Smart Couples Finish Rich: 9 Steps to Creating a Rich Future for You and Your Partner [Paperback]

David Bach (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 8, 2002

From first-time newlyweds to people on their second or third marriage, couples face an overwhelming task when it comes to money management. Nationally renowned financial advisor and bestselling author David Bach knows that it doesn’t have to be this way. In Smart Couples Finish Rich, he provides couples with easy-to-use tools that cover everything from credit card management, to investment advice, to long-term care. You and your partner will learn how to work together as a team to identify your core values and dreams, creating a financial plan that will allow you to achieve security, provide for your family’s future financial needs, and increase your income. Together, you’ll learn why couples that plan their finances together, stay together!

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Like many savvy business people of the 21st century, David Bach offered his first pearls of financial wisdom to women, in his bestselling book Smart Women Finish Rich. Recognizing that these women are often accompanied by significant others and that money arguments are the number one cause of divorce in America, Bach has now broadened his scope. Presumably intended to help change this depressing statistic, Smart Couples Finish Rich is a well-written financial planning tool, packed with useful charts and information, inspiring examples, and practical advice.

For people who've been disappointed by the shallowness of some of the "quick tips" self-help books out there, the subtitle of this book is a little misleading. Bach's nine steps are not instant change techniques or chirpy little quips to recite to yourself whenever you go to balance your checkbook. Instead, the first few steps include a series of exercises that will help you determine what you know (and don't know, or understand) about saving and investing, what role money should play in your life (which includes understanding your values), and how to work together toward a common financial goal. From there, Bach teaches his readers how to account for "disappearing" money, how to build retirement, security, and dream baskets of wealth (providing detailed options for all three), and how to avoid the most common financial mistakes most couples make. Though the focus of the book is predominantly on working with your existing income, Bach includes a final chapter entitled "Increase Your Income by 10 Percent in Nine Weeks."

Bach's writing style is engaging and his advice is user-friendly. A successful financial planner, he obviously believes passionately in all the "fringe" benefits of being financially responsible but employs a no-nonsense approach that makes financial smarts available to everyone. So whether you're 25 and just starting out on the earning, saving, and spending road or you plan to retire next year; whether you've recently got hitched for the first time or you've just entered your fourth marriage; and whether financial planning comes first or last on your list of fun things to do, the advice in Smart Couples Finish Rich is worth heeding. It's not about becoming a money-obsessed bore, it's about getting smart... and rich. --S. Ketchum --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Bach, author of the bestselling Smart Women Finish Rich and host of a popular PBS series, offers his advice on how couples can keep their financial lives in sync. Familiar financial strategies on routine concerns, such as investments, retirement and insurance, form the bulk of the book. However, Bach's work does distinguish itself in one critical area: Bach believes that all couples (gay and straight, married and unmarried) need to identify values as well as goals as their first step toward achieving financial security. As he explains, values have to do with "being" (e.g., security, health, spirituality, fun), while goals are related to "doing" and "having" (e.g., playing golf regularly, taking frequent vacations, retiring with a million dollars). Moreover, he avers, not only is money management an issue that couples should plan and work on together, it is one that they should talk about, in a positive way, all the time. For example, Bach firmly believes that all couples need to be aware of their spending (what he calls the "latt‚ factor," or being more conscious of the regular little purchases they make each day) in order to make positive changes in their financial lives. Agent, Jan Miller. (On-sale date: Mar. 6)Forecast: Given Bach's previous success and the support of a five-city author tour and 22-city radio satellite tour, this book will quickly move toward bestseller lists, though its ho-hum approach doesn't mark it as a future evergreen paperback.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Crown Business; 1St Edition edition (January 8, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767904842
• ISBN-13: 978-0767904841
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.7 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (90 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,098 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #40 in Books > Business & Investing > Investing > Introduction

More About the Author

David Bach has helped millions of people around the world take action to live and finish rich. He is one of the most popular and prolific financial authors of our time with nine consecutive national bestsellers, including two consecutive #1 New York Times bestsellers, Start Late, Finish Rich and The Automatic Millionaire as well as the national and international bestsellers Fight for Your Money, Go Green, Live Rich, The Automatic Millionaire Homeowner, Smart Women Finish Rich, Smart Couples Finish Rich, The Finish Rich Workbook and The Automatic Millionaire Workbook. Bach carries the unique distinction of having had four of his books appear simultaneously on the Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, and USA Today bestseller lists. In addition, four of Bach's books were named to USA Today's Best Sellers of the Year list for 2004. In all, his FinishRich Books have been published in more than 15 languages, with more than seven million copies in print worldwide.

Bach's breakout book The Automatic Millionaire was the #1 Business book of 2004, according to Business Week. It spent fourteen weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and was simultaneously number one on the bestseller lists of the New York Times, Business Week, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal. With over a million copies in print, this simple powerful book has been translated into 12 languages and has inspired thousands around the world to save money automatically.

Bach's newest book, Start Over Finish Rich launches in December 2009. With its ten crucial moves you must make in 2010, Start Over Finish Rich provides the essential tools for readers to get back on track financially and recapture their dreams of a richer future.


Bach is regularly featured in the media. He has appeared six times on The Oprah Winfrey Show to share his strategies for living and finishing rich along with regular appearances on NBC's Today and Weekend Today shows, CNN's Larry King Live, ABC's Live with Regis and Kelly, The View, CBS's Early Show, ABC News, Fox News, and CNBC. He has been profiled in many major publications, including The New York Times, BusinessWeek, USA Today, People, Reader's Digest, Time, Financial Times, the Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Working Woman, Glamour, Family Circle, and Redbook. He has been a contributor to Redbook Magazine, Smart Money Magazine, Yahoo Finance and AOL Money. In 2009 Bach, was a regular on the Today Show Money 911 Segments and a contributor to ABC's Good Money.

David Bach is the creator of the FinishRich® Seminar series, which highlights his quick and easy-to-follow financial strategies. In just the last few years, more than half a million people have learned how to take financial action to live a life in line with their values by attending his Smart Women Finish Rich®, Smart Couples Finish Rich® , and Find The Money Seminars, which have been taught in more than 2,000 cities throughout North America by thousands of financial advisors.

A renowned motivational and financial speaker, Bach regularly presents seminars for and delivers keynote addresses to the world's leading financial service firms, Fortune 500 companies, universities, and national conferences. He is the founder and Chairman of FinishRich Media, a company dedicated to revolutionizing the way people learn about money. Prior to founding FinishRich Media, he was a senior vice president of Morgan Stanley and a partner of The Bach Group, which during his tenure (1993 to 2001) managed more than half a billion dollars for individual investors.

As part of his mission, David Bach is involved with many worthwhile causes including serving on the board for Habitat for Humanity New York and co-founding Makers of Memories, a charity organization dedicated to helping women and children who are victims of domestic violence.

David Bach lives in New York. Please visit his web site at http://www.finishrich.com