I just love these three money books. I’ve read them over and over. No, I don’t necessarily agree with every detail in them, but I love them because they are unique and unafraid to challenge conventional ‘wisdom’. More importantly, all three authors truly practice what they preach in their personal lives – they’re qualified to comment.
Here are the 3 great money books that should be read:
- Family Fortunes
- The Old Money Book 2nd Edition
- Dividends Still Don’t Lie
1. Family Fortunes
How to Build Family Wealth and Hold on to It for 100 Years
In this money book, Bill Bonner comes a radical new way to look at family money and a practical, actionable guide to getting and maintaining multigenerational wealth. Family Fortunes: How to Build Family Wealth and Hold on to It for 100 Years is packed with useful information, interwoven with Bonner’s stories about his own family’s wealth philosophy and practices.
A comprehensive guide that shows how families can successfully preserve their estates by ignoring most of what people think they know about “the rich” and, instead, training and motivating all family members to work together toward a very uncommon goal. This book is a must-read for all individual investors―even those who do not plan to leave money to their children―because it challenges many of the most ubiquitous principles and rules of investing.
You might expect a book on family wealth to be extremely conservative in its outlook. Instead, the Bonners announce what is practically a revolutionary manifesto. They explain:
- Why family money should NOT be invested in “safe, conservative” investments
- Why charitable giving is usually a waste of money, or worse
- Why it is NOT a good idea to let children go their own way
- Why you can’t trust wealth “professionals” and why you should never entrust your money-to-money managers
- Why giving your children as much education as possible is NOT a good idea
- Why Warren Buffett and the rest of the rich people asking for higher tax rates are wrong to take “the pledge”
- Why Wall Street is a graveyard for capital, why most celebrity CEOs are a threat to the businesses they run, why modern capitalism is a failure, and more
You will come away with a very different idea as to what family wealth is all about. It is not stodgy. Not boring. Not moss-backed and reactionary. On the contrary, it is the most dynamic, forward-looking capital in the world. The essential guide to passing wealth from one generation to the next, Family Fortunes is filled with concrete, practical advice you can put to use right away.
From the Inside Flap
How can you build the kind of wealth that will allow you and your children to become the next generation of “Old Money”? In Family Fortunes: How to Build Family Wealth and Hold on to It for 100 Years, father-and-son team Bill and Will Bonner present a radical new way to look at family money along with the practical advice you need to build and maintain multigenerational wealth.
To construct a legacy that will last, you need to forget everything you think you know about what it means to be rich (even if you already are). Big houses? Flashy cars? Not so fast. Keeping money in the family involves putting in more hard work, not having more fun. It’s a constant challenge, but the benefits can be huge.
Rejecting much of the common wisdom associated with building family wealth from the mistaken belief that withholding money from your kids will somehow toughen them up to why putting your faith in professional money managers is never a good idea Family Fortunes presents a game-changing new look at family, money, and how the two can come together in exciting, potentially life-altering ways. To reap the enormous potential rewards of multigenerational wealth, families need to work together, and think about the long term when it comes to investing and other moneymaking opportunities.
Comprehensive and accessible, Family Fortunes shows you how to establish a lasting estate by training and motivating your relations to work toward the preservation and growth of both assets and a family business. Filled with invaluable advice for making money and keeping it in the family interwoven with anecdotes about the authors’ own family’s wealth philosophy and practices, the book illustrates why family money is the most dynamic, forward-looking capital in the world, and how your family can cash in on it for generations to come.
About the Authors Bill & Will Bonner
BILL BONNER is President and CEO of Agora Publishing, one of the world’s largest financial newsletter companies. He is the creator of the Daily Reckoning, a financial newsletter with more than 540,000 readers of six different global daily editions, including French and German. Bonner is co-author of the international bestsellers Financial Reckoning Day and Empire of Debt with Addison Wiggin, as well as Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets (co-authored with Lila Rajiva), the New York Times bestseller. In 2011, he wrote Dice Have No Memory: Big Bets and Bad Economics from Paris to the Pampas. He files his Daily Reckoning dispatches from a ranch in Argentina, the home office in Maryland, various joint ventures, and other hot spots around the globe.
WILL BONNER is Executive Director of the Bonner & Partners Family Office, an independent estate planning and investment research group. Will got his start working in the “mailroom” of the family business, Agora, at age eleven. Later, he helped launch, and served as CEO of Early to Rise, a leading self-improvement publishing business. In 2007, he opened Agora’s South American office in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and set up a successful business partnership that is one of the largest investment research and education companies publishing in Spanish. He is a graduate of St. John’s College’s Great Books program, earning a double major in philosophy and mathematics. Bonner lives with his wife and two children in Delray Beach, Florida. He’s the eldest of Bill’s six children.
2. The Old Money Book 2nd Edition
How To Live Better While Spending Less – Secrets of America’s Upper Class
UPDATED 2ND EDITION – The Old Money Book details how anyone from any background can adopt the values, priorities, and habits of America’s upper class in order to live a richer life. This entertaining and informative work reveals for the first time the Core Values that shape the discreet–but truly affluent–Old Money way of life. Author Byron Tully then details How Old Money Does It, offering time-tested advice on everything from clothes and cars to finances and furnishings. Whether you’re just starting out or starting over, The Old Money Book shows you how you really can Live Better While Spending Less. This instant classic has now been updated and expanded. With the original text included, the author has now added insights and information to help you navigate this post pandemic economy, revealing vital, timely strategies and tips on how to make the most of your money and your life. Also included are must-read excerpts from Byron’s other popular books, including The Old Money Guide To Marriage, Old Money New Woman, and Old Money Style, as well as many of his most popular and inspiring blog posts from The Old Money Book blog (www.theoldmoneybook.com).With over 300 4-star Amazon reader reviews for the original Old Money Book, this is definitely a book to devour for its timely information and savor for its timeless wisdom.
About The Author Byron Tully
Grandson of a newspaper publisher and son of an oil industry executive, Byron Tully is an author who also writes for the entertainment industry.
His nonfiction debut, “The Old Money Book,” was published in April of 2013 to excellent reviews and enjoys consistently strong sales worldwide. His other works include “The Old Money Guide To Marriage”, “Old Money, New Woman: How To Manage Your Money and Your Life”, and “Old Money Style – The Gentleman’s Edition”.
Byron regularly contributes to its blog, www.theoldmoneybook.com, which has been visited by over 1 million readers since 2014.
In November of 2020, Byron published a 2nd Edition of “The Old Money Book”, which expands on his original classic. This 2nd Edition includes vital information and insights for readers as they navigate a very different, post-pandemic world. It also includes excerpts from his previous Old Money titles, as well as more than a dozen popular blog posts from The Old Money Book blog.
Byron speaks frequently about the culture and values of Old Money. He has been interviewed by KABC New York’s Financial Quarterback Show, The Huffington Post, and The Simple Dollar, among others.
Byron also writes for the entertainment industry. His original screenplay, an Untitled French Thriller, was an Official Selection at the 2022 Montreal Independent Film Festival.
3. Dividends Still Don’t Lie
The Truth About Investing in Blue Chip Stocks and Winning in the Stock Market
This money book is Kelley Wright’s timely follow-up to the bestselling classic Dividends Don’t Lie
In 1988 Geraldine Weiss wrote the classic Dividends Don’t Lie (here’s a previous article I wrote on Geraldine), which focused on the Dividend-Yield Theory as a method of producing consistent gains in the stock market. Today, the approach of using the dividend yield to identify values in blue chip stocks still outperforms most investment methods on a risk-adjusted basis.
Written by Kelley Wright, Managing Editor of Investment Quality Trends, with a new Foreword by Geraldine Weiss, this book teaches a value-based strategy to investing, one that uses a stock’s dividend yield as the primary measure of value. Rather than emphasize the price cycles of a stock, the company’s products, market strategy or other factors, this guide stresses dividend-yield patterns.
- Details a straightforward system of investing in stick-to-quality blue-chip stocks with reliable dividend histories
- Discusses how to buy and sell when dividend yields instruct you to do so
- Investors looking for safety and transparency will quickly discover how dividends offer the yields they desire
With Dividends Still Don’t Lie, you’ll gain the confidence to make sophisticated stock market decisions and obtain solid value for your investment dollars.
From the Inside Flap
In 1988, Geraldine Weiss wrote the classic Dividends Don’t Lie. That book detailed the dividend-value strategy behind Investment Quality Trends, the highly successful newsletter Weiss founded and Kelley Wright now edits. Today, more than twenty years later, the investment world has changed dramatically because of computer technology and the Internet. Tremendous amounts of data and information can be gathered, sorted, and analyzed in a matter of minutes, and what used to take weeks or months at a library can now be accomplished in one evening with a computer. What hasn’t changed is the success of the dividend-value strategy for producing consistent gains in the stock market Dividends Still Don’t Lie shows how the stock market still rewards investors who recognize and appreciate good value.
Rather than emphasize price alone or a company’s sector, products, or other analytical factors, the dividend-value strategy uses dividend-yield patterns to make buying and selling decisions. In simple terms: a stock is most attractive when it offers a high-dividend yield. As investors rush in to lock down the high yield, their buying pushes the price higher. Eventually the price reaches an area where the current yield is no longer attractive and buying stops. With no new buyers to push the stock price higher, the price begins to decline—and early investors sell and take their profits. Wright shows that, by understanding the historical dividend-yield pattern of a company, you will be better informed as to whether the stock offers much value, little value, or value that’s somewhere in-between.
Four plus decades of research have shown that blue chip companies, those with long records of consistent, competent performance, are far more predictable than are upstarts or less established companies with erratic records of earnings and dividend payments. In short, the dividend-value strategy is a proven, common-sense approach that has ultimately led to long-term results. Dividends Still Don’t Lie will show you how to master the stock market by successfully investing in high- quality, dividend-paying blue-chip stocks.
About the Author Kelley Wright
KELLEY WRIGHT is Chief Investment Officer and Portfolio Manager at I.Q. Trends Private Client Asset Management. He is also Managing Editor of the Investment Quality Trends newsletter. Since 1989, Wright has been a private money manager and has served as Chief Investment Officer to three investment management firms. In 2002, he was handpicked by the legendary Geraldine Weiss to succeed her as Managing Editor of the number one rated Investment Quality Trends newsletter she started in 1966. Wright is an active lecturer nationwide at trade shows and investment conferences and a frequent guest on both television and radio.
Why I Think These 3 Great Money Books Should Be Read
In a word – authentic. These three money books are truly authentic. Their authors live what they write about and share without filtering their message. It sure beats the banality of so many other money books currently available. I love listening to people that are truly qualified to comment.
Cheers
