It's About Your Money, It's About Your Freedom

Start Late, Finish Rich: A No-Fail Plan for Achieving Financial Freedom at Any Age
by David Bach

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If I could give you only one gift, it would be the gift of freedom. The gift to be the person you were put here to be.

Why? Because you are a very special person. In fact, you're unique. There is no one like you on the planet. You were put here for a reason, and I promise you it wasn't to struggle through life.

What does any of this have to do with achieving financial security and independence? In a word, everything. If you are worried about money and your future, it's more than likely you're not living as free a life as you want. And if you're not living as free a life as you want, how can you be living the life you were put here to live?

YOU EITHER GET IT OR YOU DON'T

It may not be politically correct to say so, but the brutal reality of life is that in almost every case ,if you sit down and get honest with yourself, you will find that 90% of your problems can be fixed with money.

Yes, I know we're supposed to believe that money doesn't make you happy.There are entire schools of philosophy built on that premise. Well, here's what experience has taught me: Money may not make you happy, but LACK OF MONEY can certainly make you miserable.

When all is said and done, the way you get your freedom is to buy it. You don't lease it. You don't wish for it. You buy it, and then you own it.

THE HANDWRITING IS ON THE WALL

In 2002 and 2003,the American Association of Retired Persons sponsored an in-depth study of baby boomers (people born between 1946 and 1964). It revealed some amazing things about their attitudes and experience. Perhaps its most significant finding was this:

Personal finance and work are among the least satisfying aspects of baby boomers' lives.

Specifically:

• While higher-earning boomers tend to be more satisfied with their lives than lower-income boomers, only about 20% of all boomers (one in five) are satisfied with their finances.

• One in four says the worst thing about their lives right now is their finances.

• One in three names personal finances as the one area of their lives they would most like to improve.

• Lack of finances makes it hard for baby boomers to enjoy leisure activities.

• Higher education is no guarantee of financial well-being. Only 20% of college-educated boomers are satisfied with their finances.

• Less-educated boomers are equally unhappy; only 22% of them said they were satisfied with their finances.

Perhaps the single most eye-opening finding of the AARP study is this:

In terms of their single largest ambition, both men and women mention dreams ofan improved financial situation.

Read that again. The AARP surveyed thousands of baby boomers and found that their single biggest dream is to get their financial lives together.

Why? Because millions of them have put off saving-and now that they are getting older (and living longer), they're realizing that they face a huge problem.

What's the problem they face? Well, according to the AARP:

When contemplating their personal finances, slim majorities of younger adults (58%) and boomers (54%) and just half of older Americans (50%) believe they are likely to reach their goals in the area of personal finances.

In other words, nearly half of us-old, young, and in between-DON'T believe we'll be able to achieve our financial goals. What makes this finding so shocking is that the same AARP study found that most boomers and younger adults are confident about just about every other area of life. They believe their lives are bound to improve over the next five years in terms of relations with family and friends, mental health, religious or spiritual concerns, work or career, and physical health.

This is why it is so important for you to decide right now that even though you are starting late, YOU ARE GOING TO FINISH RICH. The race of your life is already on. You can continue to sit on the sidelines, moaning about how you should have gotten started last year or 10 years ago or 30 years ago. Or you can get up and start running.

NOW FOR THE GOOD NEWS

OK, are you ready to be motivated? Well, consider this: We are totally blessed in this country. As a society, America has achieved more financially over the last century than the entire world has in all previous centuries combined. Our standard of living is higher, our life expectancy is longer, and our educational and recreational opportunities are greater today than they've ever been.

Within your lifetime, the wealth of the United States has increased by a staggering amount-jumping from about $6 trillion 50 years ago to some $30 trillion today. And while many people are broke and struggling, a whole lot of other people are LOADED.

Indeed, never before in our planet's history have so many people been so wealthy. According to Merrill Lynch & Co.'s 2004 World Wealth Report, the number of millionaires in the United States (which the report defines as people with at least $1 million in financial or liquid assets) jumped by 14% to 2.27 million in 2003.In other words, one out of every 125 Americans is now a millionaire.

By way of comparison, back in 1900 there were fewer than 5,000 millionaires in the United States-or only about one out of every 15,000 Americans at the time.

And it's not just the number of millionaires that has increased. Since the 1960s, median household wealth in America has nearly tripled, growing from $29,000 in 1965 to $86,100 in 2001 (the most recent year for which data is available)-meaning that while half the nation's households were worth $29,000 or less back in the 1960s, today half are worth more than $86,100.

WHICH LIFE WILL YOU CHOOSE?

When you contrast the bad news (the paycheck-to-paycheck struggle that kills freedom) with the good news (the phenomenal wealth and opportunity that is all around us),you begin to realize that life is not fair. The fact is, you don't get in life what you wish for. You get in life what you go for.

People choose their lives.
People choose their actions.
People choose their outcomes.
Life is a cause set in motion.
And life is not over until you quit.

MEET SOME PEOPLE WHO
STARTED LATE AND FINISHED RICH

Before we get to the specifics of exactly how you can start late and still finish rich, I want you to meet some remarkable people. What makes them remarkable is not that they did something difficult. Rather, it's that they discovered how easy it is to do something that most people think is difficult.

I hope their stories inspire you to really believe that it's not too late for you. Because it isn't.

Copyright © 2005 by David Bach. Excerpted by permission of Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

About the Author

David Bach is the author of the national bestsellers Smart Women Finish Rich, Smart Couples Finish Rich, The Finish Rich Workbook, and The Automatic Millionaire. The Automatic Millionaire spent fourteen weeks on the New York Times "Advice-How-To" Bestseller List and has been a # 1 bestseller on business lists across the country, including those of The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, USA Today, and The New York Times.