Wealth Without Risk

by Charles J. Givens

From DJ flap - Saen Higgins is a self-made multi-millionaire who inspires audiences around the globe with his wealth building strategies. Saen began investing in Tax Lien Certificates in 1994. Within two years, he became the nation's leading expert on the subject. Using these relatively unknown investments, which offer a state mandated return of anywhere between 18-24%, Saen build his successful career.

Genres: Finance, Nonfiction, Personal Finance, Business, Economics

Hardcover

First published December 1, 1988

Reviews

[John]

Which came first, Givens' business of selling investment advice services, or this book that function as an ad for his business? I don't know, but for an advertisement, this book reads well. As an investment philosophy, though, it's the same as all the others: I've figured out how to invest in the stock market without ever losing money! I have a system! Pay me to follow it and grow rich! Born later, Givens could be a Fidelity Investments mutual fund manager with a "proprietary black box" quantitative stock picking method. But he wouldn't make as much money.

His method is simple. When interest rates are highs, invest in money; if they start to fall, switch to bonds, since the relative value of the bond's interest goes up against a backdrop of falling interest rates, making the dollar/trading value of the bond go up; and the rest of the time, let it ride on stocks!

And then he offers other advice, such as insuring your assets so that you don't lose them in a lawsuit if you run someone over. Don't worry Charles, Republicans will cap liability damages and gut the personal injury legal field in their attempt to root out the sources of Democratic funding. So our assets will be safe regardless of our reckless behavior. Actually, this kind of common sense advice is worth encountering once in life for those who have to transition into the role of managing personal assets (as opposed to those who have had wealth managers on retainer their entire lives.)

[Kenneth]

Well not quite. Givens learned that his techniques for "financial growth" do come with risk.
"Over his career Givens was the target of dozens of lawsuits and two court cases for defrauding customers, one in California and one in Florida. The California fraud case found that he had misled his customers by claiming that he had made his money using his financial strategies, rather than by selling his financial strategies, and he was ordered to refund $14.1 million to his customers. Givens settled the Florida fraud case. Givens was also sued for advocating dropping insurance to save money by a woman whose husband was killed by an uninsured driver. Givens settled the insurance suit in 1993." (Not a good move).
He was a symbol of the 1980's Bonfire of the Vanities Capitalistic money worshiping crowd.

[Stephen J]

This book is one of the best personnel financial books I have ever read. This book and Dave Ramsey’s compete guide to money are the only to personal finance books you need in your library.

[Judy]

A book about investing in the stocks of the Dow Jones Average.

[Edward R. Miller]

If you ever wanted to know anything about financial responsibilities and how to make money the title of this book says it all. Wealth without risk is indeed a book worth reading. You can go from investing ,savings, taxes and whatever else you like. This book gives you the tools you need to be successful. I like this so much I brought several others of his books and gave it to other family members. Strangely enough, their claim of not being interested let to them keeping the books I gave them to read. What does that tell you?

[Chris Lashmet]

I really enjoyed this book. Obviously some of the material is well out of date because it was written in the 80s but overall many of the concepts really make you want to start investing and makes you realize how much money you can actually be saving by doing little things with your money. I enjoyed it and its a quick read.

[Lindsay]

Some good overall tips, even though most of the information is out of date. Some tips would no longer work or be possible/legal. Also, many subjects were not covered in enough detail for someone without financial knowledge to take action on - which would make this book not useful for it's intended audience.

[John]

L-A-M-E.

[Michael]

Givens shows you how to save money in every aspect of your life and then apply it to making money in a relatively safe long-term approach.

There is probably an updated or revised version.

[J]

paper

[Joshua Norman]

Though this book is dated, it helped me build a foundation to manage my own money

[Matt]

Sound financial advice which should be recommended reading for any high school graduate leaving the nest.

[Michael]

Has a lot of good advice and money saving tips. Gets a little dry at times. Overall a book well worth reading.

[Dayla]

Everything I learned about money came from this book and "The Millionaire Next Door." Look especially at "car insurance."

[Sherri]

Read it, then heard years later that his company had gone into bankruptcy.