Rich by Choice: A Complete Guide to Your Financial Success

Rich by Choice: A Complete Guide to Your Financial Success
Erlend Peterson
Seven Locks Press
ISBN: 9780979095030
Non-Fiction, Self-Help
Reviewed by Kevin Aguanno

If we had the choice to be rich or poor, wouldn’t we all naturally choose to be rich? The question sounds silly, doesn’t it? When I first started reading this book, I thought I was going to be presented with a number of familiar topics on how to “attract wealth” and use neurolinguistic programming (NLP) techniques to effectively brainwash yourself into adopting successful behaviors and attitudes. This book surprised me by taking a different approach to the topic.
Rich by Choice is aimed at readers with little or no financial management background. By explaining the basics of compound interest, the benefits of investing in tax-sheltered accounts such IRAs, why (and when) you need life insurance, and similar fundamental financial planning concepts, Peterson gives the reader a crash course in the basics. Using illustrative case studies throughout the book, Peterson has selected individuals and families in all stages of their lives so that most readers will find one case study that comes somewhat close to their own situation.
At times, the book can be a bit of a stretch for readers with poor math abilities. It is full of numbers and examples. There is no getting around it, to understand the concepts, you will want to learn how the calculations work. But Peterson does a good job in explaining the concepts in layman’s terms and making the content accessible to everyone.
The book presents the old formula of saving and investing at least 10% of your income. Given enough time and a good enough of an interest rate, this sum can grow into the millions of dollars. Nothing new here, it is age old advice. Coming back to my initial question, however: the book is still somewhat naive in its premise that we all can choose to be rich. There are many who have trouble making ends meet now, never mind pulling out 10% to invest for the future. With the gap between the rich and the working poor growing wider every day, there are more and more people who simply don’t have the choice to be rich, they are lucky if they have the choice to eat two meals a day or not. Those with the discretionary funds to buy this book will not be in the latter group, however: they may indeed be the target market for which Peterson has written this book.
There are hundreds of books out there by financial planners, and this adds one more to the pile. There is nothing completely new in this book; however, its use of a portfolio of case studies is quite useful and the book does cover a broad range of financial planning topics. Rich by Choice is a good start for people looking to begin planning for their retirement and saving for the future.