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Bank on Yourself: The Life-Changing Secret to Growing and Protecting Your Financial Future

From Vanguard Press

Author : Pamela Yellen
Binding : Hardcover
DeweyDecimalNumber : 332.024
Format : Bargain Price
Label : Vanguard Press
Manufacturer : Vanguard Press
NumberOfPages : 256
ProductTypeName : ABIS_BOOK
PublicationDate : 2009-03-24
Publisher : Vanguard Press
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Customer Reviews

Rating:
Summary: Thank goodness I paid only $3 for this book
Comment: I have read many books on finance and I could not understand this concept. I would like to know what percentage of the premium I would pay for a B.O.Y. policy would go towards paying commissions to the insurance agent selling me the policy. There is no disclosure on that point. In fact, one of the reasons Suze Orman advises against whole life insurance is because a large part of the premium goes towards commissions, especially at the outset. Second, I am having a hard time understanding how I can finance my retirement by borrowing money. Borrowing indicates that you have to pay back, supposedly to yourself. However, in retirement I may not have the ability to pay back what I have borrowed plus the expensive premiums on these policies. There is no clarification about how I am expected to pay back loans to myself, after I have retired. Reading this book seems like it is nothing more than a glossy sales pitch for some insurance product and personally, nothing in the alleged stories makes me want to buy a B.O.Y. policy. The pitch seems to be to those who like to buy expensive cars and take expensive vacations and not to individuals who prefer to live more simply.
Rating:
Summary: Good ideas but no meat
Comment: This book is fully of stories of how you can think about money differently, but has little in the way of details to help you understand the nuts and bolts of the systems. It's really not very complicated, but the author skirts around the details with example stories of the results instead of details about how the systems works, why it works, what are the pros and cons. I found my self wading through tedious feel good success stories but wanting to know details. Basically the book is leading you to you scheduling a meeting with a Bank on Yourself Advisor because the laymen like yourself couldn't understand the complications of preventing a life insurance contract from becoming a modified endowment contract.

A Better book is Money for Life by Jeffery Reeves if you like more details about WHY the system works, and the nuts and bolts of it. Of course that book also points you to one of their certified advisors, but at least has details around the inner workings of the system.
Rating:
Summary: Informercial with ignorant claims, gets it wrong, but some good...
Comment: She mentions the 6% loan rate back to the general account of the insurance company but one time. The rest of the time she says "bank on yourself". You are banking with the insurance company. There are convenience, privacy and "term-less" factors leaning toward using your policy, but with car loans at the same 6%, it's nearly a wash if you set it up like she says: pay back on the same schedule like it was a car loan, plus a little extra. That insurance interest expense is ignored for 99.99% of the book. If she was licensed, it would be taken from her. Whole life with PUAR and no direct recognition is a great product. She and the others using "yourself" instead of "insurance company general account" are doing it no favors.
Rating:
Summary: Helped to change my whole outlook on saving and investing
Comment: After being an aggressive and reasonably well experienced stock, option and mutual fund investor for many years I became disgusted with what was going on during the initial stages of the financial crisis. While I lost a ton of paper gains during the bursting of the tech bubble, that was the house's money. We lost money that we *earned* and *saved* in 2008 and 2009. Happily, we regained a lot of the losses, but I have been forever changed.

Bank on Yourself (and The Infinite Banking Concept) bring a whole new viewpoint into the world of saving and investing. Even if you think you know it all, it is worth every penny and every minute to read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money
Comment: I should have read the other one star reviews before buying this book. As the others have said it is an infomercial albeit without any info. The book is a collection of anecdotes about the success of people who used the "Bank On Yourself" method.
There is no mention of what the "Bank On Yourself" method is until the end when it is revealed to be investing in whole life insurance. Now if you have read my review this far, you already know every bit of information that is in this book.