Is the Power of Attraction Wishy Washy?

I read a book called Creating Money - Keys to Abundance by Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer. I thought it was full of wishy washy hogwash. However, it seems every book I read lately talks about the power of attraction. I decided to give the idea a chance, or at least discuss it. The concept is simple. You attract what you think about. Have you ever thought of someone and had them call you on the phone shortly after? Have you ever thought about buying a car and then seen it on the road a lot after that? These examples are not my examples, they come from the books. Well the belief is if you think about what you want enough it will come to you. This is because your thoughts are made of energy and attract like energies such as the energy of money. So you can make yourself magnetic to money! In some books they claim it’s God, the Universe, Source Energy, whatever you believe in. But as a scientist I can’t explain two of the events that have occurred in my life. One was when our bank account card was stolen and a large sum of money was withdrawn from our account. It was going to cause us to miss paying some bills. I got upset and went outside and tried thinking of how I was going to get the money to pay the bills. Well it turned out later that day in the mail came a check from an unlikely source. It was enough to cover the bills until the bank straightened out our account. Did I just pray? Did I send out money vibes to attract money? I don’t know but it sure was a big coincidence. Another time was just recently. We had been saving up a large sum of money to pay taxes. We also needed money to purchase something but we didn’t know where the money was going to come from exactly. I had been thinking about it for a very long time. Well it turns out a month before we wanted to purchase something our accountant said they made a mistake and that we didn’t owe the taxes. Not only that but the money we saved for the taxes happened to be the exact same amount of money needed to make the purchase! Again I ask you, is that the laws of attraction? Why do so many self help books talk about it? Should I try it some more? By the end of the book Creating Money - Keys to Abundance I wasn’t convinced yet, but I did enjoy the book.