Payback Time: Eight Steps to Outsmarting the System That Failed You and Getting Your Investments Back on Track About the Author Following several years with the Special Forces during the Vietnam war, Phil Town returned to the United States and supported himself by working seven months a year as a river guide in the Grand Canyon. His annual income was in the low four figures. After some split-second heroics on his part saved a boatload of Outward Bound trustees from a whitewater disaster, a grateful financial expert who had been onboard took Town under his wing and taught him the first principles of Rule #1 investing. Town managed to put together a $1000 stake, and within five years had turned it into $1 million.Today Town speaks to more than 500,000 people a year on the topic of risk-free wealth creation and is regularly a featured expert on MSNBC and CNBC. His first book, Rule #1, was a New York Times #1 bestseller.