This book is an important and timely research study that explores a little known area of investing, which is that of private mortgage lending. The reason for undertaking the study was twofold; reason one is because for the past 15 years, retirement portfolios have been devastated by stock market fluctuations, resulting from a greater prevalence of boom and bust economic cycles. It is quite possible that currently another bust cycle might be unfolding, in spite of the apparent bull market. The second reason is because of the adopted Federal Reserve policy of creating an artificially low rate environment in an attempt to sustain the continued growth of the stock market and support of the currently real estate recovery efforts. These two economic conditions primarily affect income investors because of the low yields that are being offered by the typically available fixed-income investments, such as bonds, CDs and money-market accounts. The combination of a reduced interest rate environment and the increase stock market volatility has dramatically impacted the livelihood of the fixed income investor. Moreover, it has forced these investors to take greater levels of investment risk by incentivizing them to seek higher yields by investing in the stock market; in essence, the place that has created most of their financial problems.