Reflections on “A Million Bucks by 30″ by Alan Corey

So a couple months ago Get Rich Slowly linked my story about my super cheap ex-boyfriend and thousands of people read it in a matter of hours. After that I received an email from a guy named Alan Corey and it said the following:

Hi Baglady,

I came across your blog today and have to say I loved reading about your ex-boyfriend. He reminds me a lot of myself. I went to extreme measures to achieve my financial goals and finally was rewarded for it. I would love to send him (and you) an advanced copy of my book ” A Million Bucks by 30.” It hopefully will keep you both motivated to also remind you that you two are doing things right.

Cheers,

Alan Corey

www.alancorey.com

So I went to the guy’s website and read a bit about him, and he seemed weird, but kind of funny, and mostly harmless. So I replied to him to send me the book, and a couple weeks later I received a package from the publisher Random House and it contained a shiny advanced copy of the book and on the title page it said, “Here’s to better boyfriends”. (Well, thanks Alan, but I don’t need anymore boyfriends. I got a super cool hubby now.) I read it on the way to Southern California while my hubby drove, and to be honest I rather enjoyed the book because it was quite funny and candid. After reading his story of eating only ramen noodles for three months I understood why he said my super cheap ex reminded him of himself. Though what is funnier to me is that another incident in his book reminded me of myself. The story was that one of his girlfriends was really into movies and spent hundreds of dollars a month on her passion, and he made a spreadsheet showing her how much money she could earn if she invested the money instead of spending it on movies. (A replica of the spreadsheet is in the book). After he presented the spreadsheet he was dumped. I laughed out loud at this because I made a similar spreadsheet for my hubby while we were dating because he spent a lot of money on games and gadgets. Fortunately my hubby didn’t dump me. I do understand where Alan is coming from and the spreadsheet is really his way of saying to the girl that he cares about her, but unfortunately the message was lost somewhere. The book is also sprinkled with sections named “Extreme Cheapskate Strategy”. Some of these tips are good, but some are a bit too extreme or even borderline unethical. I will not list them here, but some of these are pretty hilarious too.

The main vehicle Alan used to become a millionaire is real estate. But unlike the infamous Casey Serin he was very sensible about what he could handle. He almost always offered lower than the asking price and had partners and kept his full time job throughout all of his real estate ventures. I like that Alan acknowledged that he was lucky to catch one of the largest real estate booms in history, but I would like to emphasize that Alan really worked his butt off too. I really don’t know how he is able to have a full time job, handle six or seven crazy tenants, go to a bazillion open houses, renovate houses, host success seminars, and go on a bunch of reality TV shows. My main criticism of the book is that people might read it and think it’s easy to become a house flipper or landlord and suddenly become a young millionaire. Those easy money days are dying down and it really takes a lot of time and patience to be a successful real estate investor. I think Alan should have had a summary of his personality traits and actions that took him where he is, and I think a lot of financially successful people have similar paths to Alan’s. I will try to summarize the things that made Alan successful here for him:

1. Have a clear goal — Alan lists his goals from the beginning of the book to the end. His main goal has always been becoming a millionaire by 30, but he also had many smaller subgoals that brings him closer to the majority goal. Basically, knowing where you want to go is always important to your success.

2. Don’t Care About What Others Think of You and Live Below Your Means — Alan was really cheap and didn’t care to have a beautiful apartment or the best room in the house, and that’s how he saved and earned money. He also earned a lot of money and free goodies by being ridiculed on reality TV shows, but that’s really in another league of not caring what others think.

3. Work Your Butt Off (at least in the beginning) — As I mentioned before, Alan really worked pretty hard when he was young, and as his wealth increased it became easier to accumulate money. The rich do become richer, but sitting on your butt and not working towards your goals will not make you rich in the first place.

4. Take Risks but Also Research Everything Before You Jump In – For the most part I thought the risks Alan took in real estate were realistic and well thought out. He also emphasizes that he took a lot of time researching the investments he was about to make. I think the research part is overlooked by a lot of people who want to become rich quickly. It is usually not that easy to find a good investment and the cliche “it always goes up in the long run” isn’t always true for everything.

5. Don’t Be Too Greedy – One thing I really liked about Alan’s story is that he quit and got out of the rat race. If he kept on flipping houses he might have lost his fortunes, but he did what he wanted to do and decided that he is done. Sometimes people can become wildly successful but never learn to quit and become a slave to earning money once again. I admire the people that value living their life over having the biggest bank account and the fanciest cars. Another example of this is Millionaire Mommy Next Door and I highly recommend her blog.

Anyway, I definitely recommend Alan’s book if you want a light hearted read about a Southern boy making it big in the Big Apple. I was laughing a lot when I read it, but that is because I can really relate to what he went through.  Though I am hoping that his book doesn’t create any new Casey Serins and his readers would realize that it isn’t easy to become a millionaire, but anyone could do it.

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