Customer Reviews

Safe Strategies for Financial Freedom

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I gave it an extra star because at least Van Tharp tries to offer some real investment alternatives; unlike every other fluff-ball financial planning book.

Unfortunately, most of the investments he offers are filled with landmines that have ruined many experienced & educated investors. When he discusses investments, he doesn't talk much about downside risk, except by ending chapters with "do your due diligence".

The passive investment Tharp recommends most often is real estate (with some incredible return claims). And he points to his seminar buddy John Burley as the trainer you should use. I just received a flyer today hyping John's latest Boot Camp, and it costs $6,000. Maybe he's a great teacher, but his brochure has all the traits of a sleazy scammer.

Tharp spends a lot of time telling you how to predict the inflation rate, or whether the U.S. dollar is going up or down. If Tharp, or any of his students could do this - they would easily be trillionaires, but he can't point to any. Throughout the book, I kept wanting to see "Where is the proof?" Just claiming that you have a backtested model is NOT proof, and only a fool would invest based on this (every beginning trader knows this and Tharp claims he's an expert?). Tharp's evidence comes from the other authors. But they are newsletter writers that make a living selling newsletters - not from their trading profits!

Rather than go into many more examples of his vague "successfully redeploying assets", I'll just say that: since Tharp describes himself as The Leader in investment psychology (and coaches the best investors) - I expected real substance. If you buy this book, you are only paying for Van Tharp's Financial Freedom.

I also spent $100 for Tharp's accompaning software thinking that maybe all the 'huge return examples' alluded to in the book was in his "upsell" product. Wrong. You input your financial information and it adds it up and displays a graphic showing your income & expenses each month. But I already knew these numbers - I was the one that input them!! If you click on the discussions it basically repeats vague stuff from the book.

I have been investing myself since about 1980, in Real Estate, Stocks and my own business. I have read pretty much everything I can get my hands on from economics, math, business, to investing as in the classic trading books and options strategies. I did read Van Tharps' "Trade your Way to Financial Freedom" I liked that one and learned a fair amount.
I'm not sure what happened to Van Tharp, if he needs money or what, but I found "Safe Strategies" to be about one level above an infomercial mentality. The only reason this is one level above is because I bit and bought this book because of Van Tharp's name.

I guess if you if you are just starting out hopefully this will wake up your interest in making and taking care of your money.

Most of this book to me was comical, especially chapter 12, The Real Estate strategies. There is another name for most of those strategies and that is bank fraud, my opinion. Any Real Estate investing that talks about funds held outside of escrow then being "forgiven" after closing and not being disclosed should send a red flag up to you. The slang for this is Texas Earnest money. If Berry has ever actually did some of his deals and can sleep at night great, not for me. I've seen this deals come to me and usually laugh at the people attempting to make them. I ask what seminar you go to or where did you read this.
Read Chapter 12 and ask yourself how stupid do people have to be to accept his offers.
Oh you can say hard-up yeah ok good luck finding them, much less reselling the property. But hey everybody has to learn for themselves I guess.

I could on about this book but I have already wasted enough time with it between reading and now this.

I will say if you want to read a couple of great books about the stock markets, in my opinion, check out `Trade Like A Hedge Fund" by Altucher; "Practical Speculation" by Niederhoffer and anything written by Dr. Elders, for options, "Options as a Strategic Investments" by McMillian.

Hey if you like this new Van Tharps book, so be it. Sure there a few good ideas that are rehashed like position sizing and really just being disciplined but my area for many years has been real estate so when i read things that in my State would most likely get people into trouble i feel a duty to at least warn them about this.

Firstly, I would like to state that I'm a Van Tharp fan. I read his "Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom" at least 15 times. I think that book and Marcel Link's "High Probability Trading" are the best books written about trading in a long time. I rated both as 5 stars.

There are good things and bad things about this book.

The good things: The Financial Freedom Number Concept alone is worth the price of the book and 1 of the stars. It was quite a revelation that you become financially free when your monthly passive income exceed your monthly expenses. It may be a blinding flash of the obvious, but most people don't realize it until someone points out that fact. The other good things about this book are that there are strategies that work in up, down and sideways markets. The system expectancy and risk control methods are included (but I already read them in his other 2 books).

The bad things: The down side is that there is too much damn advertising and it's damn irritating. I had to look twice to make sure it wasn't a "Wade Cook" book. I deducted 2 stars from the rating to show my disapproval!!!

Van K. Tharp, you DA MAN!!! But if you write another book, can you just please just write new material and leave out the marbles game thing, and the expectancy thing, and the position sizing thing? You already wrote them in your other 3 books. And if you have to put in all the damn advertising, at least have the decency to put in all in the appendix and not all over the book. Thanks.

Safe Strategies for Fiancial Freedom is by far the best book that I have found on the process of achieving/preserving wealth and finding financial freedom SAFELY. Virtually all of the other books on these topics are Ra-Ra pep talks with few substantial tools, or they are directed at giving you a Holy Grail system. If you are looking for a Holy Grail then you need to realize that there are no Holy Grail Systems, purchase Dr. Tharp's other works, work on yourself, develop your own systems, and read this book. If you are looking to take control of your personal finances, protect and grow your capital then start here.

Of Dr. Tharp's many works, this is the most approachable (and is very approachable) for the average person, and it is very informative for the sophisticated investor. It provides a great foundation in assessing your financial picture, your responsibility for yourself and how your beliefs effect this, the components of a complete system for investing, risk control, assessing your system, the big picture of finance, and approaches to different investment catagories. At the core is Dr. Tharp's belief that whatever you trade or invest in needs to fit you. Fitting you means matching your beliefs about yourself, money, and the markets be they stock, bond, curreny, real estate, or baseball cards. If you do not believe that you can be financially free, you are not going to be. There are extensive tools provided to assist you in developing a target and game plan, continually assess where you are, what the big picture is doing, and where to find opportunity.

Unlike Dr. Tharp's previous books, this book gives you systems (sets of rules) to use. You need to decide if these fit you and your goals. If these recepies are not quite right for you, you can adapt them. Back testing of systems is discussed, and the limitations of back testing systems are elucidated. There is an extensive discussion on how to improve this limited information through simulating your system and how the information gleaned from this exercise can inform your decisions regarding Risk and Position Sizing. Risk and Position Sizing are also thoroughly discussed as these are THE KEY to reaching your goals in terms of gains and smoothness of your equity curve. The classic Tharp marble game is presented and gives you a true feeling and experience of how position sizing can dramatically effect the results of your system. These concepts are critical to turning your investing (or non-investing) into something "safe" instead of "risky".

The information in this book will repay you many times over the cost of the book and your time to read and implement its information. Read this book! Have your kids read it. Give it to family and friends, and you will be doing something to improve all of their lives. Safe Strategies for Financial Freedom Deserves a 7 out of 5.

I've gotten at least some tiny bits of wisdom out of every book I've ever read...even books I pick up for a dollar at the Goodwill store. This book is no exception...I got some tiny bits of wisdom out of it and it will end up in the Goodwill store priced at a dollar.

The very best scams always have elements of truth in them. There are a few...precious few...worthwhile ideas in this book that the authors gratuitously tossed in. But more often than not, the authors focused on describing the pitfalls of attempting various investment strategies on your own.

Then the authors slyly suggest that you go to one of their websites and subscribe to their newsletter/system/secret formula, etc. These newsletters/systems/secret formulae are expensive and will guarantee financial freedom for the authors, but probably not for you.

I have no quarrel with business people using whatever schemes they choose to lure in customers. Unfortunately for me, I foolishly assumed that book authors would be above using a book as their lure. I'll be far more careful in the future.

This book should have been titled. "Read This Book, Then Subscribe to our Expensive Newsletters/Seminars/Tapes, etc. to Learn More About Investment Strategies That Occasionally Worked in the Past, and May Work in the Future."

Look for my copy in Goodwill.

Safe strategies is the best book every written relating to financial freedom. The authors do a fantastic job of taking the complex macro world of finance and simplifying it into very simple and easy to apply models. These simple models only require about 20 minutes a week of your time for you to know which strategies / markets to be getting into, or staying with or avoiding. And the bonus is that they also provide you with clear cut and simple guidelines on how to implement the appropriate strategy given the current financial climate.

The books' genius is in it's simplicity, everything is spelled out in plain english and the referred resources are fantastic tools for mentoring you towards your objectives. The authors have just done so much groundwork for you, in all the investing arenas, be that bonds, stocks, realestate, cash or commodities or mutual/hedge funds. And the real kicker is that it doesn't matter whether the Dow is going up or down, there is always something you can do to further your progress towards your financial freedom goals.

This book is the best book ever written in the financial genre, though I suspect that it won't be widely acknowledged for another decade or so. I believe that money flows towards integrity, freedom and responsibility. This books reeks of those three qualities.

I found my financial freedom four years ago (age 29) after spending my 20's learning what this book can teach you in a few weeks. This book can take your journey of learning from decades to months. Do your self a favour ... committ to safe strategies.

This literally is one of those rare books that should be on everyone's "must read" list. In a world where we are bombarded with messages about how life consists of working hard so that we can retire at age 65, this book shares ways for every single person to become financially free at any point in their life. Best of all, the authors lay out step by step methods for implementing the ideas that they share.

In the opening chapter, the authors start with "What it takes for you to never have to work again." In that section, they help readers identify their all-important "Financial Freedom Number". This is the current difference between someone's monthly passive income, and their monthly expenses. By the time the first chapter is over with, readers have a clear picture of where they want to get to financially. Chapter two contains excellent ideas on how to save for financial freedom, including the idea of "Pay Yourself First". Using that concept, people prepare for their own financial freedom first, before distributing the rest of their income.

In a book full of paradigm shifting concepts, without a doubt, one of the most powerful ones is in the chapter titled "Getting Out of Debt in Just a Few Years". In that chapter, the authors go step by step through a very practical, possible, and incredibly powerful method by which people can quickly become debt free. Not only that, but after using this method to become debt free, people will be in fantastic position to gain their financial freedom, and never have to work again if they don't want to.

As readers get deeper into Safe Strategies for Financial Freedom, they will learn about different ways to generate passive income, such as through the stock market, real estate, and other means. These sections are not merely high level descriptions of how to be successful. The authors take readers by the hand and walk them step by step through how to be successful.

If you never get beyond the third chapter of Safe Strategies for Financial Freedom, it will still be a book that forever changes your views about wealth. If you take the time to read it all, this book will become your map for never having to work again.

I day trade stocks, have traded options, futures, commodities, you name it. I continually search for the holy grail of books to "enlighten" me with wisedom. I found the strategies in this book to be logical and and useful in my trading habit. Tharp has excellent ideas on position sizing, risk management, and market analysis. The chapters on Real Estate and the "Trade Simulator" that you can purchase were not of interest to me. This simulator is (I'm looking for a nicer word than "hokey"). Overall, the book was definitely worth what I paid for it. It wasn't the holy grail but had some excellent information and ideas I haven't seen before.

This book goes straight to the heart of sound financial investing with straight-talking, easy-to-grasp and clearly presented concepts on the foundations of common-sense investing: how to manage risk, preserve existing capital, and use your investing power to create an investment income where you are making more than you spend (i.e. at that point you are, in the words of the author, `financially free.'). In my mind, the book has earned its price many times over just by clearly defining and explaining these fundamental `need-to-know' concepts of successful investing. The authors offer their readers further value by evaluating the current conditions in several major investing arenas (including the stock market, mutual funds, real estate) and presenting a series of low-risk, easy-to-implement safe strategies that are specifically designed for investing in these current uncertain and often volatile market conditions.
Jack Schwager, in his original book, `Market Wizards,' devoted a chapter to profiling Van Tharp, one of the principal authors of `Safe Strategies for Financial Freedom.' It looks like Van Tharp has not only survived, but thrived, throughout the differing and sometimes euphoric, sometimes tragic, market conditions of the last several decades. He and his associates draw on decades' worth of depth of experience and breadth of understanding across various-and radically varying-market conditions, and are able to put the recent and current investing scenario into a coherent perspective that will appeal to everyone who wants to improve their investing performance in a safe, solid, `I can sleep at night' way. I found it hard to put the book down, I refer to it frequently for practical strategies, and probably many others will have a similar experience. Whether you're looking for down-to-earth ways to begin investing, or whether you're already an investor and looking for highly successful, proven ways to increase your investment income, this book is an obvious and highly productive `must-have' for your life and library.

If you want stock market predictions, this is not the book for you. But if you do want ways to access financial freedom, it is.
This is a thinking person's book. The author provides tools and strategies for reducing debt. In fact, a large portion of the book is given to that. And in providing the financial freedom number calculations, Tharp makes it clear that reducing debt is integral to achieving financial freedom and a stepping stone to the mindset for successful investing.
This book sat on my desk for weeks. I generally hate books on finance and business books. When I finally opened it and started reading, I read for three hours straight. The information made sense, it was accessible and understandable, and Tharp made me see how I could apply the strategies to my own life.
I really take issue with the reviews that harp on it. The title is Safe Strategies for Financial Freedom - and that is just what this book provides. If you want to learn the secrets to the successful trading mindset, pick up one of Tharp's other books. But if you want to become financially free, read this one and follow the author's advice.