"Breaking into the bestseller club is especially hard in personal finance and investing ... because any author who wants to compete in the financial big leagues needs a great, fresh idea; a proven track record; and a big, charismatic personality. "Despite the tough requirements, the next few months promise not one, but two serious contenders for the title of Next Big Thing: Loral Langemeier and Phil Town. Both of them avoid the psych-heavy approach to personal finance. "'Most people talk about psychology,' says Langemeier, 'and what's working/what's not working in their business. But [my team and I] really go tactical. We're truly planning through what we call a gap analysis: where people are, where do they need to go.' "A go-getter from a young age, Langemeier started her first business while she was still in college. By 35, she was a multimillionaire. Her book, The Millionaire Maker (McGraw-Hill, Jan.), showcases the concepts she honed with her coaching-consulting company, Live Out Loud, which emphasizes aggressive, multilateral investing. "'What we noticed,' she says, 'was that the millionaires who got created faster, it was how they sequenced. They got their assets invested; they learned to make more money; they were running their personal finances like a business-for profitability. They were incorporated; they had diverse assets. But they do it all pretty simultaneously. Whereas a lot of plans would say get out of debt then we'll work on it. We would never say that. It's too slow. It's not what millionaires do. Millionaires don't worry about a latte a day, you know.' "So far [Langemeier and] Live Out Loud have made over 200 millionaires, and not one of her 10,000 clients has filed for bankruptcy."--Publishers Weekly Publisher's Weekly 20051219 "This book is not for the financially faint of heart. The intended audience of potential speculators must be willing to leverage 401Ks and home equity to engage in direct investment opportunities such as small business ventures. "Langemeier, a financial coach and strategist, not to mention a multimillionaire, outlines her trademarked step-by-step "Wealth Cycle" process for generating and sustaining wealth in a clear and easy-to-follow format. Income and lazy assets can be turned into assets that produce passive income and sustainable wealth via rental properties, for example; adequate use of graphs and charts explain the theoretical framework behind the author's approach as well as her "Gap Analysis" model that helps investors chart their own program. "A nice cross section of case studies is used to explore a variety of implementations. Readers will grasp basic principles of such matters as entity structuring, depreciation, and direct investing, but the information is very much at the cursory level, with little discussion devoted to risk. Still, this title does provide an alternative view to David Bach's enormously popular The Automatic Millionaire: A Powerful One-Step Plan To Live and Finish Rich".--Library Journal Library Journal 20051201
