Join David McKnight and I to discuss his book "The Guru Gap"!

DHK

RFC®, ChFC®, CLU®
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Thursday, November 7th at 11am Pacific, 2pm Eastern!

The Guru Gap Overview
In America, we love charismatic gurus who dispense one-size-fits-all financial advice. In fact, gurus like Dave Ramsey and Suze Orman have gained followers by the millions because of their paint by the number financial strategies that are easy to digest and implement. Through their force of personality and marketing acumen, these gurus have helped millions of Americans eliminate debt and work towards financial independence.

But even as these financial gurus have helped a huge swath of America eliminate debt and save for retirement, rarely has anyone in the mainstream media stopped to ask the question: Is their advice really any good? As I've engaged thousands of investors over the last 25 years, a single overarching theme has emerged: the dumbed-down financial advice offered by Dave Ramsey and other gurus is good for bad investors but bad for good investors. It's good for bad investors because its broad-brush strokes are easy to follow and yield immediate results. But it's bad for good investors because it's notoriously short on the sophisticated, math-based strategy required to ensure their retirement savings last through life expectancy.

In short, while financial gurus sometimes dispense good advice, it's nearly always at the expense of the best advice. The difference between what gurus routinely recommend and what they should recommend is what I call "The Guru Gap." And it's a gap into which millions of unwitting investors fall each and every year. This book aims to bridge the gap between what gurus advise, and the proven, math-based principles that will help Americans wring the most efficiency out of their retirement savings.

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David McKnight and I discuss his latest book.jpg
 
I have listened to this discussion one time. I was not particularly impressed. It came across to me as somewhere between very severe criticism of, and attack upon, Dave Ramsey for some of his retirement planning views. In addition it seemed to me the author was engaging in personal aggrandizement.

Essentially I heard that Dave Ramsey offers poor retirement income advice which he can continue to promulgate because of his public popularity.

Mr McKnight's solution: Buy thousands of copies of my book, putting it on best seller lists. This will make me a publicly popular figure too and I can then present my arguments in competition with his, because my arguments will then also have the cachet of popular public opinion.

Part of the discussion seemed to me to be very much an "us" against "them" type of commentary - possibly going as far as diatribe - which said the views of "them" are so compelling to the retiring public that the only chance "us" has to compete with them is to present our views to retirees first, before they can hear the views of "them". The way financial advisors in the camp of "us" can accomplish this is by buying this book by the case and distributing it to their prospects before they have a chance to hear from Dave Ramsey.

Particularly since what took DHK an hour to read will take me a month or so to go through: With the exception of one sentence which I heard buried in the middle of almost an hour of talk, I think DHK's original post in the thread presents more compelling reasons for a retiring investor to take a look at this book than anything in the video discussion. (I will admit to some bias with that statement because DHK's original post in this thread offers the possibility of finding a partial answer to a question I asked on the forum sometime back.)
 
I do not know, nor have I ever heard of McKnight. While that doesn't mean anything, the topic is one I've heard a lot about, been part of many discussions, etc. Whether it be Ramsey, Orman, or anyone else for that matter, we've seen this countless times before. Anyone remember Sonny Bloch? LOL. And, while it's a different topic, it's somewhat related, tangentially, think about Bernie Madoff.

Regardless, the people who take this approach, very often -- either end up being labeled or categorized, or they self-proclaim and self-intend -- having the prophetize scenario occur. Yes, while I feel generalizations can be very dangerous, there is some validity to the theory -- they give sound, basic, "decent" advise to bad savers, investors, and people with "bad" financial habits -- but their advice would be "bad" for good, high-quality, wealthy, people with "good" financial habits.

Yes, good advice for some can be bad advice for others. Good advice for 95% of US households, can potentially be bad advice for 5% to 1% of the US high-income, HNW, wealthy, etc., households.

I am too far behind on my reading to read this now, but I'll add it to my list, LOL. Thanks.
 
I am too far behind on my reading to read this now, but I'll add it to my list, LOL. Thanks.
I know the feeling all too well! I only read it because it was given to me and I had to prepare for that webinar. I probably have 100 books in my Kindle that I haven't read yet plus another 50 or so in my Amazon "wishlist" of books to buy (that I won't buy until I get caught up).

Ramsey has his place where he can be an authority... but he leaves that lane a little too often and he espouses poor advice in those scenarios, namely the latest 8% retirement distribution rate while denouncing the safe withdrawal rate studies by academics Pfau, Blanchette, and Finke.

You can't hold Ramsey accountable for poor advice because he has no licenses and he isn't advising individual clients, nor taking custody of those assets.

People often ask why doesn't the FCC or other government entity regulate him and it's because it's free speech. He has more freedom of speech than those of us who have licenses (especially those with broker/dealer licensing and compliance issues).

Such is life.
 
I do not know, nor have I ever heard of McKnight. While that doesn't mean anything, the topic is one I've heard a lot about, been part of many discussions, etc. Whether it be Ramsey, Orman, or anyone else for that matter, we've seen this countless times before. Anyone remember Sonny Bloch? LOL. And, while it's a different topic, it's somewhat related, tangentially, think about Bernie Madoff.

Regardless, the people who take this approach, very often -- either end up being labeled or categorized, or they self-proclaim and self-intend -- having the prophetize scenario occur. Yes, while I feel generalizations can be very dangerous, there is some validity to the theory -- they give sound, basic, "decent" advise to bad savers, investors, and people with "bad" financial habits -- but their advice would be "bad" for good, high-quality, wealthy, people with "good" financial habits.

Yes, good advice for some can be bad advice for others. Good advice for 95% of US households, can potentially be bad advice for 5% to 1% of the US high-income, HNW, wealthy, etc., households.

I am too far behind on my reading to read this now, but I'll add it to my list, LOL. Thanks.
Is there a book of conceptual advice you would use with the high-quality, wealthy people with good financial habits?
 
The more well-known books are those by Tom Hegna for retirement planning:

Paychecks and Playchecks: Retirement Solutions for Life
[EXTERNAL LINK] - Amazon.com

This book has 315 ratings on Amazon.

Don't Worry, Retire Happy: Seven Steps to Retirement Security
https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Worry-Retire-Happy-Retirement-ebook/dp/B00S5LSG4I

This book has 129 ratings on Amazon.

David McKnight's The Power of Zero: How to get to the 0% tax bracket and Transform Your Retirement
[EXTERNAL LINK] - Amazon.com

McKnight's book has nearly 2,600 ratings on Amazon.
 
There are apx 275 different models of cars and trucks for sale in the US.

Why?

Because everyone's needs and preferences are different.

Same with financial advice and financial products. There will never be a single solution to fit all peoples situations and preferences. Because everyone is different.

Any "guru" who claims their advice is the end all be all, is full of it.
 
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The more well-known books are those by Tom Hegna for retirement planning:

Paychecks and Playchecks: Retirement Solutions for Life
[EXTERNAL LINK] - Amazon.com

This book has 315 ratings on Amazon.

Don't Worry, Retire Happy: Seven Steps to Retirement Security
[EXTERNAL LINK] - Amazon.com

This book has 129 ratings on Amazon.

David McKnight's The Power of Zero: How to get to the 0% tax bracket and Transform Your Retirement
[EXTERNAL LINK] - Amazon.com

McKnight's book has nearly 2,600 ratings on Amazon.
That you're aware of: Have Laurence Kotlicoff or Terry Savage written any retirement finance focused books containing advice that would either add to or challenge comments made by Tom Hegna in the Don't Worry Retire Happy book mentioned above?
 
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