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Finance ✦ Penny’s Take 🎧 Audiobook

I Hate Taxes: Lower Your Taxes, Own Your Retirement

Joe F. Schmitz Jr. Β· 2026
πŸŽ™ Narrated by Joe F. Schmitz Jr. (the author)
61/100
πŸ‘Ž Skip It

Schmitz is a real, currently-practicing CFP with a legitimate media presence, and the tax-reduction focus is a genuinely useful niche most retirement books skip over. But nearly all the visible promotion is his own podcast and YouTube channel rather than independent coverage, so I can't fully separate the marketing from the substance. He narrates it himself, which gives it a direct, personal feel, but there's no outside word on production quality.

✦ Penny’s Take β€” this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read β€” not a page-by-page personal one. The gold βœ“ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.

β–Ά Listen to a sample

πŸŽ™ Narration: fine Author-narrated, which usually reads as sincere for advisor books, though no independent audio-quality reviews exist to confirm it.

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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
Faith & family safety65
Substance / usefulness66
Craft & writing62
Originality62
Evidence & accuracy65
Hype vs delivers50
Age-fit65
Human-eye read48
Penny’s verdict61
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