Review: The Power of Zero, Revised and Updated: How to Get to the 0% Tax Bracket and Transform Your Retirement

The Power of Zero, Revised and Updated: How to Get to the 0% Tax Bracket and Transform Your Retirement by David McKnight
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is one of those books that was created to try to sell you something. In this case, it’s trying to convince the reader that they have an issue with their savings plan, and that there is a way to pay zero taxes that only a few rich people currently know about. The solution involves using a variation on life insurance. You’ve been warned.

I actually thought the first part of the book, which lays out the forecast of much higher income tax rates in the US and the impact on different retirement savings vehicles, was interesting, if lacking in detail. The author conveniently ignores things like capital gains tax and dividend taxes that are currently at a lower rate than income taxes, and I suspect that will be the case even if his forecast of tax increases occur. And he ignores other tax planning schemes that those rich life insurance owners also avail themselves of, like trusts and corporations. I would agree that tax rates can, and likely will rise from where they are now. And some thought should go into investors tax planning due to that eventuality.

So the problem statement is a good story. But what of the offered solution? The author focuses on the scheme of buying specific life insurance policies that have “additional features” (and when you read additional features, you correctly think additional costs) that allow for additional investment, borrowing your invested money without repayment, and use as a long term care annuity. It’s described a lot like Saturday Night Live skit: it’s a floor wax and a dessert topping. As you read, you want to evaluate this product. But alas, the author really provides no details, instead begging off because there are hundreds of different policies with different costs and different benefits. You can’t even validate the claim that you can live off the proceeds of your savings without paying taxes, because there’s not enough detail, even in the chapter length “case study”. Your only recourse is to visit your local insurance broker. Not surprisingly, the author mentions that the book became a hot seller when insurance agents bought them to give to their prospects. Go figure.

When I read a book that is written as advertising material, I tread lightly. I look to see if there is any value beyond getting informed on some new product. Here, the value I received with in the initial problem description forecasting increasing taxes. I already understand this issue, but it was interesting to read someone else’s take on it. My second takeaway was the reminder that this kind of life insurance product exists. If the need arises while I’m managing my investments, I’ll know my insurance guy will have something to sell me. He always does.


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Review: Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life

Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life by Eric Klinenberg
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was most interested in this book as I understood from cursory jacket blurb glimpsing that it focused on local public libraries. It did in early chapters, but the author also took chapters to discuss the public good related to public buildings of all kinds, including sports arenas, government office buildings, park buildings and the like. He even extended his targets, digressing into pubs and office building lobbies as “palaces for the people”. About half way through the book, the author turned it into a book about climate change, and spent much of the second half of the book describing how social infrastructure can help in times of disaster and in bringing people together to solve problems. By the end of the book, I felt the climate change “storyline” had been overdone. Overall, I enjoyed the various anecdotes of what ended up being a light read, but I didn’t add much to what I expected.

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Review: Life on Purpose: How Living for What Matters Most Changes Everything

Life on Purpose: How Living for What Matters Most Changes Everything by Victor J. Strecher
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The book blurb makes this sound like something new and “ground breaking”. It really wasn’t, although it did have its good parts and overall I thought it provided positive advice on becoming more focused in your life. I thought this would be one of the more philosophical self-help books, and it started that way with deep-thought advice on finding a purpose in life. But it then took a dogleg turn to living a more healthy life, with pointers on diet and rest. The overall effect was more like reading a health guru than a behavior guru, not that that’s bad, but It didn’t quite jibe with my blurb-based expectations. I found the advice affirming enough, and I would add these to the pile of like-minded books that provide a mental energy refill reinforcing continual growth.

I’ll note a couple of points that I thought were very well done with this book. The author’s voice, his choice of words and the anecdotes he shares were very easy to listen to and agreeable. His anchor anecdotes are about his daughter’s struggle with health issues, and this was very compelling, emotional writing. I listened on audio and found myself sitting in my car in a parking lot to focus on listening to these stories. Having daughters similar in age to the author’s, this hit home. Lastly, I listened to the audio version of this book, narrated by R.C. Bray. The narrator’s voice is deep and gravelly, his pace is slow and thoughtful. I’ve listened to others done by Bray (“The Martian”, “Fat City”) and here he speaks slower and deeper. He comes across as a kind of a voice of wisdom, ala Sam Elliott, with some knowing humor. The narration made this book better.


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Review: Iconic Advantage®: Don't Chase the New, Innovate the Old

Iconic Advantage®: Don't Chase the New, Innovate the Old by Soon Yu
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Simple, often to the point of repetitiveness. When you think of iconic brands, you often think of products that everyone knows. I appreciated that this book spends a lot of ink considering iconic service as well. The book provides guidance and examples of how many companies have positioned their products or their services as iconic, including discussion of some tactics that are not universally cheered (such as being a proponent of celebrity endorsements). Interesting, especially for those aspiring marketers whose products and services could be managed into this level of market recognition.

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Review: Chances Are. . .

Chances Are. . . by Richard Russo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another Russo book, and after a long stretch without, I feel like I’m reading a book written by and for a grown up. I really enjoy the way Russo writes, and what struck me here was Russo drilling into the thoughts of the main characters. It’s almost like time slows down so that Russo can relate those inner thoughts which feel a lot like my own inner thoughts – often questioning my own actions and motives after the fact. I found these characters quite relatable. Russo plays around with time in this one with the story told in part in flashback to various times and characters, so that you really feel the passage of time and its impact on the players. I also enjoyed the story, and the slight twist at the end left this one with hope. I look forward to the next.

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Review: Unmasked: A Memoir

Unmasked: A Memoir by Andrew Lloyd Webber
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

There are a lot of interesting tidbits that I learned from reading Lloyd Webber’s book. You understand somewhat the chronology of the music and the productions he has been involved in. I say “somewhat” because the author seems to have always been working on multiple projects at the same time, and each project had its own life, sometimes changing along the way (think “Evita”, with multiple production timelines around the world, movie considerations, prototype album, and changes in music as time goes on). The changes in a production over time were one of those things I never much thought of, but there are a lot of things going on. Lloyd Webber comes across as quite detail oriented when it came to his music, and I found it interesting to read what he found important in creating his work. I also found this book interesting in documenting the author as a young man, starting with many privileges based on his family and at times focusing on art, at times focusing on business, and at times focusing on his lovelife and his family life. He comes across as being even handed, telling good and bad in these areas of his life. At times, though, this feels forced, like the story is being changed. With many autobiographies that I’ve read, and I have read a large number of them, I feel I get a good opinion of the author, and can understand the subject and feel that he is familiar. I don’t feel that way after reading this. Lloyd Webber feels quite foreign. I can’t determine if it is the English upbringing he describes, his lucrative artistic career (isn’t that an oxymoron?), or his wives with the same name that felt exotic to me – probably everything. Mix in a healthy dollop of Thomas the Tank Engine and historic church architecture and you get this book. Note that it even ends strangely. On audio, Lloyd Webber himself introduces the book but lets a professional narrator read the text. Lloyd Webber comes back right at the end and warns the listener that he’s realized that he’s got more to tell, so he’ll continue in another, as-yet-unwritten book. It's kind of like going to a one hour talk about some fellow’s vacation and having him tell you after 2 hours that he’s only half way done. Overall, I feel I learned something, and was mildly entertained, but it wasn’t what I was expecting.

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Review: My Daddy Was a Pistol and I'm a Son of a Gun

My Daddy Was a Pistol and I'm a Son of a Gun by Lewis Grizzard
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When I reviewed Grizzard’s later “Shoot Low Boys – They’re Ridin’ Shetland Ponies” I found that book was a collection of what appeared to be newspaper columns Grizzard had written earlier, then pasted together with some introductory material and a bit of loose thematic organization. I was expecting much the same from this effort, focused on his father and their relationship. This was different. Instead of a collection of columns, this appeared more an entire book written to the subject. This was good, and author Grizzard injected his humor along the way, playing up the strange character that was his father. Another thing I noticed about Grizzard’s writing is that he knows how to pull the heartstrings when he wants to. He does that here, judiciously. It had to be done judiciously, as Grizzard’s father was a flawed individual, with a past as a war hero and an ability to ingratiate himself with others, but with a knack for borrowing money and disappearing, and a weakness for drink. Grizzard’s father answered to his demons, making him not fully a character for pity. Everything we are told is through the author’s eyes. You feel more for poor young Louis than his father. Yet Grizzard is portrayed as a Southern character, with musical abilities that allowed him to wheedle free food from churches after singing some hymns, while calling himself “Major” even though he was discharged not honorably at a lower rank. In the end, you realize this was son Grizzard’s story of trying to understand his father. It shouldn’t surprise you that he’s not much closer by the end of the book. Major Grizzard was too overwhelming a character to understand. I liked the writing, I liked the descriptions of how Grizzard’s father lived (what a character), but I hoped to find growth beyond expected forgiveness and it wasn’t in the story.

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