Review of Smart Couples Finish Rich: 9 Steps to Creating a Rich Future for You and Your Partner (Hardcover)

I am a CPA and my wife is a full-time education student. I enjoy reading about accounting and finance. She does not. I like to pay the bills and do the household bookkeeping. She does not. However, my point is, we BOTH agree that this book is the one to have if you want to learn about saving and investing, building a nest egg for retirement, and having the financial independence to realize dreams, AS A COUPLE. I found this book very easy-to-read and informative, and I know I will use it often for future reference. As a CPA, I am accustomed to reading finance books and articles that are loaded with technical finance jargon. However, David Bach presents this information in a much more refreshing manner, and in a way that is easy for those unfamiliar with financial terminology, to understand. It gives you a wealth of information about 401(k)s, life insurance, trusts, wills, mutual funds, DRIPs, and much more. Most importantly, Smart Couples Finish Rich emphasizes personal financial planning and management as practically a lifestyle, not just an exercise or process. It shows you how to determine, as individuals and as a couple, what values you hold dear and how your view of money, investing, consumption, etc., should be aligned with your values. It really helps the reader to see that everything that one does in his or her life is a reflection of their values, including how one plans and manages his/her financial future. I highly recommend this book to those couples who are looking for an effective tool to learn more about personal finance and how to provide for their rich future together.



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Review of Start Late, Finish Rich: A No-Fail Plan for Achieving Financial Freedom at Any Age (Hardcover)

I have not read any other books in this series, but the subject matter of this book appealed to me.I often run into people who (for various reasons) don't have much liquid wealth going into their 40s.Yet I haven't seen much written to suggest what these folks should do.I was hoping to get some ideas to share.Unfortunately, I didn't really find any that I didn't know about already.

If you are over 50, this book won't provide you with the advice you need.The intellectual process that Mr. Bach went through was to take the familiar arguments about the power of compound interest and saving with pre-tax dollars . . . and think of a few ways to shorten up the number of years required for compound interest to do its thing on your behalf.His best suggestions outside the standard financial planning advice are to be more valuable at work so you can earn more raises and promotions . . . and paying down your mortgage a little faster than is required.

I applaud his advice that people spend less on things that don't provide much benefit . . . but most people are going to be demoralized if that's the main source of increased liquid wealth.After all, most people want wealth not for retirement . . . but to enjoy life before and after they retire.

I found his arguments about starting your own business to earn more money to be naive at best . . . and overoptimistic at worst.Buying and running . . . or starting and running a business requires a lot of hard work and skill.Most successful entrepreneurs are off doing this by around age 35.Most people at 49 will find it a tough hill to climb.I applaud Mr. Bach's suggestion that people look into buying, operating, expanding and then selling franchised operations that meet his criteria.The other ideas won't work for most people based on historical averages.

I was also puzzled by his emphasis on having one-third of your liquid financial wealth in bonds.That's been one of the lowest returning classes of investment over the last 150, 100, 50, and 25 years.Why deliberately earn less when you have a long time horizon?

Much of the appeal of this book is that Mr. Bach is optimistic by nature, has a kindly interest in people and aspires for people to accomplish more.Bravo for that attitude!

I also found that Mr. Bach uses quantitative examples to explain compound interest and pre-tax versus after-tax investments much better than most financial planners do.

If you are under 45 and have never read a book about financial planning before, you will find this to be a valuable resource.If you are familiar with financial planning, you can skip this book.If you are not inclined to plan, don't know anything about financial planning and find math to be challenging, this book will provide useful new perspectives for you.



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Review of Fight For Your Money: How to Stop Getting Ripped Off and Save a Fortune (Hardcover)

If you are not familiar with David Bach it is time to get to know him. He is truely fighting against the system that is designed to take our money from us legally. After reading his latest book this is what happened:

David,
I just hung up with my cable and phone providers and because of your book:
--I am now saving $25 per month on home phone,
--changed plans on cellular and saved at least $30 per month just on the monthly portion, also got unlimited texting in the plan which I was paying about $20 a month for text over usage.
--The cable company cut my rate by 50% at $49 a month for six months then $20 a month cheaper after that without cutting service at all. We do like our HBO.
Total yearly savings are at least $1320

While I am very glad to be saving I feel like an idiot for allowing it to go own in the past. THe good with the bad you know.

The book also helped me update our wills, verify social security earnings, spend all of our gift cards, roll over an old employer's 401k to my fidelity account, and validated my buying my car that is two years old, lease trade in for 50% off the new car price (Cadillac DTS for $27,000) (this was a few years ago and I have preaching the practice to everyone)

All from reading your book the last couple of days. I would read it and then go to the computer, read some then to the computer. My wife thought I was nuts until I showed her the work I was doing. She still thinks it but not due to this behavior.

This really explains people dislike "the system". Banks, credit cards and just big business in general are all inherently bad and need to be regulated. As a small business owner I was more of the less regulation the better in the past but....

This book will help anyone who takes the time to read it.
Welcome to the Finish Rich World of David Bach

Thanks for reading,
Tom and Wanda Kennedy



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