Book Review of

Financial Self-Defense

How to Win the Fight for Financial Freedom

Author : Charles Givens

Pros : Aggressive style can help people save money.

Cons : Much of the book is an advertisement for Givens' insurance, banking and newsletter businesses.

Grade : B

Contents : Jump to review...

Part 1 : Get Organized and Get Started

1. Take Charge of Your Financial Future
2. Creating a Records management System

Part 2 : How to Win the Automobile Game

3. Save up to 60 percent on Every Car You Buy
4. Sell Your Car Yourself and Pocket an Extra $1,000

Part 3 : How to Save Thousands When You Buy Insurance

5. The Right (and Wrong) Way to Buy Insurance
6. Create a Maximum-Protection Low-Cost Life Insurance Plan
7. Get Rid of Hidden Insurance That Is Costing You $2,000 a Year
8. Save Big Money on Your Automobile Insurance
9. Money-Saving Health Insurance Strategies
10. Designing a Disability Income Plan Without Insurance
11. Making Sense Out of Nursing Home Insurance

Part 4 : Winning with Other People's Money

12. Beating the Bank
13. Keeping your Credit Under Control
14. High-Powered Credit Card Strategies
15. Harness the Power of a Home Mortgage

Part 5 : Put the Tax System on Your Side

16. Smart Taxpayer Tactics
17. How to Keep Records for Maximum Tax Deductions
18. Freelancing for Pleasure and Profit
19. Build a Better IRA
20. Create a Rental Property Tax Haven
21. Beat the Capital Gains Tax
22. Avoiding the AMT - The Alternative Minimum Tax

Epilogue : A New Beginning
Resources

Review :

This is good book to read because Givens' aggressive approach to saving and investing money is fairly unique. While most insurance agents, who earn commissions on larger premiums, urge you to insure everything, Givens urges you to avoid many kinds of insurance. Givens is also unafraid to take on banks, auto dealers and probate courts.

Still the book is to an extent an advertisement for Givens products. For example, Givens rightly encourages people to avoid whole life insurance and buy low-cost term insurance. Where should readers turn for such insurance? Givens' own insurance agency, of course. His agency may have reasonable rates, but make sure you shop around.

Givens' strength, his aggressive style, could also be his weakness. Givens and some of his advice often borders on the fringes of impropriety. In January, 1996, he paid the state of Florida $75,000 to cover the state's legal costs in an investigation of Givens' operations. As a result of the investigation by Florida's attorney general, Givens also set aside $175,000 to cover consumer refunds.

As a further blow, a California federal judge upheld in June, 1996 that Givens must pay a $14 million jury award. The money will go to 29,000 plaintiffs.

Reviewed by David Luhman, MBA, EA

Published 1995 by Pocket Books (Simon and Schuster). ISBN 0-671-51690-6
Length : 499 pages.