Apr

Fast Profits in Hard Times – Book Review

By Emily

So, despite the fact that the title – Fast Profits in Hard Times: 10 Secret Strategies to Make You Rich In an Up or Down Economy – is somewhat sensationalistic, I picked up this book from the library due to the timely nature of the topic – many fear we are in or entering a recession – and the recent publication date, January 2008.

The author, Jordan E. Goodman, is a former Money Magazine columnist and we’ll have to take that as a form of credibility.

The focus of the book was to help folks find good places to invest even when the economy and stock market are slumping. He explored several "non-cyclical" and "counter-cyclical" investments and business opportunities including:

Foreign Currency Trading
Stocks and Bonds
Real Estate Investing
Tax Liens and Tax Deeds
Pay Day Loans
Cash Flow Brokering/Investing and Factoring
Vending Machines and ATM installations
DRIPs
Options
and more.

Overall, it was an interesting summary of alternative investment types your broker won’t usually tell you about. Many of them, however, required time, knowledge and/or significant funds to get started in. Most of the highest-yielding opportunities offering above the 11% long term return we expect in our stock mutual funds, were not easy to implement (more like a part time job) and/or presented a high degree of risk or upfront investment.

The chart presented at the beginning of the book (page 15) offers a tidy summary of the opportunities as a way to help you identify which you might be interested in. I only read the chapters that sounded intriguing based on their profile in this chart.

This book does not present the deep level of detail you would probably need to go into one of these businesses, but it is a nice overview and comparison of alternative investment strategies if you’re looking for a timely alternative to the stock market. The author does provide resources for further resources for those who want to explore a given opportunity further.

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