The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach – Chapter 3 – Learn to Pay Yourself First

Chapter 3 of The Automatic Millionaire says that almost everyone makes enough money to become an Automatic Millionaire. You don’t do it by following a budget but by paying yourself first.

Bach says there is a better way to get rich than budgeting. He says that any system that is designed to control your normal human impulses is ultimately bound to fail because human beings don’t want to be controlled. We want to be in control. Instead Bach says the only way to become rich is to pay yourself first and pay it automatically by payroll deduction into a retirement account.

He then goes into a discussion about working for yourself. Not as your own employer but how many hours of each day/week/year are you able to invest for your own retirement? Bach says that most of us work barely 22 minutes a day for ourselves if any at all. The author, rather than focusing on a percentage of your income that you should put away, he suggests working an hour a day for yourself.

I will wait for the author to give more details about how he expects people who spend more than they earn by building up credit card debt. So far the steps are 1) Don’t buy lattes, have money payroll deducted to a retirement account, and forget about budgeting.