This is a fun, breezy read, as investment advisor and long-time Forbes columnist Ken Fisher has written a serious, but humorous book about how to build wealth.And at 216 pages a quick read.Fisher's last book, "The Only Three Questions that Count", was superb. This latest book is very different from "The Only Three Questions...", which is all about personal investing but which also has application to other areas of a person's life.
"The Ten Roads to Riches" is about the varied ways a person can build personal wealth. Fisher draws from his own experience of meeting many successful people, as he charts the paths. The chapters are insightful and written in a tongue-in-cheek style with ideas that can be easily visualized.
Some examples: The first chapter "The Richest Road", which is founding your own business and building it into the next Microsoft, Nike, or Charles Schwab. The third chapter, about the "Ride-alongs", people who hitch theirselves to the Bill Gates's or Warren Buffett's of the world and rise as they and their firm rise. If you are Warren Buffett's longtime sidekick, there's got to be wealth in that, right? (Yup. Charlie Munger is his name and his net worth is $2 billion.)
Chapter four is "Rich ... and Famous". Some tips: compose songs, don't sing them, and star high school baseball players have slightly better odds of making the big leagues then star football players.
Chapter five is "Marry Well, Really Well", which is very amusing, but also serious. Hey, if you want to get married, hang around with rich people and fall in love with one of them! Plenty of examples including John Kerry (twice) and John McCain.
Chapter six is "Steal It - Like a Pirate, But Legally", making a career as a plaintiff's lawyer and suing companies. Enough said.... And chapter nine is "Trumping the Land Barons" - all about real estate.
The last chapter is "The Road Most Travelled", about doing it the old-fashioned way - get a good job, work hard, save and invest wisely.
Each chapter is a survey, giving multiple examples of people who took the particular road, and offering ideas, but no detailed plan. At the end of each are brief reviews of suggested additional readings for anyone who might be inclined to follow that particular path. I was surprised that there are actually serious books about how to "Marry Well", but maybe I shouldn't have been?
An enjoyable, quick read about one aspect of the business of life.
Click Here to see more reviews about: The Ten Roads to Riches: The Ways the Wealthy Got There (And How You Can Too!) (Fisher Investments Press) (Hardcover)
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