David Bach’s “Start Late,Finish Rich”

Posted by Pixelhead

On our recent trip to the Outer Banks, NC(OBX), I read or picked through David Bach’s “Start Late, Finish Rich” book. This book really applies to me, because other than several small retirement accounts while teaching, I have zilch. I had a 401K, but needed to liquidate it several years ago when I was faced with hard times.

Recently, I came across Trent’s review of “ The Automatic Millionaire” on The Simple Dollar, and much like Trent was I was initially disappointed when I started reading “Start Late, Finish Rich”, because of similarities with “The Automatic Millionaire”, which I also reviewed, but no where near as extensively as Trent. I too was a little disappointed at first, however, then instead of reading the book cover to cover, I decided to pick through the book and read chapters that I thought looked like they might benefit me.

Some Things I got out of “Start Late, Finish Rich”.

Like the simple idea of buy a house and live in it for two years, buy another house, rent the first, and do it again. (pg 249)
Going to 100 open houses within a ten mile radius to get a feel of the Real Estate market in your area. Due to this advice, Lizzie and I are going on the first round of open houses.
Love the idea of taking advantage of the homeowners $250,000 for single or $500,000 tax free profit break. Makes sense to not live in the same house for 30 years and only be able to take advantage of it once.(pg 268)
The Perfect Pie Approach(pg 118) is an approach to managing money, which is a three part portfolio. The first third is Real Estate, which includes but is not limited to your house(What it is worth minus what you owe). The second third is stocks, and the last third is bonds. David goes through each of the pieces of the financial pie and gives some suggestions on how to develop each of these sections. Lots of great info in this section.
One particular bit of vocabulary that I was first exposed to in the “Perfect Pie Chapter” was the term REIT or Real Estate Investment Trust. This is a company that is in the business of owning, managing,and running real estate. David suggests investing in REIT’s to help build the real estate section of your three part portfolio. David also lists a couple of resources to start out your due dilligence before investing.
David also poses a challenge to the reader(pg 168) in the chapter entitled “Who Says You Can’t Make More?” to reread this section of the book at least once a month for the next year. If I do this, David believes that I can increase my income from 10% in the next 30 days.
Also liked Chapter 23 “You Started Late…But Your Kids Don’t Have To” where he gives us parents some advice about teaching our kids about finances.

Overall, I am still very pleased with “Start Late, Finish Rich”, even though there are many similarities to “The Automatic Millionaire”. But I suppose, if it was a good read once, it should be a good read twice.

Don’t be surprised to see more posts about events that will be derived from reading about these books, especially if Lizzie and I buy a new house within the next couple of months.

If you would like to benefit from David’s financial advice, visit my Amazon store and order a copy of “Start Late, Finish Rich” by clicking on the text link or by clicking on the picture of David Bach’s Book above.

Written by Pixelhead on June 3rd, 2007 with 22 comments.
Read more articles on Financial and Investing and Real Estate and Uncategorized

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22 comments

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Adam
#1. June 6th, 2007, at 3:27 PM.

Like the idea of investing in real estate by buying the building your business is in…hmmm

MoneyNing
#2. June 10th, 2007, at 6:28 AM.

I also read and reviewed the automatic millionaire on my personal finance site. Although I did not read the Start Late Finish Rich, I really enjoy David’s style of writing (from his automatic millionaire and his web columns). I will give any of his writing a thumbs up.

Pixelhead
#3. June 11th, 2007, at 1:41 PM.

Yea, David’s books are great.
I was digesting the chapter on Tithing this past weekend. So I am sure a post will be done about the power of giving in the near future.

Free Online Lottery
#4. December 2nd, 2007, at 4:50 PM.

I’ve read the book and I love the section where it talks about taking advantage of tax breaks. He has some really good ideas and there are some things in there that make so much sense you’ll hit yourself because you didn’t think of it first. Highly recommended.

Vic
#5. December 10th, 2007, at 4:41 PM.

I wonder how well the techniques in this book would work now with the mortgage bubble burst. I was reading a book a while back that basically stated that this type of market for the person that has the cash is a gold mine because of all the people losing there home in foreclosure. I always have had serious issues with this type of investing because It makes me feel like you are making money from another persons misery.

Pixelhead
#6. December 10th, 2007, at 7:08 PM.

Vic, I know what you mean. I am a bit reluctant to make money on the misfortune of others as well.

Clark Financial
#7. December 18th, 2007, at 11:39 PM.

I think the concept of 1/3 of your investments in stocks, bonds, and real estate is a gross over simplification of how one should invest. I guess having a cookie-cutter type portfolio diversification is better than nothing, but you can certainly do better.

Pixelhead
#8. December 19th, 2007, at 1:22 PM.

Yes indeed, something saved is better than nothing. I am a big fan of making it simple.
CF sorry to have removed your link, but there is a strict linking policy that requires either a blog or forum to be attached to the url.
Oh, the link within the comment was removed because for the same reason, but it also went to a dead link. If you have a blog you would like to be linked to please let me know.

Bhumika
#9. February 6th, 2008, at 1:58 AM.

Please guide if owning a amazon store has advantage over direct linking to amazon page/product.

CFD Providers
#10. February 21st, 2008, at 5:15 PM.

I have a problem with these books that teach different ways to get rich because buying the book involves making the person selling the book rich so something is fishy:))))

Misha
#11. February 24th, 2008, at 9:53 AM.

So which book gets the final thumbs up? (I mean, if we only buy one in order to sock away some RE investing money.)

You can’t really look at investing in foreclosures as profiting from someone’s loss… you didn’t cause that loss, so there’s no guilt there. But if it really bothers you – try to get in during pre-foreclosure, where you can often really help a person out by buying their home before their credit is ruined. Maybe you could focus on that angle and feel better about your investments.

Pixelhead
#12. February 24th, 2008, at 1:28 PM.

I think Start Late, Finish Rich gets the thumbs up…
We were going to start investing in real estate, but since our SEO consulting business has really been flourishing, our financial consultant recommended that we not get into real estate, but keep focusing on the business. At this point it seems to have been very good advice.

Danny
#13. April 11th, 2008, at 6:13 PM.

I think now would be a great time to start investing in real estate if you already have some money. House prices are way down and I hear that some of the banks hit by the real estate bubble bust are letting houses go at major losses just to recover some of their financial misfortune.

Chris
#14. April 18th, 2008, at 2:09 PM.

I really enjoyed the book. I think that he has some great ideas and can help a lot of people gain financially. I did, however, find the section on “everybody should buy a home” a tad misleading. I agree with the fact that real estate is a great investment, renting is a waste of money and that if you have the cash, now is the time to buy. That being said, I feel that people could get into some serious financial trouble if they strictly follow Mr. Bach’s advice on buying a home. I think many people could end up biting off more than they can chew if they don’t realize all of the many costs that go along with owning a home. Just a thought.

Pixelhead
#15. April 18th, 2008, at 2:25 PM.

Chris, there are a lot of people that should follow that advice. As you are aware of there is a crisis where many home owners are having there homes foreclosed because they had the arm mortgages which have now matured and they can not afford to make their astronomical payments. I am a firm believer that buying a piece of real estate requires a ton of due diligence to determine if it is a wise purchase for the potential home buyer. Due to this crisis, I am pretty sure that the lending institutions are being a little more cautious to whom they are making loans and for how much.

Finance Articles
#16. July 6th, 2008, at 10:21 AM.

Real estate has always been the traditional tool of investment for growing your money in the long term. The best strategy is to invest without trying to time the market. In the long run up, you are sure going to make a killing out of your investments.

no fee balance transfers
#17. July 31st, 2008, at 3:10 PM.

The book is very good for those who need some piece of advice to improve their business. I’ve also read it and it helped me a lot.

FP at Respond
#18. August 18th, 2008, at 7:34 AM.

Investment requires proper planning and strategies. And also it is always advisable to invest in more than one channel such as stocks, bonds, real estate, etc. so that the risk factor would be minimum.
Financial Planners at Respond

Stephen McFarlane
#19. December 3rd, 2008, at 12:42 AM.

Real estate has always been the traditional tool of investment for growing your money in the long term. The best strategy is to invest without trying to time the market.

Silverthorne real estate
#20. March 26th, 2009, at 5:12 PM.

Excellent blog….That your blog title itself make curiosity to read the blog “Start late finish rich”.. Good points, tips and your great suggestion about the house loans and buying and selling prices… But our financial consultant recommended that we not get into real estate, but keep focusing on the business…..

For Sale By Owner
#21. March 27th, 2009, at 5:08 AM.

I love to read this book. This book give a advice to improve their business.
I decided to pick through the book and read chapters that I thought looked like they might benefit me.

alberghi isola d’Elba
#22. January 31st, 2010, at 6:41 AM.

It’s an amazing book!I think the book is very good for those who need some piece of advice to improve their business.Really a very nice one.Thanks a lot for sharing.keep up the good works.

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