Book 513: Start Late, Finish Rich – David Bach

It covers a lot of the same ground as Bach’s free newsletter and the previous book I recently read by him, The Automatic Millionaire. This makes sense as he’s built his personal finance empire on the same basic tenets of automate as much of your wealth as you can and save as much as you can while simultaneously diversifying and increasing your income.

In this book he takes the same premise (along with purchase a house) and says do it faster! It’s no longer identify your latte factor, it’s turbocharge your latte factor! I did find the addition of consider franchising to be very interesting, almost enough so to make me go look at more books/how-to guides about it.

The biggest downside of this work is that it has not aged very well. It’s more than 12 years old and quite a few of the examples he mentions aren’t really that great. He is working on an updated edition and I have to wonder if he’ll include things like Donald Trump (referenced for his real estate prowess) and Subway (see franchises) when they both have such negative connotations at this point.

Similar to The Automatic Millionaire, I appreciated how frank his advice was and how he wove his own narrative through the work in addition to advice. Many times he offered personal stories in addition to examples of business people, investors, or other previous individuals/couples he’s worked with. I also really appreciate that Bach’s writing style really does make you feel like he’s rooting for you. It looks a little hokey when you read the finally line on it’s own like I have it below, but reading the whole book makes you generally feel Bach wants you to succeed.

Recommendation: I grabbed a copy of this book from the library in hopes of finding some tips or tricks to pass on to some of my older relatives. Honestly, I would say pass on this one unless you’re in this position and desperately want advice. I feel like The Automatic Millionaire said most of this better and was updated recently. If you’re interested in this specifically because of your demographic I would say wait until he releases an update.

Opening Line: “So you feel like you’ve started late?”

Closing Line: “Better yet, have the person you mentor send us their story so we can use their successes to encourage other young people to dream bigger and live richer. Thanks—I’m proud of you!” (Not whited out as this is a work of nonfiction.)