The Value of Debt in Building Wealth

Introduction

“The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.”

—H. Jackson Brown Jr.

There is considerable value to using debt in building wealth. Not credit card debt. Not payday loans. I'm talking about the right debt, positioned the right way and used in a thoughtful, balanced way throughout your life. Like chocolate, coffee, or red wine—a little bit can be a good thing, when handled responsibly.

The goal of this book is to illustrate what a balanced and comprehensive path may look like throughout the time that you are accumulating wealth. I will demonstrate the power of debt and compare it to conventional wisdom. The goal is to empower you to make better and more informed decisions. After all, as I will prove to you, the decisions you make with respect to debt are likely to be the biggest financial decisions you will make in your life.

My books The Value of Debt and The Value of Debt in Retirement were critically acclaimed because they sparked new ways of thinking that helped wealthy people work both sides of their balance sheets—just as corporations do—to become even wealthier. I understand that people are not companies, but that doesn't mean we can't learn from their ideas.

I wrote my first books as guides for people who have $1 million or more in assets, and back then I was pretty sure that people needed a net worth of at least $500,000 to implement my concepts.

A funny thing happened. People with much less money started playing with the concept of a strategic ...