You Can Never Be Too Rich: Essential Investing Advice You Cannot Afford to Overlook »

Alan Haft is a nationally recognized personal finance expert who has appeared in a wide range of media outlets, including Money magazine, BusinessWeek, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, Morningstar, Forbes.com, and TodayShow.com among many others. His newspaper column, "The Haft of It," has appeared in various newspapers across the country, and he continues to conduct entertaining, simple-to-understand, and highly informative presentations for thousands of people nationwide. For more information, visit alanhaft.com.

Growing up in a family-run investment advisory business and then working with the highly effective financial strategies he discovered within the powerhouse Hollywood studios of Disney, Universal, and Warner Brothers, Alan Haft has been involved in the world of finance for most of his life. Having formed a company with Oscar-nominated actor James Woods; helped take a technology company public; and raised money, planned productions, and obsessed over every last detail to ensure the profitability of various film projects, Haft realized the road to success in Hollywood in many ways mirrors the prudent principles of successful investing.

Today, as a nationally recognized financial advisor, speaker, and columnist, Haft has successfully guided many people—from movie stars with a king's ransom to married couples with a large mortgage—to reach their financial goals and increase their standard of living. Now, in You Can Never Be Too Rich, Haft uses his vast knowledge base, highly innovative investment concepts, and entertaining style of writing to create proven investment solutions that will help you do the same.

In You Can Never Be Too Rich, Haft shares his much sought-after financial advice and reveals how to minimize risk and take advantage of the opportunities that can lead to a lifetime of financial security. With this down-to-earth and highly informative book as your guide, you'll quickly learn how to build and protect wealth and discover investment secrets that many Wall Street brokers and advisors would prefer you didn't know about.

Along the way, you'll also become familiar with:

• An extremely simple investment strategy that is statistically proven to outperform most of Wall Street's top fund managers
• A step-by-step guide that not only helps assist investors with building diversified investment portfolios, but also provides them with the knowledge that gives them the best chances to "buy low and sell high"
• An effortless way to automatically lock in your highest stock market values and later draw income from them for the rest of your life
• How to potentially more than double your income at retirement with a "Private Pension" that you cannot outlive
• How your parent(s) can potentially leave you "a free million dollars" at no cost to you or them
• And much, much more

Filled with the in-depth insights and practical advice of one of today's most experienced financial advisors, You Can Never Be Too Rich clearly focuses on how anybody—whether you're just starting to work or well on your way to retirement—can consistently sustain financial success without getting caught up in market swings, tax traps, or poor investment decisions. With this book, Haft doesn't rely on gimmicks or get-rich-quick schemes to help you reach your goals; he simply offers proven and easy-to-understand strategies that will allow you to make profitable financial decisions based on your specific situation.

Preface     vii
Acknowledgments     ix
Disclaimer     x
Introduction: Hollywood and the Art of Investing     1
The Top 10 Lessons Hollywood Teaches Us about Investing     7
Diversification Is the Key to Success     7
It Doesn't Have to Be Complicated for It to Be Effective     8
It's the Details That Count     8
Costs Are Critical     9
Planning Is Key     9
Cut the Losers, Ride the Winners     10
Experts Focus on Reducing Risk; Novices Focus on Return     11
Don't Reinvent the Wheel     11
Complacency Is the Mother of All Disasters     12
Defy Conventional Wisdom and Take Smart Risks     12
And One More for the Road: If There's a Will, There's a Way     13
To Beat the Market, Be the Market     15
What Billy the Bully Teaches Us about Investing     17
Going Down?     18
Swing Easy     20
Diversification     21
Off to the Races: An Introduction to Asset Allocation     22
Stocks, Funds, or Indexes?     31
The Index Advantage     44
Building the House     53
How to Pick a Stock Like Warren Buffett     64
A Simpler Way to Pick Individual Stocks     67
Real-World Sample Portfolios     68
How to Beat Wall Street in Nine Seconds Flat     71
Lifestyle Funds     74
The Fine Art of Buying Low and Selling High     76
Wrapping It Up     87
How Much Should I Be Saving?     88
Reliable Returns     93
Generating Reliable Returns     94
The Most Dangerous Game     96
The Numbers Don't Lie     99
How to Avoid the Most Dangerous Game     101
Are You Playing the Most Dangerous Game?     102
Stock Market Stan Teaches Us a Lesson     108
Getting Away from the Most Dangerous Game     111
Bonds     114
Individual Bonds versus Bond Mutual Funds     118
Bond Ladders     120
Final Points on Bonds     126
Preferred Stocks     130
Dividend Stocks     135
The Great Wallendas Teach Us a Lesson     153
Investing in the Markets with Safety Nets Beneath You     154
Annuities: Aren't They Bad?     156
Variable Annuities     159
Certificates of Deposit: When 6 Percent = 0 Percent      169
Index Annuities     172
Real Estate     175
Adding a Little Life to Your Life     179
Why Would I Buy Life Insurance?     180
Term versus Permanent Life Insurance     181
Adding Instant Wealth to Your Estate     184
Profiting from Selling Your Life Insurance Policy     184
Tax-Free Retirement Income     187
Long-Term Care Benefits     188
Spend All Your Money and Still Leave It All Behind     189
Have Someone Else Pay the Tax     191
Doubling Your Income at Retirement: The Private Pension     194
The Private Pension and IRAs     205
One Million Dollars-For Free?     206
Life Insurance: Conclusion     213
A Break in the Action     215
Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs)     219
IRAs Defined     220
IRAs: Frequently Asked Questions     221
IRAs: Conclusion     241
A Few Words on Taxes     243
How Your Investments Are Taxed     244
Dividend Tax     245
Ordinary Income     246
Capital Gains     248
Summarizing the Three Most Common Taxes     251
The Mutual Fund Tax Problem      252
Solving the Mutual Fund Tax Problem     253
The One Time Receiving Money from Someone Is a Terrible Thing     255
Conclusion     258
The Bottom of the Ninth     259
What's the Worst That Could Happen?     260
Anatomy of a Living Trust     264
Five Estate Planning Blunders to Avoid     266
Support and Maintenance     277
Qualifications     278
Interviewing Your Potential Advisor     280
10 Things Some Advisors Would Rather You Didn't Know     282
Investment Clubs     291
Conclusion     293
Bibliography     299
Internet Resources     301
Index     303