The Great American Dividend Machine: How an Outsider Became the Undisputed Champ of Wall Street Hardcover – February 10, 2015

The Great American Dividend Machine Book ReviewThe Great American Dividend Machine by Bill Spetrino is a great book for the new investor and those that have lost their investing focus. Spetrino accomplishes this in two ways. First, the book gives practical and specific advice as to how to start investing and be successful with safety. Secondly, the book gives enough Spetrino background, insights, and testimonials to educate you on how he can help you on the path to your financial freedom.1. Investing PrinciplesSpetrino’s book starts his book where investors should start, at the beginning. Why are you investing in the first place? He follows that up with advice on how to set your goals; not for making money but for how you will use money as a tool to achieve truly important goals such as providing for and spending more time with your family.Spetrino goes on to discuss that his goal was to obtain financial freedom. Which he has achieved, retiring early as he did at 42 so he could do what he wants on his own terms. As he puts it, “Money provides the opportunity to have a life where all important elements are in harmony.” His book is filled with amusing but pertinent anecdotes, mostly based on his own experiences.Spetrino then goes into broad concepts and strategies on which his type of investing is based on. He also discusses his 10 basic conservative investing principles.As Bill Spetrino says, there is no excuse not to start investing and start right now. The earlier you start the faster you’ll achieve the financial freedom he talks about. His 22 suggestions in the appendix will help many people find the money to get started investing, which is often the most difficult step towards financial freedom. Just knowing that Spetrino was able to break out of his 9 to 5 work life can others believe they can, especially if they follow his investment advice.2. Spetrino the investorInterspersed throughout his book, he gives enough background, insights, and testimonials about himself to suggest to you why he is especially qualified to help the reader on the path to financial freedom. He demonstrates how he couples his street smarts with his accounting/finance background to understand the true value of the companies he invests in, even when the “crowd” thinks the opposite. His record shows he is right almost all the time.If you bought the book to learn how you can replicate Spetrino’s highly successful investments, you will be disappointed. Even though his 10 basic principles are listed, there is a “secret sauce” that cannot be captured on paper. It is because Spetrino IS the secret sauce that pulls everything together.The fundamental takeaway from the book is that value investing with a focus on dividend-paying stocks and reinvesting the dividends is a slow but steady way to pave your path to financial freedom. Bill adds his “value investing” twist which turns on the jets of an otherwise conservative investment approach.Most people need help to invest their hard-earned savings. Some do little and suffer poor returns. Some pay for advisors who take a percentage of the portfolio. Some try to do this on their own which can lead to expensive lessons when they lose money. Others, like myself, subscribe to newsletters to give them ideas. I have been a subscriber since 2012. Bill does the kind of help that most investors need. He does a lot of other education in his weekly podcasts and written updates. Calming worried investors and saying they should give their investment a chance to realize its full potential is priceless and is one thing I value most about Bill and his service.This is not a get rich quick scheme. The last I saw his newsletter was only $99 with a money-back guarantee. He is not getting rich from his newsletter. I like that he is investing in his recommendations alongside us. He is very upfront about everything and there is no front runner. I believe he is very ethical and has his subscriber’s best interests in mind in his recommendations.Further, I can say from my own experience, that his successful conservative portfolio has launched me into retirement with the financial freedom to check off things on my bucket list. And it feels great! 2019 was the best investing year ever for me because of Bill’s picks including Apple, Qualcomm, and Applied Materials. These three were huge winners for me. Thanks Bill!

This book And "The Dividend Machine" newsletter belong in every investor's library! The book is an engaging read, just as I would imagine it would be like to sit down with Bill for a coffee and a little conversation on investing and good solid common sense. He has a unique set of gifts that make him an investing genius, as well as a caring human being who wants to help you and me realize the same incredible gains in the market that he has. (Gains have Not been my previous experience with investing, when I've followed professional advice into mutual funds, for lack of Bill's knowledge in how to pick the right stock.) Bill not only has the expertise, but also the desire to share it, and to know that You are doing well, too! The book is a primer on investing, explained with anecdotes that make sense to any reader, and some real common sense ideas on how to make sure that you Have more money to invest. His writing style gives one a sense of talking to a friend.I highly recommend that you Also subscribe to The Dividend Machine newsletter, which is where you'll find the up-to-date material for current stocks to buy At The Right Price, as well as suggestions on when it might be time to replace them with something better. FYI, I moved half of an institutionally managed 401K into an IRA, and in the first 18 months am up 20%, while the 401K went nowhere. And Yes, it's All in the IRA now!! I'm doing far better investing on my own with Bill's newsletter advice than a Major stock brokerage/investment manager could do on my behalf. And without a management fee, to boot!Take the leap with Bill, follow his suggestions, be patient and allow your investments to soar to new heights over the years! Go for it! (No, I'm not a shill, haven't met Bill, just stumbled onto his newsletter, read it for 2 years to realize that he sounds just like my dad, who was a good investor, but wouldn't teach me because, "Your husband will handle that." - Has the world changed or what? - so I took the leap. My only regret is not having done so a Lot Sooner!)

First off, let me say I agree with his approach to investing. I too have taken on the dividend investing approach, and when I bought this book, I was hoping to get some more tidbits and strategies that I could use to help me with my portfolio. This book was entirely about purchasing his $99/year newsletter (6 cents per hour), to get the rest of his investing strategy. Well, I say strategy, but he doesn't ever even hint that he's teaching you anything, he more or less tells you that he'll be picking your stocks and you should do everything he says. I've read a lot of good books on finance and investing, and while I had high hopes for this one, it fell flat and had me skimming the final pages for any real information. Very disappointing to say the least.