Rating: 
Summary: Avoid this book
Review: Edelman's strategies are just gimmicks. For instance, he states "don't pay off your mortgage early. Pay the least amount, and invest any extra payments yourself". Instead: hold your 8% mortgage making minimum payments, while you get 10% on investment return. But, what about taxes on that 10%? Also, not all investments rise (the current market shows that). Scheme 2: "Don't own your own life insurance policies. The reason is the death benefit is part of your estate, and may be taxed." Solution: Have someone else own the policy on you. They avoid the estate tax. BUT his footnote states "this strategy could lead to a 55% gift tax to the recipient of the death benefit." Sounds like the cure is worse than the disease. Scheme 3: Don't invest in your children's name, because the UTMA/UGMA only allows $600.00 interest free, and the $600-$1300 at 15%. Plus, if your children have assets, it will make getting a college grant tougher. Solution: Keep the money in your name. This scheme is faulty, because now ALL investment income is taxed at 28%. Plus, colleges evaluate the whole families income, not the childs. This book is a bunch of gimmicks. Look at "Personal finance for dummies".
Rating:
Summary: Title should be 88 simple strategies for finanacial FAILURE
Review: I bought this book because the hard back version was on the clearance shelf of my local bookstore for only $3.99. After reading it, I discovered why the book was so cheap. It appears that Edelman did not write this book because he cares about consumers/investors, he wrote it for the sole purpose of filling his own pockets with extra change. Mr. Edelman's inability to get his facts straight is blatantly visible throughout the book. For example, Edelman states that the Vanguard 500 Index fund did not exist 10 years prior to the publication of his book (published in 1998). But as a Vanguard investor I can tell you that the inception of the 500 Index fund was on August 31, 1976. He also tells readers to avoid inflation-indexed bonds, claiming that people only buy them hoping that inflation will rise so their bond values will jump. This is nonsense (please don't insult my intelligence Ric). People purchase these bonds as a small conservative part of their portfolio to provide protection against the investments (equities, high-yield bonds, etc.) that decrease in value during times of inflation. Lastly, Edelman completely trashes the Roth IRA. Although the type of IRA that one chooses depends on many factors such as age, income, tax bracket, and expected age of retirement, the Roth IRA is a wonderful choice for many (if not most) young investors. No taxes on accumlated earnings is usually more beneficial than no taxes on contributions (you can figure out the math for your own situation using an IRA calculator). Edelman distorts the facts in order to scare people and sell his book (shock grabs attention and sells a product). There are many other examples throughout his book of half-truths and misrepresentations, but since I am limited to 1,000 words here I cannot name them all. In conclusion, I must say that I do pity the novice investor who chooses this as an introduction to the financial world and heeds Edelman's advice as golden.
Rating:
Summary: Fundamentally Bogus
Review: I confess to not having read all of the book, but his comments on index funds convinced me. They were frequently inaccurate (e.g. he says that Vanguard Index 500 didnt exist 10 years back, whereas its existed since the late 1970s), misleading , and sometimes bordered on the dishonest (he says that while active funds don't typically beat their indices, index funds don't either, neglecting to mention that index funds fall short of the index by a far smaller amount (0.2% for Vanguard). He also makes comments such as -- if Intel were ever to fall out of the index, then huge capital gains would be incurred by the funds (neglecting to mention that the reason most companies fall out of the indices is that their prices are falling -- which means there will be very few, if any capital gains to distribute).
Rating:
Summary: Flat out wrong.
Review: I confess to not reading the whole book, but what I did read was some of the most self-aggrandizing and unsubstantiated ... I have ever read. His condemnation of index funds being what comes to mind first. Here's a guy who tells you "a lot of people are going to get hurt" for investing in this "doozy," yet the index funds have held up just fine in this down market - and in fact, have held up much better than many actively managed funds have. His index fund diatribe is total nonsense - it is obvious he doesn't understand the foundational logic to the passive index strategy (not to mention the numerous academic studies and historical data that shows their superiority over the the vast majority of managed funds). And his quick dismissal of the huge tax advantage of index funds because taxes have to paid eventually anyway was beyond idiodic IMO. The less one pays in taxes, the more money he/she can invest for the future currently, and of course, no mention that short term capital gains (often distributed in regular managed mutual because of signigicantly higher turnover than in index funds) are taxed at ordinary income rates, not the 20% long term capital gains rates - all of which, of course, can dramatically decrease after tax returns. His analysis, if one could even call it that, of index funds is flat out wrong. I wonder, has Ric lost commission money from index fund savvy clients of his?
Rating: 
Summary: Huh what?
Review: I found a review supposedly by a school teacher from Florida complaining about middle income brackets of $54,000. He goes on to to say that he won't see that in 35 years.I work for a school system in Pennsylvania and I don't know how I'd live on only $54,000/per year. I also know people in Florida who are making 6 figure incomes. One guy I know made over $50,000 last month. Don't blame your profession, your location or Ric Eedelman. Blame the guy you see when you look in the mirror!
Rating:
Summary: I'd rather follow the old rules
Review: I found this book very interesting. I'm in very bad credit card debt, and this book gave me some good advice. I don't really agree with all of the "new rules", but it gives some very good ideas. It mentions things about retirement and buying a house that I would have normally never thought about. I wish I had found this book a couple years ago. I would recommend this book to anyone.
Rating: 
Summary: everyone should have this information, very good
Review: I found this book very interesting. I'm in very bad credit card debt, and this book gave me some good advice. I don't really agree with all of the "new rules", but it gives some very good ideas. It mentions things about retirement and buying a house that I would have normally never thought about. I wish I had found this book a couple years ago. I would recommend this book to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: Not the Best Financial Book, But Certainly Worth The Read
Review: I found this to be Edelman's best book. After reading Ordinary People, Extraordinary Wealth I thought I'd never buy another Edelman book. That book was horrible. Somehow I found this book on clearance at a local bookstore for $5 and decided to give it a try. It was a good book but not excellent. It is worth reading and for $12 bucks on here its worth it. I do have to say if you are looking for a excellent book I'd buy Multiple Streams of Income by Robert G. Allen. Multiple Streams is perhaps the best Investment and Financial Strategy book I've ever read. It'll really light a fire under you to get your life going in the right direction financially.
Rating: 
Summary: Huh?
Review: I guess I must agree with some of the principles he has in his book. Some are a little confusing if you aren't educated in money lingo. I must say I'm tired of authors using "middle" income brackets as their examples. $54,000???? As a teacher, I'll be lucky to see that much in 35 years.
Rating:
Summary: Wrote the book to fill some pages
Review: I have read many money books but this has to top my list as one to hold up the coffee table. Although there are many traditional money concepts in the book, this book was written for someone who makes at least $100,000 a year. It seemed he was more concerned about how to do better on your taxes, and not how to make money in the long run, and keeping it as a long term goal.
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