Welcome to the introduction to Rich E. Obscure's forthcoming book, If You Want to Be Rich Don't Buy This Book. A strange title to be sure. The entire premise of this book is that the secret to getting rich isn't such a secret. Hard work, patience, restraint, and good ideas are all you need. If you like what you read here then please visit here to get on our mailing list for information about the release date and price. I hope you enjoy it.

If You Want to Be Rich Don't Buy This Book
Introduction

This is a book about personal finance, as if there weren't enough of them already. There will be books about personal finance in the future, too, because you, the consumer, are always hungry for information that can make you rich. I'd like to be rich, too, just like the next guy.

That's right, you read correctly-I want to be rich. "Wait one minute," you might be saying. "You aren't rich? How can you possibly write a book about personal finance and getting rich if you aren't rich?"

That's a valid question, and I'll answer it with another question. Why do you think someone who is rich will help you more? I've read books by people who were rich (and smart) but they didn't make me rich, and a lot of them didn't even contain much useful information. Some authors fill page after page with the same tired clichés surrounded by cute anecdotes that don't do anything to illustrate a financial point, and think that's worth your hard-earned money.

If you're going to buy a book on personal finance, you will probably expect the author to offer advice you can use. Whether the author is rich or merely doing well, what's important is that you get advice with practical applications in the real world. Incidentally, if your definition of rich is to have over a million dollars, while still in my early 30s, then I am rich. However, I don't think of myself as rich, because I still need to work and I'm constantly striving to do better.

I have a not-so-well-kept secret. It's hard to become rich. I know, I didn't want to believe it either, but the evidence is clear, and statistics don't lie. (They don't always tell the truth, but they don't lie.) Only 5 percent of U.S. households make more than $200,000 a year. Sure that's a lot of money, but are these people really rich? I suppose it depends on what your definition of rich is.

I think someone is rich if they have more money than I do, but that's just me. According to the IRS, in order to be considered among the top 5 percent of taxpayers, you would have to have an adjusted gross income over $128,000 a year. That's a nice income, but is it really enough to make you rich? To be considered in the top 1 percent, you would need over $313,000 a year in income. There's a big difference between those numbers, but I'm thinking more about the people we see every day who make millions-the actors and actresses we are so consumed with, the musicians whose homes we see on MTV Cribs, the athletes signing multi-million-dollar contracts that lead to even larger multi-million-dollar endorsement deals. Then there are the business people like Bill Gates, the richest man in the world, or the CEOs of other large companies, who are among the truly rich. For example, Michael Eisner, the former CEO of Disney, exercised over $500,000,000 in stock options in 1998. That's half a billion dollars. These people are the true rich we all think of when we hear that word. These are the people we think we most want to be like. Do you really think that reading a personal finance book (no matter who the author is) is going to make you rich in that sense of the word?

So the question remains: what is rich? Well I'm going to take the easy way out and say that depends on you. It's up to you to decide what your goal is. I hope this book, and the other resources I'll give you, will help you reach that goal.

As I said earlier, this book is different from the personal finance books I've read, because I offer practical and useful suggestions. I want you to be able to read my advice and put it into practice. In order for you to do this, I have made my suggestions clear, concise, and concrete so you can apply them immediately-with no money, no assets, and little work (at least in the beginning).

My approach is perhaps a bit unorthodox. I don't want to bore you, and I especially don't want to waste your time with empty words. My writing style is casual, because I want you to think of this book as a friend you can sit down and discuss your finances with. (Just don't let anyone see you do that).

One more note before we move on. I'd like to apologize to my wife and the other people who, over the years, have put up with my schemes. I've talked incessantly about my grand dreams and the next big deal that would make me rich. I was going to write, direct, and produce movies. I was going to open a health club, a restaurant, and a non-profit organization, among other things. I was going to buy and sell real estate, too, but everyone seems to be doing that these days.

Imagine if your wife, husband, brother, or sister came to you and said they were going to write a book. You might think they were nuts, but with me, people got used to this and maybe I infected them because sometimes, like with this book, they would actually encourage me.

When it came to money and finances, I got it. I understood the concepts, applied them, and did fairly well. I studied by reading books on the subject (most of which disappointed me) and watching CNBC (where I sort of worked for a while). To make the leap and actually write a book on the subject seemed presumptuous on my part, but I have seen too many people struggle with their finances, and if this book can help even one person then it is worth it to me.

I do hope you enjoy the book. Without any more delay, let's begin with a bit of fun.