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Abridged Audio Book: 3 CDs (3 hours)
Read by the author
Are most of us plodding down the wrong path in investing for our retirement? Douglas R. Andrew, owner and president of Paramount Financial Services, thinks so. However, he also feels that baby boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) and even those right on the verge of retirement still have a chance to change their financial direction and realize a comfortable standard of living.
In his three-disc audio book, The Last Chance Millionaire: It’s Not Too Late to Become Wealthy, Andrew suggests that individuals should behave as a bank, borrowing on the equity in their homes and investing in liquid assets. He’s against paying off the principle and even suggests financing your home through interest-only loans.
Using plenty of acronyms in his book, Andrew follows the principle of using OPM (Other People’s Money) for your retirement, as stated above. He also stresses that all investments need to follow the LSRR test: liquidity, safety, and rate of return.
The first two CDs cover the basic elements of financial planning that, hopefully, we all know. He explains that we shouldn’t depend on social security for retirement—and that we shouldn’t accrue interest on credit cards. He repeats his premise “Borrow only to conserve, not to consume.” And he urges readers to know their credit score. Since I already knew the basics, however, I was bored by this portion of the book.
It isn’t until the third CD that Andrew gets into the meat of the topic—the controversial part of the book. He suggests that readers should roll out their IRA and/or 401k and invest in instruments such as mutual funds, tax-free indexed annuities, or—his recommendation—indexed universal life insurance contracts. Though he makes a solid case for his position, it still sounds like a sales pitch. He brings in different financial scenarios with concrete calculations to support them. However, being the visual person that I am, I need to study the facts on paper—not simply listen to them while driving. He addresses the concern that Congress may change current tax laws regarding life insurance, and he believes that current owners would be “grandfathered” in if the laws were to change. However, I know of situations where that has not been the case.
Whether you agree with him or not, Andrew presents an interesting take on how to plan for retirement. If you have any financial planning knowledge, just fast-forward through the first two CDs of The Last Chance Millionaire and listen to the third. As interesting as the book was, however, Andrew still didn’t convince me to cash in or stop contributing to my IRA.
