The Automatic Millionaire : A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich: Amazon.ca: David Bach: Books

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Customer Reviews

17 Reviews

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
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Average Customer Review

3.8 out of 5 stars (17 customer reviews)

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70 of 72 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars OK, but with flaws, Mar 29 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Automatic Millionaire, Canadian Edition: A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich (Canadian Edition) (Hardcover)

Although the book is well written, there are several problems with the ideas presented in it. I'm very skeptical of the reviewers who gave it a glowing review. Although it's an exciting concept that you can be an automatic millionaire, once you look into it a little deeper (which I suspect none of the reviewers did, if indeed they are true reviewers), the outcome is not so rosy, and is based on certain assumptions.

One of the major problems with this book is the oft-repeated assumption that your investments will make 10%. In a time with historically low interest rates and a struggling economy, achieving a 10% return is not easy these days. Many of the numbers in the book (e.g. how much money you will have if you invest $5 a day for 35 years) are based on this rate of return.

Secondly, the author does not often reveal how he gets his magic numbers. He shows no formulas, yet lots of dollar figures and a few tables. How can the reader confirm the numbers he comes up with? I feel like I'm reading a scientific report, with no way to confirm the test results in my own lab!

Also, the term "automatic millionaire" only seems to apply to those who can save 10 to 20 percent of their pre-tax (gross) income. How many people can do that? Certainly not those who are living paycheque to paycheque, which many people are.

The author advocates saving 10 to 20 percent of your gross income , and THEN adding extra, regular payments to your mortgage to pay it off sooner. If you can afford to actually do both of these things, you are better off than most people. Secondly, this plan of attack is not such a clear cut solution; there are many financial experts who recommend that you should pay off this large debt first (and I've seen compelling, REPEATABLE calculations which support this method), and then start saving money when your mortgae is paid off early. If I followed the advice in this book, I'd still be paying my mortgage after I retired, which is a position NO ONE should be in.

My advice: if you want to read this book, balance the advice by reading other financial books which support the mortgage first theory (I'm not going to say which ones, lest anyone think I'm trying to promote a specific author).

I read the book in a day, made some notes, and returned it.

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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, Oct 26 2006

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Andrew (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Automatic Millionaire: Canadian Edition: A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich (Paperback)

I have read many books of this type. I was very disappointed in this book. It merely reiterates the time old adages of: pay your self first; pay off your credit cards; pay down your mortgage; and buy one coffee a day, instead of two.

In my opinion, it is only a watered-down version of "The Wealthy Barber". The ideas in "The Automatic Millionaire" are solid advice, but have been written many times in many other books. Unfortunately I found no new ideas in the book, nor were there many helpful suggestions that could have been mentioned.

This book might be helpful to someone just entering the workforce who has very little financial knowledge.

Andrew

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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars great for first timers, April 17 2004

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JGS (Toronto) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Automatic Millionaire, Canadian Edition: A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich (Canadian Edition) (Hardcover)

I like Bach's style. He's snappy and to the point. I bought the book thinking my two kids could learn a few things, and with the catchy title, both gave it a thumbs up. So, while there's certainly nothing new or earth-shattering in these pages, it's a great book for first-timers. And I would especially recommend it for young people who are just starting to think about their financial future.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Everyone Should own this book
Excellent book! Had read the Americanversion before moving to US but now back in Canada, wanted the Can. terms - To be owned by everyone

Published 15 months ago by New Amazon Lover

5.0 out of 5 stars Great while missing a few things
I noticed that a lot of people criticized this book in their reviews because of the lack of formulas, tables and significant examples sometimes, and I too felt that David Bach... Read more

Published on May 25 2010 by Derik Martel