Start Over, Finish Rich by David Bach

Last week I finished reading "Start Over, Finish Rich" by David Bach. This is a book that I had read last spring, but thought I needed to read again. In it, David Bach emphasizes that we should all pay down our debt, increase our savings, and be in position to build wealth, even in, and especially in, times of economic downturn like we have experienced the past two years.

Bach's "big thing" is to make as much of you financial life as automatic as you can. Automatic paycheck deposit, automatic payment of bills, automatic drafts to savings, automatic investment. He is also an advocate of finding out where you spend money each day (your "Latte Factor" and cutting some of that expense and putting that money towards debt paydown or into savings and investments.

Most authors are great at presenting their ideas and identifying the steps to take to achieve what they have presented. BUT, those steps are often HUGE and, for the average person, unattainable. Bach lists 25 easy ways to save money, ranging from carpooling to canceling subscriptions. He identifies steps to take to evaluate that you do each day, what services you use, and ways to reduce or cut those services that in the end will save you money that you can then save, invest or pay debt with.

In the Spring of 2003, my family took Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University class. In 36 months we paid off all our debts (which were substantial) and since that time have had our finances fairly well under control. So when reading through Bach's list of 25 ways to save money, I was a bit disappointed. Not in Bach's list, because the list is excellent- 25 simple ways to seriously reduce household and personal expenses and "find" money. My "problem" was that we had already done most of the action steps that Bach lists.

All too often we read a book or listen to advice and hear what we have heard before and simply tune out- all because we've heard it before. On reading Bach's book a second time, I purposed myself to read every word and to pay attention to what I was reading. I actually read this section twice. Of the "25 ways to save money, 3 did not apply to me or my household, and 18 we had already done. BUT...that leaves 4 that we have not done or never considered! And after reading this section of the book and ruminating on it, I realized that of the 18 we have already done, at least 7 of them were done over 2 years ago and may need to be considered/reconsidered again.

"Start Over, Finish Rich" by David Bach is a must read. It is a quick read. It will give you ideas for ways to get finances under control and begin building wealth. It is NOT a "pie in the sky" or hard-core financial book. It is a practical, easy to read, easy to follow book that will help you On the Road to Healthy, Wealthy and Wise.