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What one financial advisor discovered after plunking down $12 for Tony Robbins' 'Money' manifesto

The self-help guru's Seven Easy Steps! to wealth contain a few sound nuggets but gimmicks, fallacies and straw men abound

Author Guest Columnist James D. Osborne November 25, 2014 at 10:12 PM
16 Comments
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James Osborne: I sacrificed two evenings of actually learning something and improving myself to instead struggle through a few hundred pages of misinformation.

James D. Osborne


Teresa Vollenweider

Teresa Vollenweider

November 26, 2014 — 6:32 PM

From the investor’s point of view I would add a couple of books to read to James’ list and a couple of PBS Frontline Emmy-winning documentaries to watch.

Books that will help you understand the modus operandi of the financial disservices industry:
Take On The Street by Arthur Levitt, former chairman of the SEC
Pound Foolish by Helaine Olen

Documentaries to watch to help you understand the modus operandi of the financial disservices industry:
The Retirement Gamble
Money, Power and Wall Street

Rusty

Rusty

December 6, 2014 — 9:27 PM

So we are back to square one, confusion and double talk. What to do, what to do…..........

Eddie

Eddie

December 10, 2014 — 7:16 AM

Two days invested to provide you with the fodder for your next article…not the worst investment you could have made. You bring up some great points and mostly criticisms. Wish you had decided instead to try to add to Tony’s effort to educate us…it’s a shame you didnt because it seems like you might be able to help.

Jeff

Jeff

January 7, 2015 — 7:10 PM

I’ve just finished reading this book, and while agree with the assessment of the writing style, I find this review by Mr. Osborne to be completely missing the point. This is not a book for experts in the financial industry. It’s a book for everyday people who are decidedly NOT experts, written in a way that that allows them to see where pitfalls, opportunities and security exist. There’s a lot of discussion about growth, and also about safety. For a guy like me, the book opened my eyes to a lot of aspects of an industry that I’ve previously been unable to wrap my head around. Will I follow every word of advice in the book? Nope. But I have made an appointment with an RIA and will have at least enough understanding of the topic to participate in my end of our conversations.

Howard Hafetz

Howard Hafetz

January 25, 2015 — 8:04 PM

I have been an Financial Advisor, and manager, for 31 years, and while I have a Clu, and Chfc, I do not hold myself out as the ultimate “guru”, of finance! And with all due respect,James either, are you. I by no means advocate for the ultimate “salesman” Tony Robbins, but you lay out your MBA,like it has credibility to the advisory world, when you know it does not! I am sure you probably know, but have conveniently forgot to mention, that many compliance departments in large financial firms, do not even allow you to use a MBA designation, because they feel it can be mis-construed by the public, as holding yourself out as having experitse that is not relavent to financial advise! Did you forget to mention that!
And by the way, you failed to mention in your piece, how you make a living. Do you charge fees, or do you provide expert advise philanthropically? Do you make your living writing “so-called”, consumer friendly articles? Do you get paid for that?
You point out that a small number of fiduciarys’ advise using FIA’S with guaranteed riders, really? Where did you get your research from on that? Have you ever researched Jack Marion’s materials? Have you ever read any Wharton School of Business, papers on the subject, that evealuates “real” data?
Stop calling others out as shams, when you are nothing more yourself?
Do you have the ultimate answer to retirement concerns, that have no risk? None, such as longevity risk, interest rate risk, global turmoil risk( i.e. price of oil!). If you did have those solutions, you wouldn’t have to work for a living, giving people advise!
Oh, maybe you could write more articles like this one, and give “any” financial rewards to charity, since you won’t need the money!

Abbie Smith

Abbie Smith

March 7, 2015 — 5:18 PM

Tony Robbins’ book “Money, Master the Game” is my Bible.

Todd

Todd

April 23, 2015 — 5:17 PM

I’m no Tony Robbins Guru, I’ve never listened to anything he has said nor read anything he has written. I read this book because I friend I trust highly recommended it. While I do agree that over 90% of the book is useless motivational mumbo jumbo, his message and investment strategy makes sense. I think this guy James does not like it because essentially what Tony Robbins is advocating essentially makes his career choice irrelevant. The emperor has no clothes if you will. You don’t need to pay someone tons of money to manage your assets, at least most people don’t, unless you are ultra wealthy. You can’t time the market, you can’t pick stock winners and losers. What Tony is saying, is really nothing more than the advice that John Boogle has been preaching for years. Again, I think James is just upset because Tony Robbins exposed the fact that you don’t really investment advisers. To be fair I’d be pretty upset if someone said my job was irrelevant.

GILES

GILES

May 27, 2015 — 1:43 PM

Tony Robbins is not arguably the world’s top motivational speaker for nothing and his track record proves it. This book pitches to people who have probably not made a success of their investments or are too scared to go out on their own. They need to be motivated which is why a lot of this book contains motivation speak. It is an easy read, debunks a lot of myths put out by the financial investment industry and gives the man in the street some idea as to how to manage his money better than perhaps he is doing now. What is wrong with that? Researching the web it is only the so-called financial experts who are knocking this book. The reasons are pretty obvious.

Josh

Josh

July 17, 2015 — 5:04 PM

I appreciate that this author doesn’t negate everything Tony Robbins puts forward, but his criticism misses the whole point of the book: The majority of people have no idea how much their investments actually earn them, how many fees they pay and why, and what better options are available. Robbins cuts to the chase to provide this service, in a way that people can both relate to and can take action on.
he never pretended that it would be the most nuanced, comprehensive guide of all time. And he did sweeten the deal by telling people what proven billionaires do. If the author is a billionaire, then fair enough.
Otherwise, take the book for the service it is. I have no doubt that anyone who just gets interested enough in caring for their portfolio more actively will save loads of money thanks to this book. When the author creates something similar, then I look forward to his critique.

rafael

rafael

September 16, 2015 — 2:13 AM

the author of this review is an id10t, robbin’s book is for the 90% of dumbass americans that are broke and live pay check to paycheck!
you dumbass

Wilbur Smith

Wilbur Smith

December 12, 2015 — 5:59 PM

you string words together but make no sense.typical of those that market in risk based assets. ctd

Marty Buchaus

Marty Buchaus

April 23, 2016 — 7:57 PM

Did you Read the book.. The doublespeak you speak of is most prevalent here. In your Article. I’m not even completely through the book yet.. and find your take on it.. Biased Your apparently entrenched in your old school way of thinking. Though this type of conversation is what this country and society is all about so keep on keeping on man.. but I don’t think your quite on base.

ROK

ROK

September 16, 2016 — 9:34 PM
The book does not mention anything about the basics of Gold or Silver which is like the basic real money , that 99.9 of the uiltra wealthy families own in the world since the history of time , i started to doubt everything else he was "Selling in His Book "
Ken

Ken

March 6, 2017 — 3:34 PM
Financial advisors recommend indexed annuities like cab drivers recommend Uber. They don't like that someone with just a life insurance license can sell an annuity. Are people over hyping them? I'm sure. The reality is they are great investment vehicles for a large majority of investors going into retirement and it's hard for them to admit.
brooke southall

brooke southall

March 6, 2017 — 6:29 PM
Great how, Ken? The high fees, the low returns or the opaque disclosures?
Ken

Ken

March 6, 2017 — 7:18 PM
Hey Brooke, well from your comment it sounds like you've only seen indexed annuities that have high fees & low returns. What fee are you considering to be high? I personally have some between .5-1% including rider fees and everything, that doesn't seem high to me considering you'll pay that in a regular mutual fund. Indexed annuities don't have opaque disclosures, agents do. I agree that some agents may misrepresent, but that's not the indexed annuity's fault. As far as returns, can you please explain? I have an annuity client that gained 15% from February 2016-2017 anniversary dates. OBVIOUSLY that isn't close to what he should expect every year nor do they return that every year, but how can you state something has low interest rates when you have the potential for that type of return? Maybe saying that "long term" averages could be lower or they have the "potential" to be lower, but blatenly saying they are low interest rates is using the same opaque language you are accusing them of using in the first place.

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