Bach, David 1966-

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Bach, David 1966-

PERSONAL:

Born 1966. Married; wife's name Michelle; children: Jack.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY. Office—FinishRich Media, 295 Greenwich St., No. 529, New York, NY 10007.

CAREER:

Writer, speaker, financial advisor. Morgan Stanley, New York, NY, former senior vice president; Bach Group, partner, 1993-2001; FinishRich Media, founder, chair, 2001—; FinishRich Seminars, creator; Smart Women Finish Rich, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) television special, host. Redbook magazine and Yahoo! Web site, columnist.

WRITINGS:

Window on the West (sound recording), Integrity Music (Rosedale, MD), 1995.

Give What You Didn't Get, Professional Press (Chapel Hill, NC), 1998.

Smart Women Finish Rich: Seven Steps to Achieving Financial Security and Funding Your Dreams, Broadway Books (New York, NY), 1999, revised edition published as Smart Women Finish Rich: Nine Steps to Achieving Financial Security and Funding Your Dreams, Broadway Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Five Thousand Words (sound recording), Integrity Music (Baltimore, MD), 2000.

Smart Couples Finish Rich: Nine Steps to Creating a Rich Future for You and Your Partner, Broadway Books (New York, NY), 2001.

The Finish Rich Workbook: Creating a Personalized Plan for a Richer Future, Broadway Books (New York, NY), 2003.

1001 Financial Words You Need to Know, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2003.

The Automatic Millionaire: A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich, Broadway Books (New York, NY), 2004.

Start Late, Finish Rich: A No-Fail Plan for Achieving Financial Freedom at Any Age, Broadway Books (New York, NY), 2005.

The Automatic Millionaire Homeowner: A Powerful Plan to Finish Rich in Real Estate, Broadway Books (New York, NY), 2005, also published as The Automatic Millionaire Homeowner: A Lifetime Plan to Finish Rich in Real Estate, Broadway Books (New York, NY), 2006.

The Automatic Millionaire Workbook: A Personalized Plan to Live and Finish Rich, Broadway Books (New York, NY), 2005.

(With Hillary Rosner) Go Green, Live Rich: Fifty Simple Ways to Save the Earth and Get Rich Trying, Broadway Books (New York, NY), 2008.

ADAPTATIONS:

Smart Women Finish Rich: Seven Steps to Achieving Financial Security and Funding Your Dreams was adapted for audio, Audio Renaissance, 1999; Smart Couples Finish Rich: Nine Steps to Creating a Rich Future for You and Your Partner was adapted for audio, Audio Renaissance, 2001; The Automatic Millionaire: A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich was adapted for audio, Recorded Books, 2005.

SIDELIGHTS:

David Bach is a best-selling author whose financial-planning books have targeted audiences from women to couples and baby boomers who have delayed financial planning. A former investment consultant and partner in the Bach Group, Bach left that business in 2001 to found his own company, FinishRich Media and to organize its FinishRich seminars. His first popular advice book, Smart Women Finish Rich: Seven Steps to Achieving Financial Security and Funding Your Dreams, set the pattern for other books to come: the 2001 Smart Couples Finish Rich: Nine Steps to Creating a Rich Future for You and Your Partner; the 2004 title The Automatic Millionaire: A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich; Start Late, Finish Rich: A No-Fail Plan for Achieving Financial Freedom at Any Age and The Automatic Millionaire Homeowner: A Powerful Plan to Finish Rich in Real Estate, both published in 2005; his 2008 work promoting green financing, Go Green, Live Rich: Fifty Simple Ways to Save the Earth andGet Rich Trying; and others. In addition to writing books, Bach is a popular motivational speaker, who makes frequent appearances on television.

Bach does not present miracles in his book, but rather some very old-fashioned advice, such as to start saving now for the long term. Another obvious piece of advice that too often goes unappreciated is that in order to save more, a person needs to spend less. He approaches this problem via what he terms the "latte factor." If a person were to drink a latte per day from Starbuck's or some other coffeehouse, after a year that person would be about 1,000 dollars poorer. However, if the same person took that money and invested it long-term, after about thirty years it could turn into 100,000 dollars. Bach's point is that everyone must have some luxury they indulge in that could be cut back, thereby freeing up more money for saving and investment. He also advises readers to cut down on credit-card debt. A reviewer for the Simple Dollar noted that "if you've read one David Bach book, you've covered most of the material in all of his books."

In each of his books, however, Bach targets a niche audience, with advice directly tailored to those specific needs. In Smart Women Finish Rich, he acknowledges that women are better at setting up and sticking with savings plans and takes this information into account when designing a multiple-step program to achieve financial security. In Smart Couples Finish Rich, he advises couples to set common goals in order to make achieving financial security more of a team effort. "By focusing on how a couple can work on common goals together, the book [brings] to light the idea that money can be something that further unites people rather than pulls them apart," remarked Sarah Colwell in a North Carolina Lawyers Weekly review of Smart Couples Finish Rich. Writing in Research, Mary Scott observed that it was easy to see why the book was reaching bestseller lists: "It's dearly written, direct and provides excellent advice to people on what is often a difficult subject."

In The Automatic Millionaire, Bach proposes that people pay themselves first as the most important ingredient in attaining wealth. That is, one should set aside between ten and fifteen percent of gross income for savings before even thinking of such things as taxes or other investing. In order to keep up with this savings plan, Bach recommends that people set up automatic payments to a retirement account. Despite pointing out the fact that such a savings regimen might not be possible for millions ensnared in credit-card debt, a Publishers Weekly reviewer concluded that Bach's "easygoing approach, complete with real-life examples and clever phrases … will appeal to the many money-challenged consumers [resolving] to get their finances on a firmer footing." Writing in Booklist, David Siegfried observed, "Bach shows how to eliminate a few unnecessary daily expenditures … and use the savings to secure your future." Bach gets more specific with his The Automatic Millionaire Homeowner, in which he advises investment in real estate. One tip is to buy and live in a new home every five years to continually increase one's equity. A Publishers Weekly contributor remarked on the author's "ability to enthusiastically lead readers through even the most arcane aspects of home buying." Booklist writer Mary Whaley concluded that Bach "offers a thoughtful approach to investment opportunities in home buying and important insight into financial management."

Bach even offers hope to those who have too long procrastinated in planning for their financial future. Start Late, Finish Rich lets the reader know it is never too late to start saving. Again Bach's advice is simple but important: one needs to save more, spend less, and make more. Observed a Publishers Weekly reviewer, "[Start Late, Finish Rich] reads like an infomercial script, brassily positive and unrelentingly motivational."

With Go Green, Live Rich, Bach indulges one of his private passions, environmentalism. According to a Publishers Weekly contributor, Bach "offers a multitude of suggestions for conserving the planet—and your money." In this work, Bach urges that people make environmental awareness a part of their daily lives, from recycling to using compact fluorescent light bulbs and investing in green businesses. A Publishers Weekly critic termed Go Green, Live Rich a "winning and wise guide." USA Today reviewer Kerry Hannon commented that "Bach makes a convincing pitch that ‘going green’ is not a luxury, an expensive choice, you can't afford." Hannon went on to note that Bach's "tips are not outlandish or unreasonable." As with his other financial advice books, Bach demonstrates how, with common-sense steps, one can gain financial security; however, with Go Green, Live Rich, he ties such prosperity to cleaner, greener living.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, December 1, 1998, Vanessa Bush, review of Smart Women Finish Rich: Seven Steps to Achieving Financial Security and Funding Your Dreams, p. 640; March 15, 2001, David Rouse, review of Smart Couples Finish Rich: Nine Steps to Creating a Rich Future for You and Your Partner, p. 1338; December 1, 2003, David Siegfried, review of The Automatic Millionaire: A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich, p. 633; December 15, 2004, Barbara Jacobs, review of Start Late, Finish Rich: A No-Fail Plan for Achieving Financial Freedom at Any Age, p. 695; April 1, 2006, Mary Whaley, review of The Automatic Millionaire Homeowner: A Powerful Plan to Finish Rich in Real Estate, p. 9.

Business Record, February 2, 2004, author profile, p. 17.

Business Week, April 2, 2001, author profile, p. 92.

Business Wire, June 4, 2008, author profile.

California Bookwatch, May, 2006, review of The Automatic Millionaire Homeowner.

Everett Business Journal, March, 2004, "Boomers: Jot Down Your Values," author profile, p. 13.

Greater Baton Rouge Business Report (Baton Rouge, LA), March 27, 2001, review of Smart Couples Finish Rich, p. 54.

HRMagazine, March, 2004, Leigh Rivenbark, review of 1001 Financial Words You Need to Know, p. 127.

Library Journal, October 1, 2004, Dale Farris, review of The Automatic Millionaire, p. 119; January 1, 2005, Carol J. Elsen, review of Start Late, Finish Rich, p. 124.

National Post, June 3, 2006, William Hanley, "The Automatic Million-Seller: Financial Self-Help Guru David Bach Homes In on Another Market," p. FW3.

North Carolina Lawyers Weekly, September 17, 2007, Sarah Colwell, "Love and Marriage … and Some Handy Financial Tools," author profile.

OnEarth, summer, 2008, Laura Wright, "Green Me," review of Go Green, Live Rich, p. 50.

PR Newswire, April 24, 2008, "New York Times Bestselling Author David Bach Jumps to #1 Most Downloaded Book on Amazon Kindle and at the eBook Store from Sony for Earth Day 2008 with Breakthrough Eco-Finance Book Go Green, Live Rich."

Publishers Weekly, January 29, 2001, review of Smart Couples Finish Rich, p. 75; November 10, 2003, review of The Automatic Millionaire, p. 52; December 20, 2004, review of Start Late, Finish Rich, p. 49; January 23, 2006, review of The Automatic Millionaire Homeowner, p. 204; February 27, 2006, Charlotte Abbott, "Bank Backs Bach," p. 12; February 25, 2008, review of Go Green, Live Rich: Fifty Simple Ways to Save the Earth, p. 64.

Real Estate Weekly, July 13, 2005, "‘Get Rich’ Guru Shows How It's Done at 145 Hudson," p. 19.

Reference & Research Book News, February, 2004, review of 101 Financial Words You Need to Know, p. 114.

Research, November, 2001, Mary Scott, "The Home Front," p. 90.

USA Today, January 17, 2005, "Better to ‘Start Late’ Than Never on Finances," p. 11B; March 27, 2006, Kerry Hannon, "Buying a Home Can Make You Rich Slowly," p. 7B; April 7, 2008, Kerry Hannon, "Saving the Earth and Some Dough," p. 9B.