The Millionaire Maker

December 5, 2005
Millionaires don't get there by working hard for others and saving pennies, insists this high-wire personal finance self-helper. Instead, "master coach" Langemeier urges the nonwealthy to quit their jobs, start businesses, plow money into real estate and other "aggressive, unconventional" investments, construct a maze of tax-minimizing business "Entities" and amass "assets that create more assets." The result is dramatic makeovers of people like Mike and Mary, a mechanic and laid-off administrative assistant with two kids; Langemeier quickly convinces them to start a dune-buggy company, buy 12 rental properties and a promissory note and turn their family into a financial empire consisting of two limited liability companies, an "S corporation" and "a trust to serve as an umbrella for all of their companies and holdings." The author calls this taking personal control of one's finances, but doing so, she emphasizes, requires a vast support staff of lawyers, accountants, realtors, business brokers, "sector analysts" and miscellaneous "field partners." She provides many case studies of skyrocketing wealth, but never seriously addresses the risks her daredevil financial strategies pose, and relegates the critical details to unexplained balance-sheet entries. Complete with motivational hectoring and an offer of a free phone consultation, Langemeier's primer feels like an infomercial.

December 1, 2005
This book is not for the financially faint of heart. The intended audience of potential speculators must be willing to leverage 401Ks and home equity to engage in direct investment opportunities such as small business ventures. Langemeier, a financial coach and strategist, not to mention a multimillionaire, outlines her trademarked step-by-step -Wealth Cycle - process for generating and sustaining wealth in a clear and easy-to-follow format. Income and lazy assets can be turned into assets that produce passive income and sustainable wealth via rental properties, for example; adequate use of graphs and charts explain the theoretical framework behind the author's approach as well as her -Gap Analysis - model that helps investors chart their own program. A nice cross section of case studies is used to explore a variety of implementations. Readers will grasp basic principles of such matters as entity structuring, depreciation, and direct investing, but the information is very much at the cursory level, with little discussion devoted to risk. Still, this title does provide an alternative view to David Bach's enormously popular "The Automatic Millionaire: A Powerful One-Step Plan To Live and Finish Rich". Recommended for medium to large public libraries." -Tracy Mohaidheen, Baldwin P.L., Birmingham, MI"

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.