A Million Is Not Enough

Michael KI. Farr, “A Million Is Not Enough”, Springboard Press, 2008, Pages 269
Michael Farr is president and majority owner of Farr, Miller & Washington, LLC. He is currently a regular guest host on CNBC’s Squawk Box. His commentary can be heard on the Associated Press Radio and National Public Radio.

I did not have any particular reason to read this book other than the fact I am waiting for books on hold through the inter-library loan system. I saw this book was published in 2008 so thought it would give me another current view on financial problems that began in mid 2006. Not! This author covers all the main financial planning elements but as if no unusual crisis is occurring. It is as if he wrote this book in 2005. He uses standard deviation as the measure of risk which has surely been shown to be inappropriate. He also has people withdrawing 5% from portfolios rather than 4% with annual inflation adjustments. Of course A Million is Not enough if you want more from this source than $40K per year, inflation has taken care of that and will continue to erode the dollar.

As I read this book I began to reflect on how much my formal financial planning classes have helped me to prepare to weather the current, as the Irish say, “Troubles”. Another: Not! It is only my reading of financial history and various academics in the field that prepared me for what is happening now. The formal education I received was little help in avoiding disaster. This book by Farr reinforces this fact in that he writes like business as usual is an appropriate response. There is not enough emphasis given to items I described in a earlier book report: “The Black Swan”.