Safe Strategies for Financial Freedom

Positive Review of Book

Safe Strategies for Financial Freedom is the best book every written relating to financial freedom. The authors do a fantastic job of taking the complex macro world of finance and simplifying it into very simple and easy to apply models. These simple models only require about 20 minutes a week of your time for you to know which strategies / markets to be getting into, or staying with or avoiding. And the bonus is that they also provide you with clear cut and simple guidelines on how to implement the appropriate strategy given the current financial climate.

The books' genius is in it's simplicity, everything is spelled out in plain English and the referred resources are fantastic tools for mentoring you towards your objectives. The authors have just done so much groundwork for you, in all the investing arenas, be that bonds, stocks, real estate, cash or commodities or mutual/hedge funds. And the real kicker is that it doesn't matter whether the Dow is going up or down, there is always something you can do to further your progress towards your financial freedom goals. This book is the best book ever written in the financial genre, though I suspect that it won't be widely acknowledged for another decade or so. I believe that money flows towards integrity, freedom and responsibility. This books reeks of those three qualities. I found my financial freedom four years ago (age 29) after spending my 20's learning what this book can teach you in a few weeks. This book can take your journey of learning from decades to months. Do your self a favor. Commit to safe strategies.

Negative Review of Book

I have been investing myself since about 1980, in Real Estate, Stocks and my own business. I have read pretty much everything I can get my hands on from economics, math, business, to investing as in the classic trading books and options strategies. I did read Van Tharps' "Trade your Way to Financial Freedom" I liked that one and learned a fair amount. I'm not sure what happened to Van Tharp, if he needs money or what, but I found "Safe Strategies" to be about one level above an infomercial mentality. The only reason this is one level above is because I bit and bought this book because of Van Tharp's name. I guess if you if you are just starting out hopefully this will wake up your interest in making and taking care of your money.

Most of Safe Strategies for Financial Freedom to me was comical, especially chapter 12, The Real Estate strategies. There is another name for most of those strategies and that is bank fraud, my opinion. Any Real Estate investing that talks about funds held outside of escrow then being "forgiven" after closing and not being disclosed should send a red flag up to you. The slang for this is Texas Earnest money. If Berry has ever actually did some of his deals and can sleep at night great, not for me. I've seen this deals come to me and usually laugh at the people attempting to make them. I ask what seminar you go to or where did you read this. Read Chapter 12 and ask yourself how stupid do people have to be to accept his offers.

Oh you can say hard-up yeah ok good luck finding them, much less reselling the property. But hey everybody has to learn for themselves I guess. I could on about this book but I have already wasted enough time with it between reading and now this. I will say if you want to read a couple of great books about the stock markets, in my opinion, check out `Trade Like A Hedge Fund" by Altucher; "Practical Speculation" by Niederhoffer and anything written by Dr. Elders, for options, "Options as a Strategic Investments" by McMillian. Hey if you like this new Van Tharps book, so be it. Sure there a few good ideas that are rehashed like position sizing and really just being disciplined but my area for many years has been real estate so when i read things that in my State would most likely get people into trouble i feel a duty to at least warn them about this.

Author Biography

Van K. Tharp Ph.D., is president of the International Institute of Trading Mastery (IITM). A globally recognized coach for traders and investors, he is the bestselling author of Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom and publisher of the successful monthly newsletter Market Mastery and the free weekly email, Tharp's Weekly Thoughts.

Table of Contents

1. Part I: Developing Your Plan to Quit Working Now 13
• Chapter 1: You Never Have to Work Again: You Don't Need A Million Dollars to Be Financially Free 17
• Discovering Your Personal Financial Freedom Number 18
• What Your Financial Freedom Number Means 23
• Chapter 2: Saving Thousands More A Year by Paying Yourself First 25
• Chapter 3: Getting out of Debt in Less Than Under Two Years 31
• Just Ask! How To Cut Expenses Without Much Effort 32
• Taxes May Be Your Biggest Expense 34
• Making Your Debts Disappear With The Payoff Priority Technique 36
• Additional Considerations for Debt Reduction 39
• Chapter 4: Maximizing What You've Already Got 41
• Taking Stock: Your Assets and What They're Really Doing For You 41
• Redeploy Your Assets As Effectively As Possible 45
• Adding Strategies That Significantly Increase Your Passive Income 49
• Making Your Paradigm Shift: Financial Freedom Is Closer 51
• Than You Think 51
2. Part II Profitable Stock Market Strategies in Good Times and Bad 57
• Chapter 5: Times Will Be Very Tough for Stocks But Not For You 61
• Debunking The Conventional Wisdom: The Market's 18-Year
• Mega-Cycles 62
• How Far Down Will You Go, Mr. Market? 64
• Understanding What The Market Is Doing In Any Climate 67
• Translating The Mound Of Information Into Profitable Strategies 73
• Chapter 6: Following the Money to Safe, Steady Profits 77
• The Dirty Little Secrets About Mutual Funds 78
• Using Mutual Funds To Your Advantage 80
• Outpeforming The S&P 500 In Your IRA With This Weekly
• Trading Strategy 82
• Chapter 7: Strategies for Great Profits in Bad Times 91
• Strategy I: Using Bear Market Mutual Funds For Profit 91
• Strategy II: Profiting From Falls In Individual Stocks 96
• Chapter 8: Buying Stocks Safely: An Alternative to the
• Conventional Wisdom 103
• Method I: Following A Newsletter's Recommendations 104
• Method II: Trading Efficient Stocks 108
• Method III: Buying Deeply Undervalued Stocks 113
• Chapter 9: Having A Professional Do It For You 123
• Hedge Funds - A Pure Passive Investment 125
• Hedge Funds: What Are They? 127
• Equity Mutual Funds Vs. Hedge Funds 129
• Hedge Fund Strategies 131
• Performing Your Own Due Diligence And Analyzing The Risks 135
3. Part III: More Profitable Strategies for Financial Freedom 141
• Chapter 10: The Inflation-Deflation Game: How to Protect Yourself 143
• Could A Deflationary Depression Like The 1930s Happen Again? 145
• Could We See An Inflationary Spiral Like The Late 1970s Again? 148
• Tracking Inflation And Deflation With Our Four Star System 150
• How to Profit From the Indicators 154
• Chapter 11: The Dollar and Interest Rates: Turning Treats To Your Wealth Into Profits 159
• Sorry, Honey, No More Trips to Europe - We Can't Afford It 161
• The Only Two Things That Affect the Value of Your Money 162
• Tracking the Value of the Dollar 163
• How Interest Rates Effect the Dollar and Your Wealth 165
• The Max Yield Strategy - a safe once-a-year system for
• double-digit profits 167
• The Easy Way to Play the Max Yield Game 169
• Going Down Under for big profits now 170
• The Best Strategies in Each Interest Rate Environment 171
• Easily Monitoring Interest Rates On Your Own 172
• Chapter 12. Sizing Up Real Estate as an Investment 175
• Is Real Estate Really A Good Investment? 175
• The Negative Side of the Real Estate Picture 176
• The Positive Side of the Real Estate Picture 177
• International Real Estate Opportunities 179
• Understanding the Real Estate Cycles: The Real Key to
• Real Estate Investing 181
• How You Can Make Money in Real Estate 182
• Real Estate Looks Pretty Good Now Compared to Other Assets 182
• How You Can Monitor the Real Estate Picture for Yourself 183
• Chapter 13: Real Estate Strategies You Can Use 185
• Strategy One: Buy and Hold 186
• Strategy Two: Quick Cash 191
• Strategy Three: Cash Flow 196
• Chapter 14: The Best Investment You'll Ever Make - Your Own Business 203
• The Keys to Business Success 205
• Buying Into A Proven Business System 208
• A Low-Risk, Minimal-Cost Alternative 210
• Find A Business Structure To Support Your Financial Freedom 214
4. Part IV: Safeguarding Your Financial Freedom 217
• Chapter 15: The Six Keys to Investment Success 219
• Fundamental One: Protect Your Equity 219
• Fundamental Two: Keep Losses Small 223
• Fundamental Three: Grow Winners Big 227
• Fundamental Four: Understand the Relationship Between
• Risk and Reward 230
• Fundamental Five: How Investment Frequency Effects You 237v
• Fundamental Six: Make Sure a Position is
• Moving in Your Favor Before You Enter It 238
• Chapter 16: Using Position Sizing to Meet Your Objectives 243
• Understanding Position Sizing through the Marble Game 243
• Calculating Your Own Position Size 246
• Using Position Sizing to Meet Your Investment Objectives 249
• Safe-Strategy Position Sizing 253
• Answering Your Questions on Position Sizing 260
• Chapter 17: Knowing Your Strategy 265
• Why Your System Works 266
• Understanding the Money Game 271
• How Will My Strategy Perform in Various Types of Markets? 275
• What Can I Expect From My System? 276
• How Do I Know If My Strategy is Working? The Periodic Review 284
5. Part V: The Future 289
• Chapter 18: Fixing Your Mistakes: The Key To It All 291
• The Brutal Truth: People Get What They Want 294
• Taking Personal Responsibility: The Fastest Way to
• Reaching Your True Goals 295
• Honestly Admitting Your Mistakes 297
• Correcting those Mistakes to Get You Back On Track 299
• Chapter 19: Securing Your Future: Educating Your Kids and Grandkids 305
• Developing Concrete Habits 306
• How'd You Like An Increase In Your Allowance:
• Say Between $4,000 to $18,000 Per Month? 307
• The Remarkable Two-Box System for Installing Good Money Habits 308
• Why Half Is Good 311
• Preventative Medicine for the Gimmes 312
• Six Super Savings Ratios 312
• Making the Seeds Grow 314
• Weeding Out Bad Habits 316
• Let Compound Interest Works For You, Not Against You 317
• Why Pay $12,958 for a $2,000 Computer? 317
• Is There Such A Thing As Good Debt 318
• Something For You 319
• Let Your Children Work Part Time for You 320
• Why This Hidden Technique Works So Well 320
• Making A Good Idea A Great One 321
• Special Benefits From Special Features 322
• Chapter 20: Getting Started Now 327
• Step I: Developing Your Financial Freedom Plan 327
• Step II: Learning the Key Factors Influence Today's Market 328
• Step III: Understanding and Implementing Risk Control 331
• Step IV: Working with Yourself and the Next Generation 332

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