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| Missed Fortune 101: A Starter Kit to Becoming a Millionaire | 
 enlarge | Author: Douglas R. Andrew
Publisher: Business Plus
Category: Book
List Price: $23.99
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You Save: $23.98 (100%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (78 reviews)
Sales Rank: 42210
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6 x 1.2
ISBN: 0446576573
Dewey Decimal Number: 332.02401
EAN: 9780446576574
ASIN: 0446576573
Publication Date: January 3, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Unlike some advisors Mr. Andrew walks his talk! October 2, 2007
3 out of 8 found this review helpful
I have had the occasion to meet Douglas Andrew and he is his own biggest client. He seems to be one of the most straight forward, straight shooting people I have ever met. I was a stock broker with my insurance license, a mortgage wholesale rep, as well as a real estate broker and I have to say the strategies that are espoused in this book are all... right on! Hey, nothing is completely risk free but this comes close. I took my own home equity out [by selling my home] before the prices went down. I am glad I did. Most of it I will put into this strategy over the next 4 years and some will be saved for a down payment when I think housing prices have bottomed. When that home goes up I will take the equity out and start another plan like this. It makes little if any sense to have your home equity sitting there doing nothing. I mean would I leave $100K or more sitting in my checking account, earning zip? NOT! Well money that was sitting in my own home was making me nothing. It's the same to me. Hey, if I can borrow at a simple interest rate and have it accumulate and grow [even tax favored maybe] and compound over time into a large sum, I am all for it. The idea of using home equity to grow wealth is not new but until now I have never seen a strategy that I was comfortable with. This book turns life insurance upside down and shows us how to maximum fund a contract and therefore use it as a great 'living' benefit rather than buy the most death benefit for the least amount of money and possibly outlive the insurance just when we are nearing the 'benefit', if you want call it that, since one has to die to get it. But let's face it, we all need life insurance and I know no better way to have it. The way Mr. Andrew explains it, if structured properly Uncle Sam is paying for it. The strategies in this book are varied and flexible. He also shows us how our qualified plans [401K, IRA, 403b, etc] may very well not be serving our best interest. This book is a must read for anyone that is willing to think for themselves [outside the box] and especially if you have been around long enough to understand what Douglas Andrew means when he says 'sometimes it's what we don't know that we don't know that can hurt us.'
 Please be careful... October 2, 2007
7 out of 11 found this review helpful
I think I would sign up for this if I had a lot of money and have as a small part of my portfolio - but for the most of us this would mean putting all our eggs in one basket, and not be able to take them out again.
I had 2 telephone appointments with the author's son contemplating signing up with their method. I expressed our concerns about our liquidity if another disaster of some sort happens. When 9/11 happened our income went down significantly for 1-2 years afterwards, and if it happened again we would not be able to pay the much higher mortgage we would have if we re-financed according to his plan. He swiftly explained that we would just file for bankruptcy(!). We have worked hard for ten long years putting our sweat equity into making our little house our dream home that we never want to leave - you can't buy a view like ours for a mortgage of $800/month anymore - why would we want to gamble with that?? The negative amortization loan he suggested would easily be covered by the continually rising house values here in Southern California, he explained. I protested that nothing can keep going up and up forever, and I didn't want to sit with an upside-down situation in my house at re-finance time. He didn't agree - just look at history he said - it keeps going up! Fast forward a few weeks and the whole foreclosure heaven came down, and our house is worth a good $100.000 less than just a year before...
Boy are we happy we didn't put blinders on and get too gullable!
We will find another way to provide for our retirement, thanks.
Also his projections of payouts in retirement are not adjusted for inflation so it really doesn't tell you much. $70k might sound like enough today but what will it be in 30 years...?
Please look into your options, consult a few traditional financial planners and ask them to explain the differences and in particular the high fees associated with this method. We found out that we'd be pretty well off just by investing the difference between our current mortgage payment and the one we would have re-financed to. Also have an equity line on your house and you will have the liquidity the book tells you you can't have unless you go with their method.
 Utter Garbage October 1, 2007
87 out of 100 found this review helpful
Every flimflam man knows that the con must be carefully layered around a kernel of truth for credibility. Missed Fortune 101 by Doug Andrew succeeds in this by wrapping a number of preposterous ideas and prevarications around three basic and true axioms. They are: (1) income is taxed in what are essentially "chunks," (2) the only relevant tax rate for decision making is the marginal rate, and (3) tremendous wealth can be created by borrowing at one rate and investing at a higher rate. Everything else in this book is not only utter nonsense, but potentially lethal to one's financial health.
The author arrives at two basic conclusions. We should borrow out of our homes and invest the proceeds at a higher rate. Universal life insurance serves as Andrew's means to this end. We should also suffer the consequences of withdrawing from our IRAs and other retirement plans now rather than later, since the tax from such withdrawals will only get worse. Naturally, the leftover funds (heavily diluted by taxes) should be invested in the same insurance policies, which supposedly offer a higher--and safer--yield than whatever the retirement plans were invested in. By page 5, I realize I'm reading a book-length sales pitch and con that has the potential to wreak havoc in my clients' lives (disclosure: I've been an Enrolled Agent tax professional and Certified Financial Planner licensee for almost three decades).
Anything this full of nonsense is difficult to critique. Short of writing a book-length retort, I've settled on the idea of listing the multitude of problems by category and providing examples from each.
A far more comprehensive review is available at my personal sites; just Google my name to find me. This is an abstract from that review. Serious readers will want to check out my books to see what links may exist between financial abuse and the field of addiction. You may wish to start with Drunks, Drugs & Debits: How to Recognize Addicts and Avoid Financial Abuse or Alcoholism Myths and Realities: Removing the Stigma of Society's most Destructive Disease.
Highly misleading examples
(2) "A $6,000 interest expense deduction on an itemized tax return has the same impact as a $6,000 qualified plan contribution. They are simply reflected in different sections of the return." Aside from numerous other issues, the tax savings from the interest deduction may be zero if you don't already itemize deductions.
(3) He implies that ordinary investors can double their money for 20 periods by comparing one dollar pre-tax and one dollar taxed-as-earned, doubling each "period" for 20 such "periods." The number of humans who have done this or something equivalent numbers perhaps a few thousand, which wasn't accomplished by investing in insurance contracts.
Faulty and twisted logic
(4) "...Your home may likely sell much more quickly and for a higher price with a high mortgage balance rather than a low mortgage balance." What the heck does the balance on my mortgage have to do with what a buyer is willing to pay me for my house?
Broad, sweeping and misleading generalizations
(2) Andrew advises that we all sell our homes and repurchase with 100% financing with the goal of freeing up equity to invest in his recommended universal life policies. He ignores the higher interest and property mortgage insurance costs on such loans, overlooks possible increased property taxes and disregards fixed transaction and moving costs.
(4) "Unfortunately, non-spouse heirs far too often end up with only about 28 percent of the money that was left in their parents' IRAs and 401(k)s." This is scare-mongering.
Questionable predictions and grand assumptions
(3) "Conservatively, [our cozy retirement] cabin will double in value every ten years..." and our $100,000 cabin will be worth "$800,000 in thirty years." Very few areas in the country even during the late real estate boom of the last three decades have done that well. What would qualify as "aggressively"?
Assertions and generalizations that may be lethal to your retirement
(1) "Home equity has no rate of return when it is trapped in the house..." This is outright nonsense. The return is what you save in interest or rents.
(5) He concludes that if not done before, "roll-outs" from IRAs commence at age 59 over a five year period and that some younger people under age 50 should commence withdrawals despite the imposition of early withdrawal penalties. The value of tax-deferred growth is ignored, as is the fact that "repositioning" of funds shrink the amount available for investment by the tax paid, which greatly distorts his calculations.
Inane or incorrect assertions
(2) He states that the interest on an equity line used to purchase universal life insurance from which you contemplate borrowing is deductible. Under IRC section 264(a)3, it isn't).
Sloppy editing of facts
(2) "One requirement [for withdrawing tax-free income from a Roth IRA] is that a distribution may not be made until at least five years after the first contribution is made." This is incorrect. Principle contributions, which are withdrawn before earnings, can be taken at any time at no cost in tax or penalty.
Poor writing and berating of those who disagree with him
(2) "There are two ways to handle information: ignore it as false or increase your level of understanding to accommodate new ideas." Obviously, we are supposed to accommodate his ideas or we're complete idiots.
(3) There are probably hundreds of examples poor writing. "...Premium payments can be varied, fluctuated, and adjusted according to circumstances..." should be, simply, "Premiums can be adjusted."
Throughout, Andrew uses variations of the typical bunko-artist salesman ploy: scare you into agreeing to do whatever he says because life will be filled with disasters if you don't. On the contrary: your financial life will likely turn into a catastrophe if you do.
What your Life Insurance Agent hopes you NEVER read October 1, 2007
25 out of 28 found this review helpful
When did Life Insurance become a good Investment?
Did they stop charging those 90% plus commissions on target premiums?
When did the Life Insurance Agent become a charitable organization?
Anyone who is believing this so called NEW way of thinking is either really bad with math or simply does NOT understand Life Insurance. There is a REASON you don't see REAL professionals using this concept they KNOW the TRUTH!!!
What is the ROI on my home Equity? MORE THAN ANY LIFE POLICY!!!!
After you learn how to subtract out all the commissions and fees, then the REAL cost of the death benefit, loan fees for your house loan fees for the life policy let's sit down and compare which approach works best. Having my house free and clear with NO COMMISSIONS to pay, no loans, and no INCREASING internal costs for the life insurance will BEAT any Life Policy I GUARANTEE IT!
Here is a shocker to reality. If you bought into this BS and mortgaged your house and placed the money into a life policy order a current statement for your policy showing the SURRENDER CASH VALUE in the first year, HOW MUCH did you LOSE? Then look at the 5th year how much have you LOST? Tenth year? Do the REAL MATH find out the REAL FACTS.
LIFE INSURANCE is one of the HIGHEST commissioned products in the financial industry if not the HIGHEST FACT! Where do you think that money comes from, YOUR POCKET. 90% first year target premium commission and then about 6% commission each year thereafter. Do the math if the insurance company is paying out 90% of the first year target premium in commissions and 6% each year how long does it take for YOU to make MONEY or even breakeven on your so called investment? It will take OVER 20 YEARS!
Here is a little KNOWN FACT there are currently MANY so called experts out there today TRAINING for a large fee many other life insurance agents and mortgage brokers how to SELL LARGE COMMISSIONED life insurance policies. They don't care if you need a policy or NOT they only care about SELLING a policy. Check the facts. Some are even paying for cruises for Seniors then encouraging them to apply for insurance. IT IS HIGHLY PROFITABLE to someone BUT NOT YOU the policyholder.
You will see many lawsuits in the coming years from these abuses when the you know what finally hits the fan.
By the way did you know that it was illegal for you stock broker to encourage you to take out a mortgage to buy an REAL INVESTMENT? It should also be illegal for Insurance Agents but it's not, well not YET, time will tell.
I wish more people would ask the harder questions before believing this new line of BS.
FACTS: Insurance agents make about a 30-50% commission on term life insurance and around 90-95% commission on whole life products. Keep in mind that this is the first year commission on the premium and subsequent year commissions are much lower with an average of 6% per year for whole life products and 4% per year on term life insurance products.
One of the great problems with whole life is only an expert can tell if a policy you own or are considering will ever become a decent investment. James Hunt, actuary for the Consumer Federation of America, who has analyzed thousands of policies, notes that whole life policies hardly ever yield a reasonable return unless held for 20 years or more.
So if you buy one be prepared to pay into it for the very long haul.
The key to a whole life policy is its internal rate of return -- the yield on the policy after all fees and charges are subtracted. A competent analysis can determine at a minimum whether the weight of the fees and charges built into one of these policies will ever allow a worthwhile return. Such an analysis will also pinpoint the minimum amount of cash value that you can derive from a policy at any given time interval.
Some financial planners, actuaries and accountants can perform internal rate of return analysis on your policy. The Consumer Federation has a service that will do this, calculating the real return year by year and comparing it with other investments.
Promissing theme but not a panacea September 29, 2007
14 out of 17 found this review helpful
Folks, this book will not apply to most readers.
I really wanted to understand and believe the method of this book because I certainly could benefit from it. The theme is to extract equity from your home(s) now before the bubble deflates. Then you invest it into insurance products for a guaranteed return. The whole book builds the reader up to find that magical solution, which climaxes at the end with a table of financial calculations.
Here is the problem with this method. His base figures are unrealistic to start with. Current rates for equity extraction (home loan/credit or refinance) are *higher* than what he uses in his tables. The returns from a fixed insurance contract are much *lower* than his tables. If you plug realistic figures into the calculations you will see this method barely makes sense.
There are many huge disadvantages to this method. First the upfront and yearly fees are so expensive it does not make sense to withdraw your money for at least 6 to 7 years should you need it. Second, you are paying a price for the guaranteed fixed return in the term of management fees which lower your return. If you invested in a regular taxed mutual fund, over a long period of time you will always do better than the insurance fixed return. Third, insurance contracts are not wise vehicles for passing on wealth to beneficiaries. Sure there is a payout, but should you live far past your average life expectancy, the majority your accumulated funds go into the insurance company's vault forever! Fourth, the method mentioned in the book is convoluted and is in part based on a series of tax loopholes. That means, as the author does acknowledged, the legality and advantages may change or vanish over time.
With all these drawbacks, why was the book written?
This book is essentially a sales pitch disguised as a presentation of logic and calculations. But as mentioned, the figures used for the foundation of the calculations are simply not realistic.
Financial planners make their biggest commissions on insurance products. The author is a financial planner.
Most financial gurus (Susy Orman, etc.) dislike insurance contracts and advise that individuals plan their own investments.
However, for those who would like a lower fixed return for a price and are less concerned about passing on their wealth to beneficiaries, this method could possibly apply.
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