Read any good books lately?

I just finished reading Lonnie Scruggs’ latest body of work, “Taking the Mystery Out of Money”. Like so many others, Lonnie’s Deals On Wheels was my first introduction to the MH niche. When I found out he had written a new book, I ordered one hot off the presses. This book is a significant departure from the material covered in DOW or the subsequent Making Money with Mobile Homes. Taking the Mystery Out of Money is a finance text that I think should be required reading in our nation’s high schools.

The first part of the book encourages the reader to travel down the path of financial freedom: take time to learn about how money works and take proactive control of your financial destiny rather than rely on an employer or the government. It illustrates the devastating effects of consumer debt (i.e. credit card, auto loans) and encourages the reader to be financially disciplined- spend less than you earn and invest the difference. One of Lonnie’s favorite phases right now is “if you get rich when you’re young, you can a have a blast growing old”.

The second part of the book is devoted to how to use a financial calculator. For those who know how to calculate annualized IRRs, there’s probably nothing new here, but those who are bewildered by PMT, PV, NPER abbreviations or intimated by RPN, this is an excellent tutorial. In his inimitable folksy style, he walks the reader through how to use a HP12C. Using dozens of easy to follow examples, he starts with the basics and then goes well beyond. If you follow along and crunch the numbers as you read, by the end of this section, you will be thoroughly familiar and comfortable with this calculator. Even if you were born numerically challenged, you’ll be able to solve problems like the discount necessary to produce a 37% yield on a note with a balloon payment due midway through the loan term.

In the last part of the book, he discusses notes and his latest investing endeavors. He has become a Lonnie Shark, um, I mean, a hard money lender. While this is by no means a treatise on the topic, this section serves as a good introduction. Like DOW, he shares his approach to investing in this new niche and gives valuable insight along with a few tips for those of us wanting to explore this arena.

On several occasions, we’ve been approached by residents who wanted to borrow money for various personal emergencies ranging from impending utility cutoff to bail bond/penalties. Until recently, we’ve uniformly declined those requests. But with a bit of judgment and some collateral of value (at least to the borrower), we’ve stepped into these precarious waters. Our experience is too new to draw any conclusions yet, but stay tuned.

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