Customer Reviews

The Millionaire Code: 16 Paths to Wealth Building

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You gotta wonder about the kind of person who would write a book with 'Millionaire' in the title, especially a book written written on the subject by someone claiming to have a PhD. Then again, you gotta wonder about the kind of person who would read a book with the word 'Millionaire' in the title, but enough self-incrimination.

The Millionaire Code starts off with the right idea in mind. The author posits that the key to wealth-building begins with understanding one's unique personality, and he uses the (in)famous Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator test as a basis for pinpointing some general aspects of one's personality. Mr. Farrell then uses a variation of the Myers-Briggs test to identify 16 different personality types, analyze some general characteristics of each, and then recommend financial courses of action for each.

The book is liberally sprinkled with lots of Jungian-influenced pop-psychology, notable business quotes by the likes of none other than Warren Buffett and Donald Trump, among others, and is filled to the brim with excerpts from some of the more popular (and more obscure) self-help books. Because of this, I am not really sure how much of the book is the author's own original contribution, and at times I had to wonder about the integrity of the mix.

The book itself is structured in four parts. The first two parts lay out the foundation for the author's assertion that personality is the key to investing, and calls upon the works of Carl Jung, Isabel Myers-Briggs, and David Keirsey for support. It is here that the author boldly states that one's DNA determines one's financial destiny, and this is one claim that I find to be specious (and also unprovable) and which also shows the New Age, pop-LA cultural influence that is also liberally distributed throughout the text. In Part Two he provides a test for the reader to determine his or her personality type.

From there, the book becomes less insightful and original, and more repetitive shaky. Part Three consists of many generalizations about four temperaments to which supposedly every person can be categorized. Part Four presents the sixteen personality types based on these temperaments, and does even more generalizing about the characteristics common to each personality. For each personality, he offers some general comments on the types of profession people having this personality would gravitate to (and apparently most personalities gravitate toward the same professions), and offers some basic advice on personal financial planning for each. It is in this aspect that the book is weakest, as the advice on personal financial planning boils down to either: let a professional financial planner handle your financial affairs (for those whose personalities label them as performers, teacher-healers or artisans), go it alone (for those whose personalities label them as managers, administrators or leaders), or simply to not worry about it, forget about it and focus on other things (for those whose personalities label them as thinkers).

I highly doubt that one would meet with much financial success if one were to follow Mr. Farrell's dubious courses of action. Still, the book is useful, especially for those of us looking to feel better about ourselves and our stance towards personal finance. Each chapter begins and ends with a notable quote, and the author does provide a detailed list for further reading (which Farrell calls the Millionaire's Basic Training Library). Probably the most important chapters in the book are the first, second and epilogue.

The book as a whole is partly anecdotal, with some biographical tidbits about the author placed here and there, and is partly spiritual. This latter part probably reflects the impact that Marsha Sinetar's excellent book, Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow, had on the author. As such, I believe the book deserves to be read, partly for the great quotes from the diverse likes of Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung, Gary Zukav, and Buckminster Fuller, and mostly for entertainment.

That said, I impress upon all readers to enjoy the book, and not take it too seriously, as more than a few of its assertions are rather tenuous. Still, being a fan of Mr. Farrell's frank commentary in his articles for CBS Marketwatch, I must commend him for having the courage to share a part of himself with us and for putting the interesting subject of personality and investing on the spotlight. In passing, much of the book could be used as a source of great fodder for some outstanding fiction.

Finally, this book does not take the reader off the hook for his or her financial decisions. Though it may offer some insight into how we approach (or should approach) our finances, it provides no excuse for not thinking and reasoning about what we are doing when we say that we are 'investing'.

The book suggests that it will provide 16 paths to bulding wealth, one for each Myers-Briggs type. Unfortunately it does not do so. For mine, what the book refers to as a visionary or INTP, it says instead, to forget building weath because "money is not why Visionaries are here in this lifetime". "Use your talents" is the only suggestion. Maybe others are better, but it appears to use most of its pages to discuss psychology and spends little time prescribing financial strategies.

Over the years I have really enjoyed Paul Farrell's comments on investing, particularly when he recommends passive index fund strategies.

Farrell's theory for this book revolves around the fact that 96% of Americans are not millionaires....and the reason more people are not millionaires is that their savings and investment strategy is not matched to their personality type (as measured by the Myers-Briggs 16 personality types).

An interesting theory, but unfortunately Farrell provides no research to back up his theory. It would be interesting to random sample the 4% of Americans who are millionaires and determine if their success was determined by matching their savings, investment, and asset allocation strategy to their personality type.

Farrell spends a lot of the book on reviewing and explaining the history and practice of the Myers-Briggs personality tests.

I was expecting that Farrell would next review each of the 16 personality types and then explain how each specific type could achieve a relatively high net worth. He does spend time explaining each of the 16 personality types, but offers almost no explanations and recommendations for increasing net worth.

All in all, I was disappointed in Farrell's book. His theory would have much more validity if he had done the research which linked personality type to the proper savings, investment, and asset allocation strategies. He also should have spent time explaining how each of the 16 personality types could increase their net worth.

A more interesting book linking Myers-Briggs personality types to investment strategies is The Psychology of Money by Jim Ware. It offers more specific recommendations for improving your investment skills based upon your personality type.

I would suggest companion books to supplement this book including The Richest Man in Babylon, Bogle on Mutual Funds, The Millionaire Next Door, The 4 Pillars of Investing, A Random Walk Down Wall Street, Wealth of Experience: Real Investors on what Works and What Doesn't, The Coffeehouse Investor, and the Armchair Millionaire.

The title of this book is entirely misleading. The book is more of an inspirational "feel good" book than it is a guide to becoming wealthy by doing what you love. The book starts off OK but quickly reveals itself for what it truly is once the author starts getting into personality types. He borrows material from other authors quite liberally and I began to wonder when the author was going to reveal an original thought.

The author also spends quite a bit of time in the early chapters ridiculing finance books that teach traditional wealth building methods like saving, investing in 401K, etc... by purporting that these methods do not work. If these methods do not work, why is the suggested reading chapter of this book saturated with the same books that he attempts to disparage?

He also suggests that working a 9 to 5 will never make you rich and in fact, you, the lowly worker are making others rich. In spite of these assertions, he suggests these same dead-end 9 to 5 jobs as the "millionaire code" for all the personality types except for the "Entrepreneurs". The bottom line is that there is nothing new in this book. It is the same material you have read numerous times before that has just been recycled to make it seem original. Sign me disappointed.

This book is great fun to read, and it couldn't be easier to use. The Millionaire Code is based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and Farrell's book shows that each "type" thinks about money in a different way, handles money in a different way, and builds wealth in a different way. In the book, you take a simple test, discover which one of 16 Myers-Briggs types you are, and then learn how you should handle your money and investments. And it actually works!

fun and well written book using the briggs myers and kiersey inventories. explains how your personality type can get you where you want to go financially and identifies some career paths to take you there.

This book provided a great insight into myself. I've never really associated personalities with wealthbuilding, but this book made me examine and evaluate myself, which caused me to realize i was looking at things in the wrong way. The author suggests to leverage your personality type by choosing a path to wealth that you will feel fulfilled by. This is a great read for anybody looking to find a direction for their career and life.

This is a book which will help you starting thinking
about your approach to life and finances... Less directly
helpful than inspirational...