Retirement Income Secrets by Mike Stokes: Book Review

This post will provide a book review of Retirement Income Secrets: How to Retire Wealthy Without Winning the Lottery by Mike Stokes.

As a quick disclaimer upfront, Mike Stokes is a good friend of mine. He sent me a free copy of the book to review, but I was in no way compensated for doing so.

That being said, if the book sucked, I wouldn’t even publish a review on my website. This post is my honest opinion.

About Mike Stokes

First off, Mike is one of the good guys. I consider him a close friend. He’s a savvy work from home entrepreneur who has achieved great success in several different industries to include direct sales, affiliate marketing, real estate, and blogging. He might not be some famous millionaire you see on television, but he does know what he is talking about. He lives in Louisiana with his family.

About the Book

Retirement Income Secrets is a spiral bound book that gets sent to you via the postal service. It was published in 2016 and features 102 pages. You should be able to read the book in about 2 hours.

Quotes by Mike Stokes

Here are a few of my favorite quotes from Retirement Income Secrets.

Retirement is not an age, it’s a number.
It’s not about how much money you have saved, it’s about how much income you have.
Having a million dollars with no ongoing income is not a secure place to be.
What wealthy people know is that wealth is measured in time.
You will never get ahead if your only source of income is linear because no matter how much you make, you spend it all on just “living”.
Create extra income and convert that extra income into passive income greater than your living expenses, and you are now wealthy.
Most franchises and small businesses are really no more than buying yourself a job for a lot of money, and I’d rather keep my money and not have a job (even if the job was free!).

I don’t want to share all of my favorite quotes from the book, just enough to pique your interest.

How the Book is Organized

The book consists of an introduction, 16 chapters, afterword, resources, and recommended reading. Here is the breakdown of what’s in each chapter.

Chapter 1: So You’re Ready to Retire?

Chapter 2: How Much Do You Need?

Chapter 3: What’s Your Number?

Chapter 4: Not All Incomes Are Created Equal

Chapter 5: Your Retirement Income Blueprint

Chapter 6: Getting Your House in Order

Chapter 7: Give Yourself a Raise today

Chapter 8: Begin Investing in Simple Stuff

Chapter 9: Turn Your Home into More Money

Chapter 10: Your Side Hustle Builds Your Wealth

Chapter 11: How Network Marketing Saved My Life

Chapter 12: The Internet Changed Everything

Chapter 13: Making a Living without a Job

Chapter 14: Making Money Out of Thin Air

Chapter 15: How to Develop Internet Real Estate

Chapter 16: How to Set Up Your Own Blog

Chapter 17: Start Buying Back Your Life Today

Key Takeaways from the Book

Here were some of my biggest takeaways from the book.

# 1 Get out of debt – Most people are a slave to their debt. Debt keeps people stuck in jobs they hate. The quicker you can pay off your consumer debt the better.

# 2 Pay off your house as soon as possible – Owning a home is a good thing. Owning your home free and clear is even better. If possible, find a way to pay off your house as quickly as possible.

# 3 Create passive, leveraged income – Everyone needs residual income. Most people only have linear income, so they need to keep trading hours for dollars. Passive income comes in month after month for something you did one time. Once you have enough passive income to cover your bills you are financially free.

# 4 Even if you have a good income, develop a side-hustle – Everyone needs a side hustle, specifically a home-based business. This gives you great tax incentives and lets you work smart.

# 5 Cash flow is more important than money in the bank – Money in the bank is important, but not your big objective. The real key to financial success is to have great cash flow coming in month after month, whether you work or not.

My Overall Review of Retirement Income Secrets

I absolutely love this book. I think it’s a great read for anyone who is sick and tired of being sick and tired, and wants to get off the hamster wheel and reinvent their life. Overall, I give the book a 9 of 10 and highly recommend it. My copy has tons of passages underlined and many pages are dogeared. For a small investment of $39.95, plus shipping, I think it’s money well spent.

Where to Order Your Copy

You can order your own personal copy of “Retirement Income Secrets” by visiting Mike’s blog.

Final Thoughts

There you have it folks. I hope you have enjoyed my review of Retirement Income Secrets by Mike Stokes. If you’ve read the book before, please leave a comment below to share your thoughts. I look forward to hearing from you.

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