Every year since 1994, Worth magazine has named Bert Whitehead among the “Best 60 Financial Advisors in America.” His unique “behavioral finance” approach goes beyond mere number crunching to help people understand and overcome the complex psychological baggage they bring to their financial decisions. Tested and confirmed by hundreds of Bert’s clients—including celebrities such as Andrew Weil, M.D., who wrote the foreword for the book—this system shows readers how to identify areas of financial dysfunction and offers specific strategies designed to help different personality types achieve financial freedom by working with their own natural inclinations.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Bert Whitehead, MBA, JD, has been a fee-only personal financial advisor since 1972. In 1995, he founded Cambridge Advisors, a growing group of advisors who share his belief in unbiased independent financial advice and consumer advocacy. He is often quoted in leading publications. Andrew Weil, MD, is a world-renowned pioneer in the field of integrative medicine.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
78 of 84 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
What's wrong with these reviews?,
By
This review is from: Why Smart People Do Stupid Things with Money: Overcoming Financial Dysfunction (Hardcover)
Is it me or are all these "reviews" obviously endorsements from the author's large network of friends and contacts? I can't find a single "review" in the 25+ here that gives even a single sentence of detail about the book -- not one! These are all generic "terrific finance book for everyone - 5 stars!" Plus, nearly all these reviews were posted within the first 6 days of the release and each gave 5 stars. Not plausible.
I don't blame the author for asking friends to put reviews up, but then have them actually read the book and put together a real REVIEW, not a vacuous endorsement. This is especially important since there is no "See Inside" capability with this book. I depend on Amazon reviews when making decisions on products I'm buying here. I don't appreciate an obvious attempt to subvert the process.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Keeper,
By
This review is from: Why Smart People Do Stupid Things with Money: Overcoming Financial Dysfunction (Hardcover)
This is one book that I'll keep on my shelf and re-read, and refer to as reference. The author's 35 years of experience really shows in his analysis on financial personality types and risk tolerance. He had me pegged! Based on a short self-test, he predicted the kind of spender and investor I am with accuracy. The book does go into pretty good detail for the beginning investor; it can make your brain hurt. But, that's what's great about it- the amount of information packed into this short book makes it well worth buying and keeping on hand.
The reason I only gave 4 stars: I disagree with him about not paying your mortgage off as quickly as possible. He uses calculations to show that by getting tax breaks for mortgage interest, you'll come out ahead if you invest the extra money instead. There's one thing he, and other authors who advocate this, have never addressed- the Standard Deduction. If you have unusually high deductions such as medical bills that puts your itemized deductions above the standard, then his system make sense. But, if all of your deductions, including the mortgage interest, comes beneath the standard deduction the government gives to everyone, then you would take the standard. So, you wouldn't be getting any additional deduction for the interest than you would without it. This makes it highly impractical to pay three times the value of your mortagage, if you have the extra money to pay it off more quickly. No, I'm not a financial expert; I'm actually a complete novice when it comes to investing. But I have worked as a tax preparer, and in my own returns, I've always taken the standard deduction, since I didn't have enough itemized to top it. So, for me his recommendation makes no sense at all. You would have to evaluate your own deductions, and if you itemize, your tax savings, to make an informed choice as to whether you'd be better off investing the money, instead of making additional payments on your house. But, I think it's irresponsible for him to make a blanket statement that no one should try to pay off their house early. That's the only thing I found wrong with the book. Other than that it taught me alot, and is well worth the read.
20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Review Deception,
By
This review is from: Why Smart People Do Stupid Things with Money: Overcoming Financial Dysfunction (Hardcover)
I have to agree with Lapis' assertion that most of the reviews appear to be fraudulent. Click on "see my other reviews" and most of them have only one review...for this book. I'm sure most amazon.com users don't post only one review. It's difficult enough to not carried away reviewing books and other consumer goods. It is extremely suspicious and I agree with Lapis that I often make purchasing decisions based on user reviews.
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