The Die Broke Complete Book of Money: Unconventional Wisdom about Everything from Annuities to Zero-Coupon Bonds

by Stephen Pollan, Mark Levine

Overview

The incredible economic growth of the past few years may have made scores of new millionaires and plenty of people rich, but it hasn't made managing your personal and business finances any easier.

In fact, most of the old rules and principles have proved ill suited to this new world. What's needed is a user's guide to the new economy -- a handbook for everyone looking to succeed in this new, fast-paced environment.

In this single, highly unconventional financial reference volume, America's most trusted financial consultant and author of the bestselling Die Broke and Live Rich takes an aggressive approach to the new economy and tells you everything you need to know about money.

The Die Broke Complete Book of Money is the definitive guide to modern money management. The man famous for turning conventional wisdom on its head expounds on the new rules for the new millennium with opinionated, hard-hitting, and informative entries on everything from accessory apartments to zero-coupon bonds.

Pollan's clients are grappling with today's financial challenges -- and his advice is battle tested in the real world. Putting the old rules aside, he sees the worlds of consumerism, career, business, and personal finance as being inseparable -- money has to be considered as a whole unit rather than as different elements. And because he's a practicing financial adviser who deals with real people, he knows financial decisions shouldn't be made in a vacuum: emotions, feelings, and attitudes must come into play. By explaining what you should do and how you should do it, Pollan offers advice grounded in a hands-on, real-world approach that is easy to understand and simple to follow.

Savvy, sophisticated, and succinct, this incisive and engaging book is filled with offbeat, practical advice that stems from Pollan's unconventional strategies. It is an indispensable guide to money for anyone who plans on succeeding in the new economy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062039101
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	04/10/2012
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	608
Sales rank:	307,939
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Stephen M. Pollan, one of America's most trusted and admired financial advisors, is the author of more than a dozen books, including the national bestseller Die Broke. He presently lives in New York City and Litchfield County, Connecticut, with his wife, Corky, and in close proximity to his four children and nine grandchildren.

Mark Levine has been Stephen Pollan's collaborator for sixteen years. He lives in Ithaca, New York, with his wife, Deirdre, and his Newfoundland, Molly.

Mark Levine has been Stephen Pollan's collaborator for more than eighteen years. Together they have authored numerous books, including the national bestsellers Lifescripts, Live Rich, and Die Broke, and most recently, Second Acts. They have been nominated for three National Magazine Awards.

Read an Excerpt

Unconventional, Wisdom: Live Rich and Die Broke

Unconventional wisdom. That's what I've been offering my clients and readers like you for more than three decades now. Some have even called my ideas heretical. So be it. I come by my heresy honestly.

Unlike most of the authors of personal finance, small business, and career books, I'm a hands-on practitioner. I practice what I preach. I have a coterie of dedicated clients, individuals just like you, who pay me to help them with their legal, financial, career, business, and consumer problems.

After careers as a real estate developer, venture capitalist, banker, and college professor, I launched a private legal and financial consulting practice on New York City's Upper East Side. Most of my clients are baby boomers from what used to be called the upper middle class. While only a few of them can be counted among the new breed of e-millionaires, most aspire to that level of financial success. They have combined incomes of well over $150,000, live in apartment buildings with doormen or rural homes on more than an acre of land. They take vacations to Europe or St. Bart's, go out to restaurants at least once a week, buy wine by the case, and drink single-malt scotch. They belong to gyms and spend most of their few free moments doting on, and catering to, their spouses and children.

Unconventional Because It's Practical

While there are some uniquely New York elements to my clients' personas and while they may be more affluent than the average, in the most important ways they're just like most successful Americans, including you. They've acquired more possessions and experiences thantheir parents had at their age. They hold down decision-making and policy-setting positions in corporations, they are running their own successful small companies, or they have made a name for themselves in a competitive creative field. And they lead complicated lives filled with a variety of financial obstacles, from the monumental to the mundane. They've taught me, and continue to teach me, the real money problems that people face. I know how vexing seemingly ordinary tasks -- like deciding on a child's allowance, dealing with office politics, selecting an answering machine system, and shopping for a checking account -- can be.

Unconventional Because It's Effective

Not only do my clients regularly teach me what matters most to real people like you, but they also hold me to a high standard: my advice must work; otherwise they won't continue as clients.

That means I can't be doctrinaire about money issues. My clients' money problems aren't hypothetical exercises; they're real-life dilemmas. So my approach to issues can't be theoretical and abstract; it must be pragmatic and practical. That holds true for my books as well as my consultations. I know the advice I'm offering you in this book works because it has worked for hundreds of my clients. It has helped people win employment contracts, negotiate business loans, finance post-retirement careers, and purchase weekend homes.

Unconventional Because Its Direct

Because I work with clients my advice also needs to be unambiguous. I've found that when people are paying for advice, they want to be told what they should do. They come to me to get an answer, or at least my opinion, not to engage in a Socratic dialogue. In both my consultations and my writing, I'm direct about issues. You won't have to read far into an entry in this book to learn my opinion on a topic. You may not always agree with me or like what I have to say, but it's my best advice. Giving my clients-or you-any less would be unconscionable. I say you should always be looking for another job, you should lease rather than buy a car, you should never buy whole life insurance, and you should terminate any employees you possibly can.

I don't abandon clients who don't agree with me; if they wish, I continue to help them pursue their goals in the manner they've chosen. Similarly, in this book I'll provide you with enough information and guidance that you can follow paths other than those I recommend. If things work out, bully for you. If they don't, you can start over. I promise I won't say I told you so.

Unconventional Because It's Holistic

Dealing with real people day in and day out, I've learned that money issues can 't be neatly divided and filed into separate categories like investing, career, real estate, business, shopping, and personal life. Most authors limit their scope to one of these topics because their experience is more conventional than mine. This is understandable: having been trained as specialists, they focus on their area of expertise. I'm not a specialist. My clients have trained me to be a generalist. Through them I've learned that all the areas of our money lives must be viewed as a unified whole. When clients come to me for help in buying a home, I need to learn about their career status, investment portfolio, marriage and parenting plans, and even their health, before I can give them sound advice.

I've counseled clients to have physicals before undertaking a job search and to have children before buying a summer home. I've taught clients how to be savvier when shopping at supermarkets and when buying mutual funds. I've helped clients pick out engagement rings as well as real estate. In my practice I deal with any and every area of a client's life that is touched by money because I've learned that all these areas interact. That's why you'll find the first truly comprehensive approach to money in this book, with entries on legal, financial, career, business, consumer, and even some personal topics. You'll find entries on things you never think of in financial terms: topics like listening, reading, garb, and pets.

Unconventional Because It's Cutting Edge

Finally, working with clients has led me to appreciate just how much the money world has changed. It's one thing to read survey results or view stock market tables. It's quite another to have a real-life embodiment of the information age sitting across the table from you, asking for your help.

During the past ten years many personal finance authors and pundits have been discussing Roth IRAs as if they were still state-of-the-art in financial planning, talking about refinancing your mortgage as if it was daring, and offering tips for landing a grand title and a corner office. They've been bending and tweaking and jury-rigging the conventional financial wisdom of the industrial age (in some cases, even the agrarian age) and trying to make it work in the information age. Another set of authors have been focusing on the lifestyles of the superwealthy, either self-made or accidental, suggesting that these silicon sagas are today's Horatio Alger tales.

During that same time I've been talking with my clients about viaticals, d4C trusts, prepaid tuition plans, and headhunters. I've been offering practical twenty-first-century money advice.

The Die Broke Complete Book of Money. Copyright © by Stephen Pollan. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	xiii
	Unconventional Wisdom: Live Rich and Die Broke	xv
	Using This Book	xxvii
	Accessory Apartments	1
	Accountants	2
	Adoption	7
	Advertising	8
	Age Discrimination	13
	Alimony	16
	Alliances	18
	Allowances	20
	Annual Reports	22
	Annuities	24
	Answering Machines and Services	30
	Answering Machine Messages	32
	Antiques and Collectibles	34
	Apartment Leases	38
	Appliances	39
	Arbitration	42
	Asset Allocation	44
	ATMs and Cash Cards	47
	Auctions	49
	Audits	51
	Automobiles	55
	Automobile Insurance	59
	Automobile Leasing	62
	Automobile Loans	64
	Automobile Ownership	66
	Automobile Rentals	68
	Automobile Repairs	70
	Automobile Shopping	72
	Banking and Bankers	76
	Bankruptcy	79
	Benefits	82
	Bill Collectors	85
	Bonds	87
	Bookkeepers and Bookkeeping Software	91
	Bosses	93
	Bridge Loans	95
	Budgeting	96
	Business Cards	101
	Business Insurance	102
	Business Interruption Insurance	106
	Business Meetings	107
	Business Plans	109
	Business Travel	113
	Bypass Trusts	114
	Call Forwarding	117
	Call Waiting	118
	Capital Gains	120
	Cash Flow	122
	Cellular Telephones	124
	Certificates of Deposit	126
	Charge Cards	128
	Charitable Remainder Trusts	130
	Charities	131
	Checking Accounts	133
	Child Care	135
	Child Support	138
	Client and Customer Relations	140
	Closings	142
	Clothing	144
	COBRA	146
	College Financial Aid Applications	147
	College Grants and Scholarships	150
	College Loans	153
	College Planning	157
	College Selection	160
	Commodities	163
	Condominiums and Cooperatives	165
	Conference Calls	167
	Consumer Electronics	169
	Consumer Fraud	170
	Continuing Education	173
	Contractors	174
	Corporations	180
	Credit Cards	183
	Credit Reports	186
	Creditor Relations	189
	Debit Cards	191
	Debt Consolidation Loans	192
	Disability Insurance	194
	Discrimination	197
	Diversification	199
	Divorce and Mediation	200
	Doctors	205
	Dollar Cost Averaging	207
	Domestic Partners	209
	Down Payments	210
	Dread-Disease Insurance	211
	Durable Powers of Attorney for Health Care	212
	Earthquake Insurance	217
	E-mail	219
	Employees	221
	Employee Stock Ownership Plans	223
	Employment Agencies	224
	Employment Contracts	227
	Entertainment	235
	Equipment	237
	Executors	238
	Family Leave	240
	Family Limited Partnerships	241
	Financial Planners	243
	Financial Ratios	246
	Flex Time and Telecommuting	248
	Flood Insurance	251
	Focus Groups	253
	Franchises	254
	Franchising Your Business	257
	Funerals	259
	Furniture	262
	Futures	263
	Gambling	266
	Garb and Hygiene	268
	Gifts	270
	Gifting	272
	Gratuities	273
	Grocery Shopping	275
	Headhunters	278
	Health Clubs	281
	Health Insurance	283
	Hobbies	286
	Home-Based Businesses	288
	Home Equity Loans	290
	Home Furnishings	293
	Home Improvements	295
	Home Offices	301
	Home Ownership	302
	Home Sales	304
	Home Security	308
	Homeowner's Insurance	310
	Hotel Reservations	313
	Independent Contractors	315
	Inflation	318
	Informational Interviews	319
	Initial Public Offerings	321
	Insurance Salespeople	323
	Internet Service Providers	325
	Inventory	327
	Investment Clubs	328
	IRAs	329
	Jewelry	332
	Job Interviews	334
	Joint Ownership	337
	Keogh Plans	340
	Laddering	343
	Land	344
	Lawn Care	345
	Lawsuits	347
	Lawyers	349
	Layoffs	351
	Leverage	353
	Liability Insurance	355
	Life Insurance	357
	Limited-Partnership Investments	361
	Listening	362
	Living Trusts	364
	Living Wills	366
	Location	369
	Logos	371
	Long-Term Care Insurance	373
	Lump-Sum Distributions	376
	Magazine and Journal Articles	378
	Mailing Lists	379
	Malpractice Insurance	381
	Manners and Mannerisms	383
	Margin Loans	384
	Marketing an Idea	386
	Medicaid	388
	Medicaid Planning	389
	Medicare	393
	Medigap Insurance	395
	Memberships	398
	Mentoring	399
	Money Market Accounts	401
	Mortgage Loans	403
	Moving	405
	Multilevel Marketing	407
	Mutual Funds	409
	Names	413
	Negotiating	415
	Neighbor Disputes	416
	Net Worth	418
	Networking	420
	Newsletters	422
	Nursing Homes	424
	Office Politics	428
	Options	430
	Outsourcing	433
	Pagers	435
	Partnerships	436
	Passports	438
	Payables	440
	Penny Stocks	441
	Pension Plans	443
	Performance Reviews	444
	Personal Loans	446
	Pets	447
	Pet Insurance	449
	Pre- and Postnuptial Agreements	451
	Precious Metals	455
	Prepaid Tuition Plans	457
	Prescription Drugs	458
	Press Releases	460
	Pro Bono Work and Volunteerism	461
	Probate and Settlement	463
	Promotional Kits	465
	Promotions and Lateral Moves	466
	Property Taxes	468
	Property Titles	471
	Punctuality	472
	Pyramid Schemes	474
	Reading	476
	Real Estate Investment Trusts	478
	Receivables	479
	Records and Papers	481
	Renter's Insurance	484
	Resumes	485
	Retirement Communities	488
	Retirement Planning	489
	Reverse Mortgages	492
	Risk versus Reward	493
	Safe Deposit Boxes	497
	Salary Reviews	499
	Savings Accounts	501
	Savings Bonds	502
	Scripting	504
	Second Homes	506
	Second-to-Die Insurance	507
	Seed Money	509
	Shopping	510
	Signage	513
	Simplified Employee Pensions	514
	Small-Claims Court	515
	Social Security	517
	Sole Proprietorships	518
	Speeches	520
	Stationery	521
	Stockbrokers	523
	Stocks	525
	Suppliers and Vendors	527
	Survivor Benefits	529
	Tax Preparers	532
	Telemarketers	534
	Temps	536
	Terminations	540
	Time Management	542
	Time Shares	544
	Toys	546
	Travel Insurance	547
	Unemployment Compensation	550
	U.S. Treasury Bills, Notes, and Bonds	552
	Vacation Home Rentals	555
	Viaticals	556
	Web Sites	559
	Weddings	561
	Wills	562
	Wines and Liquors	564
	Withholding	566
	Word of Mouth	567
	Working Capital	568
	Yard Sales	570
	Zero-Coupon Bonds	573
	A Note of Gratitude	575

Interviews

Author Essay

Resolve to Die Broke in the New Year

This January, do more than just organize your tax records. Instead, think of the month as an opportunity to finally take charge of your financial life by taking the following eight steps:

1. Pay down your debt. Forget all the talk about savvy borrowing. There simply is no such thing as good debt. If, after funding your retirement accounts you have extra money available, use it to pay off as much of your outstanding debt as possible. Paying off a credit card balance on which you're paying 15 percent interest is the equivalent of earning 15 percent interest on that money. And don't let tax ramifications cloud the issue. The single best thing you could do for your post-65 financial life is to have no mortgage.

2. Renew your job vows. Your stream of income is your No. 1 financial asset. Do everything you can to find out if your job is safe. Cross your fingers and let your boss know how much you love the company and your job. If the love seems unrequited, do everything you can to get back in good graces. Show up early and leave late. Become a profit center. And meanwhile, look for your next job. Talk to headhunters and network like crazy. From now on, everyone needs to constantly be in the job market.

3. Review all your insurance policies. If you're like most Americans, you have more life insurance and less disability coverage than you really need. Get rid of any whole life you were fooled into buying and get straight term. Take the savings and invest them in disability coverage that protects you and you family from potential calamities. See if you can trim your auto and homeowner's payments by taking out higher deductibles. Use those savings to buy umbrella liability protection. Even if you find no reasons to change coverage, put all your policies out for new bids to see if there's another carrier who's more eager for your business.

4. Examine your estate plans. While I think you should do everything possible to "Die Broke," there's no guarantee you'll be able to spend it all or give it all away before you die. That means you need to have some kind of estate plan in place. Odds are there will be changes made in the estate tax rules in the coming four years, so now is a good time to review your plans and get ready to shift in response to new regulations.

5. Discuss your professionals' fees. Accountants and financial advisers today often base fees on the size of your income or portfolio. That's nonsense. If you find yourself paying more for the same advice and work simply because you've gotten wealthier, negotiate new fee arrangements. If your professionals object, look for new ones.

6. Reallocate your assets. Your asset allocation requires constant adjustment. If your stocks have taken a hit in the past few months while your bond funds have soared, it may be time to shift your monies around to make sure your portfolio still matches your allocation formula. And while you're at it, reconsider your formula itself. Remember you're going to be living a lot longer and a lot healthier than was normal when those traditional percentages were developed. Even a 75 year-old today needs some growth funds or stocks.

7. Investigate charitable remainder trusts, annuities, and reverse mortgages. If you're not satisfied with the yields you're getting on your bonds or money funds, consider replacing them with investments that can not only provide guaranteed incomes, but whose tax status may result in your receiving greater net benefits.

8. Revisit your child's allowance. This is an excellent time to have a talk with your child about his or her allowance. Consider increasing not only the size of the allowance but also the scope of purchases for which your child is responsible. It's never to early to start teaching financial skills -- or to teach that January is the time for financial as well as personal New Year's resolutions.

--Stephen Pollan

Editorial Reviews

This comprehensive reference from the authors of the bestselling Die Broke and Live Rich covers every imaginable topic from living wills and insurance to mentoring. While much of the advice is sound and helpful, the book covers so much ground that it may prove daunting to readers. In addition to specific subjects related to money, such as debt, real estate and investing, there's also a great deal of advice on career issues, including buying a franchise, selecting office equipment, hiring temporary help and more. There's even help on such specialized subjects as budgeting for garden and pet care. The most useful sections are the advice boxesDincluding "secrets of dealing with cranky creditors," "saving money on moves" and "learning the lingo," which defines college aid financial terms. Here, readers are given concrete steps they can act on. However, with so many other sources of helpDboth online and offDmost people would be better served by a book offering more focused, detailed advice on specific topics rather than the brief summaries here. (Jan.) Forecast: Given the success of Die Broke as well as the extensive 25-city public radio campaign, online promotion and other publicity planned for the authors, this is likely to sell briskly initially, especially at larger chains. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In their two previous best sellers, Live Rich and Die Broke, Pollan and Levine offered a fresh approach to money and careers. In this encyclopedic follow-up, which includes extensive see also references, they provide concise, practical advice on a broad range of issues. Among the topics addressed are dealing with professionals; the pluses and minuses of various investment options; factors to consider when contemplating whether to rent, lease, or purchase property; how to manage various personal life challenges; and factors to consider before making the decision to start your own business. Their comments regarding asset allocation, financial planning, time management, retirement planning, the need to prioritize, problems associated with credit cards, fraud, gambling, and pyramid schemes will be especially useful. Recommended for public libraries. Norman B. Hutcherson, California State Univ., Bakersfield Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

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