Killing Sacred Cows

Killing Sacred Cows argues that many financial rules are repeated so often they become unquestioned—even when they don’t create freedom.

Gunderson’s central message is that wealth is not primarily built by extreme frugality, blind retirement accumulation, or rigid debt avoidance. Wealth is built by creating value for others, investing in your capacity to produce, and structuring your finances around control and cash flow.

He encourages you to replace scarcity thinking with a creative mindset: instead of fighting over limited resources, focus on producing solutions people care about and building systems that generate ongoing income.

For retirement, he argues the goal shouldn’t just be a large account balance—it should be sustainable cash flow that funds your life without fear. For debt, he argues the question isn’t “is debt bad?” but “does this debt increase assets and future income or drain them?” For investing, he argues that education and understanding reduce risk more effectively than simply avoiding opportunity.

Ultimately, Gunderson wants you to stop worshiping financial slogans and start building a financial strategy that buys you the thing money is supposed to buy: freedom.

Garrett B. Gunderson is a financial author and entrepreneur known for challenging conventional personal finance advice. His work emphasizes wealth creation through value generation, building cash-flowing assets, improving financial education, and making decisions based on control and freedom rather than fear-driven scarcity.