David Bach Author of Smart Women Finish Rich

Authors of Financial Books for Women

David Bach
Author of Smart Women Finish Rich

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David Bach is the author of SMART WOMEN FINISH RICH: 7 Steps To Achieving Financial Security and Funding Your Dreams (Broadway Books, 1999). He is a Senior Vice President of investments at a major investment firm and a partner of The Bach Group in Orinda, California, which manages more than $600 million dollars for individual investors.

In addition to being a full-time financial adviser, David is a highly regarded educator who has taught retirement planning courses for the University of California Berkeley Extension, The Learning Annex, local adult schools, and numerous Fortune 500 corporations. A featured speaker at events around the world, David has shared the stage with Tony Robbins at his Wealth Mastery program and regularly speaks at major events that highlight the importance of women taking control over their financial futures.

  1. What led you to write this book?

    In 1993 I entered the financial planning business with my father. He had been a financial adviser for over 25 years and I started working with a lot of his clients. In the first few months of being a financial adviser we had a handful of our male clients die. Week after week I was sitting in meetings with widows helping them to understand their financial situation at the worst possible time of their lives. It came to me that this was a dumb system…helping widows after a death learn about money was reactive. I wanted to be proactive, so I designed an investment seminar just for our women clients!

    Everyone told me it was a stupid idea. People said, “women won’t come to an investment seminar.” I didn’t listen. I sent out invitations to our women client’s and rented a room for the event that would fit 50. My father said, “you’ll be lucky if 25 women come”. Well, 225 RSVP’d to the first event. That was more people then normally came to our client parties! That first seminar took place in 1994. Since that time I have done my seminar called Smart Women Finish Rich hundreds of times all over the country and tens of thousands of women have come through the program. My goal with the book Smart Women Finish Rich is to now coach millions of women how to take control over their financial lives instead of just thousands. The book is my seminar now come to life for all to read!

  2. What do you feel to be the biggest challenge facing women today when handling their finances?

    Getting Started! You can read all the books you want, and take all the seminars, and subscribe to all the magazines, and search all the website you want. At some point you have to make a decision that you want to be rich! You have to decide that from this day forward living and finishing rich is a priority to you. Once you do this you have to learn how to “pay yourself first!”

  3. How has the atmosphere changed for women investors in the last 10 years?

    It’s an entirely different world! When I hosted my first seminar in 1994 for women there were literally no books for women on investing. No one was even doing seminars for women and investing. People thought I was crazy. Now there is an enormous attention be paid to women and money. The reality is that the financial firms have been asleep at the wheel on this market place.

  4. How will the atmosphere change for women investors in the next 10 years?

    In the next ten years my prediction is that women will be investing even more the men are. This is not a fad or marketing gimmick, it’s a necessary reality. Women need to manage their own money. In the next 20 years you will be hearing that women control over 70% of the financial assets in America. This will be due to two major demographic changes in America. First, many men will die in the next 20 years and their wives will be solely in control of the family’s wealth. Second, women are America’s entrepreneur work force and they will be making as much money as men going forward if not more.

  5. Where did you start your career and how did it lead you to where you are today?

    Three years ago I decided that I had to live my life on purpose. That meant going for my dreams and living by my values. My top value in life is to make a difference in the world. I honestly believe that God gives us talents and skills and we have to use them or we are wasting a great gift. For whatever reason, I have been driven to educate and empower women to take charge of their financial lives. This is truly my life’s passion. For me the book Smart Women Finish Rich is just the beginning of my dream. I hope to look back in ten years and know that there are millions of women managing their own money and teaching their kids how to do this.

  6. How much money do you need to start investing?

    I bought my first stock at age 7 with $12.50. My first purchase was in McDonald’s my favorite restaurant in the whole world. My grandmother helped me do it. Times have not changed. You can still buy one share of stock, and you can still find stocks trading for $12.50 a share. Today you can also start investing in mutual funds with as little as $50 a month! You don’t need to be rich to be an investor. You just have to start!

  7. How should a woman get started investing with no investment experience?

    Read a book like Smart Women Finish Rich and take my Seven Step system step by step. The first thing I teach is that you should start investing in your retirement account at work (your 401k plan). 40% of women who have retirement plans at work are not signed up! Step one, “Sign up”.

  8. If a woman has debt, at what point should she become an investor?

    Today! If you focus on your debt all your financial energy becomes negative. The moment to start investing is now. Even if its only $50 a month; it means you are doing something positive!

  9. Have you published any other books before this one? If so, what are they?

    Smart Women Finish Rich is my first book.

  10. What are your future book writing plans?

    Smart Women Finish Rich became a best seller within two weeks of coming out in January. It is now in its seventh printing and I’m told it is the number one best selling book written on the topic of women and money specifically. Because of this I have been blessed with the opportunity to do more books. I am just about to start writing my second book which will be titled Smart Couples Finish Rich. After that I plan to write Smart Kids Finish Rich.

    Please feel free to include anything else about yourself that you feel would be valuable to our MsMoney.com community members.

    I learned how to invest because my grandmother Bach sat me down at age 7 and explained to me what it meant to invest. My grandmother Bach was an extraordinary woman that became an investor 55 years ago when women were not investing. She started investing when she was only earning $10 a week and she didn’t own a home. She became a self-made millionaire by investing. If I can leave you with one thought it is this; ladies you can do this! But don’t just do it for yourself; learn about money so you can teach your kids and grandchildren. I was truly blessed that my grandmother was my financial mentor. More women in America need to be teaching their kids but first you need to teach yourself.