Multiple Streams of Income (Hardcover)

by Robert G. Allen (Author) "It all starts with a single unit of money..." (more)
Key Phrases: money tree formula, real estate mountain, tax lien certificates, New York, Warren Buffett, Year Zeros (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
The author of the rags-to-riches real estate bestseller Nothing Down for the '90s presents advice drawn from 20 years of writing and promoting get-rich books through seminars, infomercials, and home-study courses. In Multiple Streams of Income, Robert G. Allen shows you how to create income with little or no investment. Says Allen: "Today, very few families can survive on less than two streams of income. In the volatile future, you will need a portfolio of income streams--not one or two--but many streams from completely different and diversified sources."

Beginning with advice on controlling spending and increasing savings, Allen hits his stride in chapters on stock market and real estate investing. He draws on the investment advice of others, including Peter Lynch, and even suggests that you invest in Berkshire Hathaway and let Warren Buffett manage your money. Allen also shares his real estate strategies for finding motivated sellers, securing creative financing, and buying foreclosures and tax liens. Additional chapters cover multilevel-network marketing, information and product licensing, and marketing on the Internet. Throughout are checklists, work sheets, and testimonials, as well as pointers to more articles and materials on the author's Web site. It's useful to have so much information so concisely and well explained, and many who read this book will find it hard to resist implementing one, if not several, of Allen's recommended income strategies. --Scott Harrison

From Publishers Weekly
The man behind Nothing Down: How to Buy Real Estate with Little or Nothing Down is back; this time, he stops just short of promising every reader untold riches. A quick look at the chapter titles--"Infopreneuring: How to Turn a Tiny Classified Ad into a Fortune," "The Internet: Your Next Fortune Is Just a Click Away," etc.--prepares readers for the journey ahead. Allen's basic advice is to get paid multiple times for the same work: write a book or a song or license an innovative idea and collect royalties for years; become a multilevel marketer and get a piece of every sale made by others in the organization. The dollars will literally roll in while you sleep, Allen claims, hardly wasting a comma on the fact that most people fail to create recurring streams of income from these ventures. The hype obscures the sound financial advice he does offer: live well within your means, save regularly and invest a significant portion of your money in index funds. However, Allen doesn't help his case by making it sound as if a 20% return in the stock market is commonplace or by suggesting that engaging in esoteric investment strategies such as writing "covered calls" is as easy as falling off a log, and much more profitable. It is too bad the book doesn't come with a money-back guarantee for readers who don't become millionaires. At least that would have been a sure thing. 150,000 first printing; $300,000 ad/promo; 15-city author tour. (Apr.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons (March 17, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471381802
• ISBN-13: 978-0471381808
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (188 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #37,424 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

583 of 597 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mostly Sound Advice with Overstated Claims, April 20, 2001

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

In this book, Mr. Allen gives you an overview of the key principles behind creating more sources of income. He claims to focus on opportunities on a "part-time basis," from "your own home," "using little or none of your own money," "with few or no employees," "using simple, proven systems that really work." In many cases, he describes the success that the most successful one percent will enjoy as though that is what you should expect. In other cases, he encourages you to pursue paths that could cause you to lose lots of money. Be careful!

The section on the benefits of regular investing and compound interest is one of the very best I have seen. It shows how as little as a dollar a day invested can be turned into a million dollars over a lifetime. That is followed by 50 ways to save $50 a month so you'll be able to make these investments.

He then has a good section on the money skills you need: "value" money; "control" money; "save" money; "invest" money; "make" money; "shield" money; and "share" money for worthwhile purposes (your legacy). I agree that each of these areas needs work. I do think that the "control" and "shield" sections are overdone for the average person. They are more an indication of personality that is compulsive than of necessary steps. I have known hundreds of people who have achieved financial security through their own efforts, and none of them to my knowledge employed more than a small amount of what is described in those two sections.

I also liked his "moneytree" concept for what kind of a stream of income you should try to build. I do think he makes it sound much easier than it is. I have personal experience with most of these areas, and I thought that they each took a lot of work, strain, and sweat. I also had to put significant financial resources into them before I was done.

The stock investment section is pretty good until he starts talking about buying calls. Don't do it. His advice on buying indexed, no-load mutual funds is good, but he veers off into encouraging sector funds. Don't do it unless you are very knowledgeable.

I thought the real estate section was good, but he makes it sound easier than it is to handle the human interactions necessary to get the real estate with no money down and to do the renting and fix up. Many people would find it excrutiating to do those things. Someone with a lot of emotional intelligence would find it fun. Don't forget that needed repairs can put quite a dent in your wallet, as can having deadbeat tenants (or no tenants).

The tax lien section is pretty good, and more people should look into that.

I thought the network marketing section was woeful. Yes, celebrities have an easy time with network marketing. Are you a celebrity?

I think that licensing will be too tough for most people, although it was a good idea to have it here. This is more appealing for people who are lawyers.

I wish it were as easy to make money from writing a book as he suggests.

The tax material was decent, if a little light.

Overall, Mr. Allen seems to have a need to show off. He likes to tell about his personal successes. I agree that he is a talented man. And I agree that I am not as talented as he is in these areas. So why should I try to follow his advice? Most things require skill or knowledge to do well. If he looked for things that 90 percent of the people succeed in earning a good income from with limited risk, this would have been a great book. But he keeps wanting to pull rabbits out of a hat, by describing places where a few will make a killing while most will get killed. A good example is the section on building an Internet business.

I do recommend that you read the book. But check out the ideas for their difficulty to implement, and their risk, before choosing ones to do. Generally, simpler, safer, and easier are better. If you did everything he suggests, you would have a very complicated life just taking care of your finances.

Before reading this or any other investment book, I suggest that you think through how your would like to spend your time on achieving and retaining financial security. Then, as you read this and other books, check out the ideas to see how well they coincide with your idea of what you like to do. Reject those that push you in directions that are uncomfortable for you. You probably won't follow through, or will do it badly, or will feel lousy all the time. Money just isn't worth making yourself unhappy for.

Keep money in perspective in terms of your goals for a wonderful life!

155 of 156 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Packed with useful information, September 12, 2001

By	stella wainwright ([e-mail]) - See all my reviews

Robert Allen has wrtten a excellent book on creating diverse streams of income. From basic network marketing to tax liens, discounted mortgages amd franchising.If you are interested in diversifying your income or a career change, this book could be your ticket.I also suggest Cashing in on Cash Flow by Laurence Pino for even more cash flow strategies.

250 of 266 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Residual Income - future income off past efforts, May 27, 2002

By A Customer

J. Paul Getty said it many years ago; "I would rather earn 1% off the efforts of 100 people than 100% off the efforts of myself."Michael Gerber says pretty much the same thing in his excellent book "The E-Myth"Network marketing as espoused in Multiple Streams of Income by Robert G. Allen offers you the opportunity to not only earn off the efforts of man other people, but create an income stream that will last your life and your heirs as well.Tax leins are another powerful strategy recommended by Bob Allen, only because they work. No tax leins may not be available in your state. But so what? You can buy tax liens through the mail or travel to other states. The up to 50% yields make tax liens worth your time to invest in.My only two gripes with Bob Allen are the reommendations for universal life policies and options trading. There are better tax deffered plans than a universal life policy and options are tricky.I believe that for the aerage person, network marketing, mutual funds, tax leins, discounted mortgages and real estate offer the best return with little or no risk involved. Leave the stock market to the gamblers.If you lke this book, I suggest you also read the 16% Solution, The E-Myth and Turner, Turner, Turner: The King of Network Marketing.