Good financial book if it stays on the shelf.
929706
If you make your own financial moves (investments, etc), this book is referred to as "required reading."  I did not find it very informative compared to other financial reading sources, such as "The Intelligent Investor" by Benjamin Graham, and several others.
At least, I can say that I read it, but I will never refer to it again.  It was written well before mutual funds and ETFs became such mainstream investment tools that it almost seems archaic.
987741
Great book that is well written and has some great concepts for getting your finances in order. If you are a beginner at this stuff this book is a entertaining and informative read. There are lots of great charts and the book is filled with accounts from normal people and special sections from personal finance bloggers.

A major downside though is that a lot of this information is out of date. Specifically the stuff about online savings accounts and best credit cards. Thankfully Ramit keeps his blog somewhat up to date and has covered the changes since the book was written in some of his more recent posts.

I'd love to see a second edition come out with some updates and perhaps new lessons that Ramit may have learned in the years since he first wrote this book.
3728346
The step by step recommendations for getting out of debt at the end were the most useful. Much of the content is common sense, often with examples that don't make sense. WAY too much Bible reference. I know that's his "thing", but he could reach a wider audience if he could stop referencing his religion.
116981
This is an ok book on growth stock investing. It is aimed at the retail (non-professional) investor. The material on growth stocks, selection methodology, and avoiding emotional decisions are all worthwhile reading.

There is a fairly strong element of self-promotion evident, especially in the early chapters. Someone once said, "you might as well toot your own horn; no one else will do it for you." Even so, I find it detracts from an otherwise good book.

The "lifecycle of a stock" is the most important concept in this book, in my mind. Introduced on page 94 in the middle of the book, it is given too little attention. The whole book could have been written from the lifecycle perspective, examining the author's favorite eight fundamentals from that point of view. His point is that one needs not only a clear set of fundamental indicators to appraise a stock's value, but a methodology to adjust the indicator weightings over the lifecycle of the stock. Presumably one receives that value by subscribing to the author's newsletter service.

Navellier introduces a number of interesting concepts, such as his so-called "zig-zag" approach and "oasis" stocks." These terms refer to portfolio diversification strategies including holding stocks that are supposed to move counter to the general market trend. He also introduces the concept of what he calls the "60/30/10 mix" of conservative, moderately conservative and aggressive stocks. This apparently refers more-or-less to each stock's beta and more as combined by his proprietary formula. The final chapters of the book touch on global investing, corporate risks (financial frauds), political cycles that affect stocks and more.

Louis Navellier presents a systematic approach to long-term portfolio management that has generated outsize returns on his model portfolios as published in his investment newsletters, according to an industry ratings publication. It is clear, however, that there is secret sauce behind his quantitative approach that is only available to his subscribers. The methodology described bears a close resemblance to that of The Value Line(c) ranking system.

Compare this to another one of the "Little Books" series by Joel Greenblatt, a top hedge fund manager. He presents his methodology in detail in "The Little Book that Beats the Market," then directs the reader to a regularly-updated website where the user can generate lists of stocks that meet his or her personal criteria, all for free. I my view, a book like this, that purports to help smaller investors, is credible only if the investor comes away with a useable set of tools to put the ideas into action. On that score this book falls short. Nevertheless, this book contains good and useful information and is worth reading for educational value. I rate this book three stars: it's ok.
4730809
Drawback to tech books is that by the time they hit the market, they are yesterdays news. Still might be a primer for the uninitiated. I like books for when I'm parked away from internet. Otherwise, Tech information is better gained from websites.
379222
A good book for the contarian, this book tend to give comments
bad for the short term trader, if you are short term trader
better not read this book, but when your term shareholder
long, you are required to read a good book ini. Best book for whom want
hold shares in excess of five years and more.
4709595
Overall this is a good book with lots of investment advice that makes sense. I've read over 200 investment books and invested for 25 years and this is one of the better ones.

I do have some concerns about it though

* Exaggerated claims of likely returns. "I want you to set a goal to generate at least 23.8% per year". This raises some red flags in my mind. If you can get 23% pa people will beg you to take $100s of millions of fees per year to manage their money so it seems a stretch.

2. Rule 3 is not actionable. It is just not explained, as far as I could determine, how to distinguish "buy" from "no position". Evidently it is based in some way on the degree of positive momentum but it is not clear how. On the web site it refers to proprietary algorithms i.e. secret ingredients. Read the description of the rule here if you do not believe me:
[...]

3. Rule 10 also seems under-specified.

4. Turner talks like a geek and non-technical people are going to have trouble understanding this material.

Reference is made to a pending patent which is part of his method. In theory if you could find the patent you could implement it. Two problems a) I can't find the patent b) you would be violating the patent so you can't do it anyway.
2279406
I got the audio version of this (although abridged...I think a book like this will separate the grist from the meat and potatoes of the real information...and since most people need to review and hear stuff 3-4 times to get the information...this is a good way to do it). CD 1 is stories of their past and others to explain the lessons that they have learned... fairly entertaining at times... and needs several listenings to get the full impact (especially about their Fool.com and their foolish expansions of what they were not good at.) At one point they explain a chart that they say is worth the cost of the whole course...if only they or the publisher had thought to include a little packet of the graphics they were refering to in the front cover...but enough listenings to it and you get it.
CD 2 are all their suggestions of what to do with your money and to get yourself financially secure... so if you just want the information and none of the filler (like you can with self help books) then skip to the end (or CD 2 in this case). It helps me to focus on what I want to do with my money and why I am out of debt now but not able to save any (another good book for getting out of debt is "GET OUT OF DEBT, STAY OUT OF DEBT AND LIVE PROSPERSOUSLY"... which I consider a very good book and along with the Fool Brothers has helped me to pay off the credit cards and have the potential for saving and living hapilly.
Cool Runnings to you.
2408749
There is a good amount of resources and advice in this book, and for that part I would rate it 4 or even 5 stars. Why I did rate it lower is due to the physical aspects of the book. The main font is too small, the pages have an odd shine to them, and the binding doesn't feel like it will hold up to much use.
1475241
I like DK Books.  Their wonderful pictures and diagrams are real strengths and I would buy this particular London book again.

However it was written so long ago and has been so poorly patched its practical text is not suitable for the people I bought it for.  The advice about traveler's checks with the patch about using your credit card to get a cash advance from an ATM is quite a bit off.  Digital camera owners need to be told to look at their charger and see if it works at 240; that tells them whether to get a voltage transformer or only a plug adapter.  Oyster cards are a confusing convenience that can save real money and time if you stay more than a few days.  These practical things need to be written up properly.

A brief reference to vibrant Canary Wharf and the superb Dockland's museum was not added very well.  The photo on page 236 must have been taken before the first American edition in 1993.  For perhaps 5 years you have been able take a tour that walks across the top of Tower Bridge; do readers want to be told that is a change from what the book used to say?  Goddard's pie shop, which gets as much coverage as Docklands - Canary Wharf, is closed.  Have the editors heard of Ben Franklin's house?

"Annually Revised" it says.  There is evidence of many revisions and repairs; that is true.  However this 2007 edition is not good enough to be your main guide book.  Read it with some skepticism.
3235846
Some good recipes, but I do not have the bank roll to keep stock on the shelves
1774028
If you are good with managing your finances then this book will not help you much. It is a good refresher to make sure you are still on track.
604367
This book takes you through creating a pro-forma financial model. In truth I'm still working through the book, so my rating might change later.

One thing that is almost essential in my experience when trying to work through a tutorial like this, is the final model so you can double check any confusing points. Unfortunately if you buy the kindle edition you don't get copies of the spreadsheet. Furthermore neither the publisher nor the author appears to have a download site.

This book is OK, but I would strongly recommend you forget any ebook version of this text as you won't have a working copy of the final spreadsheet !

Update 1 February 2010
I borrowed the paperback version of this book which came with a CD. It's good that the author will e-mail people the spreadsheets, but the publisher needs to make things more streamlined. Anyway, I worked through most of the book building up the spreadsheet myself, but then it was taking too long, so I just read through the remainder of the text and experimented with the workbook on the CD. In the last week or so I've reread parts of the book as I'm now working on my own financial model.

This book takes the reader through building a financial valuation model from scratch. A Competing text is the book by Tjia, "Building Financial Models". Tjia's book is also good, but I would rate this one higher.

Good points of the book Corporate Valuation Modeling are clear explanations, and a model that is not as over simplified as you might find in standard financial modeling texts. The author is a founder of company that offers training in this area, and I can imagine that working through the book is similar to attending one of his seminars.

Although the author explains concepts well, I think readers should already have a reasonable level of knowledge of excel, and basic finance and accounting otherwise I think they would be overwhelmed.

Some drawbacks would be what seem to be a reasonable number of typos. I often found when trying to recreate the spreadsheets that the formula in the book wouldn't quite match what was in the spreadsheet (often wrong by a couple of cells). eg p84 (10). Another example is p93 (4). Instead of e37:j37 0, e38:j38 100. It should be e40:j40 0, e41:j41 100. Also the formula on p156 (7) is wrong. As is the formula on p156(7) for D25. It should be sum(d22:d24) not sum(d19:d21). There are a number of others, none of these are show stoppers, but could be frustrating.

A related issue is that sometimes the author uses cell names in the text that he hasn't previously asked the reader to define.

The spreadsheet provided by the author also has what may be a few mistakes. For example on the capex sheet the depreciation formulae for the various capexs all contain a reference to the depreciation method of capex1 (inputs_Capex1Dep). If you choose a different depreciation method for the other capexs the results won't be correct.

One other thing worth mentioning is that the author tackles quite complex debt repayment schedules in the book. This is good in some ways as it exposes the reader to a lot of potential issues. The downside is that some of the formula get extremely complex, also the final functionality comes with a few caveats, so the reader is left with a feeling that they've done a lot of work trying to figure it out, but the model somehow needs to get even more complicated before it is complete ! Also some excel gurus might question the wisdom of having a formula as long as the one he creates in this chapter, they would instead recommend breaking it over several lines.

Anyway I can recommend this book, and look forward to future books from the author. Those who are new to excel or financial models might want to work through some simpler books first as a warm-up. I can't seem to change the star rating, but I would give the book 4 stars.
3776185
The premise of the book is great.  The reason it is not 5 stars is because only a couple chapters are timeless and useful.  However, even though there are only a few dozen useful pages, they are better than any other in the several dozen investing books I've read.
2618172
I do a LOT of reading on finance and geopolitics, and as such appreciate it when an author gets right down to business, lays out the facts and/or history behind their argument and then makes their own arguments based on their understanding of what they just presented.  Two excellent examples of this type of book are The Ascent of Money by Niall Ferguson and This Time Its Different by Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff.

This book was recommended to me by a friend who is pretty financially savvy, and as such I had high hopes.  Unfortunately, about 7/10ths of this book is spent by the authors trying to convince you a) they have been right in the past, and therefore you should listen to them now, b) other authors have gotten it wrong for (insert reason here), and c) alll the *really* useful information, is available on our (paid) website. In other words, it's like reading an infomercial, where they occasionally throw you a useful tidbit to keep you interested.

With this in mind, here are the are five basic concepts from the book that seem worth noting, most of which are covered in the last three chapters:

1. In modern societies, advancements tend to follow a "STEP" trajectory (Science -> Technology -> Economics -> Politics), which is a useful framework to keep in mind when you are thinking about where a given technology is in terms of both political systems and investment cycles.

2. Several governments around the world are on a trajectory with their debt that will result in widescale sovereign debt defaults, currency crises, significantly higher taxes and drastically lower government spending.  (Think military spending cut in half or more, reduced government pensions and reduced benefits and means testing for programs such as social security and medicare here in the US.)

3. The world will take a long time, perhaps 20 years, to find it's new economic equilibrium.  While there will be widescale social unrest as the system resets, with massive losses in stocks, bonds and real estate, day-to-day existence for most will not drop to the subsitence level known during the great depression in the US, simply because we are starting with a higher standard of living.  Things may not be as rosy in developing countries, however.

4. Gold is currently in the beginning stages of a speculative bubble, just like tech stocks, housing, and real estate were.  While gold remains an excellent hedge, it's important not to not get caught up in the frenzy and go "all in at the top," and get beat up when the bubble bursts.

5. The stage is being set for a global (electronic) currency, though the authors don't specify what it will be backed by or based on, other than it won't be gold.

Now, truth be told, these are pretty good ideas.  But just as I can lay them out in five paragraphs, a skillful editor could have pared the information down to say 30-40 pages in book format, and saved readers a bunch of time in the process.  In this day and age, I find that kind of editing disrespectful of a reader's time and as such can't rate this book higher than two stars.
1993842
I wish I could give this book a better review, but I can't seem to hang on to it long enough to read the whole thing! Some one always has to borrow it from the last person it went to. What I have been able to read is on the money and good information.
I guess to be fair to the author, I'm going to have to buy another one and hide it when company comes over.
1185838
Axel Merk's Sustainable Wealth is a financial planning book for the Depression-like economic times.  This book is a good introduction to sustaining whatever wealth you have left after your wealth was squashed by the economic collapse.

The highlights of this book were the following:
- How public policy is killing economy recovery.
- How social complacency and hubris lead to the slow downfall of the American economy
- Making the distinction between conventional wisdom and true wisdom.
- Getting a grip on one's expenses and debt and concentrate on building wealth.

This book reminds me of Kiyosaki's Rich Man, Poor Man from long ago as a financial planning book.  Although it spends a considerable portion to the historical events leading up to the economic collapse and somewhat psycho-analyze why people did what they did that contributed to the economic collapse, This book ultimately focuses on modifying one's behavior to cope with the current economic conditions and build one' wealth.

The strength of this book is that it attacks conventional wisdom toward investing and stresses to be skeptical of current public policy that is targeted to fix the current economic problem.  In other words, don't buy into conventional mainstream wisdom and don't rely on public policy to save you.  It encourages to keep your eyes peeled to changes in the economic landscape, and consider various ways to preserve one's wealth.  I am glad that this book targets conventional wisdom, complacency, and current public policy, all of which I thought were lacking in other gloom-and-doom books.

This book is quite concise, but it is a good intro to describing to the unsophisticated as to what is going on and what to do think and do next.

If you're the kind of person who bought a house two years ago, bought a brand new car, maybe took a home equity loan, ignored your chicken-little friend's warnings two years ago, slowly watched your net worth go into the red, now your chicken-little friend might have been right after all, and slowly realizing that your ship is nearly sunk, this book is probably for you.  If you're having doubts that the economy is not as good as what the mainstream media is leading you to believe, this book is probably for you.