Like many Americans, I have a complicated history with debt. In my 20s living in New York City, I spent more than I could afford, borrowing to fill the gap and running up my credit card. I was living above my means, digging myself into a hole of debt with no experience of knowing how hard it would be to climb out.

I couldn't get out of it on my own. Eventually, I met my future wife, and after we married, she pulled me out of my debt with her savings—not a great way to start a marriage.

Debt also helped me build my wealth. In the mid-2000s, when my wife and I bought our house, we took out the largest mortgage we could afford. What's more, the mortgage we took out was interest only. We had no plans to pay off our mortgage and we never have. Today, the house is worth more than twice as much as it was when we bought it (at least according to Zillow). And that money we saved by not paying down any principal on our mortgage, roughly $8,400 a year, or $96,600 by now has gone, in part, toward renovating the house. We have a new kitchen and a finished basement. Without that savings, we also likely wouldn't have felt comfortable maxing out our 401(k)s and contributing to our kids' college savings accounts.

I'm not sure exactly where I got the idea that it was OK to take out a huge mortgage and go for a home loan that—at least at the time—other people were saying was too risky. But I know at least some of the courage to do so came from Tom Anderson and the conversations we have had over the years, often late at night when we should have been talking politics or sports. We are fellow finance geeks.

A quick disclaimer: I have known Tom Anderson for more than 20 years. We met in college, became quick friends, and have stayed friends ever since.

As unbiased as I can be, Tom is one of the most insightful and original thinkers among the financial planners I have known. And having been a personal finance and investing reporter for a good portion of my career, I have known many.

What you have here is a powerful tool to increase your wealth, lower your stress about your money, and create a happy future. Do the worksheets; they are great. Like me, you may not get all passing grades, but what you will get is a sense of what direction to go and how to get there. And I certainly got a lot more confidence I could get where I wanted to be.

Most personal finance books are really works of pop psychology—a bag of tricks to make you feel better about your finances, not actually improve them. Paying off your lowest balance credit card, for instance, instead of your lowest rate credit card, may make you feel better about your finances, but in the long run it will actually make you poorer. And, as Tom shows in this book, having no mortgage or debt might make you feel better, but it may also cut off your best path to wealth.

Tom lays out how to move into a better financial position without needing any tricks.

Tom does make one point in the book I would quibble with: He says that stock market valuations are so high, and the prospects for growth are so low, that U.S. markets in general are likely to disappoint. I have a more optimistic view of U.S. market growth. But we always engage in friendly debate and, in the end, he is right—none of us knows the future. Even if interest rates stay low for longer than expected and stock market returns are better than expected, that makes now an even better time to follow Tom's advice on how to convert debt into equity on your own personal balance sheet.

What you have in front of you is a true gift: A powerful guide to your financial future at the exact right time in history when the advice it has to give is most likely to generate the biggest reward. Use it wisely.

Stephen Gandel
Deputy Digital Editor, Fortune Magazine
September 30, 2016