What People are Saying
A wonderfully attractive book with valuable advice about the financial world. It’s divided into easily digestible sections and offers insights into every aspect of money that we’re likely to encounter. There is much practical information here, and just dipping into a few pages at a time will reward the reader with valuable knowledge and insight. For example, are you an Eeyore or a Pollyanna? Apparently the Pollyannas do better in the long run. It’s written in a brisk, easy style. There’s no jargon here, and any essential technical terms are clearly explained. There are plenty of colourful charts and graphs, easily understood. We’d all benefit from reading this book, or simply turning to the pages that are relevant to us. Chad Gordon has achieved something remarkable here. He’s transformed a subject that has the potential to confuse into a source of fascinating information.
This book is, in my opinion, an instant classic. I bought this book, read the first 225 pages in a single sitting … I’ve read Suze Orman, I’ve read Tony Robbins, I’ve read my fair share of wealth and investment books, but this one is my favorite.
I worked for two business magazines for several decades, and learned new information in this book. It is comprehensive, easy to understand, funny, and useful for people in every stage of life.
In contrast to “get rich quick” books, this title from Gordon espouses a more long-term approach to financial choices. Full-color charts and tables support points such as renting vs. buying a home and why investing early reaps benefits over time. VERDICT: Accessible to most readers with an interest in stabilizing or improving their financial situation.
Gordon does a thorough job explaining how the world keeps getting more expensive, but our inability to completely comprehend this fact makes us choose financial strategies and products that actually make us poorer … Finances play such a central role in how our lives play out, and yet our schools rarely even touch on how we handle our money; much less making it a required class. If they did (and they should), I’d suggest Wealth By Virtue would make an excellent first textbook on planning students; financial lives.
If, like me, you’re more of a visual reader, I can’t recommend Wealth by Virtue more … this coffee table-worthy book features inspiration and advice on the six areas of personal finance: banking, investments, real estate, insurance, legal planning, and tax planning. Filled with amazing and thought-provoking explanations, it left me feeling empowered and ready to make my money work for me. I can’t think of a better gift for a friend who want to get their finances working and maximize their retirement planning.
… the wealth of knowledge in the book, combined with the excellent organization of topics makes it an invaluable reference book to anyone looking for sensible guidance on virtually anything financial related.
… one of the most all encompassing books on the subject I’ve ever read! It’s definitely not for beginners, but once you have a base this book really launches you to the next level. His philosophy is to minimize fears while maximizing life, and we do that through sound financial planning and information. As you grow in wealth, you must also grow in wisdom is a great quote that continues to pop in my head. If you are constantly seeking out wisdom then the wealth will come.
Awards Won

WINNER: 2017 Business Book of the Year
New England Book Festival

GOLD/1st PLACE: 2018 Best Informational Book
Feathered Quill Book Awards

GOLD: 2018 Personal Finance/Retirement Planning/Investing
Axiom Business Book Award

WINNER: 2018 Business Book of the Year
New Apple Book Awards

WINNER: 2018 EIFLE Award - Investing and Retirement Planning
Excellence In Financial Literacy Education (EIFLE) Awards

GOLD: 2018 IPPY Award - Finance/Investment/Economics
Independent Publisher (IPPY) Book Awards

WINNER: 2018 Non-Fiction Book of the Year
CAL Writing Awards

GOLD: 2017 - Business and Economics
Foreword Indies Award
https://www.forewordreviews.com/awards/winners/2017/business-and-economics/

WINNER: 2018 - Personal Finance/Investing
International Book Awards
http://www.internationalbookawards.com/2018awardannouncement.html
What you will learn:
Banking
How inflation is the most certain threat to long-term personal finances
How most people don’t make money in banks
How acknowledging that money is to buy stuff tells you all you need to know with your personal finances
Investments
Exactly how much needs to be in stocks and how much needs to be generating income
Exactly how much the stock market performs each year
How using dividends for income and never selling works the majority of the time, making you wealthier in retirement
Real Estate
Why using extra money to paying off your house generally puts you in a poorer position than saving it up
How buying real estate immediately shields from your biggest inflation threat
How to use your house as part of your financial planning
Insurance
Why all insurance decisions begin with your insurable needs and how to calculate this
How to know if you need long term care insurance
How to know if you can self-insure
Legal Planning
Whether you should get a trust or a will
Why putting “joint” on accounts and property can be a massive mistake
How bankruptcy can be the best financial planning tool if done wisely
Tax Planning
How people can receive Social Security tax free
How tax deferral will not reasonably help you
How the method of harvesting losses will help you save money each year
Watch the Wealth by Virtue Book Trailer
The vast amount of financial information available in the world often causes more confusion than clarity. As the flood of information rises, bad advice has become harder to filter out.
Wealth by Virtue filters it for you, answering the most critical personal finance questions:
Which is riskier, the stock market or inflation?
Is it better to use extra money to pay down your mortgage or save it up?
Can you control your long-term performance in the stock market?
What is the right amount of insurance?
Is it better to get a trust or a will?
FAQ’s
Wealth by Virtue is a book that explains the whole world of personal finance. Often in life, we learn financial matters “on the fly” and in bits and pieces. In my book, I tie together everything you will encounter in your financial life and explain it in a clear (and sometimes funny) way. It is structured around what I call the Six Areas of Finance: banking, investments, real estate, insurance, legal planning, and tax planning.
With great naiveté. The truth is that I probably would have never started it if I knew it would take this long. Originally my plan was to write a little print-on-demand paperback book roughly 100-150 pages long that explains my investing philosophies to existing and prospective clients. It started as a simple outline of what I felt clients needed to know if they were going to work with me. As I wrote and researched, I found that there wasn’t a book where readers could get an accessible and comprehensive understanding of the world of personal finance. I felt that people needed a mental framework to base financial decisions on.
Two years. I started writing it in the fall of 2015. Again, since it was for clients, my assumption as I wrote it was that I would personally know more than 90% of the people reading it. I think that because of this, the book has a very personal tone to it – like it’s a letter from a friend. However, as I wrote and researched, the project grew into what you see today. The main writing part took about six months. The rest of the time has been editing, refining, and graphic design.
The cover was created by a Venezuelan artist named Juan Fuentes. The bull and bear are the classic icons of Wall Street. Generally, a bull market is when it is going up and a bear is when it is going down. Often you will see these two facing off against each other and portrayed as enemies. Here, they are friends because I believe that people should not see them as opposing forces. I see bear markets as your “price of admission” for the long-term superior returns of the stock market. You have to embrace the bear, to get all the benefits of the bull. Your greatest practical tool is patience, peace and optimism during the dark times – which is also what the cover suggests, “In times of darkness, enjoy the stars.” It is also partially inspired by the Walt Whitman poem on page 140.
Go to page 365 for this one.
- Page 128 – What would happen if you relabeled the US Map as countries with a similar economic output
- Pages 34-35 – Shows the importance of saving early in life (early 9 years is better than later 65 years)
- Pages 10-11 – Nobody’s ever made money in banks over the long term.
I created all the graphics in a raw form. I was particular about how it was laid out and what colors to use (so that it’s consistent throughout the book). However, I hired an excellent graphic designer in South Africa named Gabi Hill who converted my rough graphics into works of art. She created the layout, the table of contents, and many subtle things throughout the book.
I went full circle with this one. As I said, originally my assumption was that I would use a print-on-demand service and just give the book away. I didn’t think twice about this route until about six months ago. As my wonderful senior editor Chris Benz worked on the book (who has done work for Michael Lewis and Dave Eggers), he kept urging me to go through a traditional publisher. I kept resisting and he eventually asked if he could “play agent” with it. Within a week he found an agent, two days later that agent found a publisher. This was incredibly exciting because the agency represented some really big names (Dr. Phil, Joel Osteen, Tony Robbins, Stephen Covey, and many others). However, it was clear early on that I was going to have to compromise. They said it definitely couldn’t be in color, needed to be 200-250 pages long, and some other things. Whether it was from vision, stubbornness, or self-destructiveness, in the end I decided to walk away from it all and go back to self-publishing.
I have no regrets about this. I eventually decided to have them printed because the print-on-demand was very low quality. I’m very happy with what you see today. The book itself experiments with some publishing innovations that I feel will make the concepts easier to understand – particularly the use of color to “brand” concepts. I am printing it with the best materials: cloth quarter bound hardcover with an embossed dust jacket, the highest quality paper, and first rate graphic design. None of this would have happened with a traditional publisher and certainly not for $32.00.
Selfishly I hope that it will help get the word out about what I do as a financial advisor and that it will help me meet new clients. Selflessly, I hope that it will make strangers wealthier and that they will do noble things with that wealth. Modesty aside, I think it has the potential to be a classic book on finance, but I know that there is a lot of luck for that to happen. And, it’s not a small book which may be intimidating to people.

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After a decade of advising clients in large brokerage firms, Chad Gordon started GreenStar Advisors in Denver, CO… and on the heels of the greatest market collapse of our lifetimes. In coaching his clients through this, he found that the biggest factor affecting client’s performance was not necessarily where their money was invested but more so in how they behaved during the crisis.