Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(63)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I enjoy reading books on retirement planning and asset management. My ex-wife did not. I like to pay the bills, live by a budget, and do the household bookkeeping. She did not. I never got my Ex to read this book, though I tried. However, I still believe that this book is a great straightforward resource if you want to learn about saving and investing, building a nest egg for retirement, and having the financial independence to realize dreams, AS A COUPLE. I found this book very easy-to-read and informative, and planned to use it often for future reference. As a CPA and Certified Financial Planner, I am accustomed to reading finance books and articles that are loaded with technical jargon. However, David Bach presents this information in a much more refreshing manner, and in a way that is easy for those unfamiliar with financial terminology, to understand. It gives you a wealth of information about 401(k)s, life insurance, trusts, wills, mutual funds, DRIPs, and much more. Most importantly, Smart Couples Finish Rich emphasizes personal financial planning and management as practically a lifestyle, not just an exercise or process. It shows you how to determine, as individuals and as a couple, what values you hold dear and how your view of money, investing, consumption, etc., should be aligned with your values. It really helps the reader to see that everything that one does in his or her life is a reflection of their values, including how one plans and manages his/her financial future. I highly recommend this book to those couples who are looking for an effective tool to learn more about personal finance and how to provide for their rich future together.

Ironically, my ex-wife refused to give me my book when we were going our separate ways. I guess I will purchase a new one, since I now have someone I can actually share it with.

There were three things I especially liked about this book.

The first was the way the author presented the fact that small things do add up. In the beginning of the book, he states that most people overestimate (financially) what they can accomplish in a year and underestimate what they can accomplish over many years. He includes graphs that illustrate this dramatically.

The second was the chapter on values. This chapter had a number of exercises for each partner to complete independently. Then, together, they can begin to draft a plan for their finances that embraces the values they each hold most closely. If the financial plan is customized to fit the values of the particular couple, taken together, it makes all the sense in the world that it will be easier and more satisfying to LIVE with that plan and carry it out over time (without either of the partners sabotaging the plan).

The third is somewhat tied into the first point I mentioned. It is a chapter called "The Couples Latte Factor." This chapter discusses "small," daily expenses and how, if a couple decides to eliminate or reduce even one or two of these daily expenses and invest that money instead, it can result in a lot of money, over time. This and most of the other chapters include real-life examples of couples whose experiences illustrate the principles being discussed.

I recognized the value of all of this advice right away as I was reading it, but initially felt a bit overwhelmed, thinking: "This is great, but how am I going to do it ALL?" Because I imagine that other people may have the same feelings, I will share the answer we ended up coming up with. A little at a time. I still haven't gotten up to investing 10% of my income in my company's 401(k), but as a couple, we ARE very near to reaching our goal of setting aside a year's worth of expenses in an emergency account and we HAVE adjusted the amount of life insurance we carry and had estate documents drafted by an attorney. Once we do have the complete year's worth of expenses set aside, I'll change my 401(k) investment to 10%.

Is this the order Mr. Bach or another financial planner would advise us to do things in? I don't know. I DO know that doing things the way we have, gradually following more and more of his advice has GOT to be better than being paralyzed and doing nothing...which is what we would have been in danger of doing if we hadn't taken it a little at a time.

A book I would recommend in conjunction with this is The Laws of Money, the Lessons of Life by Suze Orman.

Investing for your future is sound, strong advice at any age. As a teacher of business management and having counselled an overwhelming number of people in the area of finance, I believe investing is particularly critical for young people today. I am so happy to read that previous reviewers, in their twenties, have learned from this book and are planning for their future. If you are starting your career and in your twenties, now is the time for financial planning, even though you might not be able to put a lot of money aside, "every penny saved, is a penny earned."

There are many books on the market today on investing and financial planning. Some I would highly recommend, others are not worth the time it takes to read the book - save the money you would spend on those "guaranteed get rich quick books" and invest the money where it will guarantee a return. "Smart Couples Finish Rich" is filled with a wealth of information on money management, retirement accounts, living trusts, types of insurance and investing in general. After reading it, you will be better equiped to manage your money and save for the future. That not only makes "smart cents," it makes smart sense. Hopefully, with some financial peace of mind and stability, couples will not only finish rich, they will finish rich... together!

_____This book is great to have if you are a novice to the world of personal finance. The text is geared toward married couples, but that doesn't mean a single person cannot read it and learn a lot from it (i.e. the advice generally applies to either singles or couples, with some extra information for couples).

_____The information contained is truly minimal when you compare it to many other books on the shelves. But for a novice I think that is good - Bach himself stresses that the information is meant to present to the reader the aspects of personal finance, while providing links to sources for more detailed information.

_____While I agree that pretty much all of the information contained can be found for free on the internet, the value of this book is in the fact that it contains brief synopses of that information, all gathered into one place, with the added bonus of providing a purpose for all the different aspects of personal finance. Not just "what" and "where," but also "how" and "why."

I enjoyed the first couple of chapters of this book. This book would be a good start for couples that need to talk and settle their finances together. If you have not talked to your partner about your finances and need to start that discussion this is the book is your starting point. The author has a really good method of setting expectations for the future between couples and setting guidelines (9 steps) that can be followed during and after you create a plan. It is very important to at least try the authors method for I think they work. As for the rest of the book it is very similar if not the same information as other beginner investment books: how to set up a retirement plan, savings and checking accounts and all the basic items.
Enjoy the book.

I am not a financial expert & I don't claim to be, but after watching David Bach on Oprah I was intrigued. I bought his book & read it cover to cover, at least 3 times. I made my husband read it. This book really helped me realize that we were not living according to our values. Since we started folowing the suggestions in David's book & living according to our values we have finally gotten out of debt completly, are putting money away into our retirement & within a year will be buying our first house. All of this before we turn 30! I am so glad I watched Oprah's show and saw David Bach. Reading his book even encouraged me to take more of an interest in investing and learn the difference between all those IRA's etc. This is a great book!

I'm happy to say that I was recently engaged. With that I've been considering the idea that I'm now going to be sharing every piece of my life w/ someone else. And honestly, the idea that there will be 2 heads knocking together, especially financially, instead of self-dependency was a scary idea.
So I went shopping around the store and opted to buy this book by David Bach because of some of the passages I read while waiting around. And I'm happy I did.
First, Mr. Bach is (from I've read) a successful financial planner w/ an earnest heart towards truly giving competent advice. And it's apparent as you read the book that he just wants you to make the right decisions in life for you and yours.
Some of the biggest take-aways for me were the values he espoused in order to ensure that you're living according to the ideals you and your spouse share; and the importance of teaching your child the benefits of saving at an early age.
Sure, there are plugs w/in the book, but nothing so annoying that it detracted from the overall reading. Great buy, give it a shot. I'm not married yet, but I feel my fiancee and I already have a headstart not everyone's lucky to have.

My husband and I have read and recommend all David Bach's books. They helped us achieve our goal of getting rid of our debt (not including our mortgage) within one year. He has a practical system that is simple to put to use. We have always struggled with our finances and have no skills in this area, but following his plan helped us organize ourselves and utilize the things he taught. We have hope now where there wasn't any and see possiblities where there was once only frustration.

I've been reading about finance mostly in the last one year, and I've read a few books so far. When I saw this book, and flapped through the pages I was very excited about the book and thought i should buy it.One side of me was telling me not to do though, but after seeing the book recommended in BusinessWeek I finally bought it.
The book was dissappointment for someone who has been reading finance. The author tells you that being rich is so EASY: Basically do not spend money at all, and every single cent you earn you should invest (No one needs to be expert to know that). He gives a Latte Factor example, and of coarse puts several of these handy dandy charts where if you earned 15% annually your money would be this much in 30 years, and so on.
What really annoyed me was the advice he gave,here is basically his rules
1.Maximize your 401k, if you can't, you should put at least 15% (your spouse should also put that same amount).
2.Also make sure you save 10% each month into some kind of savings your mutual fund accout (PAY yourself first).
3.Ohh by the way you should also put 10% extra each month for your mortgage.
To be able to do these you need do more than just NOT drinking Lattes. An average latte costs 3.5 dollars, multiply that with 240 (appr. week days). You save 840$. If you did the math you can't accomplish all this by just saving money from a latte. I agree with him that Latte's are expensive, and you should mostly drink at home. Why do I keep mentioning Latte's because he almost has a chapter devoted to Lattes himself.
Another dissappointing thing was the authors lack of basic Economic principle (He should go a study ECON101 again). He is saying in the next 6 weeks you can easilyy make an additional income of 10%. Saying it and being realistic are two different things. For self employeed he says just simply jack up your prices. First of all if you had a lot of demand for your product/service, and it was hard to supply it to all your customers, you would have already increased your prices (You don't need this book to tell you that). And if you don't have that much demand increasing your prices will result in a loss most likely, because you would lose Customers (Unless you are a monopoly in your area of coarse). So its NOT you who determines what how much you earn, its the market and the customers, so be carefull in increasing your prices so quickly. Its about all SUPPLY and Demand. Do your math.
There were several things like this in the book where the author neglects important things. But as i said in my title if this is your first book on Finance, you should buy it, because he points on several usefull things also.
In conclusion, i would not recommend this book for people who have been reading finance, you are much better off by picking an ECO101 book...

This is an excellent book to use when planning your family's finances. Obviously, given the power of compounding, to which the author repeatedly refers, the earlier in your life you start planning for your financial future, the better off you will be. I recommend the book to anyone with the understanding that it follows a conservative, fairly conventional path toward financial security.

If you are a finance whiz, you will find parts of the book too conservative and too plain. If you try to magnify your investment returns by trading options, for example, or you invest in real estate, or any other kind of investment other than 'plain vanilla stocks and bonds' you will find the book limiting.

That said, the book provides an excellent organizational structure for any one trying to get a hold on his financial picture.