Welcome to Money for the rest of us. This is a personal finance show on money, how it works,

how to invest it, and how to live without worrying about it. I'm your host, David Stein. Today is

Episode 545. It's titled Burnout, Breaks, and the Courage to Spend with David Bach.

This week on the show, I visit with David Bach, a former financial advisor

and the author of 12 national bestselling books with more than 7 million copies sold,

including The Automatic Millionaire, which is being re-released in a 20th anniversary hardcover

edition. David shares how, at age nine, he was attending his father's investment classes, and by 13, he was

teaching his friend's parents about municipal bonds. We discussed David's advisory career and what led to

his first book, Smart Women Finish Rich, and how at age 46 burned out and exhausted he took a mini

sabbatical that helped him reset his work and his life.

We also talk about why he and his family moved to Florence, Italy, when David was 53.

They only planned to stay nine months, and six years later, they're still there.

What's intriguing about this episode is that while David is known for saving early and often,

most of our conversation revolves around not being afraid to spend.

Spend the money to take a mini retirement or sabbatical.

Spend the money by taking Social Security at age 62 instead of waiting.

We even discuss David's proposal for a 12% flat tax on retirement distributions,

something I didn't necessarily agree with, as you'll hear in this episode. I hope you enjoy this

conversation I recorded earlier this week with David Bach. Well, David, thank you for joining money for the rest of us.

And your book, The Automatic Millionaire, been 20 years. And I'll admit, I haven't read the book,

but I've looked at it dozens and dozens of times because it came out in 2004. The title was

always attractive. You know, at the time I was an institutional investment

...