BUILDING WEALTH

Entrepreneur and publisher Barbera, in
this debut guide to financial management, offers tips for those looking for true
wealth.

The author isn’t the first person to
observe that wealth isn’t the same thing as money, but he does have a succinct
explanation of the difference between them: “Wealth is independence. Real
wealth is the ability to live your life on your own terms.” Born to Italian
immigrants of modest means, Barbera began his working life as a shoeshine boy
at the age of 6—a job that involved competing for space with older boys and,
sometimes, fleeing from the police (as he was underage and unlicensed). Using his later rise in the business world
as a model, the author takes readers through what he sees as necessary steps
for success, from adopting “the Mindset of Wealth” and laying a proper
foundation for it by getting an education, budgeting, and learning from every
job, to increasing one’s earning power and diversifying one’s income. He
provides case studies to illustrate the ways that these concepts come
together—such as when he brought a credit union back into the black by drawing
on his past experience as a bank examiner—along with bulleted lists that recap
key information in each section. Barbera’s prose has a warm tone, and his
anecdotes help to personalize his lessons, as when he discusses his decision to
sell candy for a fundraiser: “3,000 boxes of chocolate Easter eggs filled an
entire bedroom; Bernice [Barbera’s wife] was not happy. So there was added
incentive to sell some eggs.” There’s a lot of practical information here—the
author is a particular advocate of real estate investment, particularly in apartment
complexes—but the larger message that emerges in this slim volume is how attitude
and common sense play key roles in business outcomes. Although most of this advice
will be familiar to business-book readers, fans of the Mentoris Project—the
book series that Barbera publishes on the lives of prominent Italians and
Italian Americans—may be interested to see what drives the man behind the
scenes.

A guide to financial decision-making
that blends pragmatism and idealism.