MONEY: Master the Game by Tony Robbins

[randersonnw]

Almost finished with the first listen on audiobook. Feels a little vague and feel like I'm missing something. Has anyone else read/listened to this yet? What do you think?

[Gone Fishing]

I haven't read it but here is one guy's take:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tony-robbins-doesnt-quite-master-the-game-of-money-in-his-new-book-2014-11-25?dist=countdown

[forestbound]

Tony Robbins is a motivational speaker. For J.Q. Public, it is probably great advice and will motivate them to save. For people here, I think it is a bit too basic. I watched this and decided I would skip it...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/21/a-different-way-to-look-a_0_n_6201832.html?utm_hp_ref=marlothomas&ir=Marlo%20Thomas

[randersonnw]

Yeah, definitely seems meant for a high consumption typical late in life retiree. There seems to be some good info from big - time investors w/ advice on where they would tell their children/loved ones to invest. It is all pretty standard advice on money/investing, but was hoping to get a new look or insight into how to think about money. Not sure I got anything out of it except to stay occupied reading about things pertaining to my interests/goals. His passion is always inspiring though, and great reminders to think of ways to help our community etc.

[arebelspy]

Thanks for the links.

Joshua Sheats has a review of the book on the Radical Personal Finance:
http://radicalpersonalfinance.com/a-comprehensive-review-and-critique-of-money-master-the-game-by-tony-robbins-rpf0109/

I haven't listened yet, but am planning to.

Warning: It's three hours long.

[mydogismyheart]

He was on Ellen Degeneres yesterday and I liked a lot of what he had to say.  I haven't read his book yet, and I'm not sure it would be super helpful for someone like me.  But I liked a lot of the examples he was using to try to convince people that "yes, you can do it!" So many people think they have to make a lot of money in order to be rich/successful/comfortable/retire early, etc...  But he used an example about a man who was a postal worker only making about $14K per year, and eventually retired with millions in the bank.  I have appreciation for anyone who tries hard to get people who maybe don't make good money to understand that they can have financial freedom too.

I'm interested in reading his book now to see what it says and if it's helpful at all, I'm always willing to recommend things to people in need if I think it will help.

[mydogismyheart]

OK, I am about halfway through the book right now and I am enjoying parts of it, and getting red flags from others.  Although, as a disclaimer, I learned about finances after struggling for years and then discovering Dave Ramsey.  I was a hardcore DR follower for several years and that's how I got completely out of debt.  It's only been in the last few months that I've finally branched out and been learning about so much more than just DR - and enjoying it!  So for me, I've never thought to invest in anything other than mutual funds, so it was interesting to hear his take on other investments. However, I would want to do more research and learn more before taking the full dive.  I'm not 100% convinced on some of them.

I had also not thought about the fees associated with mutual funds before, or using index funds.  So right away I started doing research on what I currently have and found several ways to improve.  So for this, I am grateful, but in researching these funds that I own, I looked at the websites he recommends and found several contradictions. I ended up going with very different things than they recommended because of the contradictions.

I'm not convinced yet about his take on tax deferred investments and investing in Roth instead and pay taxes now and NOT investing in tax deferred accounts.  He brings up several good points.  Not sure.  would need to research more and get more opinions on why I should or shouldn't use tax-deferred accounts.

It's a very dense read, I attempted to read in 1 weekend last weekend but it was just too much.  And every time I tried to skim ahead and skip stuff I found myself being forced to go back and re read.

All in all, it's been a decent read and has helped me to think more about other options outside of mutual funds.  Not sure it's a great read for beginners. Not sure I recommend his websites.  I will keep plugging away though!

[Texan]

I read over 80% of this book and was not impressed in the least. I love TR and have listened to his audio programs a bunch of times! He is very smart and is a great speaker. But this book is way to long and has just too much fluff. Read Jack Bogles book to get the same lessons.

[MikeinOhio]

Which Bogle Book?

I read over 80% of this book and was not impressed in the least. I love TR and have listened to his audio programs a bunch of times! He is very smart and is a great speaker. But this book is way to long and has just too much fluff. Read Jack Bogles book to get the same lessons.

About the TR book, I too am almost done and it is dense. Here are two takeaways that may be of value.

• Tony separates FI from financial security and points out that if you could have income lifetime income to pay for just your big things, (home, utilities, food) that makes a big piece of mind difference. Plus that number is a lot smaller than you think.
• He also notes that investments are volitile and it takes a lot more to gain back your money after a loss. For example, a 10% gain does not offset a 10% loss.

[sonnys]

I finished the book about 2 weeks ago.  Its a slow read and in the beginning honestly I had buyer's remorse.  The first few chapters are very repetitive and Tony comes across a very smug person but the book really takes off around Ch. 5 when the asset allocation from Ray Dalio is shared.  Also, the information regarding PPLI (ROTH for the rich) was new to me as well as the information regarding Annuities.  The book finishes off with a motivational chapter. 

 I like the fact that Tony didn't just tell us how to fix our finances but also setup www.strongholdfinancial.com, mentioned Vanguard and TIAA-CREF for PPLI and www.lifetimeincome.com for finding the right annuity.  Tony sincerely seems like a genuinely nice person and I would suggest everyone to read the book and not just the reviews.  Another bonus, the very first thing he talks about is SAVING, which fits very nicely into the MMM philosophy.

Sonny

[khizr]

I think this was the single best finance/money book in general I've ever read for the general public, and hopefully it gets them started thinking about it and what money is for. The major thing I didn't like is how he talked about passive portfolios and then active in the next chapter and didn't really make a strong stand IMO. But it is a complicated subject, he also had a bit too many plugs for my like.

But otherwise great book and I've recommended it to a lot of people. I was lucky enough for my brother to give it to me too read too.

When is a Mustache book coming out?

[jwilliams0215]

What about the Fixed Index Annuities / Gauranteed Fixed Income Riders? I haven't heard much about these, worth doing extra research? Anyone else look into these items after reading the book? I assume the fee structure on these products would be fairly exorbitant as well.

[hodedofome]

Haven't read the book, but I've listened to several podcasts from his discussing it, and I've read several reviews about it as well.

While Ray Dalio is very smart and very rich, I don't know if everyone should be trying to invest like Ray Dalio. I would advise researching investing a whole lot more before someone dived into specifically following the investing advice in Robbins' book.

There's some general investing principles throughout the book that are beneficial to understand however. Robbins has worked with some very smart, very good, very rich money managers over the years so he's picked up a few good things.

[daymare]

I first heard about Tony Robbins (and his book) from the Radical Personal Finance podcast (where Joshua reviewed Money:MTG), and read it recently.  I dunno, it was reeeally long and essentially just said things that I already know - there's value in that, sometimes I read finance books just to read something comfortable and re-enforce my views.  But this book was super long for what it is.  Honestly, the interviews he does (and the access he has to all these legendary investors and incredibly financially successful individuals) is the best part.  In retrospect, I would have been better off just reading his final chapter of interviews.  That said, pretty good book overall for someone who doesn't know much about finances (and yet is simultaneously down to read through hundreds of pages on the topic).

My favorite finance book EVER is William Bernstein's Investor's Manifesto.  That & Francine Jay's The Joy of Less are two books I like to re-read every year/six months (respectively) just so sort of ground myself.

[2Birds1Stone]

Thanks for the links.

Joshua Sheats has a review of the book on the Radical Personal Finance:
http://radicalpersonalfinance.com/a-comprehensive-review-and-critique-of-money-master-the-game-by-tony-robbins-rpf0109/

I haven't listened yet, but am planning to.

Warning: It's three hours long.

Thank you for sharing this. Got a lot out of the review itself. I am going to listen to some of his other podcasts, any specific episodes you enjoyed?

[arebelspy]

Thanks for the links.

Joshua Sheats has a review of the book on the Radical Personal Finance:
http://radicalpersonalfinance.com/a-comprehensive-review-and-critique-of-money-master-the-game-by-tony-robbins-rpf0109/

I haven't listened yet, but am planning to.

Warning: It's three hours long.

Thank you for sharing this. Got a lot out of the review itself. I am going to listen to some of his other podcasts, any specific episodes you enjoyed?

Depends on what sort of content you're looking for.  Open the back catalogue (the "feed" in your podcast player, or download the Radical Personal Finance app) and read through the descriptions and see what you find interesting.  He has quite a variety.  :)

[mskyle]

My dad was reading this book over Christmas and was really excited to share stuff from it with me, especially about investing in index funds and stuff, and most of what he was telling me kind of had me saying, "but that's what I'm already doing, and what I've been telling you to do for years!" But if hearing it from Tony Robbins makes him take it seriously, that's fine with me!

[IamDavin]

I got a 1/4 of the way in and started getting red flags as I researched his claims.

 Since someone fed his family as a kid.  He is giving away the profits of the book to feed families, etc.

While that may or may not be completely true.. I discovered many upsells after getting the book and felt like he was promoting the "Im doing this because I want to help people" really hard, but really behind the scenes he has engineered a lot of ways to monetize the book through affiliates, seminars, portfolio management, etc. 

Not saying he doesn't want to help people.. as I'm sure he does.  But in my mind I found it harder and harder to trust him as he kept pitching the nice guy act and then trying to put money in his pocket.

That aside.. as mentioned from others in this thread he did have some interesting stuff in the book.  So I was able to pull some ideas from it.  But just don't buy into everything he says and is selling,