← HerMoney with Jean Chatzky
HerMoney with Jean Chatzky
Ep 512: What We Wish We Knew About Money 30 Years Ago With David Bach & Jean Chatzky
00:39:28
The candid conversation every saver, spender, and soon-to-be retiree needs to hear.
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- [00:01]
Gene
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- [01:00]
David Bach
I was trying to get the thing that was going to make me rich quick, and none of those things worked. They never work. I don't know anybody's gotten rich quick. And so compound interested in my life ultimately worked. Paying myself first automatically. It ultimately worked. I look at my accounts now and it's like, it's just like the charts and nothing seems to happen for the first 10 years. And then 20 years it gets a little bit more. But then all of a sudden in 30 years, it's like, well, this money's just starting to grow on its own. And so I wish I had known at a young age to take compound interest serious sooner.
- [01:34]
Gene
Hey everybody. Welcome to a very special episode of Her Money. But it's not just Her Money, it's also the David Fox Show. We're doing something different today to podcast one big conversation. I am so excited to be talking to my longtime friend David Bach. When you've got decades of experience between you, it is only fitting to pull up two mics and dig into the biggest questions about money and retirement and the lives that we want to lead. But first, we just have to catch up for a few minutes and you all are going to be forced to listen to this.
- [02:17]
David Bach
Well, I'll tell you what, I was just downstairs, my wife who you know, and I said, honey, I'm gonna go do this show right now with Gene, like the first time I've ever done a joint podcast, by the way. And I said, it's gonna be so fun to see you and catch up. But do you realize I met you 25 years ago?
- [02:36]
Gene
I remember.
- [02:38]
David Bach
You remember? Cause I'm Like, I doubt you. Like, I came in.
- [02:40]
Gene
Oh, I totally remember. We went to the Rock Center Cafe with Katie Krupp, and it was like.
- [02:48]
David Bach
A meet and greet, which was so sweet because I had just moved to New York. I hadn't been on the Today Show. You were the Today show legend. You were so successful. And literally, she brought me to come meet you. And now, you know, I thought about it. We've probably done 50 television shows together. You know, if you take all the Today's show segments, we did money, 911, the Oprah death diet series. God, I mean, we end up spending years together. So it's been too long. It's really good to see you.
- [03:13]
Gene
It is so good to see you. And there is an ocean, a literal ocean between us. David is living in Florence, where he has been for the last six years, which we talk so much on my show about retirement and thinking about different ways to retire. And you're not retired. I know you're releasing the updated 20th anniversary of the Automatic Millionaire, which we will get into because it's so exciting, but you know, what the hell you were going for a year and six years later, you're still there.
- [03:47]
David Bach
I know. Well, it is incredible how life unfolds. I mean, the last time we were talking, I was putting out the Latte factor, which was this parable. And it was a story about a young woman who changes her whole life when it comes to her finances. As part of that book, Zoe Daniels was going to take a sabbatical. And so as I was writing the book, I was like, well, I'm going to take a sabbatical, too. And so my plan had been to move to New York for nine months with. Leave New York, move to Florence for nine months with my family. I wanted my kids to live abroad before they went to college, especially Jack. And we came before COVID And then 90 days in, Jack turned to me and said, dad, is there any way you can work from Florence? I'd like to finish high school in Italy. And Alicia was like, oh, my God, absolutely. Let's stay in Florence. Because we were having so much fun. My younger son wasn't as happy. James wasn't thrilled. I had to bribe him with an iPhone. But we stayed. So we stayed. And, you know, it has been absolutely life changing, and it's really changed my perspective on a lot of things, how I live, retirement, what it means to live a rich life. And it's been beautiful. It's been really fun.
- [05:02]
Gene
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- [08:04]
David Bach
I updated the Automatic Millionaire book because really it's 20 years later. Last time I updated was 2016. The book's been updated like five times. But the reason it's been so successful is I keep updating it because things change. And I really selfishly updated the book this time because Jack's 22, James is 15. I wanted to put the book in their hands and their friends hands and try to help one generation one more time before I put a bow on my career here. So, you know, in the process of updating this book, which was fascinating to do, it's fascinating to go back into a book from 20 years ago and look at what's changed and a lot's changed with technology. It's never been easier to automate your financial life. A lot of people become millionaires. Anyone who read my book 20 years ago and paid themselves first automatically and bought a home, chances are they're a millionaire today. Basic math, right? Like, because the market's gone up 600% in 20 years and real estate's gone up over 400%. So homes were 140,000 and now they're 430,000. And the stock market's gone up sixfold. So people who have paid themselves first use retirement accounts and bottom home, they've done real well. It's why we have 24 million millionaires now in America. It's gone by 16 million since I wrote the book. So there were 8 million millionaires 20 years ago. There's now 24 million millionaires. What hasn't gotten better is people are still living paycheck to paycheck. 7 out of 10Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck.
- [09:34]
Gene
And part of that is not their fault. Right? And I just want to just acknowledge the fact that for many, many people, wages have not kept pace with the cost of living. I believe, and I know that you believe, that there is not a budget that we cannot crack, right? I have never met a budget where I couldn't eke out some savings. But for some people, and particularly younger people who are struggling with student debt and rent, it's not easy. I like to think back to when I moved to Brooklyn and was making $11,000 a year right out of college and got a second job teaching SATs, that paid more than my first job. And I could do it, right? I wasn't saving a lot, but I could do it. And I do feel for these younger people right now.
- [10:24]
David Bach
I feel for Americans across the board. I think because I live in Europe now, when I come to the US And I see how. I don't think you realize how expensive it is right now in the United States. Or maybe you do.
- [10:36]
Gene
Oh, I do.
- [10:37]
David Bach
But when I show up in New York, now that I don't live there, and I go and I stay in a hotel and a drink at the hotel is $31 without a tip, I just stay at the Equinox Hotel. I won't even talk about the hotel room costs. Great hotel, by the way. But, you know, a cocktail at the bar and the bar's packed. Bar is packed. And A drink is $31. This is new York. I said, I literally said to my. I said to Alicia, you know, this bar's packed. I know a lot of people are on corporate accounts, but the other thing I bet you is that most people in the bar are making over $100,000 a year and they're still living paycheck to paycheck.
- [11:11]
Gene
Yeah. And it's not just New York. I was in Wichita and a drink at the bar cost $22.
- [11:18]
David Bach
In Wichita.
- [11:19]
Gene
In Wichita, you know, you go to.
- [11:22]
David Bach
Chipotle in a burrito bowl in a Coke and chips, and you are out now for $25. So it's gotten harder. It's definitely gotten harder. And you know what? We thought it was pretty hard when we were young, too. I actually do think it's harder now. I think what's happening is that I think the American dream for the younger generation is slipping away. And the dream is becoming how do I get rich quick? How do I become a brand or an influencer on social media? How do I get a viral video? How do I buy the right crypto coin or the right meme coin? And those are not real approaches to building wealth. At least I don't think so.
- [12:01]
Gene
No, and I agree. I do, I agree. But I'm wondering, as you update it, as you sort of dug into it and thought back at this 30 year career, what were the things that still held up and what were the things that you were like, Well, I gotta revise that because that doesn't work anymore.
- [12:22]
David Bach
We have the amazing thing is with the automatic millionaires, it all stood up. Right. So what happened was everything I taught you got to pay yourself first at least one hour a day of your income. Right. So the average American needs to save at least 12 and a half percent of their gross income. Hasn't changed. You need to have money in stocks. You can't be.
- [12:39]
Gene
Hasn't changed.
- [12:40]
David Bach
The money has to grow. It hasn't changed. I used to give all these examples of compound interest. When you start when you're young, it's easier. Hasn't changed. It's just math, right? So the math of money hasn't changed. It's easier to automate things. Like, I can now take this phone and I can turn around and in less than 10 minutes, automate my entire financial life. That's changed. You know, when you came into my office at Morgan Stanley and I wanted to automate your systematic investment plan, I sat down with you, and you had to fill out six pages of paperwork. You'd give me a voided check. I had to have that all sent to a bank. Take three weeks to set up a systematic investment plan. Today. You can go use a website, like an app, like Acorns as an example. You could use Vanguard or Schwab or Fidelity. Click, click, click. And in 10 minutes, you could automate everything.
- [13:27]
Gene
Yeah.
- [13:27]
David Bach
So that's a game changer. And that's great news. Like, everything's easier to automate. It's easier to automate paying down your home. It's easier to automate paying your bills. It's all easier. The challenge is people are being separated from their money today automatically. Easier also. So we used to go to stores and go shopping, and you might think about buying something, and you look at this.
- [13:53]
Gene
Right? Right. We used to go to the ATM, David, and pull out $100 and make it last for the week.
- [14:00]
David Bach
We had touch with money. Touch with our money. Right? Like those who aren't, who can't see us. I put my fingers on. Money was a thing. Now with our phones, we're completely removed from what things cost, and things are put in front of us. Try this free trial, and we click on it, and then we don't even use it. We're paying for it. So technology has allowed people to get really good at taking our money automatically. And the automatic millionaire book is always about the mindset of, like, the way money flows. It has to flow to you first. And I'm such a big believer in having a financial plan. And I go, too many people have what I call the no plan. The no plan is you don't actually have a plan for your money. You don't actually. If I said to you, like, well, how much are you paying yourself first? Are you saving our day of your income? Do you own a home? Are you paying the Debt down early. There are all these specific things that go into a plan. Do you have a will? Do you have life insurance? Most people don't have a real plan. And the problem is if you don't have a real plan, somebody else has a plan for you and they're the ones that win. They're the ones that take all your hard earned dollars from you. So, you know, normal people work 90,000 hours over their lifetime. People like you and I, we've already worked over 90,000 hours during our lifetime. Right. But you take the typical family, they're going to work 180 to 220,000 hours over their lifetime, get to retirement and not have any money saved. And that's a problem which I'm spent 33 years trying to solve.
- [15:35]
Gene
So there is a lot of money in these 401ks. As you said, the challenge for many people, no matter how much you've managed to accumulate, is now we're living longer. And now you've got to figure out a way to make this money last as long as you last. How do you think about retirement? And talk to me, you've got this concept about revolutionizing retirement in America. I want to dig into that a little bit.
- [16:10]
David Bach
Yeah, let's dig into it. Okay. So when I updated the book, it blew my mind away to see Jean, that there's $45 trillion now in retirement accounts. I mean, I don't even know if you need like $45 trillion with the T. I don't think people can put it in perspective. And I just was on a call with a senator on this idea. So the ira. Let me give the website. First of all, the website's iraflattax.com and let me tell you the idea and then I'll go through it. The idea is we have $45 trillion now in retirement accounts and the bulk of that money is baby boomer money, people who've already retired. And that's probably depends on whose numbers you look at. But somewhere between 11 to 20 trillion dollars of that money is baby boomer money. And what shocked me to find out as I updated this book is that 8 out of 10 baby boomers, retirees, will not take money out of the retirement account until they are forced to. They are forced to take money out at the age of 73. Or in our case it will be 75.
- [17:10]
Gene
75.
- [17:11]
David Bach
And it's called the RMD age, which is the required minimum distribution that you need to take out of your. You have take money out of your retirement account. Amazingly many Americans still don't know this. And if you don't take out what's about 4%, it's an actuary number, if you don't take the money out of your retirement account because the government wants to start getting taxes from you, if you don't take it out, the government now will give you a tax penalty of 25% of what you don't take out. And it used to be 50%. So they created the RMD tax law because people are putting money in these retirement accounts and they're not pulling it out. So the question goes, why is there so much money in these retirement accounts not being used? And the answer is, nobody wants to pay taxes. People would rather die than pay taxes. My idea is take taxes which are ordinary income on IRA accounts, and lower it to a flat tax. Lower to a flat tax. And we ran 10%, 12% and 15% and the white papers on iraflattax.com and we looked at what would potentially happen if we lowered taxes on retirement accounts for people over the age of 60 for eight years. And the analysis came back using all the AI engines, using Gemini and Perplexity. And we have a whole thing on Google Notebook lm He came back saying trillions of dollars would come out of retirement accounts sooner. That would raise the GDP of America by a quarter of 1% to 1% annually, could bring up to a trillion dollars in tax dollars to the US Government forward. And more importantly, money goes in the economy and retirees have a better retirement. So that's the idea.
- [18:54]
Gene
So as a future retiree, love the idea, right, Of a flat tax in this way. So is a book that's coming out in September called the Forever Paycheck. I haven't actually talked about it on my podcast yet. It's about the fact that we've been shoving all this money into our 401ks and we need to figure out how to make it last for the rest of our life. But I do think there are other reasons that people don't spend the money in their retirement accounts. I think after. And there's a lot of psychological research to back this up. After being told to save and invest and accumulate for such a long time, flipping the switch to spending and seeing your balance go down, it's really hard. It is just really, really hard. So I think that that's a factor too. But look, I love this idea. And maybe some of that money could flow into the Social Security system as well and help fix that, because the government's got to Deal with that sooner rather than later.
- [20:00]
David Bach
Yeah. I think, first of all, I love the title of forever paycheck.
- [20:03]
Gene
Thank you.
- [20:04]
David Bach
I agree with you. There's two phases to life when it comes to money. There's save and invest, and then there's spend and enjoy. And what happens when people reach this retirement age is often they've been told, you're going to live so long, you have to make sure you don't outlive your money. The truth is that most retirees do not run out of money. What they run out of is healthy life. Life expectancy, which people think is going up in the United States. It's not. It's going down. But that's not the issue. It's health expectancy. Health expectancy is rarely talked about. Health expectancy is the age that the World Health Organization knows in every single country. What is the average age that a person gets a medical issue that impacts the rest of their life? And in the United states, age, it's 63, Gene, and I'm 59 now. I've had three best friends already pass away, and I've seen lots of people start to get sick in their 60s and their 70s. And so, yeah, when you retire, you need to use your health, your time, and your money in the first decade. Now, for some people, they've already waited until their 70s, then now's the time to use your money and enjoy it. And so I just think we spent 40 years teaching people to save and invest retirement. Now we're on the next part of the journey, which is to teach people how to enjoy their money. And like you talk about the forever paycheck, a whole nother education process. I just got off calls with senators last week talking about the IRA flat tax, and they said this is a really interesting idea, would need bipartisan support, but it makes a lot of sense. And then somebody says something in the call which was fascinating. They said, you know, we have spent the last 20 years, all we talk about is how to make it easier to put money in those retirement accounts. We're never talking about how to get this money out of these accounts. Yeah, and that's an interesting issue for the government, too, because the byproduct of having all this money in these retirement accounts not coming out hurts the American economy. Money's not being spent and taxes aren't being created. And they created the Roth IRA as a gimmick to start getting taxes up front. But the Roth IRA means that money is never being taxed. So there's going to need to become a conversation in America around, hey, you know what? There's a lot of wealth. Maybe we can figure out a way to better use it.
- [22:21]
Gene
Yeah, I totally agree. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we're going to talk about all the things we Wish we knew 30 years ago and what we believe about money now. You know my producer Hayley has a big goal for 2026, finally building that travel fund she has been talking about for years. Real guilt free venture money. But like any goal, it starts with a plan. And for that she is using Monarch. Managing your money doesn't have to be a struggle this year. Monarch is the all in one personal finance tool designed to make your life easier. It brings your entire financial life, budgeting accounts and investments, net worth and future planning together in one dashboard on your laptop or your phone. Start your new year on the right foot financially and get 50% off your monarch subscription with Code Hermoney. Achieve your financial goals for good. Monarch is the all in one tool that makes proactive money management simple all year long. Use code hermoney@monarch.com for half off your first year. That's 50% off your first year at monarch.com with code hermoney. This episode is brought to you by Peloton Break through the busiest time of year with the brand new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus. Powered by Peloton iq. With real time guidance and endless ways to move, you can personalize your workouts and train with confidence, helping you reach your goals in less time. Let yourself run, lift, sculpt, push and go explore the new peloton cross training tread +@1peloton.com I'm back with my friend David Bach, author of the Automatic Millionaire. Just re released. Okay, let's go down memory lane just a little bit. If you had to pick a couple of things that you wish you knew about money years and years ago, what would they be you and I spent.
- [24:20]
David Bach
Our lifetime teaching Compound interest, right? And what we've taught is like, look, if you start when you're in your 20s and you save $10 a day or $20 a day or $30, we show all of our charts. The compound interest charts how you could be worth millions of dollars of retirement and yet in your 20s, usually you hear about money but you don't do anything. And then in your 30s you think about it, maybe do a little bit in your 40s you start to worry about it and then your 50s you'll hyperventilate. I wish that I Had seen the compound interest charts when I was a teenager. I wish I had known to be more serious about saving and investing earlier, right? Because when I was young, I wanted to get rich quick. I was trading stocks. I mean, I was trading stocks over the pink sheets in college. You know, I was trying to get the. The thing that was going to make me rich quick. And none of those things worked. They never work. I don't know anybody who's gotten rich quick. And so compound interested in my life ultimately worked. Paying myself first automatically. It ultimately worked. I look at my accounts now and it's like, you know, it's just like the charts and nothing seems to happen for the first 10 years. And then 20 years it gets a little bit more. But then all of a sudden in 30 years, it's like, whoa, this money's just starting to, you know, grow on its own. And. And so I wish I had known at a young age to take compound interest serious sooner. I've got James now with a Roth IRA, starting him at 12. You know, my Jack got started at, I don't know, fan thing three years, four years ago. So these, I'm starting these kids 10 years sooner than I started. And anybody's listening, I would tell you, start your kids younger, you know, automatically on your book, show them the charts, start them a Roth ira and get them going earlier. I would have started a decade sooner.
- [26:01]
Gene
I think there's such a valid and important point in what you just said that nothing happens for the first 10 years. And even for the first 20, we expect that we start this and we're igniting a fire and it's going to just go poof and we're going to see that hockey stick growth immediately. And that is not what happens. And that shouldn't be our expectation. I like the exercise of watching the accounts grow, but also continually adding to my savings because I feel like the amount that you put into savings helps you see some progress. No matter what the markets are doing, as long as you're continually saving, you're going to continue to see those balances pretty much go up as long as you keep participating. For me, I wish. God, I wish these behavioral finance lessons had come along a little bit earlier. I wish I knew how bad humans, meaning me, were wired to be with money at a young age. That how hard it is to just. You should have written the automatic millionaire first, David. That's sort of what I'm trying to say. Automatic millionaire first book. Like when I was in my 20s, I could have used it then Because I wasn't very conscious of saving. I didn't feel like I could and I didn't get really started until I was in my 30s. And then I had to do a total reset after my divorce in my 40s. So yeah, 20s would have been a nice decade to grab some growth.
- [27:45]
David Bach
So instead of you going to me, let me go back to you. Then having gone through the divorce and having to do a total reset in your 40s, what do you wish you had known younger that you would have done differently?
- [27:58]
Gene
I mean, saying I would have gotten a prenup is not the right advice because I got married with absolutely no money. So it would have protected my ex husband, but it definitely would not have protected me. I wish I had really embraced investing younger. I've always actually been a pretty good saver. I'm like wired to save a decent amount of money. That's just sort of in my DNA. I'm pretty conservative, but I wish that I had been more willing to take more risks earlier. The kind of risks that I should have been taking in my 20s, 30s, 40s, additional money just in stocks. And I put a significant amount, but I should have actually put more. I, like many women, left too much money in cash.
- [28:48]
David Bach
Interesting. Well, as you know, my first book was Smart Women Finish Rich.
- [28:52]
Gene
Yes.
- [28:52]
David Bach
And you know, I wrote that book because we had older clients passing away and they were men passed away first, always. And then we had a lot of clients going through divorce. And so I created my first book for women and money because I create a course around women and money for all these issues that impact women. I didn't write that Mac Miller first, because Smart Fish Rich was really a book for people who already had money. It was really a book to teach women how to protect themselves financially and have all the right things in place. And it's amazing to me because it's still needed. As a woman, you still need to be in charge of your finances. You can't delegate your financial well being to somebody else if you're not married. You need to be in charge of your finances. Like no matter what your situation is, you have to be in charge of your finances.
- [29:35]
Gene
You mentioned your friends, three best friends that you lost. And I'm so sorry about that. I lost one over the holidays. Such a Lovely, lovely guy. 64 years old. And it was, it was sudden and it was unexpected. And he and his wife, I was so happy to hear that they have been. He sold his business recently, having financial meetings, having money meetings for the last couple of years. Once A month. She is gonna be fine. You know, she's gonna be fine because there's enough money there, but she's also gonna be more fine because she knows everything. And people come to her money all the time. Women come to her money all the time because they're at that inflection point in their life where something happened. It's a death, it's a divorce, it's something else. And they don't feel in the know. And the fact that it is still happening, you know what? 30 years after smart women finish rich, it's just terrible. And it's going to be even more problematic because with so much of the money that is held by the baby boomers, that money's going to the women, right? The guys, sadly, are gonna. They're gonna die, and we're gonna get it, and we need to know what to. What to do with it.
- [30:59]
David Bach
I'll tell two stories on that point. One, it is me personally, I don't know if he knows. I almost died three years ago. I had got meningitis, and Alicia found me face down in the blood and sprocket the hospital. And I was in a coma for four days. And when I came out, like, I don't remember any of this. I remember the part where I was taken from where I live right now, 86 years down with paramedics and put an ambulance and brought to the emergency room. I woke up just like a movie, right? Like my eyes open and the doctor says, do you know what your name is? That kind of thing.
- [31:29]
Gene
Oh, my God.
- [31:29]
David Bach
And the funny part is, he's like, do you know your first name? Yes, it's David. You know your last name? Yes, it's Bach. Then he says, you know where you are? I go, I'm in Milan. I just had an ankle replacement surgery because I had just had an ankle replacement surgery two earlier. And he said, no, you're in Santa Maria Novella in Florence where you've been in a coma for four days. We are treating you for meningitis. But now that you've woken up, you're in good hands. And it was like, oh, my. What? And so. But I wasn't really back. My brain wasn't fully functioning. And because you get. When you get meningitis, you get swelling of the brain, and not everybody gets better. And it took me about six months for my brain to get fully back on. But in the beginning, I didn't remember my passwords to my computer or my phone or my bank account. And when I was starting to be in A position to think. I had that moment in a hospital bed, saying to Alicia, like, when I get out of here, first thing, I'm like, here, you need to call the investment banker. Here's who helped my buyout deal. Here's the agent, here's the attorney. Like, I'm giving her these names again in the hospital room. But then I said, you know, when I get out of here, we need to redo our whole financial life because I was still managing our own money. We. I had not hired a. I know you hired a financial advisor, but I was the financial advisor. And I said, we need to hire a financial advisor because I need you to have that financial advisor. I need you have a relationship with that financial advisor. So I die. You know, you're already done. You're set. You're all. You're organized, you trust. I don't want you looking for a new financial advisor after I've died. I don't want you looking at these accounts and trying to figure out what to do with them. So we made all these changes. We hired a financial advisor who had delegated everything. She's involved in every meeting, whether she wants to get on the annual review meetings or not. We do them now together. We redid the wills, we redid the trust. But that was a result of me, unfortunately, going through something really difficult.
- [33:26]
Gene
First of all, God, I don't think I realized it was as horrible as it was. So I'm so amazingly glad that you are okay. Yeah, thank you. But it shouldn't have to come to that. I got some money came in at the end of the year, and I am not exactly sure how much of it is going to taxes. And so I was parking it in a new High Yield Savings account that I opened because I was looking for rates and I found a better one and blah, blah, blah. Anyway, it made me think. I keep this document that my late stepfather called a letter of instruction and suggestion, because he had a lot of instructions and suggestions for us. And it's that. It's the passwords, it's the accounts. But it made me realize I have not updated my own in far too long. And if I were to go, there would be this icon on my phone for this new High Yield Savings account where there's some money. Elliot would have no clue. Right. So I have been in the process, past few days of just, you know, adding, supplementing, changing. Got rid of that. You know, you gotta do it every six months to a year. It's just part of life. So if you. As you Are sort of looking back as you are looking forward. What do you want to leave? I mean, this conversation has been wide ranging. I feel like I am so glad that we had it. I do feel like a little bit that I should probably tell my listeners. They know this is not the norm. We are good friends, old friends. It's clearly been too long since we connected. You all are hearing that. But what do we leave people with here?
- [35:20]
David Bach
I think what I would leave people with, I was in a mastermind group, and we had to share with people what have we learned over our lifetime. And what I share with the table of this mastermind group was everyone assumes they're going to live long. And I was at a table with a lot of younger people. I said, everybody thinks they have an unlimited amount of time. And the truth is, you don't know. So I've always. What I've done in my life is ask myself, I've done this for three decades. If I only had 10 years left to live, what would I regret not doing? Then I've shrunk that down to, what if it was three years left to live, what would I regret not doing? And then if you have one year left to live, what would you regret not doing?
- [36:05]
Gene
Wow.
- [36:06]
David Bach
And go to work on those things. My dad just passed away.
- [36:12]
Gene
I'm sorry.
- [36:12]
David Bach
About a year and a half ago. It feels like it was yesterday, but my. But my father passed away. And my dad had a beautiful career. My dad was a financial advisor for his entire life. He helped so many people. My dad's funeral was unbelievable because my people showed up at my father's funeral. Managers of restaurants, the guy who sold him his car, you know, the barber, his clients, his friends. The chapel was. It was at a. You know, it was filled. And I've always known this. But what maybe what reminded me is that people don't remember what you told them. They remember how you made them feel. And my dad made people feel great. He just did. He had that gift. And when they left his office, they felt good. And so I think what I would leave people with is spend the rest of your life trying to make other people feel good. You know, And I talk about, like, with my dad, when he passed away, he was in hospice, and I spent the last two or three hours with him, but he wasn't able to talk back and forth. You could just listen. And I ran through everything in my dad's life that he had done where I'm like, dad, you've done a good job. And I talked about all the things my father had done, that was a good job. And I was with him when he took his last breath and, you know, I left there I was like, God, I wish we could have had that whole conversation while he was able to talk back or at least converse with me. So I've really tried to do a better job now of telling people, good job, like Gene, I want to do this show because, like, you have done a good job. You've had a career for over 30 years where you have stayed pure intention. And you have done the work over and over and over again. And when people hear, oh, you've done 14 books, they don't know how hard that was. People think those books write themselves. They have no idea the brain damage that you go through to write a book. When you hear that you've been on the Today show for 25 years, they don't know what it's like to wake up every morning early and go do those shows. Or what it's like to go to bed and you can't fall asleep because you're thinking about the segment and all of it. The travel, the keynotes, the fact that you run a company called Hermoney that you've now been running for over a decade. They don't know how much work it is. I have a little bit of an idea because I've been doing it, too.
- [38:36]
Gene
Yeah. I think it's a matter, and I think this is sort of where you were going with your father, but it's also very, very true of you. I think bottom line is you show up for the people in your life that matter. And for you and me, those are our close friends, they're our families, but they're also these communities of people who listen and who are interested and who want to make their lives better and are willing to make the sometimes hard changes necessary to make their lives better. And you have always shown up for me. I don't know that you know that, but you have. I have never called or texted or emailed and been left hanging ever. So thank you for that and thank you for all of it. Yeah.
- [39:37]
David Bach
Welcome. Well, I'm really. I adore you and I appreciate it. I actually, I'm so glad we did this. I regret now that we had to, to do this, to get online and talk to each other.
- [39:48]
Gene
I know. Yeah. All right. Always, always amazing to see you too.
- [39:53]
David Bach
Thank you.
- [39:54]
Gene
If you love today's episode, please take a moment to leave us a five star review on Apple Podcast. Your feedback means the world to me. Looking to grow your investing skills and make smarter decisions with your money. In 2026, join HerMoney's investing fix, the twice monthly women's only investment club where expert stock pickers pitch ideas and you help build the portfolio. Since launching four years ago, our member driven picks have outperformed the S and P. Thanks to smart collaborative choices, we've got a strong track record and a community that's learning and winning together. Tap the link in the show notes and check out Investing Fixed today. Her Money is produced by Hayley Pascalides and our music is provided by Video Helper. Thanks so much for listening and we'll talk soon.
- [40:48]
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