Thanks

Jim

I’ve read these 12 comments on LL — and though most of you sound somewhat cynical/suspicious, you also have some good common-sense stmts.

However, I did want to point out that one thing she (and most of the rest of the RE “gurus”) points out that in getting one’s “team” in place, one of the team members would be one who lends their venture capital — i.e., this is the concept of using “OPM” — Other People’s Money. You *don’t* have to get a home equity loan, or make risky uses of your own money!

I think the team concept is clearly what sets her apart from the usual guru out there — and it uses your OWN team, not hers, which is also significant.

I agree with that 100%. For as taking out equity to buy real estate is smart. But its always not guaranteed to make a profit. I know people that did this and now is stuck with two mortgages to pay and in debt.

Real estate does not always work in a profit.
Depending on location you can very much go into debt. And once in debt, you triple what you owe—-you owe money on your primary home, home equity loan AND the second home.

Real Estate is by far a quick way to attain wealth, but on the downside it is a quick way to get into massive debt.

Anyway, as soon as we ordered the book we got a phone call about “coaching”. They wanted to interview us to see if we qualified to be coached by her special team of wealth builders. So yes, you hit the nail on the head when you said the book seemed to be promoting something. This coaching comes at the hefty price of $5,000 to $23,000 depending on how quickly you want to become a millionaire. Needless to say we didn’t bite.

Now, as usual, they never tell you what you should do in case you can’t get renters. They say mortgage your home, buy rental properties for dirt cheap, and get passive income. Great, but only if you can cover the cost of the mortgages with no renters. People can’t always get renters in their places, and this book makes it sound like a non-issue.

And, I don’t know if you noticed, but these people all had some sort of asset to draw on. Usually a house, or other investments to pull money from. If she could do it with someone who had to rent and had no other assets, then I would be impressed!

Wow. Given how many small businesses fail (what is it, 50% within a few years?), that sounds like an awfully stupid gamble. Run the numbers all you want, pretend you’ll get massive returns if you succeed, but still, I think it makes sense to be fairly risk-averse when you’re gambling your *house*…

I like the take that you can still learn from something when you disagree with parts, though. I think that’s something lots of people don’t realize. They tend to dismiss the whole when they find one flaw; or even worse, they may accept it all directly without being critical or showing an ounce of skepticism.

Melsky has an excellent point: It’s great to develop the skill of learning from a book even when you disagree with the premise or with the author’s viewpoint. In this case, despite the fact that I’m wary of Langemeier’s methods, she has some good things to say about entrepreneurship. More than that, the book is inspiring.

In early March, I was contemplating a web site devoted to personal finance. But I didn’t have the gumption to actually create it. One night I started to read The Millionaire Maker. I made it through a couple of chapters, and something in it sparked my desire. I got up, sat down in front of the computer, and created a plan for this site. I didn’t launch the site until April 15th, but nearly all of the work was done that night in early March. And it was all because of this book.

Yours for better conspiracy theories,

- Bill