David Bach: The fastest way to happiness is to be proactively grateful.

David Bach

• Vice Chairman of Edelman Financial Services.
• Founder and Chairman of FinishRich Media.
• One of the most popular and prolific financial authors of our time with 11 national bestsellers, including 9 consecutive New York Times Bestsellers.
• Six time guest on The Oprah Show.
• Former top producing financial advisor at Morgan Stanley and a partner at The Bach Group.

Show Notes

• As a financial advisor, should you write a book? David says, “It’s only worth doing if you feel like you have a message you want to get out to change the world.” If changing the world isn’t your goal, David says there is another important benefit to writing a book. “Writing a book makes you better at your job because it clarifies your thinking.” And with this clarity you can do a better job when you’re meeting one-on-one with your clients.
• Edelman is having great success with their online investment service. David said, “We’ve had clients open up multi-million dollar accounts online.”
• Robo advising “is just another way to access financial advice. Everyone’s not going to wake up and decide to work with a computer system.” David goes on to explain how there is and will continue to be tremendous demand for financial planning delivered by a human being.
• “If you have a couple as clients, you have to ask yourself, ‘does the wife consider you her husband’s advisor or does she consider you to be our family’s advisor?’ And if you don’t know the answer to that question, you have a problem.”
• It took David 10 years and five books before he got on The Oprah Show. He crushed it on the first show and appeared five more times over the next few years.
• Are you making this mistake? “What most advisors do is they spend 30 minutes talking to the husband and 5 minutes looking over to the wife to see if she agreed.”
• “Women refer on average 2 – 3 times more often than men so when they like you, they tell all their friends about you.”
• To grow your business now, “Start doing financial education seminars for women.”
• “When you have women in the room without men, there’s an incredible energy and an incredible bonding experience.”
• “There are three things you have to do to be successful in this business. First, you have to have a marketing system. Second, you have to have a way to manage the money. Third, you have to have a system to service your client. And all three have to be turnkey.”
• The entire secret to this business is…you’ll have to listen to the show!
• David took a year long sabbatical and he explains why he did it, what he learned from it, and how it has “replaced his batteries.”
• “Come from a place of service, go out and help as many people as you possibly can, and good things come back to you.”
• “The fastest way to happiness is to be proactively grateful.”
• When asked, David said one thing he will be remembered for is…The Latte Factor.
• The common link between people who are successful financially is “they gave back before they were wealthy.”

Resources & Other Links

– The Truth About Retirement Plans and IRAs by Ric Edelman (book)

– Thrive by Arianna Huffington (book)

– Edelman Financial Services (website)

– FinishRich Media (website)