You Can Never Be Too Rich: Essential Investing Advice You Cannot Afford to Overlook

by Alan Haft

Overview

Solid financial guidance for anyone looking to build and protect their wealth

Every day, nationally recognized financial advisor Alan Haft helps his clients reach their financial goals and increase their standard of living. Now, in You Can Never Be Too Rich, Haft uses his vast knowledge base, highly innovative investment concepts, and entertaining style of writing to create proven investment solutions that will help readers minimize risk and take advantage of opportunities that lead to financial security for a lifetime. With this essential guide, Haft walks readers through the process of building and protecting wealth-and reveals the financial secrets that most investment professionals aren't aware of. You Can Never Be Too Rich clearly focuses on how people-whether they're just starting to work or are well on their way to retirement-can build a sizeable nest egg without getting caught up in market swings, taxes, or poor investment decisions. In this book, Haft doesn't rely on gimmicks or get-rich-quick schemes to help readers reach their goals; he simply offers proven and easy-to-understand-yet highly effective-advice that will allow them to make profitable financial decisions based on their specific situations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781118820094
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	10/28/2013
Pages:	322
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Alan Haft is a nationally recognized personal finance expert who has appeared in a wide range of media outlets, including Money magazine, BusinessWeek, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, Morningstar, Forbes.com, and TodayShow.com among many others. His newspaper column, "The Haft of It," has appeared in various newspapers across the country, and he continues to conduct entertaining, simple-to-understand, and highly informative presentations for thousands of people nationwide. For more information, visit www.alanhaft.com.

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Table of Contents

Preface vii

Acknowledgments ix

Disclaimer x

Introduction: Hollywood and the Art of Investing 1

Chapter 1 The Top 10 Lessons Hollywood teaches us about investing 7

Lesson 1: Diversification is the key to success 7

Lesson 2: It doesn’t have to be complicated for it to be effective 8

Lessons 3: It’s the details that count 8

Lessons 4: Costs are critical 9

Lesson 5: Planning is key 9

Lesson 6: Cut the losers, ride the winners 10

Lesson 7: Experts focus on reducing risk; Novice focus on return 11

Lesson 8: Don’t reinvent the wheel 11

Lesson 9: Complacency is the mother of all disasters 12

Lesson 10: Defy conventional wisdom and take smart risks 12

And one more for the road: if there’s a will there’s a way 13

Chapter 2 To Beat the Market, Be the Market 15

What Billy the Bully teaches us about investing 17

Going down? 18

Swing easy 20

Diversification 21

Off to the races: An introduction to asset allocation 22

Stocks, funds, or indexes 31

The index advantage 44

Building the house 53

How to pick a stock like Warren Buffett 64

A simpler way to pick individual stocks 67

Real-world sample portfolio 68

How to beat Wall Street in nine seconds flat 71

Lifestyle funds 74

The fine art of buying low and selling high 76

Wrapping it up 87

How much should I be saving 88

Chapter 3 Reliable Returns 93

Generating reliable returns 94

The most dangerous game 96

The numbers don’t lie 99

How to avoid the most dangerous game 101

Are you playing the most dangerous game? 102 

Stock Market Stan teaches us a lesson 108

Getting away from the most dangerous game 111

Bonds 114

Individual bonds versus Bond Mutual funds 118

Bond ladders 120

Final points on bonds 126

Preferred stocks 130

Dividend stocks 135

The Great Wallendas teach us a lesson 153

Investing in the markets with safety nets beneath you 154

Annuities: Aren’t they bad? 156

Variable Annuities 159

Certificates of deposit: When 6 percent = 0 percent 169

Index Annuities 172

Real Estate 175

Chapter 4 Adding a Little Life to your Life 179

Why would I buy life insurance 180

Term versus permanent life insurance 181

Adding instant wealth to your estate 184

Profiting from selling your life insurance policy 184

Tax-free retirement income 187

Long-term care benefits 188

Spend all your money and still leave it all behind 189

Have someone else pay the tax 191

Doubling your income at retirement: The private pension 194

The private pension and IRAs 205

One million dollars- for free? 206

Life insurance: Conclusion 213

Chapter 5 A break in the action 215

Chapter 6 Individual retirement accounts (IRAs) 219

IRAs: defined 220

IRAs: Frequently asked questions 221

IRAs: Conclusion 241

Chapter 7 A few words on Taxes 243

How your investments are taxed 244

Dividend tax 245

Oridinary income 246

Capital gains 248

Summarizing the three most common taxes 251

The mutual fund tax problem 252

Solving the mutual fund tax problem 253

The one time receiving money from someone is a terrible thing 255

Conclusion 258

Chapter 8 The Bottom of the Ninth 259

What’s the worst that could happen? 260

Anatomy of a living trust 264

Five estate planning blunders to avoid 266

Chapter 9 Support and Maintenance 277

Qualifications 278

Interviewing your potential advisor 280

10 things some advisors would rather you didn’t know 282

Investment clubs 291 

Chapter 10 Conclusion 293

Bibliography 299

Internet Resources 301

Index 303