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

by Garrett B. Gunderson (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: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #74,802 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 48 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.

29 of 37 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.

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good advice, but could have been written in 20 pages, not 271!, September 1, 2008

By	Kris (New Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews

I agree with the majority of the advice in this book. I've always thought the stock market was just a legalized pyramid scheme. It makes a lot of sense to focus on how to increase your personal productivity and income. BUT there were two overwhelming thoughts I had while reading this book:

1. Wait - didn't I just read this same sentence 5 times? It felt like the author kept repeating the IDENTICAL phrases over and over again. Like he was just trying to fill enough pages to be able to publish a book.

2. Is this a book or just a 271 page advertisement to take the author's financial seminars?

So, while it is good advice, be prepared to skim alot of pages because it is extremely repetitive. And I would say that this is a book to borrow from the library because once you've read it, there's no need to reference it again.