A Brief Review: The Automatic Millionaire

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!)

A quick read as far as money matters books go (two or three leisurely hours on a Sunday afternoon and she’s done), with some good common sense approaches to financial planning. The problem with so much of what is considered ‘common sense’ is that it’s often, well, commonly ignored, because it just seems so obvious that contemplating it would be a waste. So it’s always good to have someone clearly lay it all out for you.

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.