David Bach - Debt Free for Life: The Finish Rich Plan for Financial Freedom

Truly to my readers, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! It is hard sometimes for me to believe that Debt Free For Life is my twelfth book in the FinishRich Seriesand that there are now more than seven million of the FinishRich books in print around the world. So, I want to start by first thanking YOU, my readers. As a writer you spend literally thousands of hours often on a book by yourselfand then you wait and wonder if what you wrote really makes a difference? Fortunately for me, so many of you write to me on a daily basis that I know my work is helping you, and for that I am deeply grateful. YOU inspire me to keep doing what I do. I am deeply humbled and grateful for your trust, your love, and your constant encouragement. THANK YOU sounds small, but it is truly coming from my heart, and if I could give each and every one of you a hug or high five, I would! Thousands of you have asked me to write this book, and I truly hope it meets your expectations and helps you. I take your investment of your money and, most important, your time and trust seriously, and I am again so grateful that you continue to follow me from book to book.

I am equally grateful to the many people who have worked so tirelessly with me over the years to support my message of financial hope and action. I feel incredibly fortunate to have so many dedicated colleagues who truly care about making a difference in the world. There are so many of you to thank, and what follows is only a short list, but please know if I have left you out of this acknowledgment, you are still in my heart and prayers.

I want first to start by thanking Oprah Winfrey. The opportunity to reach your millions of viewers allowed me to help millions more people than I could have ever dreamed possible. I am literally thanked weekly by readers who say, I saw you on Oprah, and changed my life because of what you said on her show. I will always be grateful to you and your world-class team at Harpo for giving me the platform to teach people all over the world how to be smarter with their money. The Debt Diet Series I did with you inspired me to spend the last five years teaching America how to get out of debt and led directly to this book. To Katy Davis, Candy Carter and Dana Brooks, and your fabulous teams who helped us make all of our shows together so powerful, you are my guiding angels. Thank you for believing in me and my message.

To the team at NBCs Today show, I am so grateful to all of you for giving me the incredible opportunity to be a weekly contributor to your Money 911 segments for the past two years. Getting to answer Americas financial questions each week has been an amazing experience. A special thank-you to Marc Victor, Jacklyn Levin, Gil Reisfield, Amanda Avery, Katherine Buckley, Elizabeth Neumann, Donna Nicholls, and Michele Leone for your production expertise and the hard work you do to make these segments as fantastic as they are. A big thank-you to Matt Lauer, Meredith Vieira, Ann Curry, and Natalie Morales for being so wonderful to work with. And a special hug to Al Rokeryou make each week a blast! And to Jean Chatzky, Sharon Epperson, and Carmen Ulrich Wongyou are world-class experts who make each show fantastic.

To Allan Mayer, weve worked together now for well over a decade. Words cant express how grateful I am for our incredible working relationship. Your feedback is invaluable and you make me better each time you edit my books. Thank you so much for making this, our ninth book together, go so smoothly. To Zac Bissonette and Helen Huntley, thank you for your contributions to this book.

To Stephen Breimer, thank you once again for your unceasing efforts to protect and promote my brand and business. Every day I thank my lucky stars that you represent me. Kudos to you, my friendI salute you!

To my new partners at Equifax and the DebtWise.com team, I cant wait to spread our message about the Debt Free Challenge. We have set a huge goal for ourselves to inspire a million people to get out of debt in 2011and I am looking forward to the journey! To BKV and Jackson Spalding, your work is truly outstanding. Heres to a very successful and fun launch.

To my team at Random House, this is our eleventh book together! I am incredibly grateful that I have been in business with the same publisher my entire career. I deeply appreciate your commitment to me as an author. You have worked tirelessly to make my books the best of their kind in the industry. A special thanks to my new publisher Tina Constable, editor Roger Scholl, marketing director Meredith McGinnis, and publicist Tara Gilbride. To Chris Fortunato, for his tireless efforts to crash-complete the book packaging, you always rise to the occasionthank you. To David Drake, head of publicityyou rock, sir! You are the best in the business, and I am grateful to have been working with you since 1997. Thank you, thank youreally, thank you!

To my right hands at FinishRich Media, Molly and Brittneyladies, you are simply the best. Thank you for everything you do to keep me on schedule, pumped up, and running fast. You make doing what I do a joy!

To my parents, Bobbi and Marty, I love you both so much. Thank you for always believing in me and encouraging me. I am blessed to have parents who love me so much. To my grandma, Rose Goldsmith, you are the most dear grandmother anyone could ever ask for. To my little sister, Emily Bach, a special big hug to you. I love you so much.

To my sons, Jack and James, my little boys who soon will not be so littleyour daddy loves you more than the sun, the moon, and the stars. You boys are my greatest joy. To Alatia Bradley, my sweetheart, soul mate, and best friendthank you for making every day and everything better. I truly feel each and every day grateful that you came into my life. I love you!

To my EO buddies, David Rich, Roark Dunn, Brian Martin, Jay Kubasssek, Chris Power, Andrew Christodoulides, Navid Moradi, Mitch Schamroth, Laurence Levi, you guys have been my business soul mates. Thank you for your friendship and constant encouragement!

And again, lastly to you, my readers. I could fill this page with thank yous and it wouldnt begin to express how deeply grateful and blessed I feel to be able to do what I do for you. You made it all possible. I am humbled by your faith and trust in meand thankful for how many of you regularly take the time to email me your success stories. I cant reply to every email I get, but I do read them all, and I am truly grateful on a daily basis for your words of encouragement and your good wishes! I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

David Bach

New York

September 2010

ALSO BY DAVID BACH

Smart Women Finish Rich

Smart Couples Finish Rich

The Finish Rich Workbook

The Finish Rich Dictionary

The Automatic Millionaire

The Automatic Millionaire Workbook

Start Late, Finish Rich

The Automatic Millionaire Homeowner

Go Green, Live Rich

Fight For Your Money

Start Over, Finish Rich

David Bach has helped millions of people around the world take action to live and finish rich. He is one of the most popular and prolific financial authors of our time, with ten consecutive national bestsellers, including two consecutive #1 New York Times bestsellers, Start Late, Finish Rich and The Automatic Millionaire, as well as the national and international bestsellers Start Over, Finish Rich;Fight for Your Money; Go Green, Live Rich; The Automatic Millionaire Homeowner; Smart Women Finish Rich; Smart Couples Finish Rich; The Finish Rich Workbook; and The Automatic Millionaire Workbook. Bach carries the unique distinction of having had four of his books appear simultaneously on the