Matt Furey: 101 Ways To Magnetize Money

Publishers send me books all the time. When I decide to read a book, I earn my Lazy Man moniker by choosing the thinnest book in my pile. Today that book is Matt Furey’s 101 Ways To Magnetize Money a book that you may be able to through in about 60-90 minutes.

The first few tips are about putting your mind in the right frame of mind – the power of positive thinking. I think you take it a little too far by leaving reminders like index cards around the house as suggested, but who am I to say. I once dated a girl who would write a letter to herself with a crayon… and repeatedly write it over and over again on the same piece of paper with more crayon. She said it worked it for her. I’m sure it did, but at the time all I could think of was, “Better to have a psycho girlfriend or a psycho ex-girlfriend… there’s a sitcom idea in this somewhere.” Anyway, back to the original topic, there’s something to be said for being in the right frame of mind. It’s good advice, but not revolutionary.

There are a variety of tips that I agree with:

• Prosper From What You Love to Do – I’ve been in jobs that I’ve hated. It was very hard to be successful when you are just thinking, “When can I get out of here?”
• Be Grateful for What You Have – I tend to think it’s human nature to look at what we don’t have as it helps us focus on getting them. However, we shouldn’t forget to stop and reflect on what you do have.
• Start a Making Money Ideas Journal – I did this… you are reading it right now.
• Daily Productivity Goal – I have a list of things that I want to accomplish each day. Sometimes they are short-term (go to post office, buy groceries), but I always like to have one or two longer term items on there (outline that new blog idea, get 5-10 pages of that eBook written).

And then there are some that don’t agree with:

• Expect unexpected income – The rest of the context sounds like he means “look for alternative income sources.” I could see people getting in a lot of trouble with the way it’s worded. “I bought the new Ferrari, because I was expecting an unexpected $100,000.” Let’s not even go into the conundrum of whether expected unexpected income really is unexpected anymore since you expect it.
• Always have Cash on You – I fundamentally agree with this, but he says that he often recommends that people carry $1,000 in cash to have a prosperous mindset. I think it’s going to suck that much more when you lose your wallet. Plus, to carry $1000 in cash you are going to have to have a pile of $20s (good luck on the back surgery from your bulging wallet) or you are going to have a pile of $100 bills that few places will accept if you need to actually buy something.
• Religious Overtones – There’s a lot of mention of religiousness in the book. Some people are not very religious or don’t believe in one particular religious book vs. another. I’ve still found these to people to be good people and often quite successful.

There are just a sample from the first 30 tips. I could go on, but it would be unfair to Matt Furey if I outlined all of them. I think these give you a good idea of the flavor of the book. From this rough analysis, I found that around 15% (4 of 30) are really good ideas and 10% (3 of 30) are things that I’d do differently. The other 75% is the type of mental affirmation stuff that I outlined in the 2nd paragraph (minus the weird ex-girlfriend rant). Perhaps it’s the way it’s organized into easily digestable tips, but I can almost imagine the information broken down into one really big blog post or a week of smaller ones.

In the end, there’s no way a book about magnetizing money is going to give you the actional advice on making money – nor do I believe it should. Mr. Furey’s book is $19.95 ($12.95 plus $7 in shipping and handling).