[.uk] Creating Wealth: Retire in Ten Years Using Allen's Seven ... (ISBN 0671621009)

New edition OUTDATED; Many examples; Few clear details:
I read this book cover to cover. The book is broken into 5 parts: Foundation (the hook), Creating Wealth (the scheme), Concentration (the early stages), Perpetuating Wealth (the maturing stages), and Real Wealth (the later stages). The Foundation starts off with some very cheesy motivational advice ("Bob Allen, you're great! You are a unique new kind of person ..."). To each his own, I guess. Then a sample of how different people would invest a $100,000 windfall. Of course every one is an idiot for 1) diversifying, 2) paying down debt, 3) investing in stocks, or 4) taking a vacation. He does make a very good argument for leveraging your debt to create wealth. That is the gem of this book. The second part says buy 2 rental houses per year for 10 years. There's no discussion of other real estate options, just single family homes at below median price. He lays out his plan for 1) leveraging up to create wealth, 2) then jettisoning debt, diversifying, and creating a tax shelter. It's frustrating, though, because he just critized paying down debt and diversify and doesn't really explain the whys and whens. He actually suggests selling properties (and paying capital gains tax) to pay down debt, then immediately buying properties to create a tax shelter. Is he a fool? I can't tell. Though he referenced future chapters, there was no explanation for this bizarre suggesting in the referenced chapters. In fact, there is a big disconnect between the sections in the book. Many of my main questions went unanswered. The next section, Concentrating, is the best. It describes some of the ins and outs of buying and owning properties. However, one gets the impression that his success is more due to being a good negotiator than to having a fool-proof system. The Perpetuating Wealth section talks about discounted mortgages, gold coins, diversifying, legal structures, and taxes. These chapters are very disjoined and hit or miss. While discounted mortgages is quite interesting, he shows his limits in a discussion of ratios. He uses a Debt-to-Assets ratio and a Equity-to-Debt ratio to grade loans. Hello? These ratios contain equivalent information. Is he really using these to make decisions? His third ratio, Discount-to-Debt is followed by an example saying a $1000 discount may not be a bargain because costs in a default could exceed $1000. But the ratio isn't what gives one this information. The legal structures chapter gives little useful information and taxes just doesn't get the job done. It has a pretty bad plumbing analogy for taxes. The final diagram has 3 buckets, 6 spigots, a filter, a manual pump, a few hoses spraying $$$, and some $$$ sprinkling on a piggy bank and a family. Now I get it. The final 2 chapters are one saying education is useful and the other with nothing but 6 pages of quotes.

Excellent Book:
Robert G. Allen's book Creating Wealth was very helpful to me. My wife and I have had a lifetime of real estate experience, owning, managing, selling, and buying real estate of all kinds throughout the country. We have, in fact, written our own book based on our successful experience, SELLING FAST: We Sold Our House In One Day And You Can Too. We have followed Allen over the years. His writing is lucid, his concepts accurate from our experience, which spans 42 years. I was president/CEO of a large mutual insurer which held millions of dollars in property and securities. That experience and running our own duplex, apartments, and rental houses over the years made us wealthy. Though I made a fantastic salary as company president, nothing was as remunerative as working with our own real estate. I was especially impressed with Allen's Chapter 16 in Creating Wealth: "How the Rich Pay Lower Taxes." He uses simple, very understandable words and examples, with diagrams that teach. For example, he likens income and the tax burden to a tank of water, with a tax facet near the top and different sections for spendable income and taxes and a business expense faucet. Anyone experienced in real estate must understand what is deductible and what is not. Allen makes this clear. This is not to say that each owner of real estate is out to take the U.S. government and the IRS for a ride. Quite the contrary--there are legal deductible business expenses that can and should be utilized. I take exception to the review by KAZU, who claims to be a CPA, that denigrates Allen for publicizing these things. Nothing in his book persuades people to break the law. Rather, it suggests that in order to grow your wealth you must use every legal way to preserve and grow your real estate income. I give this book five stars for excellence.

Don't buy it if you don't want REAL RESULTS:
Allen's book provides a pragmatic perspective on real estate. Much better than Carlton Sheets and other books on Real Estate Investment. There are a gizillion books on Real Estate and building financial wealth, however most of them are filled with common-sense cliches and psychological mumbo jumbo. If you want to gain real wealth,you must read these books: 1.The 12 Month Millionaire (http://www.12monthmillionairebook.net.tc/ ) 2. Trump:How to get Rich (Amazon.com) 3.The Automatic Millionaire: A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich (Amazon.com) 4.Creating Wealth (Amazon.com) --Matthew

Creating wealth:
Very good book. I recommend it to anyone who wants to improve their financial literacy. When you know how to make money then make that money work for you easily, it will never matter what the economy is doing or where your at or with who, you will always know you will live a life of luxury.

A Key to Riches:
A very informative book that spells out the steps necessary to obtaining wealth legally and in a period of time almost anyone can achieve. A must read for those seeking the secrets to wealth.