50 Prosperity Classics - Tom Butler-Bowdon

.../> The author divides the 50 classics into four manageable sections (and one sub section)

ATTRACT IT

The author calls this the inner game of wealth. These books talk about getting the mindset for moneymaking. Many of the books in this section are spiritual with lots of spiritual ideas and concepts. Unfortunately I am a little uncomfortable with spirituality so my opinion will probably be biased. I do however like ...
...knowledge and reading there are 50 books that could help you on the road to wealth. If only the author had put down which section they belong in (attract it, create it, or manage it) to give you a more informed choice as to what book to buy next. I also recommend buying 50 Success Classics by the same author because I believe you can be successful but not prosperous but you can't be prosperous and not successful.

You may think the ... more

I have given this review the title mentioned above, because if the books mentioned share anything in common it is you can become prosperous but it takes time.

This amongst other tenets is the sound advice this compendium covers. I would recommend to readers to read the introduction and the Prosperity Principles at the end to gain the full benefit of this book. It also helps you to see how the Author constructed this book and finally drew up the list.

The author divides the 50 classics into four manageable sections (and one sub section)

ATTRACT IT

The author calls this the inner game of wealth. These books talk about getting the mindset for moneymaking. Many of the books in this section are spiritual with lots of spiritual ideas and concepts. Unfortunately I am a little uncomfortable with spirituality so my opinion will probably be biased. I do however like the idea of some mental blocks that stop you from being wealthy.

And, maybe because I am going through some soul searching with changing my career, it mentions a couple of books to pick the right career or go towards your calling. But I would have like to have seen more. However, this view can probably be balanced with the commentaries mentioned in the next section.

CREATE IT

This section is about stories and biographies of many famous men and women who have created outstanding businesses and reaped financial success. It's also important to note these people didn't create businesses to buy themselves jobs but to think bigger and further than that but look at their companies (another important tenet) and maybe even become an entrepreneur. Interestingly a book mentioned in this compendium is called Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter Drucker says that being an entrepreneur is not about doing something better but doing something different. Like Richard Branson and his Virgin Media group or Howard Schultz and Starbucks.

A subsection to this has a few books about economics. As important as economics is, I would like to have seen more general book about economics rather than different economists and the books they have written (Eat the Rich by P.J. O'Rourke is a great one or Thomas Sowells' Basic Economics).

MANAGE IT

many people may not have the bravery, vision or the sheer determination to start their own business and to make it work. That's why I believe the most useful section in this anthology are the books that help you invest, save and rid yourself of debt. There are good books about investing from such superstars of the investing world like Warren Buffet and Peter Lynch as well as good additions from John C. Bogle and index trackers.

The inclusion of books about debt is very welcome, since now its common for people to be overdrawn every month. And if you are in debt, no matter how small to pay them off. It doesn't matter if you have a savings account paying you 5% a year in interest when you have got a large credit card balance that's charging you 15%! And in the current time of writing this, with the sub-prime mortgage meltdown getting rid of debt has never been more pertinent or sensible.

There are also two books on real estate or property, although everyone is jittery about the economy you can still bide your time, build up a nest egg and wait for the slump to buy a property cheaply. Even if you don't buy a new property a running theme with the books in this section is to have a cash reserve for the hard times as well as the good.

SHARE IT

This category is quite an interesting inclusion because I have never thought about making a lot of money then to give it away. But there are important social aspects to philanthropy. Warren Buffet (the second richest man in the US) giving away over $31 Billion, his lifetime fortune, to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. It was an extraordinary gesture by the humble sage of Omaha. But the roots of philanthropy go farther back to Andrew Carnegie. This is explained better by Joel T. Fleishman in his book "The Foundation". And how through the acorns of these charitable contributions grew contributions to society. Such as science institutes and libraries or the Rockefeller Centre. To me it's the most interesting book mentioned (and it has gone straight into my wish list). Another great book is Mohammed Yunus "Banker to the Poor" who started giving out small loans to people in villages, who are usually considered risky loans, and becoming a huge success and winning a Nobel Peace Prize along with the bank he created to loan out the money. I don't want to ruin the rest of it for you but it's extremely interesting.

I was going to read the whole book and then write the review but I think that's a bad idea. What you should do is read the reviews that interest you. But to really gain some insights from the collection you should try to read a book from each of the four sections. Then maybe when you're leafing through read the commentary on a book you wouldn't have given a second look at. I guarantee you will find some gems! Although it may be a bit of an ego boost to own some of these books already reading the prosperity classics it made go back to them and reread some of them to see what other lessons I could learn and see things I may have missed in a previous reading.

For an extra bit of knowledge and reading there are 50 books that could help you on the road to wealth. If only the author had put down which section they belong in (attract it, create it, or manage it) to give you a more informed choice as to what book to buy next. I also recommend buying 50 Success Classics by the same author because I believe you can be successful but not prosperous but you can't be prosperous and not successful.

You may think the table is tilted to favor other people and that everyone who tells you they can make you a millionaire by next year is fraud. I agree with the latter and not the former because reading this book and then reading some the books the author recommends, the advice is quite sound. Pay off your debt, be in control of your finances, save 10% of your wages, have an emergency fund and discipline. Although it's a boring answer it's not one that easy to adhere to.

All in all it's a great book and if you buy this book before buying any other books about finance and money you will have saved yourself a lot of time, money and effort. 

...less