UPDATED August, 2019
If you receive emails from investment advisory services like I do, you may have gotten a sales pitch for The Big Black Book of Income Secrets from the Palm Beach Research Group.
The promo promises you’ll discover “30 unique income tools” in The Big Black Book of Income Secrets. It sounded like there were some interesting strategies being covered, so I decided to do some investigating. Read on for my review of The Big Black Book of Income Secrets and what it’s all about…
The offer entices you with a “risk-free 60-day trial subscription to the Palm Beach Letter.” If you’re not satisfied before the two-month trial is up, you’re told you can get a refund and keep the book and some “bonus” reports that are included in the offer.
To find out if The Big Black Book of Income Secrets lived up to its promises, we signed up for the “Platinum Subscription” for $99 for the first year, which comes with additional “bonus” reports.
Three weeks later, the book arrived, containing 22 (not 30 as promised) strategies, with a cover letter from the Publisher, Tom Dyson, explaining that we could log into their website to access the reports we signed on for and back issues of the Palm Beach Letter. (I guess for $99, they can’t afford to mail you hard copies of the reports.)
As I started reading through the 22 income strategies in the book, I immediately started noticing some red flags.
The First Red Flag in The Big Black Book of Income Secrets is “Income For Life”
Income for Life is Palm Beach Letter’s flagship “secret.” And the book devotes all 34 pages of Chapter 1 to it.
The Income for Life chapter, written by the Publisher, Tom Dyson, claims it’s…
The Most Underground Income Investment I’ve Ever Seen”
And Dyson notes, “The only way you’d ever hear about it is if you stumbled onto it by accident.”
Really?!?
Here’s the truth about “Income for Life” – it’s just another name for “Bank On Yourself,” and I’ve made sure it’s no secret.
In fact, I’ve spent the last two decades popularizing this strategy under the name “Bank On Yourself®” (which I’ve trademarked) and writing not one, but two New York Times best-selling books on the topic!
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In addition, Bank On Yourself has been featured on thousands of major websites and publications, including Bloomberg Businessweek, Associated Press, Yahoo Finance, Fox News and AARP. I’ve been interviewed on the topic on every major TV and radio network.
As a result, our surveys show that around three out of every ten people in the U.S. have heard of Bank On Yourself. Depending on how sassy I’m feeling, if I talk to someone who says they haven’t heard of it, I’ll ask what rock they’ve been hiding under.
And certainly some of the other strategies in The Big Black Book of Income Secrets are not “secret,” either.
How “secret” are strategies like reverse mortgages (you may have even seen me on TV as a spokesperson for a major reverse mortgage company), rental real estate, various types of annuities and making money from your skills by posting your services on websites that match people looking for freelancers with people offering services?
Maybe the only “secret” in The Big Black Book of Income Secrets is which well-known financial strategies The Palm Beach Group is going to make you pay $99.00 for!
But the Palm Beach Letter is a marketing machine that can afford to hire the very best sales copywriters whose job it is to get you hooked on paying for their investment advisory services, so they can sell more products and services to you at higher prices (some of their services sell for up to $5,000 a pop) the moment you take that first bait.
That’s why their initial offers start as low as $4.95, or $49 or $99. (Palm Beach Letter is part of Agora Publishing, one of the most successful, profitable newsletter companies around. I was Editor-In-Chief for one of Agora’s publications for a year, and got an insider’s look at how they work.)
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I did see some stock-picking strategies in the book that I wasn’t familiar with – more on that in a moment…
We’ve already established that many of the strategies in The Big Black Book of Income Secrets are not really secrets. But what about the accuracy of the information contained in the book? Can you count on the information you’ll find in it?
That’s the Second Red Flag in The Big Black Book of Income Secrets
For example, I quickly skimmed the chapter on reverse mortgages, since I’m very familiar with them, and on page 139, they tell you to “get advice from a counselor (a free service).”
You’re required to get counseling from an approved service for most, if not all, reverse mortgages. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the cost for this required housing counselor session runs about $125. The fee is waived, however, if your income is less than twice the poverty level.
The issues in chapter 2 on “Peer-to-Peer Lending” are more serious. Palm Beach Group gives five reasons why they recommend using the Lending Club and explain why Lending Club is a “safe place for your money.”
Since the book was published, Lending Club was found to be involved in some shady doings, its CEO was fired and its stock took a big hit.
And in chapter 7 on Multi-Year Guaranteed Annuities, they claim that financial representatives don’t bother selling them because the commissions are so low, averaging “1% or less.”
So we did our own research and could find just one company paying only a 1% commission on a 3 year annuity, but that company didn’t pay the highest rate. And on the 5 year annuity, the commissions ranged between 2.25%-4%, not the 1% or less claimed in the book. Again, the lowest commission product didn’t pay the highest rate.
Maybe those are nit-picking points, but the information Palm Beach Letter provides on Income for Life (most popularly known as Bank On Yourself, which I am intimately familiar with) has some serious inaccuracies that I’ve written about on this blog.
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Over the last few years, Palm Beach Letter has used other names to describe and promote this strategy, to keep it mysterious, so that people feel compelled to pay for their publications, in order to find out what the “big secret” is.
I wrote about this when they were promoting it as the “Secret 770 Account.” In that article, I discuss four things Palm Beach Letter got wrong about this strategy, such as claiming you receive a “contractually guaranteed minimum growth rate of 4%.”
That’s both inaccurate and misleading, as I explain in my article on the 770 account.
When promoting this strategy as the 770 Account lost steam, they renamed it. Read what I wrote about “President Reagan’s Secret 702(j) Retirement Plan” for details.
So, for these reasons, I have a hard time putting full faith in the rest of the information in The Big Black Book of Income Secrets.
What About the Stock Picking Strategies in The Big Black Book of Income Secrets?
Let’s take a look at Chapter 10 on “The 3-Minute Money Primer,” about “how to earn safe income with options.”
In this section, they introduce you to the “COIN proprietary screening method,” which lets you “make trades in just three minutes,” once you learn how to do it.
They then give you a list of 30 “elite stocks” to use for potential trades – all household names like American Express, Google and Wal-Mart – and then show you “three simple steps” to use to narrow down the list.
Then they give you guidelines to use to narrow down the list, such as the P/E ratio should be cheaper than the market’s P/E ratio, and why you should consider buying a stock after a damaging news story appears about it.
Then they walk you through 12 steps to track the 30 elite stocks on Yahoo Finance. And once you’ve narrowed the field down to three stocks, you’re given 6 metrics to use to compare the stocks, such as time in trade, cushion and open interest.
Now you’re ready to make a trade.
WHEW!!! It’s enough to make your eyes cross!
You really have to wonder what percentage of the Palm Beach Letter’s subscribers actually use these strategies
I’m guessing it’s a pretty small percentage.
It also appears to contradict what Tom Dyson claims on page 27 that they “hate complexity. One of the rules [we] established when we first started was we’d never recommend anything we couldn’t understand and explain in simple terms.”
The Palm Beach Group provides a lot of testimonials for its strategies, but each only contains a first name and last initial, which shoots a big hole in their credibility. Most people who are happy with a company’s services are fine with using their full identity. Check out the success stories from happy Bank On Yourself customers here to see what I mean.
So, is The Big Black Book of Income Secrets right for you? It depends. If you like and will actually implement multi-step stock picking strategies, and are okay with the possibility that there may be some inaccuracies and misstatements, the book does cover strategies that, for the most part, are safer than many strategies you typically hear about.
But if you do sign up, be prepared for a barrage of emails designed to get you to spend more money on the Palm Beach Letter’s many services.
And if you want the straight scoop on the Income for Life Strategy, and access to the most highly trained and knowledgeable network of financial representatives qualified to help you implement the strategy properly, you’re in the right place.
Get a Bank On Yourself (aka “Income for Life”) Analysis Without Spending a Dime
It’s easy to find out what your bottom-line numbers and results could be if you added the Income for Life or Bank On Yourself strategy to your financial plan. Just request your FREE, no-obligation Analysis.
You’ll get a referral to one of only 200 trained and vetted financial representatives in the U.S. and Canada who have met the rigorous requirements to be a Bank On Yourself Professional. They’ll structure your plan correctly to maximize the growth of your cash value and show you how to potentially add hundreds of thousands of dollars to your lifetime wealth, simply by changing the way you make major purchases. They’ll also answer all your questions. Take the first step here:
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I plan to retire in 12 years, what can I do now to get the most of what I have earned. The big Black Book said something about getting income from being in your house over 25 years and over 62years old. My mother is 80 and has been in her house of 40. How do I see if she could qualify.
Is the Big Black book just blowing smoke.
They are referring to a “reverse mortgage,” which is an excellent product that I have done considerable research into. You certainly don’t need to buy The Big Black Book of Income Secrets to see if you qualify! (And this is another example of how many strategies in the book are not really secrets at all.)
Can you really get $6,840 per year extra from SS? I get SS part from my widows benefits and the other my disability. I don’t make much, so $6,840 extra a year would help me out so much financially.
Thanks for any help you can give me
Janice
That’s the problem with the way the Palm Beach Group advertises their stuff. They use broad claims and generalizations that are often over-hyped and over-stated.
You may or may not qualify for a larger Social Security benefit – consult with someone who has expertise in that area.
Hi Janice,
I am on SS now, how can I add more from SS? I have been on SS for about twenty years now. any good advice you can give me is appreciated. Thank you!! Have a great DAY!!!!
God Bless!!!!!!!!!
From everything I have read, The Big Book of Income and its contents
are sketchy and erroneous and basically a SCAM. They must think we are pretty dumb! I read another Article on making to thousands or more several times a month (most months) if you sign up for Zachery Scheidt’s (same author) other book about getting really big bucks called Congressional Checks stating that there is $1.17 trillion and the reviews on that were very terrible saying he is deceptive and tries to mislead you into thinking you could get thousands if not millions if you follow the tips in the book and another subscription. I think I am done reading this crap. I have always heard if it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t true. Agora Financial is behind one of these, if not both? Good Riddance.
I don’t trust anything associated with Agora Financial – from direct experience dealing with their false claims, poor customer support and improper credit card billings – as they overhype and under-perform. I seriously think investment firms that prey on seniors – especially as a pattern – and other generations struggling to catch up should be held legally accountable, and prosecuted where warranted as a class action. I think the denigration of trust and accountability in finance, government and even corporate America will create a backlash where both are held high. I hope, as we enter an economy of interdependency and innovation, these manipulators will be called out sooner and punished accordingly. Pam, are you aware of any such actions underway?
There are always actions being taken against those who prey on the unsuspecting and seniors, Bill. I agree with you that we need to rid the country of these tricksters and thieves.
I use to be a financial analyst. I can tell you that if you have no other income than ss and you own your home than a reverse mortgage is a really great way to get money now for you to take and enjoy your life…Basically they will give you a percent of what your house is worth…a large percent in cash. The great part is you can take lump sums and reinvest it or maybe pay cash for another house and rent it out….and even when the money is gone you get to live in your house until you die. No one else can live there but you.
When you die it goes to the bank. You never have to pay the money back. Its kind of like them buying your house, you get the money and get to still live there till you die. If you have no other retirement and only Social Security, the only way to increase that is to find a high paying job or work two jobs your last 5 years and this will increase the amount you will get on your social security. That is the only way to get more if that is all you will have to live on when you reach 62 or 65.