I picked up David Bach’s Smart Couples Finish Rich from the library and finished it over the weekend. I can’t remember who had recommended it, but I didn’t feel it was the best financial book for a couple in their mid-twenties. Too much time was spent on wills and trusts, life insurance, long term care insurance, and other legal and financial instruments designed to protect your assets and your loved ones when things go south. I guess it’s never too early to start thinking about that stuff, and maybe I’m just being naive, but I got the feeling I was not target demographic for the book.
Based upon the title alone, I was worried Smart Couples would promote “finishing” rich, at the expense of living richly your whole life. And while Bach is a proponent of the deferred life plan (at least in Timothy Ferriss’s terms), he does spend considerable time assessing each couples’ values and recommending ways to live happier in the present. After all, there’s no point in starving yourself for 40 years only to be able to feast at 65.
Much of the financial advice presented is your pretty standard “invest x dollars per month at y percent interest and in z years you’ll be a millionaire.” Bach explains the value of investing with pre-tax income with a 401(k) plan, and also asks readers to examine how their “little” purchases each week add up to significant dollar amounts, especially when compounded over a number of years.
The real value of Smart Couples Finish Rich is in the idea of setting out a financial plan –as a couple– and sticking to it. Bach cites money-trouble as the #1 cause of divorce in the US, and says the only way to prevent that is open and honest communication. Common sense stuff but I guess all too commonly avoided!
Since it was written in 2001, some of the tax law facts are now outdated, as are the websites referenced. Although there is nothing particularly ground-breaking about Smart Couples Finish Rich, it is a good refresher course on how to be smarter with your hard-earned dollars, which is always valuable –especially in today’s economy.
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Tags: investing
