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| Automatic Wealth for Grads... and Anyone Else Just Starting Out | 
 enlarge | Author: Michael Masterson
Creator: Mark Skousen
Publisher: Wiley
Category: Book
List Price: $22.95
Buy New: $6.44
You Save: $16.51 (72%)
Buy New/Used from $6.44
Avg. Customer Rating:  (44 reviews)
Sales Rank: 72138
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.7 x 5.7 x 1.1
ISBN: 0471786764
Dewey Decimal Number: 332.02401
EAN: 9780471786764
ASIN: 0471786764
Publication Date: March 31, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Pretty good read. Leaves out lots of the details. August 30, 2006
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
I like the overall point of this book. I also agree with a lot of the stuff he teaches in regards to using real estate and owning your own business as the only true way to get superb rates of returns. However, he does make one huge assumption in the real estate section that is not clear: that you can rent a house for the same cost as your expenses. This may work in some cheaper areas, but in the places where houses have skyrocketed in price, expecting to get a high enough rent to cover all the fees is not realistic for some major areas. Also, he makes it sound like getting 150k is easy for a salary. Unfortunately for those of us in stable "normal" fields like engineering, nursing, accounting, etc... asking for a 30% raise would get you a lot of laughs at best. Nonetheless, I would still recommend it to other new grads.
Not magical but worth reading in the end August 6, 2006
9 out of 12 found this review helpful
Masterson has written a book that could serve as a practical and seemingly well-intentioned guide to the process of building a fortune for the budding (and even not-so budding) careerist. I am not a financial specialist so I will not pretend to be able to assess the soundness of his financial ideas. I can tell you this however: since buying the book I have become thriftier, less idealistic when it comes to matters of money, and at the same time more financially ambitious - and with a plan. All this has not come at the cost of reducing the quality of my life, but on the contrary, I feel that my life has been enhanced in the last two weeks from reading this book as well as "Richest Man in Babylon". These changes came from small pieces of advice from Masterson's book rather than the larger ideas and plans. I am still sceptical of his views on real estate and stock market investment. Be warned that the book is a bit fluffy and sometimes you will have to read through a lot before getting substantial ideas and during those times you will not have the benefit of reading particularly engaging prose, so be patient, you will likely find that the wait was worthwhile.
His self-centered writing style is typical of works in this genre. Sometimes though, it is self-centered to the extent that it raises doubts on his objectivity. For instance, he prescribes that one should make it early to work--significantly earlier than expected. In principle, a good idea for sure, however, when he later compounds this idea with the fact that "every successful person" he knows gets to work early (p 221) it reads as a little preachy and a tad disorienting for the night owl that I am. Over generalizing from his own experience and opinions like this is something that you will have to watch out for when you read this book. But hopefully are you read critically when reading any book so this advice should be superfluous.
I was startled when I reached the final chapter of the book. I must admit that I am generally cynical of financial self-help books. I find that they tend to be overly materialistic and disregard other more important moral values in life. Masterson's chapter on "Living Rich Starting Tomorrow" was a welcome shock for me because he stressed the importance of `living' as your primary goal. His revelations on the happiness as it relates to other values in life were up-to-date with the recent research in the area. I felt his message in that last chapter was: money and happiness are not necessarily twins, pursue money but don't let the pursuit consume you. The choice is not whether to be rich or a tree-hugger, you can be both if you want and in the last chapter he tries to tell you how to squeeze some extra juice from what you already have or what you could conceivably have in the near future.
 60% Filler, 35% Anecdotal, 5% Worthwhile Information July 12, 2006
28 out of 29 found this review helpful
When I first bought it for myself and skimmed the first few pages, I was very excited about the book and thought that it would be a worthwhile read. As I kept reading, though, it became increasingly apparent that this guy was just trying to sell copies of his book, and didn't have much worthwhile information to say. He constantly repeats that he is showing you how to "get rich" without providing any substantive advice. He repeats lists that have little or no value, including things like "Work Hard" over and over again.
From the outside in it seems great, but after going through it you will have learned very little from the book. All of the worthwhile information in the book could be sufficiently summarized in two paragraphs. I find it hard to believe that most of the other reviewers actually read the entire book. Do yourself a favor and read the better books out there, like Clason's the "Richest Man In Babylon."
Automatic Wealth for Grads...and Anyone Else Just Starting Out July 11, 2006
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I have enjoyed this book very much. I have two children, ages 13 and 15, and plan to have each of them read this book either before or after they graduate. It really has a lot of great information that I wish someone would have told me about when I was younger.
 Great book July 8, 2006
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
My favorite chapter in this book is the one on real estate investing. As an engineering major, I'm not very familiar with this sort of thing and found it to be a good introduction. I also like his advice on how to approach work and how to get promoted. I think this is a great read for students in general.
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