Automatic Wealth: The Six Steps to Financial Independence

The advice and concepts outlined in Automatic Wealth are best suited for those in their 30s-50s who recognize that their current job will never afford them true financial independence. Rather than encourage readers to quit their day jobs today and launch into a new scheme tomorrow, Masterson shows how to turn your skills and experience into significantly more money within seven to fifteen years. For those just getting by, he details how to get the biggest pay raises now and how to move into more lucrative ventures in the near future. For those with some savings, he offers specific advice on building equity and increasing net worth significantly and quickly. Since Masterson made his millions starting and developing small businesses, he encourages people to become entrepreneurs themselves and discusses which kinds of ventures to invest in and which ones to avoid. He also stresses the importance of developing multiple income streams, offering chapters on real estate, stocks and bonds, consulting, direct mail, and other opportunities.

In addition to concrete steps, Masterson also writes about attitude and expectations. His first step, in fact, is to take an honest and realistic assessment of your current financial situation and prepare yourself to change habits. He stresses that you must make getting rich a priority and devote the necessary time to it--act immediately and don't wait until the perfect moment to change your situation (hint: the perfect moment rarely arrives.). Clearly written and filled with informative anecdotes and examples, Automatic Wealth will not make you a millionaire overnight. It could, however, make you one in a decade, and that's a timeline most people can deal with.

About the Author

Michael Masterson has developed a loyal following through his writings in Early to Rise, an e-newsletter published by Agora that mentors more than 400,000 success-oriented individuals to help them achieve their financial goals. Masterson has been making money for himself and others for almost four decades. In that time, he's only taken two breaks-each time for two years. The first was after a stint with the Peace Corps where he came to appreciate relative values and the joy of teaching. The second came at age thirty-nine, when he retired from the $100 million-plus business that he and his partner built. Over the course of his remarkably successful business career, Michael's been involved in the development of dozens of successful businesses, including two that grew beyond $100 million. At one time or another, he's owned and run companies that were public/private, onshore/overseas, local/international, service/product-oriented, retail/wholesale direct mail, and even profit/not for-for-profit.