Book Reviews
The Insiders Guide to Saving Thousands at Auction
This invaluable book covers the key aspects of buying a property aiming for a minimum in cost and with a minimum of fuss. Patrick Bright explains clearly how auctions work and how you can be in the driver’s seat when you make a bid. There are lots of great tips, strategies and techniques to help you avoid paying more for a property when you’re under the pressure of an auction.
The book is full of examples, giving you the basics in confidently buying at auction. Some of the things you’ll learn include:
· How the auction process works
· The psychology of auctions
· How to use the ‘hot potato theory’ to your advantage
· Understanding real estate and auction terminology
· How the auction process really works
· Pinpointing quality properties
· How to determine the value of a property so that you don’t pay more than it’s worth
· Preparing yourself for an auction
· Making pre-auction offers
· Bidding tactics
· Selling agents’ auction tricks
· Calculating your walk-away price
· Finding your next property quickly and easily
Some interesting quotes:
· ‘There are no small mistakes in the buying and selling of real estate – just expensive lessons.’
· ‘The auction game tends to favour the selling agent first, the seller second and the buyers are a distant third.’
· ‘Auctioneers use psychology to create a sense of urgency and keep the auction moving, because most people don’t do many things in life until there’s a fire under their bum.’
· ‘Bidding frenzies occur when buyers let their hearts (or egos) rule their heads.’
· ‘Money brings up a lot of emotion for most of us.’
· ‘Many people believe, and selling agents will tell you, an auction is the way to get the best price for your property. That simply isn’t true.’
Publisher: Brolga Publishing
Price: $30.00
Affluenza: When Too Much Is Not Enough
The authors define Affluenza as ‘1. The bloated, sluggish and unfulfilled feeling that results from efforts to keep up with the Jonses. 2. An epidemic of stress, overwork, waste and indebtedness caused by dogged pursuit of the Australian dream. 3. An unsustainable addition to economic growth.’
Affluenza, a combination of affluence and influenza attempts to convey, in a word, a condition of a socially and economically transmitted condition caused by the unrelenting pursuit of money, power and influence resulting in total overload causing stress, anxiety, indebtedness and waste.
Published in 2005, the authors maintain that Western society has become addicted to overconsumption and the strong desire for a lifestyle of great luxury and lavishness which in fact cannot be attained, let alone maintained. In an effort to attain the unattainable, we’ve become excessive consumers, believing that the act of continuous consumption itself will allow us to achieve our desires. Rather we continue to be unhappy, unfulfilled and increasing debt-laden.
The authors pose one key question: if the economy has been doing so well, why are we not becoming happier?
However, they do not propose that we’d be better off being poor, rather they maintain that only by recognising our material imbalance can we commence improving other aspects of our lives: the quality of our relationships with your families, friends, our communities, the natural environment and our minds.
As a result, many people are reconsidering their lifestyles and are downshifting. The authors maintain that close to a quarter of people in their 30s, 40s and 50s have made the decision to reduce their incomes and place family, friends and contentment above money in determining their life goals.
The book tracks how Australians overwork, the amount of waste we create, how we over consume and take drugs to ‘self-medicate’ as well as considering the real meaning of ‘choice’. But, there is a cure: it’s being able to ignore the advertisers, reduce our consumer spending and refocus our attention on the things that really matter in life.
Interesting quotes:
· ‘As a rule, no matter how much money people have they feel they need more.”
· ‘Affluenza describes a condition in which we are confused about what it takes to live a worthwhile life.’
· ‘The collapse of the demarcation between the rich, the middle class and the poor is associated with the scaling-up of desire for prestige brands and luxury styles of particular goods.’
· ‘Sometimes advertisers try to make us laugh, or make us think, but mostly they make us feel deprived, inadequate or anxious.’
· ‘Confusion between wants and needs is at the heart of Affluenza.’
· ‘By some kind of financial alchemy, ‘saving’ has become what we do while we are spending.’
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Price: $24.95
The Richest Man in Babylon
This small, sleek book is packed full of practical, easily readable and filled with wisdom. Clason tells his story through a collection of parables set in ancient Babylon. We can connect with this immediately because through their experiences in business and managing household finance, the characters in the parables learn the simple lessons on which financial wisdom develops. Though set in ancient times, the situations are relevant to us today and we can easily understand and identify with them.
The book began in 1926 as a series of informational pamphlets on thrift and financial success. Banks and insurance companies began to distribute these pamphlets, and the most famous ones were eventually compiled into this book. According to the 2002 edition book cover, more than two million copies have been sold.
Some of my favourite passages from the book are:
· ‘Part of all you earn in yours to keep. It should be not less than a tenth no matter how little you earn.’
· ‘Advice is one thing that is freely given away, but watch that you take only what is worth having.’
· ‘Study thoughtfully thy accustomed habits of living. Herein may be most often found certain accepted expenses that may wisely be reduced or eliminated.’
· ‘The first sound principle of investment is security of the principal.’
· ‘Wealth that comes quickly goeth the same way. Wealth that stayeth to give enjoyment and satisfaction to its owner comes gradually, because it is a child born of knowledge and persistent purpose.’
Publisher: Signet
Price:
Making Money Made Simple
The aim of this book is to introduce the reader to the world of prosperity. It covers the essentials of money, investment, borrowing and personal finance in a simple, straightforward way.
Whittaker believes that in this country, the average person needs only two things to become wealthy; the knowledge of what to do and the discipline and focus to practice the things that need to be done. With 30 years experience in the financial world, he’s see many financial products, both good and bad come and go. This book is based on his own research and all the stories his students and clients have shared with him over the years and introduces the reader to the opportunities for prosperity that can be achieved.
This book is about the basics of money and gives practical examples on how people can exercise their financial discipline to set themselves up financially and become wealthy.
The book covers the basic knowledge you need to start you on the path to wealth and then moves onto specific financial and investment areas.
Some quotes that have stayed with me:
· ‘Becoming financially well off is not a matter of earning more, but of better managing what we earn now.’
· ‘The problem with compound interest is that it is slow to start its work, but – like the rock falling down the hill – gets faster and faster as time passes. Consequently many people give up and don’t give it time to work its magic.’
· ‘The only way to financial success is to spend less than you earn and to invest the surplus. If you won’t do that you will spend your whole life on a razor’s edge wondering where the next dollar is coming from.’
· ‘As always – the higher the return, the higher the risk!’
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Price: $24.95
