David Bach’s The Automatic Millionaire, a book given to me over a year ago, finally made it into my reading queue because of my renewed interest in personal finance. (as an aside: Book stores are dangerous places for me and my wallet – I’ve got more than enough books to keep me occupied for a year or three, but I enter a book store and suddenly two or three must-haves find their way into my hands. There are certainly worse habits, I suppose!)
The ideas presented are nothing at all truly innovative, just good little nuggets of common-sense, with the ever-so-slight twist of making it all as automatic as possible so that you don’t have to actively do much of anything to succeed after the initial set-up, such as:
- Pay yourself first – divert as much pre-tax income into a retirement account as possible
- Save for the rainy days – having something to cushion the unexpected blows will help to keep you on track
- Pay off your mortgage as quickly as possible – ie. bi-weekly payments can shorten a 30-year loan by 7+ years
- Don’t take on debt for things that lose value – ie. house = probably ok; that cool laptop you’ve been drooling over = probably not
Don’t go in expecting some grand investing theories or some get-rich-quick tripe or you’ll come away disappointed. Stick with this short book, though, and you’ll come away with some damn useful reminders, and a whole new angle that may just make it almost painlessly work for you.
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Have you also read his book, Smart Couples Finish Rich? It’s a good, quick read that helps align goals since people can change over the course of 20+ years.
Can’t say I have as of yet – and with the backlog of books I’ve got going, it may be awhile before I get around to another of his. Of course, it being a quick read and all, it’s not like it’d take me a couple weeks to drag my way through it, so you never know, might have to pick it up.
But at least for the near term, I’m thinking I should probably avoid bookstores…
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