Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths That Are Destroying Your Prosperity (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: soul purpose, consumptive liabilities, productive liabilities, Consumer Condition, Daily Pro, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this thought-provoking work, entrepreneur and inspirational speaker Gunderson takes aim at the social brainwashing and financial planners and institutions that are constricting Americans' financial freedom and undermining their abilities to prosper with misguided and dangerous advice. The author debunks various investment myths—offering a fresh look at 401(k) fallacies—and false beliefs (high risk = high returns). In a book studded with anecdotes and historical tidbits, Gunderson excels in his description of the prevalent psychological beliefs that hinder success: the scarcity mindset in which financial success is understood as a zero-sum game; the American equation of happiness with prosperity; and the misconception that money holds power. In appeals more befitting a self-help guide than financial primer, the author argues that individuals need to embrace a mindset of self-reliance and identify their Soul Purpose. In the vein of TheSecret and the classic Think and Grow Rich, Gunderson suggests that prosperity is a state of mind from which value and wealth flow. Readers will find his assault on traditional financial nostrums fresh, eye-opening and emboldening. (July)
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Product Description

Our culture is riddled with destructive myths about money and prosperity that are severely limiting the power, creativity, and financial potential of individuals. In Killing Sacred Cows, Garrett B. Gunderson boldly exposes ingrained fallacies and misguided traditions in the world of personal finance. He presents a revolutionary perspective that can create unprecedented opportunity and wealth for thoughtful, mission-driven individuals.

Our financial lives are intimately connected to our societal contributions, and we must be financially free in order to achieve our fullest potential. Sadly, however, most people are held captive in their financial lives by misinformation, propaganda, and limited knowledge. Through well-reasoned arguments, unflinching logic, and revelatory insight, Gunderson defeats common clichés and faulty retirement planning advice to plainly demonstrate the following and much more:

• 401(k)s and the stock market are the most risky investments for most people and the gambling mindset they induce creates disastrous consequences.
• Conventional retirement planning advice, products, strategies, and techniques expose you to significant danger of being unable to retire, or of running out of money prematurely if you do.
• Building net worth is a recipe for creating a life of fear and poverty and how to escape that common trap.
• Debt may not be what you think it is and why that matters to your prosperity.
• 'High risk equals high returns' is destructive dogma and how reducing risk can increase your returns.

Killing Sacred Cows is a must-read for brave individuals willing to question common assumptions and teachings, overcome the herd mentality, break through financial myths, and live a purposeful, passionate, and prosperous life.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group LLC (July 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1929774516
• ISBN-13: 978-1929774517
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #62,531 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars So Full of Sacred Cows It Nearly Moos!, October 8, 2008

By	Tricia Huff (Cincinnati, OH) - See all my reviews

Gunderson and Palmer need to look to their own barnyards before branding the presumably wayward cattle of other farmers. This book is so saturated with New Age sacred tenets that it nearly mooed when I cracked the spine. A mix of the prosperity gospel, New Age exhortations to "be all you can be", with some highflown Victorian sentimental belief in absolutes thrown in; this work is not a book on personal finance, but itself a promoter of various sacred cows masquerading as principles around which to organize your life. Here are a few of the bovine beliefs.

1) You create you own reality.
I do not create reality. I engage in it. If a bird poops on my head, I can smile or I can frown, but I still have guano on my head. I didn't create that reality. Something outside of me did. The belief that I am the instigator of everything good and bad in my life is annoying at best, and callously mean at worst. I am thinking of victims of real abuse, such as assault, rape, murder, and genocide. Did they create their own reality? Is this not the ultimate in blame disguising itself as empowerment?

2) Do what you love and the money will follow.
Some wonderful engaging pursuits are simply not going to make you a living wage and are best pursued outside of the world of work. And this theory doesn't take into account the number of folks who love watching bad TV all day. If they do what they love, will the money follow? There are too many situations where this belief can be refuted for me to take it seriously.

3)Your "Soul Purpose", (read your sole purpose,) will lead you to the perfect vocation that will give your great joy and accomplishment.
If you are going to invoke the word soul and it accordant religiosity, then for the Christian, the sole purpose of your life is to glorify God. But God does not give you only one activity in life to focus on. God wants you to be a good parent, a good friend, a good worker, a good citizen, the list goes on. To think that only one facet of your life is going to fulfill you is not realistic and counter to the multi-faceted wonderful nature of human beings.

4) That you should pursue this "Soul Purpose", vocation, no matter what.
Not everyone is so proficiently selfish as to create a reality that allows them to focus on their needs as primary all of the time. Sometimes conditions in an individual's life makes pursuing one's self-interests unrealistic. Such language in the context of this book implies that this person is a sellout, not that this person has nobly sacrificed for a higher good, such as their family.

If you create your own reality then the above tenets are true and you are a sellout, a chump, a member of the unenlightened masses if you are not 100% of the time, "living the dream," whatever that is for you. But if these principles are not true, and I do not think they are, these are some of the most judgmental unkind attacks we can levy at one another. This work was so uncritical of its own sacred cows that I distrust the advice offered and the credentials of its authors. What little advice was good could have been summed up in a chapter. Instead I was treated to 256 pages of chummy exhortations and shallow examples when I would have preferred the more prosaic, "scarcity mindset" strictures of specific advice.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Complete Garbage!, January 7, 2009

By	Clinton P. Taylor "Clint" (Kalamazoo, MI) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

What a complete waste of time. Thank goodness I checked it out at the Library and didn't buy this crap!

Garrett Gunderson is an insurance agent in Utah who from what I can gather created his wealth selling insurance, seminars, books, dvds, coaching, etc on how to create wealth. Does anyone else think thats wrong? The book repeats the same things over and over again with no real substance but to be different by challenging some widely held beliefs. I'm writing a book challenging the belief that the sky is blue, ohh look at me, read my book I'm different!

It's interesting how he postulates that net worth is not a true measure of wealth but on the back jacket the first sentence states he was a "multimillionaire" by age 26. On every blurb he's written about himself he gives us his net worth. His examples use people who have accumulated in a 401(k)(very bad) and then turned that accumulation into cash flow. Where are the examples without accumulation. He's a con-artist at best, dangerous at worst.

His kind of teachings hurt the people who religiously follow his instruction. Kind of like "The Secret" there's a bunch of people out there searching for their "Soul Purpose" and visualizing wealth so they can receive a check in the mailbox. Meanwhile they aren't doing anything productive so they should buy more dvds and books from this guy so they can "get to the next level".

His "Soul Purpose" and goal is to SELL YOU THINGS, to achieve his SOUL PURPOSE goal he'll give you feel good terms like Soul Purpose, and Human Life Value. He's just regurgitating a bunch of stuff from other authors and repeating it over and over. His knocks on banks and the financial services industry are tired and very generalized, somehow he thinks that the insurance industry that he works in is better? Can anyone say AIG?

Wake up people don't worship false gods, gurus, books on becoming rich, dvds on beating the stock market, computer programs on options, debt cures by con artists, or infomercials. T he only person getting rich on this crap is the person selling it to you! There is a multi billion dollar business telling you how to be "truly" wealthy, when in fact you can't get it from a book, website, dvd or infomercial.

Figure it out yourself! Have some balls to take some risks, have some faith in yourself and your fellow man, work hard, education yourself and maybe you'll live a happy and satisfied life, maybe you won't, nothing is guaranteed. But don't waste your money on this junk!

30 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Killing Sacred Cows, July 10, 2008

By	John C. Oconnor (Santa Monica, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As a long time CFP (Certified Financial Planner) I was shocked & disbelieving with the sort of information that Garrett Gunderson lays out so well in his book, "Killing Sacred Cows". When you have spent over twenty years in the financial services world and a different or supposedly better approach to financial planning comes out I was and most advisor's are naturally very skeptical. The claims of the approach that Garrett advocates just seemed to me to be "too good to be true".

After a great deal of rigorous research I have had to acknowledge that what Garrett says is actually very solid.

The most upsetting thing for me as a CFP was the realization that so many of my clients have been misled by me using the standard financial planning approaches that most all of my fellow professionals also use or misuse.

Garrett Gunderson has put this bigger picture (holistic) economics based approach into such a well written and totally solid book that is easy to read and more importantly it is easy for normal people to begin to see beyond the standard financial planning BS that is being taught to everyone.

You can not help but be a much more wise and aware steward of your precious life resources (money, time, attention, energy...etc) by picking up a copy of Garrett's excellent book "Killing Sacred Cows" as soon as you can.