High Finance on a Low Budget: All New for the 1900s

This book provides a great introduction to personal finance. I have read it over a few times over the years, and although some of the specific recommendations are outdated, the concepts presented are still right on target. Anyone that takes an interest in money and investing will probably outgrow the book at some point, but we all have to start somewhere. Skousen is the undisputed heavyweight champion of free-market advocates, and some of his advice is more geared towards advancing this national economic agenda than the reader's personal financial interest. He does point this out, so I took no particular issue with it. I simply did not follow his advice if I didn't see the benefit. Each edition of this book reflects Skousen's intense concern with inflation. Some of the resulting investment recommendations, including gold, art, real estate, and collectibles probably wouldn't have produced a great deal of wealth for many readers. This is hindsight, however, and does not diminish the value of the advice offered in aggregate in the rest of the book.

This is a great text for someone who wants to whip their finances into shape. It starts with the absolute basics and gives great hints on how to save money and how to change your thinking so that you may accumulate true wealth.

The one star reviewer must have been expecting something else. I bought this book in college when it was only available in hardcover, and I have dog-eared the pages three times over. With so many copycat financial books flooding the market, this little book stands as an original. Much of the information is elementary, but the book's value is its breadth and its practical "how to" bent. This book doesn't stop at "consider investing in mutual funds". It gives you funds the Skousens love and the funds phone numbers so you can start today. This book also lets the beginner or the small fry dream. It also covers exotic investing in art, metals, foreign bank accounts, currency, options, and tells you how to get a taste of any of these, complete with contact phone numbers. Try getting that from the Wall Street Journal or Barron's. It has great, simple chapters on credit management, cutting down expenses, real estate, and most of all, personal responsibility. If you are not a jaded person who has given up on personal finance or a wiseacre who thinks you can't learn anything new, you will like this book. If even one of its dozens of interesting financial ideas or contacts pans out for you or makes you feel better, more like a Rockefeller, then it has earned its keep. This book will be a personal favorite of yours. Look for it in hard cover so you won't wear it out.

The Skousens have drawn from some age old wisdom regarding thrift and lifestyle and have spun an interesting fabric of how that wisdom, if applied today, can still affect our lives dramatically. As the Skousens powerfully point out, a carefully planned expenditure and investment of even meager means can have an unbelieveable impact on our financial well being, both early on and later in life. This book is delightful reading and will not disappoint