Willis - Rich is not a four-letter word : how to survive Obamacare, trump Wall Street, kick-start your retirement, and achieve financial success

I wrote this book for the many people whove never recovered from the Great Recession. The unemployed get much of the medias attentionand sympathybut the unemployment rate tells only part of the story. Millions more of us struggle with other nasty problems that have come to define this sorry, no-growth economy. Im thinking of the dads who may have found part-time work, but cant nail down a full-time gig with benefits. There are also the newly minted college grads living in basement apartments, shell-shocked that their massive investment in education has failed to pay off. Then, therere the retirees facing savings diminished by a decades worth of Federal Reserve easy money policy. And, dont forget the families who thought Obamacare would protect them from the high cost of healthcare but now struggle to pay unaffordable premiums for coverage they are forced by the government to buy.

Yes, this recession has posed entirely new problems and created new stresses on our wallets. But Americans are a can-do lot. And when things go wrong, many of us take it on our own shoulders. We say we should have done better. We should have planned better. We blame ourselves. Many of those unemployed dads and struggling college grads think they somehow came up short. I dont believe thats true.

Whats going on with our middle class today is different. Truth is, the heated rhetoric emanating from Washington, D.C., isnt helping you take care of your family and plan your future. Instead of helping, the liberal policies that have defined the last six years are flattening the middle class. As I write, the Social Security Administration has just issued a report revealing that more than half of Americans earn $30,000 or less a year. Thats just $5,750 above the poverty line. Thats a tragedy!

I believe its time we do better. We must end the liberal, so-called progressive policies that are driving our middle class into extinction, and encourage the self-starters and entrepreneurs who can drive employment and growth. Wealth has been demonized by the Left in this country, but the reality is that financial success is necessary to raising up our children and their children. Rich is not a four-letter word. Moving ahead and moving up is something weve always been about. Financial success is a laudable goal!

If you want more for your family, this is a book worth picking up. I trace the roots of the problems for the middle class and offer solutions and shortcuts for people who want to make it on their own. Because I think you can still make it in this country under your own steam. The blame game is a waste of time and energy that can best be used on more productive pursuits.

How can I be so sure that your problems can be overcome? Ive seen the struggle firsthand and witnessed it being overcome. As a coal miners granddaughter, I witnessed my family in western North Carolina struggle with poverty and the shame that goes with it. Some had no indoor plumbing. Others received government handouts. But many, my father included, built successful lives that provided for their kin. It took grit and a willingness to try new things to succeed. But it proved to me that financial success is possible in this country even for those who must start from scratch. Thats how I know you can achieve financial success, and I want to help you do it!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Rich Is Not a Four-Letter Word has been invigorating and a pleasure, but it wouldnt have been possible without the top-notch team at Penguin Random Houses Crown Publishing Group. Great thanks to Crown executive editor Roger Scholl, and to Crowns incredible marketing and publicity team: Campbell Wharton, Ayelet Gruenspecht, and Megan Perritt. Thanks as well to my agent, Wayne Kabak, who was a critical sounding board.

There were also a number of people whose expertise I leaned on heavily to create the tools, tips, and advice I hope will help many Americans. Those people include, but are not limited to, David Bach, Tony Beshara, Kal Chany, Ric Edelman, Lauren Fix, Rob Franek, Vera Gibbons, Scott Gottlieb, Scott Hodge, Doug Holtz-Eakin, Paul Howard, Tom Kraeutler, Adam Levin, Greg McBride, Grover Norquist, and Pete Sepp.

My family has also been an unwavering source of support. Thanks to my mother, Betty Jean Conley; sister, Frankie Pryor; and brother, Steve Willis. There is one person, though, who is behind me every day, giving me the benefit of his intelligence, wit, and humor, and thats my husband of 21 years, David Evans. Nobody compares. Thank you, David!

Weve lost it. Our mojo. Our critical faith in things. Our confidence. The vast majority of Americans85 percentsay it is now more difficult to maintain their standard of living than it was in 2002. Thats 10 long years of frustration for a country accustomed to regular and consistent improvements in its way of life. In the same survey, 43 percent of us say its never getting better. Its no wonder people are discouraged. Median wages have declined sharply since 2006 and are lower still than the $54,059 registered in President Barack Obamas first year in office (as of July 2015). Worrisome enough for sure, but the statistics that really shocked me were contained in a 2014 Pew Research Center study that showed that fewer and fewer of us think of ourselves as middle class. Since 2008, the proportion of Americans who identify themselves as mainstream has fallen by nearly a fifth from 53 percent to just 44 percent. Forty percent of us now identify ourselves as lower middle class or lower class compared with only 25 percent in February 2008. Were defining ourselves down. What happened to American middle-class confidence?

Most of us blame the Great Recession for this mess. We were on a roll before the deepest recession since World War II came crashing down. Remember? The stock market was going up, up, up, and so were housing prices. We felt rich! Home equity lines of credit bankrolled vacations, home improvements, literally anything we could imagine. Those were the days! By the time Lehman Brothers closed its doors and filed for bankruptcy on September 15, 2008, we had grown so used to the good times that we couldnt imagine the years of financial deprivation to come. But they did come, and many Americans gave back more than they had gained. Record foreclosures. Personal bankruptcies. Smashed retirement accounts. The anxiety and frustration caused by the Great Recession has been off the charts.