9 November 2007 No Comment Print This Post  Email This Post

Currently, I’m in the process of reading Smart Couples Finish Rich, by David Bach. I’ve only got another forty pages to go, and I’ll probably knock those out this weekend. I’m not expecting any surprises in those last few pages, though, so I feel ready to pass judgment.

As a basic introduction to managing your assets and building wealth, Bach’s book does pretty well. I especially found the sections explaining which investments are best for different time lengths — it’s a topic that very few financial writers cover in any depth, and for most people trying to get ahead, it’s vital to understand.

But Smart Couples does lack some types of information. Bach seems to assume that, if you’re part of a couple and ready to get rich, that you have minimal debt — maybe a mortgage, but not much else. Given how many Americans have student loans, consumer debt and otherwise owe money, such a basic primer should include some coverage of the topic. At the very least, I feel that Bach should have explained what sorts of obligations a person may have towards his or her partner’s debt.

I warn against purely depending on a book like this as a handbook to financial security. For one thing, despite the fact that it was written in 2001, it’s already very outdated. Not to boast about blogs’ superiority in covering financial topics, but the laws covering the topic change regularly, as do the products available from various companies.

One point that Bach emphasizes is the fact that couples have to plan together — that a lot of people just don’t seem to have the same goals. He cites example after example of couples who have different ideas of their plans for retirement, savings, etc. (and generally don’t seem to have ever talked about financial matters to each other). He doesn’t really advocate having big sit down talks about each facet — just asking your significant other to take a few minutes to go over very specific things with you. I think that’s some of the most important information in the book.

I’ve gotten a bit of a jump start from reading this book. I haven’t gone out and changed every bit of my financial planning, but it’s given me a couple of good starting points, as well as an idea of what I need to start considering in terms of my other half.