Investment-management

Best finance book I have read in years!

The book is a quick read and does a terrific job of explaining the investment framework employed by institutional portfolio managers world-wide. CFROI brings the concept of return on invested capital to a more robust level by providing the investor with a greater understanding of stock price movement and valuation.

This book is a must read if you expect to outperform the market. The increased complexity of accounting rules over the last decade has forced investors to apply an analysis process focused on a company's future cash flows. The accuracy of the CFROI valuation framework places traditional analysis and EVA at the bottom of the investor's toolbox. CFROI can help you avoid value trap stocks and step up to high PE stocks who are expected to create wealth for their shareholders.

Madden's text substitutes empirical fact for academic claptrap, clearing away the underbrush of neat-though-erroneous theories like CAPM and EVA, giving the conscientious professional and serious amateur a meticulous roadmap to superior understanding and investment returns. Or in Madden's words, "The employment of CAPM/beta and related procedures has become a ritual due not to empirical usefulness, but to its mathematical elegance - the touchstone of mainstream academic corporate finance." The justification for CFROIs demanding discipline is demonstrated early in the text in an example, wherein the past real record of a hypothetical firm with a stable 6.5 % ROI is converted into GAAP accounting numbers from which an ROI series is calculated. In re the accounting-based return history, Madden asks, "Who referring to (the chart) would not be misled about a firm's performance relying on the (ROI gyrating between + 24% and -10%) while the economic performance did not vary?" In short, if you don't know the facts, you can't solve the mystery. The predictive and interpretive powers of the system's valuation metric is the result of plain hard work, not the magical properties of some lazy man's statistical dowsing rod like Earnings Momentum. Last widely employed during the Tulip Craze of an earlier century, Earnings Momentum is based on the dubious concept that as long as accounting earnings, surreal and manipulable though they be, go up, the stock should go up as fast as it does go up, unless earnings don't go up as fast as expected, in which case we've been disappointed, so it's not worth anything until the bookies can reestablish the odds. Had we all expended the necessary effort on CFROI, we might have anticipated or at least understood to our financial benefit and peace of mind: IBM problems in the mid-80s to mid-90s that led to a restructuring; Wal-Mart's staggering gait beginning in the late 80's that produced unsatisfactory price action in the early 90's; Hewlett Packard's defiance of gravity in maintaining an exceptional internal rate of return; ditto Abbot Labs, Hershey and Wrigley's outperforming the market; the rebound of Analog Devices and the volatility of Advanced Micro Devices; and so on and on. The CFROI knowledge system dissects the firm and the value creation process, meticulously separating the past and present from the nebulous future, thereby establishing a mathematical basis for professional investment decision making. The CFROI valuation model applies dividend discount technique to inflation-adjusted cash flow growth projections, using a firm-specific risk premium plus the market-required rate of return to determine the firms warranted value and the equity's warranted price. CFROI resolves two fundamental equity valuation issues: the recognized fallibility of the Capital Asset Pricing Model and the inherent inconstancy of accounting data. The former supplying a counter-intuitive cost of capital or required rate of return; the other concealing the real prospects of the firm's wealth creating efforts. As the lengthy flow charts detailing the process required to turn accounting hash into economic reality attest, CFROI is not a black box of unexplained miracles. It's a sweatshop equipped with empirically-proven, high tech tools which give the driven amateur and dedicated professional the means to outrun the herd.

This book is an incredibly detailed outline covering the vast selection of topics included on the CFP exam. Because of the outline format, I wouldn't recommend trying to use this book as a way to learn material for the first time. What it is ideal for is as a reminder of details and distinctions, improving your recall of topics learned in some prior class or self-study, but in much more detail. Because this book is updated each year, it references up-to-date tax dollar amounts you'll need for the exam.

I found this book to be an accurate and concise review of the 101 topics covered on the CFP cerfifcation exam. This book was written in a great "review notes" format, much like I would take notes on a complex subject. I would highly recommend this book as a great CFP certification exam review. It is filled with only what you need to know- no extraneous commentary.

I feel that in many ways this is the ultimate book for a CEO or leader. I jokingly told one of my CEO clients, "Read this book and you won't have to read any others and you can throw away the ones you have read!" The inclusion of the CD is a special plus and the many forms and tools make this an ACTION book. I have heard Kraig speak and he is a zealot about leadership tools and it certainly comes across in this jam packed book. Each of his Top Ten lists stand on their own and are very powerful. It is the kind of book that you could keep on your desk and use as a reference each time you are dealing with one of the primary areas of your business. Every CEO should own this book!

Kraig in a true professional, his body of work and his contribution and skills have helped make American capitalism what it is today, the best and mose powerful force in the world.

It's about time we all have access to a book of Kraig's wisdom. His principles have helped me be a better and more successful CEO. I live by Kraig's advice in the business I run daily, and it works. Kraig, thank you for helping me build wealth and success for my family and me. And lastly, congratulations on creating such a great body of practical and powerful advice in one place, a book called CEO Tools: The Nuts-n-Bolts of Business for Every Manager's Success.

This is a TERRIFIC book for any manager and especially small business owners! It is filled with real world, easy to use, proven tools to make good things happen, including more profits. Here's a guy who has done it all and boiled down the real secrets into not only an easy book to read but to understand how to make what he has learned work in my business. There is even a CD included that I used to put my own business data into and work his secrets on my problems. WOW! I learned more useable stuff from this one book than dozens of others I have read. Buy it now! You will not be disapointed.

Ever wonder why while some people are starving and yelling recession others are prospering and cheering prosperty?If you answered politics--ENT---wrong answer.The reason is recessions can be controlled by an individual. Successful people take control by moving into the Cash Flow Quadrant. They own assets, not liabilities. They work for themselves, not a unappreciative employer. They know how to use leverage. This book is the best business book available today. I have read RDPD and RYRR and although some of the material is repeated, there is also much fresh material as well.And if you feel the material is so redundant, let me ask you a question: How are you going financially? Hello???If your goal is become financially independent, you must go with the times and RTK offers the most current beneficial success education available today.

Repetition is the source of mastery, and The Cash Flow Quadrant takes the excellent thinking in Rich Dad, Poor Dad and builds to another level of detail. This information will increase what you learned in Rich Dad, Poor Dad and help you begin the transformation from a salaried or self-employed person into a business owner and investor.

The definitions of these four quadrants are important. As an employee, you have a job. As a self-employed person, you own a job. As a business owner you have a system (such as a franchise like McDonald's) that produces cash flow for you and others work for you. As an investor, your money works for you. Rich people are getting more than 70 percent of their cash flow and income by having money work for them.

One of the strengths of the book is that it deals with the subtle psychological differences among people in the four different quadrants, especially on subjects like security and freedom. Kiyosaki and Lechter then do a nice job of helping you understand the difference between risky and taking risk. The latter is a good idea, when you know what you are doing, and the former is always to be avoided.

The book is not dogmatic, pointing out that good results can be reached in a variety of ways. You have to decide which ones are right for you. In general, you are encouraged to move from the employee and self-employed side for your income to the business owner and investor side. Then, take your cash flow and expand it into investments.

Another of the strengths of the book is to make it clearer what the advantages of income property are. In these Internet stock-crazed days, many are looking only to stocks and missing good commercial property opportunities.

There are lots of good questions you can use to help frame your road through the cash flow quadant. At a minimum, you will become much more financially literate. With the help of the 7 steps here for making the necessary changes, you should begin to make the transition.

The book has a nice conversational tone that turns personal economics into common sense examples and principles.

The downside of any book about changing your life is that you can read it much faster than you can master the lessons and apply them. I suggest that you schedule time to reread this book over the next 10 years. That's the best way to check up on yourself and how you are doing.

I do recommend that you read Rich Dad, Poor Dad first. You'll get much more out of this book if you do that. Then you'll begin to see opportunities where others see difficulties. Good luck with fulfilling your goals!

In this followup to Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki goes even deeper into the various quadrants and explains why and how anyone can go from the E to B to I to S Quadrants. And I am pleased to see that Kiyosaki is telling the truth about network marketing and why it is such a powerful S-Quadrant.

In fact, Kiyosaki offers two examples; one a friend who didn't have the money to start a conventional business so dove into network marketing and over time, built a very successful bsuiness.

The other was a real estate investor who was continually being probed by people on how to become rich. When he told people that he made his fortune in million dollar real estate deals, they were depressed because they knew that they did not have the capital of the skills to do that. So this guy got into network marketing solely to provide a vehicle that people with limited capital and limited sales skills could dive into and begin creating cash flow and residual income immediately. His circles of influence saw his success in network marketing and knew this was something they could do. And they succeeded!

Cash Flow Quadrant discusses the various quadrants. It describes the personalities of the people in each quadrant. And describes how to become more than a business owner but to reach the S-Quadrant, the ideal quadrant which provides financial and personal freedom. It gives you both time and freedom.