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.

Hi Andrew,It looks like I ordered accidentally two copies of your book. That's good news because I can keep one book and lend out another to friends!It took me one weekend to read through the book, it's highly addictive (especially for a novice investor like myself who was just looking for the right information to come along).I've already recommended it to many friends, some already bought their own copy, and I would definitely recommend it to everyone who is like me, lost in the great world of investing, being talked into a corner by fund managers, and not knowing who to trust or where to find the information that can help you further on your way.After reading your book, I now know what to look for, how to build up my portfolio, how to be confident and how to be disciplined when the gambler part inside me tries to take over. I've set up a solid portfolio and I am looking forward to see how it will turn out.Congratulations again, and I hope to see another book coming out of your pen (or keyboard).Happy birthday!Wouter

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.