Guide to Popular Financial Gurus
Famous Financial Advisors for Investment, Debt Relief, Savings
Jan 29, 2008
For those who have never glanced at a Wall Street Journal, here is a guide to some popular, and easy-to-understand financial experts.
“Latte Factor” Inventor: David Bach
Bypass that mocha latte at your local Starbucks every day and stash the amount you would spend in a savings account or a long-term IRA, and you will be unfathomably richer in future years as your savings compound. This so-called “latte factor,” according to financial author David Bach, translates all of your unnecessary purchases—specialty coffees, cigarettes, fast food meals—into concrete savings for your future.
Sample advice: Define your core values in life before you make financial plans. Focus on what really makes you happy in life and match your financial goals to those values, rather than working hard to buy more stuff.
Latest book: The Automatic Millionaire Homeowner: A Lifetime Plan to Finish Rich in Real Estate, Broadway Books, paperback edition, 2008. List price: $12.95.
Investment Advice for the Rest of Us: The Motley Fool
If the shows on CNBC have your head swimming with stock ticker symbols and arcane financial terms, turn to The Motley Fool for commonsense advice and tutoring on the world of investments. Brothers David and Tom Gardner started The Motley Fool newsletter in 1993 to amuse, educate, and enrich their readers and have since grown their company into a firm with 200 employees. The Motley Fool has its own radio show on NPR, a weekly newspaper column, and a range of educational and accessible books.
Sample money advice: Not interested in studying the balance sheet or price-to-earnings ratio of a company? Invest in an index fund: the lowest-cost, lowest-maintenance form of investing for an individual.
Latest book: The Motley Fool’s Money After 40: Building Wealth for a Better Life, Simon & Schuster Trade Paperback, 2006. List price: $14.
Tells It Like It Is: Suze Orman
You’ve seen her bright, smiling face gazing from her many financial advice books and heard her give blunt advice to callers to her CNBC Suze Orman Show. The ubiquitous Orman advises individuals to get rid of debt, save for the future, and put off buying material goods until they can afford it. Orman takes a dim view of credit-card debt and advises an aggressive debt repayment plan.
Sample advice: If you are in credit card trouble cut up all of your credit cards. Possibly keep one for emergencies, but not in your wallet.Latest book: The Road to Wealth, Revised Edition, Riverhead Hardcover, 2008. List price: $29.95.
The Frugal Sage: Jeff Yeager
Yeager is dubbed the “The Ultimate Cheapskate” and not prone to promote the latest stock deals or investment schemes to readers of his books or viewers of his appearances on the NBC TODAY Show. Rather, Yeager preaches a frugal approach to life that leads to less time striving to make money and more time to enjoy living.
Sample financial advice: Don’t brown bag it the next time you bring your lunch to work—use an empty Domino sugar bag. Yeager estimates a lifetime of buying generic brown paper lunch sacks and throwing them away every day over a 30-year career would cost $126.19.
Latest book: The Ultimate Cheapskate's Road Map to True Riches, Broadway Books, 2007. List price: $12.95.
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