cover image The Millionaire Maker: How the Wealthy Got There and How You Can Too

The Millionaire Maker: How the Wealthy Got There and How You Can Too

Loral Langemeier, . . McGraw-Hill, $24.95 (274pp) ISBN 978-0-07-146615-8

Millionaires don't get there by working hard for others and saving pennies, insists this high-wire personal finance self-helper. Instead, "master coach" Langemeier urges the nonwealthy to quit their jobs, start businesses, plow money into real estate and other "aggressive, unconventional" investments, construct a maze of tax-minimizing business "Entities" and amass "assets that create more assets." The result is dramatic makeovers of people like Mike and Mary, a mechanic and laid-off administrative assistant with two kids; Langemeier quickly convinces them to start a dune-buggy company, buy 12 rental properties and a promissory note and turn their family into a financial empire consisting of two limited liability companies, an "S corporation" and "a trust to serve as an umbrella for all of their companies and holdings." The author calls this taking personal control of one's finances, but doing so, she emphasizes, requires a vast support staff of lawyers, accountants, realtors, business brokers, "sector analysts" and miscellaneous "field partners." She provides many case studies of skyrocketing wealth, but never seriously addresses the risks her daredevil financial strategies pose, and relegates the critical details to unexplained balance-sheet entries. Complete with motivational hectoring and an offer of a free phone consultation, Langemeier's primer feels like an infomercial. (Jan.)