The Last Chance Millionaire
by Douglas R. Andrew
Published by Hachette
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Every once in a while a financial self-help book comes along that pushes open hidden doors to new ideas and concepts about money management, breaking free from traditional investment advice to give the reader an edge in today’s and perhaps tomorrow’s economy.
Douglas Andrew’s The Last Chance Millionaire is one of these special books. The monograph is clearly targeted at people with thoughts of funding their upcoming retirement lifestyle in the front of their mind. But the book can also teach a few new tricks to younger investors who might have just opened their first IRA.
Andrew starts by covering the mistakes made by most people in positioning themselves for retirement. The root of current investment advice, according to Andrew, stems from adults who grew up during the Great Depression. People today are taught to save, save and save, and then in retirement spend, spend and spend. Andrew shows why this process fails for so many people, and he urges readers to continue to leverage mortgage tax advantages and real estate appreciation in retirement, just as they had prior to retirement. Andrew challenges readers to assess how they’re handling their retirement savings: Are you crawling toward retirement with traditional investment vehicles, or are you sprinting toward the end goal with tax-advantaged vehicles?
As impressive as the book is with regards to stimulating thoughts of retirement investing, it is weak in a couple of areas. First it discounts the fact that real estate costs more than the price of a monthly principal and interest mortgage payment. Then Andrew discounts that real estate markets sometimes sour for long periods of time, and he firmly believes that mutual funds generating annual returns of 7.2% or better are easily found.
But even with these shortcomings, the book still succeeds in getting the reader to think outside the traditional retirement investment box. The truth is that there are ideal real estate investments, perfect mutual funds, and optimum tax situations that do support his platform. And for these reasons The Last Chance Millionaire is a book worthy of serious consideration.
Armchair Interviews says: If you are nearing retirement, or want to be ahead of things, this is a good start.