite shocking. For instance, he doesn't believe that mutual fund costs are a big deal. That's stunning. Fund costs are the only thing that we investors can absolutely control. I always try to find excellent funds that cost far less than the typical ones. Over an investing lifetime someone doing this can save tens of thousands of dollars or more quite easily. Here's just one example: Let's suppose Investor A sunk $20,000 into a cheap index fund and Investor B sunk the same amount into an average-priced mutual fund (1.4% expense ratio). Both funds grew 11% a year. After 20 years, the cheap fund would be worth $155,539. The average priced one would be worth just $121,626. I was also disappointed that Edelman trashed index funds. Frankly, it's just about impossible to beat the market, which means the best we can hope for is to match market performance. The only way to do that is with inexpensive index funds, such as the ones offered by Vanguard. Someone who reads this book and avoids index funds and ignores fund expenses will probably end up loosing a ton of money unnecessarily.
Rating:
Summary: foolish and irresponsible
Review: As long as the stock market was booming, Ric's advice will work. Now, it doesn't. Nowadays, Ric makes sure he has his disclaimers underlined broadly. Listen to his show and hear this! Oh, you say, you did listen to Ric, and you refinaced your home for 30 years and put the money in the market and lost it all? Ric will tell you that you should've diversified more. Lost your job and can't make that bigger payment? Ric will tell you that you should have at least 6 months savings in the bank to cover your bills. What if you don't get a job in that time? Ric will tell you that you should have gotten a mortage with a payment that you could handle! So, my advice is, forget Edelman. There are too many weak spots in his philosophy. Too easy to make a mistake and lose all you have. He gives a lot of fabricated scenarios that give a lot of people the idea that they can apply his strageties to their lives and "create wealth." It's like Wade Cook who choses stocks AFTER they've gone up, then uses THOSE stocks as examples, supposedly that he picked early on. Telling the story backwards and you start thinking you can do that, too. ANYONE can tell you that if you bought IBM in the 1950's you'd be rich now. Think about it. How did Edelman create his own wealth? Selling YOU books, selling YOU his ideas. Selling YOU a mortgage through his mortgage company. Charging YOU $300 a year to be his client. Did Ric make his money in the stock market? Who knows? I know too many people that have LOST money following his advice!!! My advice, and I've been very successful doing things this way, (properties worth almost $1,000,000 - paid for, not mortgaged, plus I have additional assets that no one can take from me, even if I can no longer work and I'm not yet 50) -- Buy a home that you can afford. Pay your mortage down asap. If you want to invest, save your money and invest it. If you lose it, at least you won't lose your house! (My mutual funds took a hit recently, but it was all money that I can "afford" to lose, not equity from my home!) Risk little, save a lot. Live within your means. Avoid paying interest, (credit cards, loans). YOu want to collect interest, not pay it. Be very careful about anything that will cost you money and is supposed to be a "good tax break." The govt. can change the rules any time and take away that good tax break. Then where will you be? I think it was WArren Buffet who said something along the lines, don't invest any money that you can't afford to lose. That is the best advice! YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO LOSE THE EQUITY IN YOUR HOUSE, no matter what Ric Edelmans says! Don't try to get something for nothing. That's the way to lose something and wind up with nothing.
Rating: 
Summary: Put More Fun In Your Life
Review: Edelman's new book, "Discover the Wealth Within You," tries to get the reader to move beyond typical goals such as funding retirement, buying a home, and sending a child to college. I went through several of his exercises, and am now planning two adventures that I had previously only dreamed about. He also tries to get people to see Morningstar as a much more valuable resource than just using their star rating system to select mutual funds. The book is certainly worth the money for anyone who needs some solid suggestions on how to put more fun in their life.
Rating: 
Summary: Very little concrete information
Review: I enjoyed ric's other book "The truth about money", and decided to purchase this book as well. Firstly, for someone who is looking for a tactical plan and something i can excute upon, this books provides very little help. Only the last few chapter provided some relevant information, the rest of the book was focusing on the inspire readers to invest, not exactly what i looking for. Secondly, a lot of the information is a rehash of the truth about money. I do like ric like a financial advisor, but wouldn't recommend this book
Rating:
Summary: His best yet
Review: I have read all of Ric Edelman's books, and this is his best yet. I finally get it -- financial planning is not about simply "making money" - it's about living a happy and fulfilling life. Ric's breezy writing is easy to read, and by turning the investment world into the idea of a baker making cakes really works well. He's very funny, too, and I especially like his footnotes - they are very funny. Unlike other financial books that leave you clueless at the end in terms of what you're supposed to do, this book is extremely clear. Ric shows you exactly what to do and how to do it, so that you don't need to rely on a financial planner. I now have the confidence I didn't have before to take control of my finances, and I understand the topic better than ever. I recommend this book highly!
Rating:
Summary: Go for your dreams!
Review: I like Ric Edelman. Not only because he is an acknowledged expert in the field of personal finance but also because he is a excellent writer who mixes humor with facts.Discover The Wealth Within You is not some boring 1,000 page book that is both out of date and boring, but a refreshing look at personal finance that will take you to where you want to g financially.The charts and graphs illustrate Edelmans ideas while the cartoons will break up the reading. This is one of the fewbooks that I read non stop. The book is interesting, informative and funny----most importantly, this book delivers on it's promises. Something that I cannot say about other personal finance books.Discover The Wealth Within You is excellent and I highly recommend it.GO FOR THOSE DREAMS!
Rating:
Summary: Solid Advice From a Solid Guy
Review: I'm tired of boring books with columns of statistics, or the unsubstantiated ravings of "feel good" advisors. I bought this book because I enjoyed Edelman's "Financial Security in Troubled Times" and I was not disappointed. It is solid advice, and very well written. Yes, the author is humorous and entertaining, but who really wants to read 300 pages without any effort to smile? The cartoons that spice up the statistics are well chosen, and they reinforce the points. If you are looking for a textbook with which to put college students to sleep, look elsewhere. If you want to better understand how to set your goals, achieve them, and feel that you are in control of the financial products and the practices, then buy this book. But don't expect to recoup part of your cost by re-selling the used volume - you will want to keep this book, use and re-use it. And if you have a brother-in-law that needs a little help, buying him a copy will be cheaper than making a loan.
Rating:
Summary: Clear, understandable and comphrehensive
Review: Most financial books are boring at best and many times written by unqualified people. This new book by Ric Edelmen is like a fireside chat with a warm and funny advisor. Edelmen's writing style is clear and understandable and the material is comphrehensive and fresh. In Discover The Wealth Within You, Ric Edelmen willt ake you on a journey to self discovery. Edelmen shows you how to choose fun, enriching and rewarding goals and gives you a simple straightforward plan to achieve them. You'll discover that creating wealth isn't all that difficult, once you set the right goals. According to Ric Edelmen, all you need to do is decide what you want to do with your money. With enticing personal goals in place, you'll motivate, excite and suatain yourself in your quest for wealth. After using Ric's worksheets to help you set goals properly, you'll embark on a detailed exploration of personal investing. You'll discover Ric's formula for creating a plan to achieve your goals, build your financial future and finance your dreams--all through his unique, time tested investing strategies. By following Ric's plans and guidelines, you can achieve a healthy, balanced and richly rewarding life. Anyone can do it, says Ric, with the tools and techniques he provides. Informative and entertaining, Discover The Wealth Within You is a must read in everyone's personal financial planning and investment libraries.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing new
Review: Not bad but not worth reading. You'd be better off with a book about setting your life goals--try anything by Cheryl Richardson--and a good book on picking mutual funds--like the Wall Street Journal guides. He's just jumping on the bandwagon that other personal finance authors created a while ago by trying to tie goal setting with financial stuff, and doing it worse than they did. Big 'Duh!' factor in this book. And when will he learn that all his footnotes aren't funny, they're arrogant and annoying?
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