America, Welcome to the Poorhouse: What You Must Do to Protect Your Financial Future and the Reform We Need
Where to buy America, Welcome to the Poorhouse: What You Must Do to Protect Your Financial Future and the Reform We Need books online?
- ISBN13: 9780137020171
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
“Crack open this book and enter a bromide-free zone. Jane White knows why American families feel as if they are on a treadmill running out of control, and she clarifies the reasons with clarity, insight, and rare honesty. She also offers several practical suggestions for how we as individuals, families, and a nation can get out of the mess. Policymakers would be wise to listen.” Evan Cooper, Deputy Editor, InvestmentNews “This eye-opening book sounds the clock radio about many Americans’ dim financial futures if patrons, businesses, and politicians don’t change their ways. Jane White lays blame and names names. Until change happens, White offers prescriptions for your largest money concerns–retirement, housing, college costs, and credit cards–featuring tried-and-right advice.” Gregory Karp, Syndicated Newspaper Columnist and Leader of The 1-2-3 Money Plot and Living Rich by Spending Smart “Americans need this vigorous wake-up call if they are to make it through the first half of the 21st century. They are burying themselves in debt–for education, for homes, and for toys–leaving too small for savings and investment. Jane White shows them where they are going incorrect and how they can place themselves right.” Thomas G. Donlan, Editorial Page Editor, Barron’s National Business and Financial Weekly “Jane White has written a barnburner of a book. Though the title may cause clock radio, America, Welcome to the Poorhouse is ultimately reassuring. We can protect our own financial futures if we get wise–and get together to demand real change.” Jacob S. Hacker, Leader of The Fantastic Risk Shift: The New Economic Insecurity and the Decline of the American Dream Too many American families are racing toward financial catastrophe–saddled with exploding credit card and college debt, out-of-control housing costs, and underfunded 401(k) accounts. America, Welcome to the Poorhouse reveals the political and economic forces that got us into this quandary, strategies to get Congress to enact needed reform, and practical tips you won’t find anywhere else on how to make the most of your money until reform happens. White offers indispensable practical advice for regaining control of your own financial future–point strategies for sinking your debt, safeguarding your retirement, and helping your children get the education they’ll need to compete in today’s world. Shrimp on the barbie, Koala bears, and a secure retirement. Why most Australians will end up with at least half a million dollars in their version of a 401(k) plot–and what we can do to transform our 401(k) plans into actual pensions. How the mortgage industry lobbied to dismantle regulation and offer bait-and-switch adjustable rate mortgages. How to protect yourself–no matter what happens. Your personal plot for saving for retirement, finding “bargain” colleges, and getting out of credit card debt. How to erect a citizens lobby that wins. Building taxpayers as powerful as the so-called financial services industry and getting rid of the members of Congress that do its bidding.
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I’d earlier posted an alert about the difference between the free sample and perfect versions of the Kindle edition of this book. In my opinion, that’s what the Kindle’s “sample” feature is for, and offering a separate “book” for the same purpose still seems redundant and confusing.
I’d not plotted to buy the full book, but now have read the whole thing. Having done so, the book is overall better than I’d expected from just the free sample version, but still not as useful as Stephen Windwalker’s “The Apprehensive Society Small Survival Guide to the Greatest Financial Crisis of the Century” or Dave Ramsey’s “Total Money Makeover.” Also, like Windwalker’s book, it will be more well loved among Democrats than Republicans.
The might of “America, welcome to the poorhouse” is in the simplicity of its advice for coping with personal finances during the current economic “depression” in the U.S.
Here are some bits of advice I establish especially helpful:
If you don’t have 10 times your current salary in savings, don’t retire yet.
As a replacement for of an annuity, get a managed payout mutual fund (with the useful reminder that an annuity is only as secure as the company behind it.)
Save as much as you can, mostly in pointer stock mutual funds, gradually shifting to money market rather than bond funds as you approach retirement, and not selling in a stock market downtown.
(I do disagree with White’s advice to only choose a target maturity fund if you place all your savings in that one fund. Under NO circumstances would I ever recommend putting all eggs in one basket.)
There is also excellent advice for home buyers, such as not buying a home for more than triple one’s annual income, even if that requires moving to a more affordable area. White also issues a useful warning against commercial student loans. I’d not realized persons remain with the borrower even after personal bankruptcy. There is further excellent information on getting out of credit card and home equity debt.
Where the book is weakest is in public policy prescriptions. The leader is fully aware of all the corruption on both sides of the aisle in Washington DC politics , despite decades of “reform” legislation and regulations, yet naively believes the solution is in more legislation and more regulations. Why she thinks that can work, after all the evidence she cites on exactly how previous such efforts failed is beyond me. Plus, a lot of her preferred solutions amount to wanting government to compel citizens to do things we could each already do if so inclined. My personal inclination would be for our leaders to just make the case for doing the right things and hope citizens are mature enough to take and act upon excellent advice.
I agree with the leader that as a nation it’s time for us to realize we are no longer in charge of everything (if we ever were), have much to learn from such rising powers as China and India, and would do well to continue welcoming skilled immigrants who share our values. I would only add the same humility needs to characterize our approach to politics and legislation. When we demand Congress act in haste (as happened this past year under two administrations), we may end up worse off than if we’d done nothing. That, to me was the fantastic lesson of the Amity Schlae “Forgotten Man” history of the Fantastic Depression — what she felt made it last so long and dip so deep was the silly things done to fix it.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
This is far-left tripe written by a baby-boomer who beats the drum for the far-left democratic agenda with the expectation that Obama will save us all. If you already judge that, the book will not do much for you anyway, since so many of the supposed facts are bogus and the leader sacrifices a few of the worst Democrats in an obscene attempt at impartiality. Although I received this book free under the Vine program, it still was costly to read such garbage to write a review. If there was a way to return it and not have to write a review, I would have done that.
There are five central themes: (1) Most Americans can’t afford to retire (so the Feds must force employers to install pensions or 401K plane with a 9-10% cost-free contribution of the employee’s earnings); (2) Americans can’t figure out how to borrow for a house (& need the Feds to tell them); (3) Americans can’t afford college (so it needs to be a free benefit from the Federal Government);
(4) credit card debt is terrible, so the Feds need make new laws to protect credit card users from persons grave banks; and (5) we need battle reform eliminating business lobbies and only allowing far-left groups, unions (like the SEIU), and groups of citizens organized by the far-left ([...]). For all these things we need to back Obama to the hilt so he can “transform the country.” As the leader states, she is confident we will.
There are so many points that are propaganda and “way out there” that I don’t know where to start. The leader builds her case that Americans (I guess she means baby-boomers like herself) can’t accrue enough money for retirement while effective. Perhaps one should consider saving one’s money as a replacement for of building a bunch of worthless buys for items like I-Pods, $300.00 gym shoes, BMWs, and all the rest of the things some evidently find necessary. The leader contends that employers should be forced to set up pension/401K plans wherein they contribute at least 9% of the employee’s earnings to the fund. Gee, between Social Security and Medicare, employers already contribute 15.4%, or does the leader not know the ramifications of social security or the self-employment tax. She also wants the money in the “Social Security Trust Fund” place into stocks so it can appreciate quicker than it does as a government IOU. Sorry to say, she evidently doesn’t know that every penny of that money is spent every year by the Federal Government. If it went into stocks, the Federal Government would collapse within a few months. Really, the individual should take responsibility and save for his future, a concept rumor has it that too hard for many to know.
The leader also advises individuals to invest mostly in stocks, putting money in as soon as it’s available lacking rgards to timing. She states, “On average, you will double your money every seven or eight years.” Wow. Do the math. With a thousand dollars in stocks in 1970, at her low rate you’d now have $30,000 or $50,000 at the high rate. But the market is at 10,000 now as compared to around 1,000 in 1970. How does one do three to five times better than the market?
The mortgage mess was, of course, all the fault of the bankers. But have hope, Barney Frank and additional reformers will be correcting the situation in the future. Barney Frank may be lots of things, but I’ve never heard him accused of being a reformer. The leader also gives Roosevelt’s initiative in making the FDIC credit for ending the depression, something no reliable scholar would do. But of course, Phil Gramm and additional grave Republicans ruined all of that. The excellent news is that Omama is effective with a small group of gutsy reform-minded Senators, including Carl Levin, Byron Dorgan, Dianne Feinstein, Jim Webb, Bernie Sanders and Maria Cantwell, all Democrats, of course, to right everything.
The leader also lists her recommendations for the best places to live — based strictly on a yuppie-oriented criteria for quality of life, I guess to add bulk to her book. Somehow the thought of taking a trip to visit relatives is lost in the quest of the best trip spots for one to delight in himself (at a cost he can’t afford.) She also stresses that a college education (or some additional post-high school work) is now a necessity. I beg to differ. The problem is that high schools provide an extremely low standard of education, so that most students must take remedial courses even for community colleges. On top of that, colleges add precious small to an education, again by having low standards and grade inflation. The Protestant work ethic has gone to China and India, and none of Obama’s vaunted thoughts of change take up that problem. I guess the examination lawyers don’t want that to change.
Rather that having parents save in preparation for sending their children to college, the leader blandly states that nearly everyone will have to borrow to send themselves through college. Obviously she is fixated on the Ivy League rather than state universities, many of which provide an education equal or better than that of Harvard and the huge name schools. Besides, a middle-class American male from a religious, conservative background has absolutely no chance of getting into Harvard, even if he is his high school’s valedictorian and scored a perfect 1600 on the SATs. So why are we talking about that? $10,000 per year will certainly see a student through a reasonably excellent state school. But the point is, where are the parents? Why are there no savings? I reflect there are — the leader just doesn’t know it. So she wants the government to give students (particularly “the deserving poor”), loans directly as a forerunner to free college for all.
The leader saves her greatest condemnation for the corporations who are buying Congress and not giving their workers a honest share. She lauds the unions as having been instrumental in forming the middle class, and wants the corporations and rich people to pay for nearly everything. OK, so the unions are wonderful. They now own All-purpose Motors after Americans effective for $26.00 per hour bailed out the UAW whose workers earn $68.00 per hour. And I laughed out load when the leader said, “SEIU President Andy Stein veteran similar culture shock in 2002 when his plane landed in Beijing for a meeting with union executives.” He had to go to China for that? Communist China doesn’t have any union as we know them. Sounds like a boondoggle to me. She quotes Fareed Zakaria, editor of the far-left Newsweek International, on what is incorrect with America compared with China and India, and demands that immigration not be limited, especially for skilled workers. Somehow the thought of the competitive market has no place in this polemic.
There really are severe limitations here in this work. It seems to have been entirely constructed from internet sources using Google. Sorry to say, many are just incorrect. Keynesian economics is lauded lacking a nod to the better model from the Austrian School, and how competition works is rumor has it that unknown. But the worst is the inherent denial of individual responsibility and the necessity of a nanny state to take care of Americans, who are rumor has it that too stupid or too caught up in purchasing and self-adsorption to provide for their families and themselves. The leader even puts in a serious plug for Card-Check (of course she doesn’t call it that), adage the elimination of a secret ballot will keep corporations from intimidating workers from voting for the union. How about the secret ballot protecting workers who are against the union from union organizers? Again, this is political propaganda rather that useful information.
The only thing one can learn from this work is how the left fails to know the American people, their work ethic and their culture. It exposes the lunacy of the far-left where the answer for everything is another government program. When reading this book, which I do not recommend, one should remind himself whether college was more affordable beyore the government got involved, if people lived better in retirement within their families before the government got involved, and if we’re really more pleased now that the government gives us all this “free” stuff. My family tree stirred nine times and lived in seven states before I finished high school, so mobility is certainly an option (contrary to the leader’s indications.) My family tree place me through college, I place my son through college, and I saved enough for my own retirement (which I am now in.) The angst of the baby-boomer generation as represented by this book simply was banished through prudent saving, money-management, and living within one’s means. If one doesn’t want to do that, they should not look to my tax dollars to provide for them. In a sentence, they didn’t do lacking, so now I don’t judge it’s my duty to do lacking again to provide them with the quality of life they desire. I recommend that everyone try saving and living within one’s means, but as far as buying this book is concerned, no.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
Jane White knows her stuff pretty well. Many of her thoughts are excellent. Her advice is sometimes sound. But, she most regularly engages in a polemic political vision that distracts from her personal financial management advice. In a sense, she combined two different books into one and did not write either of them that effectively. One may argue that the title and the illustration on the take in warned the reader that she was going to attempt that stunt. I just reflect it was a very hard one to pull off. And, I don’t reflect she did. In the end, the political polemic stuffed with most unrealistic political suggestions really distracts from the personal financial advice and vice versa.
Among the excellent advice, she states that to fund your retirement you need to save more in your 401K than you reflect. She suggests saving 9% of salary if you are just starting out in your twenties (factoring the company match) and more if you start later. She also recommends you lower your credit card debt, avoid ARMs if you can, don’t be overly leveraged, be thrifty, buy a used car as a replacement for of leasing a new one, etc… This is all excellent advice.
But, sometimes her advice is too simple. When dealing with home-ownership she recommends you go to an area that has reasonably priced housing and yet vibrant local economy. You have to realize this is really a paradox. Home prices typically directly reflect the local economy because that is what drives home prices. Yet, White has uncovered a fleeting-term inefficiency in the housing market and recommends you go to either Portland, Denver, or Austin among others. Watch out that by the time you choose to go there, home prices in persons cities will have already become less than affordable. That’s a predictable outcome if their local economies remain relatively strong vs additional places. Also, a minor detail… do you really feel like uprooting yourself, starting over, and moving to any of persons cities? If you do, well go for it while the housing is still within reach because it won’t remain so for long. For the rest of us, this is not a viable strategy. And, to better know the relationship between home fee and economics I recommend the brilliant book Who’s Your City?: How the Creative Economy Is Building Where to Live the Most Vital Choice of Your Life.
When it comes to college education, she wants to change our entire system. She rails against Ivy League schools, Sallie Mae, Congress, and just about everyone else. And, she wants ultimately to render college education free as it is in Europe. Persons are respectable thoughts (if not politically realistic), but they won’t do anything to fund your actual college education now. As a replacement for, she could have simply recommended that students go to community college for their first couple of years and transfer to their state school system for the last two. Many states have outstanding public university system (California, Colorado, Michigan, Virginia, Washington, among many others) where a student will earn very marketable degree at a very reasonable cost.
If you are interested in personal financial preparation, I recommend a few additional books that are more all ears than this one such as: The Random Walk Guide To Investing, Spend ‘Til the End: The Revolutionary Guide to Raising Your Living Standard–Today and When You Retire, and Personal Finance For Dummies.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
This is another “common sense” advice book, which boils down to this.
Spend less than you earn.
Save more than you spend.
Simple.
The book does go into all the main areas of pitfalls, which include underfunding our 401k’s, Treacherous adjustable rate mortgages, and the dreaded “credit card debt”.
The book also lists some practical “wish lists” for reform that might be beneficial.
Excellent luck with that.
Overall this is a levelheaded book, built around the basics, with some excellent all-purpose advice.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
I interviewed Jane for the radio public affairs program I do here in South Carolina.
Her passion for the topic equals her knowledge.
The book can serve as a fine roadmap to correcting personal financial issues while helping both young and ancient alike.
Being prepared for your retirement can be complex.
Jane’s book can help remove the mystery as well the dread.
Buy the book and use the info. You can thank me later.
Larry Wilson
Director, Public Affairs Programming,
WROQ -FM – Rock 101
WTPT-FM – The Planet 93.3
Greenville, SC
Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5