Book Review: “Start Late, Finish Rich”

About me:

• I’m 37 years old, soon to be 38.
• Currently, I owe $54,000 [made up of credit cards, a car loan, and student loans].
• My savings are fairly minimal – just a $1,000 emergency fund and some sinking funds.
• I have almost NO retirement savings.

I am definitely “starting late”.

If you’re in the same boat as me, I would highly recommend Start Late, Finish Rich by David Bach. I picked it up at the library this weekend and couldn’t put it down! It’s full of great tips and tricks to help those people [like me] who are buried in debt, with little to no savings or retirement savings. This book is a quick and easy read, and it explains the principles very well without becoming too ‘preachy’.

“Give up your daily Starbucks order,” is one piece of advice I’ve read at least a hundred times. But what about those of us who ALREADY don’t spend $5 on a drink each day? David Bach calls this the ‘Latte Factor’ – and he challenges the reader to identify what small leaks are going on in THEIR budget that they can plug and therefore redirect towards debt repayment or savings.

One thing he recommends that is contrary to Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps is the idea that you should be contributing to a retirement account and/or investing RIGHT NOW. As he points out, the power in investing and retirement is compounded interest + time. If you delay until you are out of debt, you are missing out on that powerful duo. I will admit, I have never contributed to my retirement account, but after reading Start Late, Finish Rich, I was inspired to finally set up my online access to my 401k and actually start putting some money in.

David goes on to give lots of advice about your investment portfolio, as well as ideas on starting a business or purchasing a franchise. Since I’m not in a position to do either of those, I skimmed those parts. But if you are looking for more ways to build your income, he has some great ideas for you.

If, like me, you feel that you’ve waited too long to start planning for the future, take a look at Start Late, Finish Rich. David lays out exactly what you can do to start now so that you can finish rich. Good luck!

The Intelligent Zebra