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

Amazon.com
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."

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Fighting about money is the number-one reason for divorce in America. David Bach, a nationally recognized financial adviser, author, and speaker, knows that it does not need to be this way. A financial coach to millions through his seminars, books, and PBS shows, and a person who has helped thousands of couples overcome their money problems, Bach now makes his valuable tips available for everyone trying to navigate the complex joint-finance waters.

With the same uplifting, motivating, no-nonsense style that made Smart Women Finish Rich a bestseller nationwide, Smart Couples Finish Rich covers a powerful combination of strategies that helps couples work on their finances as a team. His easy-to-use tools and advice include: Busting the Myths aobut couples and money How to stop banks and insurance companies from ripping you off Achieving both partners' goal and dreams How to avoid fighting about prenuptial agreements, trusts, and estates Addressing every couple—younger or older, married or not, straight or gay—this is a comprehensive, positive financial lifesaver that will help couples of all ages and in all tax brackets communicate comfortably about money and start building a strong financial future together.

About the Author:
A senior vice president of a major New York brokerage firm, David Bach is a partner of The Bach Group, which manages over half a billion dollars of individual investors' money. The national bestselling author of Smart Women Finish Rich, Bach is the host of his own PBS "Smart Women Finish Rich" special, airing nationwide. His investment principles are taught nationally through his "Smart Women" workshops, which are currently being hosted in more than one hundred cities with over fifty thousand attendees annually. In addition to regular appearances on CNBC and PBS, Bach has been featured in nationwide publications, including The New York Times, Business Week, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and San Francisco Chronicle. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, Michelle.

SYNOPSIS

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!

FROM THE CRITICS

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.

Library Journal

How to stop fighting about money; from the VP of a New York brokerage firm who has done seminars on the subject. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

AudioFile