Millionaire Teacher: The Nine Rules of Wealth You Should Have Learned in School Paperback – January 1, 2011

Andrew Hallam is an English teacher who became a self-made millionaire in his 30's. He achieved this by taking his teacher's salary, frugally saving it, and diligently investing it, year after year, in index equity funds, index bond funds, and some rational individual stock selections. He's living proof that almost everyone in the developed world can become a millionaire because he led by example.Some particularly notable good things about the book:-His set of arguments for index funds over actively managed funds is flawless. He really puts the nail in the coffin of actively managed funds. Not only does he make extremely effective arguments backed up by statistics, history, and reasoning, he even counters the expected counterarguments made by people who wish to sell you those funds anyway. His devastating arguments against the enormous self-serving financial services industry should be clear to any rational mind.-The 184 page book is an elegant read. This isn't a financial guru writing a book; it's a self-made millionaire English teacher. It can be read in a weekend, is easily accessible to a multitude of different types of readers, and the "nine rules of wealth" that the book is organized as break it up into easily read chunks. He artfully blends personal stories, humor, facts, and images to create a rather effortless reading experience. He has a significant amount of international experience, and so the book is appropriate for people from many countries.My only criticism of the book and its advocacy of index funds is the loss of shareholder voting rights that accompanies index funds, mutual funds, and ETFs. I disagree with a primarily indexed portfolio, and instead believe indexes are great as portfolio supplements. But, for those that invest in actively managed funds, index funds are a much better solution.Conclusion:Millionaire Teacher is an excellent, easy-to-read book. In my opinion, this should be on the reading list for every high school student in the world, considering how lacking financial education is for most students. In addition, I suggest that everyone who currently invests in actively managed funds should read this, since I couldn't agree more that index funds in almost every case are far more rational to invest in than actively managed funds.

Easy to understand. At times oversimplified such as page 48 when the auther says "one hundred dollars invested ....would have turned into roughly $165 after taxes, at 5.15% annually." he does not discuss the result changing depending on the investors tax rate. This makes it less accurate in the details but easier to read. His rules of investing (start early, diversify in unmanaged mutual funds, rebalance, don't trust the financial newsletters and advisors, etc.) are things i wished i had learned in high school but the book confirms what I learned the hard way over a few decades and provides references and weblinks. I reccomend this book for the novice who wants to learn a simple (boring) way to invest and get returns that beat most professionals while spending very little time annually managing the account. The book has lots of stories and some humor. Easy to read and life changing. As an experienced investor I made some investment changes because of his compelliing advice backed by convincing statistics that reflected my own experience.

One single action item in this book is to open an account with Vanguard, split your investment into three parts:Vanguard US Bond Index (VBMFX - 35% or whatever your age is),Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund(VTSMX - 35%),Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund (VGTSX - 30%);remember to rebalance once a year, and you are all set. The rest of the book is pretty much trying to convince you that the above is the absolute right thing to do and never believe otherwise no matter what your financial adviser tells you, which is an easy and fun read.But what I found missing in this book is the guidance on how to deal with employer-sponsored 401k accounts. I do have an IRA account with Vanguard, but a much bigger chunk of my retirement investments are with Putnam - my employer sponsored 401k plan. The only index fund available through this plan is Putnam S&P 500 index. They don't offer any bond index or international stock index fund, and the rest are all actively managed mutual funds with quite high expense ratio. As far as I understand, you can not take money out of the 401k to put into an IRA while still employed. So in this case, does that mean I'm stuck? I tried to find answers in the real example in Chapter 6 but couldn't. The medical doctor seemed to have all the old investments at his fingertips ready to be transferred to Vanguard. Does he have an ongoing 401k at all? What to do if the majority of his investments are in a 401k plan offered by his current employer?I've read some of the other reviews and it looks like the author responded to some of those. Thank you Andrew, for doing so. If you see my question here, could you respond with some practical suggestions? And thank you for writing such an intuitive yet useful book. I enjoyed reading it and learned a lot.

This was a great book to read, especially as a public school music teacher. Hallam turns something dull and boring (finances) into something interesting and creative through stories and personal experience. He also uses quantifiable research published from financial research journals to support his claims. He quotes university professors, financial analysts, and current wealthy people such as Warren Buffet, to prove his points. His biggest points were to spend well within your mean; don't fall into the trap of listening to financial advisors who have hidden agendas; and use time as your biggest ally. He says that you can invest easily on your own with a few rather simple ideas in mind.This is a good book for someone who has no background in investments and stock markets. I always wanted to dabble in the stock market and now I have a better idea on how to do it with little risk.