50 pg of good investment advice & 600 pg of infomercial
I was pretty disappointed. This was my first Tonny Robbins book, and for someone whose net worth is $500 million, you would expect a better product.

Do you really need 650 pages to say: save money from your work and invest in index funds and make sure you diversify and allocate assets between equities, bonds, commodities, gold, real estate? Then, keep rebalancing your portfolio from year to year. Then repeat this multiple times with various anecdotes and scenarios and mention that being rich is fabulous and he knows a lot of rich and famous people. That's torture. I don't understand why the book was not reviewed in more detail and then recommended by Oprah? I don't think Oprah read it. I think she is a wise woman and would never put herself through this torture.

There were a few important ideas in the book. Main one -- investment and asset allocation advice by David Swensen, Yale chief investment officer who invested money not for himself but for his favorite institution (and who passed away this year, unfortunately):
Smart asset allocation:
--70% in equity-like --> 30% in US stocks; 10% emerging markets, 15% in foreign development, 15% in real estate investment trusts;
--30% in fixed income --> 15% in Treasuries; 15% in inflation-protected TIPS.
Invest in index funds instead of managed funds, which charge high fees.
--Check on your 401k fees.
--Considering hiring a fiduciary advisor rather than just a financial advisor. Use National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA).


What I liked about the book:
Interviews with the top 12 famous investors made billionaires. However, only one woman was interviewed. Warren Buffett didn't want to give an interview b/u he said he had already said everything he had to say in previous interviews.
Tony's enthusiasm and passion.
Few stories were interesting.

What I didn't like about the book:
-650 pages of paraphrasing information, not getting to the point;
-Super small font - 8 or 9 pt? 650 pages long?
-Stories and anecdotes and more tales;
-It feels like an infomercial and is very sellsy.
-The apparent conflict of interest, funneling readers to his advisory arm, Anthony Robins companies such as Namale Resort and Spa, Fortune Practice Management, Advisor Excel, a Coaching company,
-Name dropping which alienates average investors;
-Constant references to 'I will teach you this later," "we'll come back to that in more detail in a later chapter," etc.
-Advice about life insurance, which can be very tricky if you hire someone who doesn't know what they are doing. Therefore, recommending the expensive companies related to Tony.
-Total self-promotion.
-The book being more motivational than actual financial education, you still won't learn 'how to do things.
-Tools that don't work: PortfoliocheckUp website, for All Season portfolio options, doesn't work. You have to schedule a consultation with Tony's partner company.
-The Lifetimeincome website is a sale for life insurance products.
-The masterthegame app has been defunct since 2016, according to Wayback machine. It is now changed to TR Money app.
-The book is used as a giveaway at Tony's $500, $2,000, and up events.
-There are no footnotes or sources to any of the information. The access to resources on the masterthegame website doesn't work.
-I understand having a content magnet as a giveaway and not expecting much, but people buy this book for $28 as the main product and get a lot of nothing.


Total 2.3/5
*Readability - 2.5
*Scope - 2.5
*Depth - 2
*Format - 2
*Clarity -2.5

Read this book if:
-You need the same information repeated over and over and over again.
-You love Tony Robbins so much that you don't mind that a man of that $500 million net worth would make you buy an inferior product.
-You need a lot of motivation to believe that making money is good and fancy being sold to. ( )

Great summary about the state-of-the-art in money management, investing and building a nest egg ( )

I received the first chapter of the book via Smiley360 but it leaves me in disappointment because the first chapter only covers 'Introduction', and how he met lots of successful people all over the world. I finished reading all 55 pages, and I don't even get the point on how to master the game of money. Not straight-forward. I was hoping that the 1st chapter has some insights on how to master the game of money. Alas, it only leaves me wasting my time reading for nothing.

I received a free sampler of the book for the purpose of my review. Opinions are 100% my own. ( )

First off, this is a review for Smiley360 (https://smiley.socialmedialink.com). I received a sample chapter of the book for review, so this review is not based on the complete book. Reader be warned.

The book begins as any hyped-up book does - with numerous pages of positive reviews. I generally skip these because I really don't want them to color my opinion of the actual book. But I feel obliged to note that there were, in fact, 5 pages of hype before the title of the book. This is followed by a Foreward and Introduction that is basically drawn out examples of the same thing. All of the hype is designed to 'prime' you for what the author is trying to sell.

The book itself does not begin until about page 30 (30 of 55 on the pdf version I was asked to review). The first chapter, appropriate to the book's title, deals with money. It goes on to emphasize the importance of money in our day-to-day lives with "I want to remind you, this is a game that you and your family can’t afford to lose." This impresses on the reader their need to continue reading this book. This is further implied by the following: "My promise to you is this: if you will stay with me and follow the 7 Simple Steps in this book—the steps that have been distilled from the world’s most successful financial players—you and your family will win this game. And you can win big!"

Not too subtle. "I hope you’ll let me be your translator as well as your guide on this journey. Together we’ll break the code and cut through the complexity that keeps most of us feeling like outsiders in the world of finance." Okay. I'm game... "Before you know it, you’ll be an insider too." Wait... what? So, this is basically a book about Insider Trading for Dummies?

And then comes the name-dropping. (I won't bother quoting the list. Just know that for someone this famous, name-dropping is bad form.) While some of the tips and suggestions hinted at in the first chapter do seem intriguing, they are not enough to answer the question posed at the end of the first chapter: "Do I have you hooked on what’s really possible for your life now?"

This may be a book I come back to later, to read the full story, and thus update my review, but as things stand, I cannot bring myself to place this on the top of my "Reading Shelf". For those looking to get into investing, this is a good place to turn, but for everyone else... do yourself a favor and pass.

I am not into self-help and motivational gurus so even though I heard Tony Robbins name I didn't read his books or watched him speak. Somebody recommended me this book and I was very surprised. It's a combination of motivational rhetoric and logical concrete steps to try to get your finances in order by the retirement time. It's simplified and often too absolute but I think it will be invaluable for many people. I give discount for annoying repetitions and sales technique, which probably come with motivational territory. But it looks like this method of writing works. Tony Robbins is a good writer and is able to explain some complicated financial matters in a very simple language. His advice is sometimes contradicting but I am ready to overlook this for the overall value of his advice. ( )