The Value of Debt: How to Manage Both Sides of a Balance Sheet to Maximize Wealth

Appendix B

Strategic Debt Practice for the Young and Those with Limited Assets*

Right at the beginning of the introduction it is stated that Strategic Debt ideas and practices are not for everybody, and that, indeed, there are three prerequisites to making best use of this book:

1. Having an open mind.

2. Working closely with a progressive, holistic, open-minded financial advisor or private banker.

3. Having sufficient liquid, investible assets.

This appendix focuses on the third of these requirements, which is not yet having sufficient liquid investible assets to implement these ideas. Of course, the younger a person or married couple is, the less likely he, she, or they are to meet this requirement, and it is not surprising that few people or couples under 40 years of age, and far fewer under 30, qualify.

However, just because you are young and do not yet have the kind of necessary initial wealth—or just because you are older and have not yet put together the kind of additional wealth that will enable you to take advantage of the ideas and practices in this book—doesn’t mean there might not be a great deal of value for you in these pages. To help you “get there,” that is, to the place where you can start making use of the ideas in this book, here are Eight Guidelines—think of them as Rules of Thumb—that you may find both useful and very valuable in the long run:

1. Now you are in the Accumulation Phase

2. Beware of ongoing credit card debt

3. Keep enough liquid cash reserves ...