★★★★★ 4
4.5 Stars - Highly Recommend- Will Buy Copies for My Kids
Format: Paperback
I was torn between 4 and 5 stars, because this book is very good. The pay no taxes part of the book is a solid 5 stars. However, I was much more interested in the buy, borrow, die strategies. Those strategies are good, including a fairly thorough explanation and use cases. But there wasn't enough explanation of the long-term handling of the debt and the possibility of margin calls. If you leverage 50% of your portfolio and the market goes down 30 to 35%, which does happen, you can quickly get in trouble. Many of the current ETFs that pay high dividends haven't been around long enough to go through a 30 - 35% market drop, so it's difficult to accurately predict how they'll perform. Of course, if you don't overleverage, the chances of a margin call are much lower, even if the market tanks.
Also, the book says to invest in assets you can borrow against, including stock, ETFs, real estate, crypto, and gold/silver. On the surface, this is a good strategy. While you can borrow against these things, borrowing against precious metals carries a higher interest rate (though I'm sure if you have tens of millions, you can find better rates, but most people don't have that much), and borrowing against crypto is dangerous. Hopefully crypto will become better protected, but right now, the company lending you money against your crypto can just run off with your crypto. It has happened.
The reason I rated the book 4 stars instead of 5 is solely because I'm more interested in buy, borrow, die than the tax coverage. If I bought the book for the tax avoidance, it would be a 5.
Overall, I highly recommend the book. I'm going to buy a copy for both of my children, who are in their 20's.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2025
