Pay Yourself First: A Millionaire's Roadmap with David Bach

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1:00Listen or watch on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you're listening to this podcast. Hey everybody, this was an amazing episode with New York Times bestselling author David Bach, author of the automatic millionaire that book is sold over two million copies and we break down some really cool financial tips, some investment tips, some strategies. Hearing David's because it is so game changing, so I'm not going to delay this when ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the amazing, the brilliant financial strategist himself, Mr. David Bach. You're listening to Mick Unplugged hosted by the one and only Mick Hunt. This is where purpose meets power and stories spark transformation. Mick takes you beyond the motivation and meaning, helping you discover your because and becoming unstoppable. I'm Rudy Rush and trust me, you're in the right place. Let's get unplugged.

2:02Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another exciting episode of Mick Unplugged and today's guest is a Titan of Financial Wisdom. He is a true innovator who has revolutionized the way millions approach their wealth and legacy. He is an author of multiple New York Times bestsellers. He is a speaker who transforms lives and he is an authority whose insights are not just impactful. They are truly game changing and life shifting. Please join me in welcoming the visionary, the transformative, the brilliant Mr. David Bach. David, how are you doing today brother? Oh wow. Well, Mick, you come over my house any day with that intro. It's nice to see you. Thank you. No, I am honored to have you on. We met through a really good mutual friend of ours, Roger Sick, and so shout out to Roger Sick for this episode. I'm truly honored to have you on. Thank you. He's a good man and it's an honor to be on as I told you before we started. He speaks super highly of you. That is why I'm here is my pleasure and looking forward to helping your

3:03guests because I know you've got to he's told me you have an unbelievable community. Congratulations to you for this podcast and the show. No, thank you for that. And when you have amazing guests on like yourself, it makes it easy to to have a community because every episode is truly about my guests and the amazing things that they've done in their career and the impact that they made of others. And that's why again, I'm honored to have you on it. You know, David, I start every show by asking my guests one simple question and that question is what is your because that thing that's deeper than your why I like to call it your true purpose. So if I have to say David Bach, now in 2026, what is your because? Why do you continue to do the things that you do? Yeah, it's a beautiful question to ask. So I believe in God. I'll start there and I think that everyone is put here with a gift from God. Whoever your God is. I know it's not always politically correct to say the word God on a show, but like everyone's got it. I think most of us all have a true north. I really believe we're put here with a gift from a higher power. And I think the hardest thing in life is to figure out for some people what that what that is, what that calling is.

4:07I was blessed because I figured it out in a young age. I had a moment when I was teaching an investment class like 33 years ago. It kind of gives me chills to think about this, but I had a moment teaching investment class where I was a financial advisor, but while I was teaching this class, I literally had like a spiritual moment or it's just like, this is what I meant to do. Like like if I could just teach people to be smarter with money because I loved it. You know, you and I are getting a talk over over, you know, online, right? We're having this amazing ability now where we can speak from anywhere in the world. And I'm in Florence, Italy. I don't actually even know where, where are you? Where are you located? Greenville South Carolina. Okay. So, you know, we're doing this over Zoom, right? But like in the old days, like I would be in a classroom. And I would love that moment where I could see people's eyes get it where you're like, I just I just said something and they got it, right? They understand it. I can tell I'm changing their life. And so I think that my purpose has been, and I've been doing it for 33 years, is to free people financially. And it's,

5:08I actually think I was put here free people financially, not for the money sake, not for the stuff sake. I believe when I free people financially, when I help people free themselves, then they can hear the word of the higher power because I think what happens is just my belief is I think when people are struggling and living paycheck to paycheck, they're in so much pain. And they're so financially imprisoned that they can't always hear their calling. And so I just think that I happen to be put here. I don't know why I think that's what I think that's what God put me here to do. And I'll tell you, you know, because nobody ever starts these shows with this kind of a question. This book, The Automatic Millionaire, why I decided to put it out for 20 year anniversary edition. I want my because was I wanted to reach one more generation one more time before I retire. This is it. I'd like to, you know, I'm doing the mic drop here. This is the end of my, my journey of 33 years of teaching. But I will tell you an amazing story. This is not a story I've talked about before. I can't remember ever sharing the story. Finish The Automatic Millionaire book. And it was done. And I woke up three o'clock in the morning. And it was like I had this dream that I had to end

6:14the book on tithing, had to end the book on giving back. It gives me chills. And I woke up and I went over to the computer and kitchen area. And I'm typing away and researching what, what, you know, this chapter will be about. And I wrote this whole chapter at the end of The Automatic Millionaire book on giving back. And I turned it into my publisher. And my editor was like, your book's called The Automatic Millionaire. You can't end it on telling people to give the money away. And I said, well, that's the whole point, right? Like the whole point of financial freedom is to be so abundant that you can also give it back and help other people. So that's been my because that's an amazing story. And that's something as much as I've been a huge fan of you, even before Roger introduced us. And he was like, Hey, have you heard of David Buck? I'm like, uh, yeah, he goes, please a good friend of mine. Let me do an email introduction. Like I've, I've loved how you don't shy away from your face. And I think that's why I'm bonded with you as well, because I believe in the same thing for the person that's watching or the person that's

7:15listening and they're inspiring whatever it is if they're trying to become. Why is it important if you are a believer that you don't hide your faith? Because I think sometimes naturally we feel like we're going to get judged or people are not going to want to do business with us because we do carry our faithful. You know, even though I just opened up and shared like something so personal, I don't go around telling people that they should be sharing their faith. I actually don't, because I'm not, I'm not a preacher. I don't know that that's my role. I think what's really important is that you live an authentic life. There you go. I think living a true authentic life, authentic, whatever that means for you, right? And I think one thing that happens as we get older is that hopefully our life becomes more and more authentic, right? Like in a beautiful, an ideal role we'd be authentic in our 20s and our 30s. But you know, life is one of these things is you get older, if you have older grandparents, you notice they don't really care what people think anymore. There's just something funny that happens around your 50s where you're like,

8:19and so I've just, I always ended up my speeches on saying God bless you. I've been to speeches for 33 years and people are like, why do you end your speeches on saying God bless you? I'm like, I don't know why. That's just what came out the first time I started talking as I am with God bless you. So I've had a lot of spiritual moments in my life that have really made me a deep believer in a higher power. And I don't think there's anything wrong with sharing that. And if you feel that way, it's okay for you to share it. Like why should you go through life and not be who you really are, right? Agreed. Totally agree. And that's why again, like you, I don't, I don't know if you need to necessarily force faith or force belief on people, but I also don't hide from it, right? So like if I, if we're at a luncheon and I pray before my mills, I'm going to pray before my mills, right? Like if I see something and I'm like, okay, I might have done it this way because, you know, my faith teaches me this. Like I'm also going to say that, but I don't force that on people. So I totally get what you're saying there. If your

9:23work often centers on empowering individuals to achieve financial freedom, right? What does true financial abundance mean to you beyond just the monetary figures? It's freedom, right? It's literally the freedom to do what you want to do the way you want to do it, how you want to do it. So, you know, I'm doing, you're my fifth podcast today. And you were, and you were put on today's podcast, first of all, you were introduced. And this is the only day of the month I'm doing podcasts. And like you, you also have a schedule because you've got freedom. And I told my team, I'm not doing anymore shows until May. And I have the freedom to be able to decide exactly how I want to live my life. Now, I created that freedom, right? So like, you know, I will go spend the month of March skiing in Switzerland. And I live in Florence Italy. And I'm, you know, for all intents of purposes, I consider myself retired at this point. This is like for me putting out the automatic millionaires basically like a way to give back to the charity project. And I created that financial freedom. It wasn't handed to me. We talk a lot about trends on this show. And for the

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11:34At Emory University, we believe in those with the ambition to achieve, the passion to learn, and the optimism to see the possibilities ahead. Founded on a belief that the wise heart seeks knowledge. An Emory education combines experiential learning in Atlanta and beyond, with unrivaled collaboration and discovery, all to prepare you for a world that needs your leadership. Learn more at emory.edu. But I think what I've been very conscious of is using money as a tool to make my life as free as possible. And the interesting thing that I've seen is that money doesn't always make people free. I have a lot of wealthy friends. And a lot of my friends are good wealthy or they get the more complications they create. And I have so many friends who sold businesses and they start another business, they never stop working. I have friends that they have one home and they have two homes and they have three homes and they have a plane. These are sort of like obnoxious conversations. But I've seen how money doesn't always free people. And on the other

12:36side of that, when I was a financial advisor, I worked with teachers. And I had a lot of teachers, people always say teachers don't make a lot of money and they don't make a lot of money. But I had a lot of teachers that were financially free. That they had saved and invested automatically for 30 years. And they would come into my office and retire in the mid 50s. And they had bought a small home and they paid off their debt and they were financially free. And so the automatic millionaire book was about how ordinary couples, ordinary people built financial freedom on an ordinary income. And that to me is the whole secret, right? Like so many people who are listening, they think have to be, have to make a lot of money to be a coming investor. That's not true. You could take a start investing change. You know, it's never been easier for anybody to start investing. Yeah, I love that. And I love, I love the message and the intent. And you know, like right here, I have my copy that you and your team were gracious enough to send me of the book. And I already had a copy. But what I actually had multiple copies. So what I did was I gave a few

13:38copies that I had already to some family members. And they've already been asking me questions. Like one, just the fact of what you just said, that investing doesn't have an age requirement or a dollar amount, right? And I think it's really important for people to understand just that concept as well. Like could you talk to us about, you know, the one step plan to live and finish rich? Like give us a couple of insights of things that we could do today to be on the path to being the automatic millionaire. I love that you're sharing this with younger people. That was my whole purpose. So like I've got two kids, right? 22 now, Jack's 22 and my younger son's James is 16. Now they started reading my books, you know, before the updates. In the book, I use all these examples of compound interests. I show things like, you know, if you save $10 a day or $20 a day, what that can be worth in decades? I show you how to be worth millions of dollars. And I talk about, for example, opening up a Roth IRA. So let me tell you how you can teach how you can make your kids multi-millionaires, right? So for anybody who's listening,

14:39everybody wishes they had started younger, help the people you love start younger. So like my, my boys, James said to me when he read the automatic millionaire and he read it at 12, he's like, Dad, wait, this IRA account, you've got this example here in the book and the person starts at 19, I'm 12. What happens if I start now? I was like, well, you'd have a whole lot more money. And so he's like, well, how do we do that for me? So I said, you know, you bring up a good point. I opened one for your brother at 15, but I could open one for you at 12. And so, you know, like you have your own business, I have my own business. I put these kids in the payroll. I opened up Roth IRAs and James, you know, basically by, he's now got, I'm just giving you like real life examples of things you can do for your kids. I started James with the Roth IRA at 12 years old. This kid, if he just saves $20 a day now, we just, we just do a Roth IRA for the rest of his life until he gets to a sick, and we put it in an index fund like the S&P 500. And I go through the book he'll funds to use. Realistically, he's going to have over $10 million in a Roth IRA when he turns 60, tax-free. I mean, you want to talk about a great, a great, a great way to start

15:46your life. And so, you know, he is going to be provided, you know, I'm going to, I'm going to keep doing this for him and helping him for first 10 years. But I'm teaching him to fish, right? Like teach the kids to fish now, help them fish. Like right now, I'm throwing the rod and I'm baiting it and I'm helping him pull it in because I'm putting them on the payroll. But eventually, when they get their own jobs, they'll start paying themselves first automatically. And the conversation I have with my children is you have to pay yourself first. When you earn money, whether you're self-employed or you have a job, you have to keep the first hour day of your income automatically saving that money for the rest of your life. If you do that, you'll never worry about money again. That's a genius tip. Those are genius tips. And what's funny is because of this book, and one of the books that I gave was to my youngest son, who's in grad school at the University of Miami. And he asked that same question about Roth IRAs. And he goes, so,

16:48that we haven't started this yet. Is this something that I should look at? And we immediately just went in it. Like, there was no questions that. So, so that was his Christmas gift this year. So believe it or not, believe it or not, because of you. By the way, by the way, by the way, I'll tell you a true story. My kids opened up their Christmas gift. This was wrapped. They were kind of like, oh, God, seriously, yeah, I'm giving a book. And then I'm like, yeah, and there's a little note in there. You're getting a Roth IRA contribution this year. And they were like, oh, that's cool. You know, so, yeah. I think for for everybody that's listening, especially parents with kids, I can promise you, there's no greater, I shouldn't say no. There are a few greater Christmas gifts that you can give your children than contributions to a Roth IRA. Like, I promise you, because it's the gift that continues to give and grow. And so, like, it doesn't matter what that number is. It grows so much exponentially over time that your kids will thank you probably when you are no longer here. Like that contribution is going to mean so much more. And it's a way utipast legacy, but then also the importance of what it means to your children. So they thank you

17:53for bringing that into part of my tradition now. I love that. Well, you know, when you just said Mick is, is so true. Like, I, I'm a product of a my grandmother who taught me how to buy my first dog at age seven. And you know, she, and so, so that that experience changed my life because it's seven years old. My favorite restaurant, the whole world was McDonald's. And I love to play a monopoly. And we're at McDonald's because my parents would never take me, but she would take me to McDonald's. And I'm having my big Mac. And she's, you know, my french fries and my apapai. And she says, you know, I'm going to teach you how to play monopoly for real. She said, there's three types of people, those like you who come here and spend money, you eat, you spend, call the spender consumer, those who work here for minimum wage have a job and those who own the place, their investors. And I'm going to teach you how to own this place. And she took me home, opened up the Wall Street Journal, circled the stock symbol, MCD, took me under brokerage firm and helped me buy my first share of McDonald's. And that single lesson changed my whole life. Because that started at seven. It's like, we're wearing glasses right now, right? It's like,

18:54you all the sudden know that the whole world is available to invest in instead of just being somebody who spends money or work somewhere at lens changes your life. And I did the same thing with my kids, my kids like Shake Shack, their first stop was Shake Shack, right? So these are the lessons that you think it's a one time lesson. But here I am now spent the last 33 years teaching lessons that started with my grandmother. You know, I've got 10 New York Times bestselling books out, it started because my grandmother at McDonald's said, you can be an investor, you can start now. Absolutely, absolutely. And you know, I want to highlight a couple of things in the book. One of my favorite chapters, we're going to get to my favorite chapter. But one of my favorite chapters is chapter three, learn to pay yourself first. There's so much wisdom in that chapter that I think it's really important. I'd love for you to kind of highlight that chapter a little bit for the viewers and listeners because that that chapter made me reflect and really put some

19:55different practices in place. And I've been doing well for a long time. And I think I still learned a few things conceptually. Yeah. So the idea behind paying yourself first and it's really like an idea that's been around for a long, long time. I've probably popularized it more than most people. But the idea is when money comes in, the first person who gets paid is you. And typically what happens when money comes in is everybody else gets paid first and you get paid last. So the government when you earn a paycheck, the government pulls money out of your paycheck and they do it automatically. They don't say, you know what, David, Mick, what you guys should do is you should budget and save money and then send us a check. They only say that if you're an entrepreneur, which hurts a lot of entrepreneurs, by the way, because they don't only save for taxes, but everyone else, their money's taken automatically. The government did that because they knew Americans couldn't save money to pay taxes. And the government couldn't run if they didn't take the money automatically. Then the states started taking money automatically. Then the gyms were the first companies to take money automatically from you. Besides the government, because the gyms found out people will go

20:58sign up for a gym in January and they stopped going in February. So if they didn't get your automatic ability to pull the money out of your checking account, they were not going to stand business. Then everybody else started doing that. The phone companies rent, mortgage, utilities, everybody takes your money automatically. I'm holding up a phone for those of you who are listening. And I say, you know, phones are money magnets. They automatically help you save an investor. They automatically pull money out of your pocket. Today, you're having money automatically pulled out of your pocket by a bunch of different companies. So paying yourself first is you change the way you think about your money. You basically say, you know, I'm going to be selfish here. If I'm going to work 90,000 hours over my lifetime, and that's what the average person works, 90, thousand hours over your lifetime, it would be a shame to get to your 60s and have nothing to show for it. And so my message has been the first hour of day of your income is your freedom money. That's the money that pays yourself first. The second hour of your day of your income, if you're going to go past that, and I talk about it in the automatic owner book is security.

22:01You save 30 minutes a day to build a security account, emergency purposes. And then you put, and you save another 30 minutes a day of your income for your dreams. You do those two things, those are the three places to automate your money, and you're done. You just go back to doing what you do, focus on your career, focus on your income, focus on your family, and everything will work in the background. Amen, brother. Amen. So my favorite part of the book is when you start answering questions, right? It's like you're answering the questions that you always get, and you're putting your logic behind it. And I thought it was a brilliant concept for you to do that. And one of those questions talks about your mantra of live rich now. And you were talking about how you get the question, well, David, is it possible to live rich now? And in the future, and more importantly, like, how do you start to prepare yourself for that? So I'd love for you to break that down of how you can live. And I'm using air quotes, live rich now, and also prepare yourself to live rich in the future. I can totally, and this is one of my favorite questions. By the way, Mick, later, give me your number. I'm going to send you personally a picture that I just had created,

23:02a piece of artwork that says live rich now, just got put in my kitchen. So live rich now means, it's actually not about the money. It's actually about what does it mean to live a rich life? Like what's actually most important to you? You started off by asking me my, but what's your book? What does it mean? Like you wake up today? What does it mean for you to actually live a great life? What does that look like? I meditate a lot. I wake up in the morning, I meditate, and I meditate in the morning, and then I listen to, I do a meditation this morning from God, I'm pretty famous person, I'm Saguro. And, and this is just kind of like today's answer, right? So I'm listening to this meditation. I do my morning meditation, and I watch a short little video from Saguro. By the way, there's a great app. You can download this app. It's that's available for free. It's got all these little videos in it. So I watch this video, and he says, you know, when you wake up, the first thing you should be like is like a little kid like, oh my God, I woke up. I woke up. How amazing is it? I woke up. Then imagine if you did that, and then you went down stairs, and you saw your wife, your kids, and you're like, you woke up too. Oh my God, we both woke

24:03up. Okay, like that's an example of living rich. I came downstairs, I told my wife that story, and I gave her a big hug and a kiss, and I'm like, I woke up and you woke up. Only as people didn't wake up today. And we could caught up in this world of like all these things we think we have to have be and do to live rich. And it's a lie. You're alive today. You're healthy. You're here. You got so many in your life. You love you. When this podcast is done, then it shows over. You should go tell them. I love you. Like you're alive, and I love you. Man, this is so cool. We're both here. We're both getting to do this thing called life. That's what live rich now looks like. Now people are like, this guy's freaking nuts. No, I'm not. Like seriously, there are people who are not going to wake up tomorrow. You know, I'm 59 years old. I've had three best friends died in the last three years. Three best friends under the age of 57. Average age, your widowhood is 59. We, the man, we don't make it as long as the women do. And so every day above ground is a blessing. And man, if we don't wake up and treat it like a blessing, then we just lost out. That's right. That's right. Man, Dave, one I could talk to you

25:06forever. I want to do something because I believe in the book so much. And everybody is listening, you know, that I always do this with books that I love. I'm going to buy 20 copies and you tell me where you want me to buy them. I'll buy them on Amazon if you'd rather be Amazon, but I'll buy 20 copies. And the first 20 people that message me automatic millionaire, you're going to get a copy of the book because it's important. It needs to be a part of your daily reads. I will tell you what it has changed for me is that I do read the book for different pieces of the book multiple times a week because I will hear something or see something on TV if I'm watching, you know, anything on an advisory level or financial level. I'll go to the book and say, okay, what would David really do in this scenario, right? And it might sound cliché to a lot of people, but it's true because there's so much wisdom in this book that I don't need financial advice from everyone. And I'm not saying Dave is a financial advisor. So that's definitely not what I'm saying, but I'm saying is there's enough pieces in this book that can help you along your journey,

26:10no matter if you're new or if you're seasoned, there is advice. So I think David, I need to do that because it means something to me. They can help me trust me. It can help anyone. So thank you. First 20 people. I love that. And by the way, for 21, 22 and 23, I'm sure you can get the book in the library. I'd like for someone who's like, I don't have enough money to buy the book, good library. Libraries are still there. They're still giving books away that you can borrow for free. And you know, books change. Here's the thing about books. A book like the automatic millionaire can change your life. But at the end of the day, you actually have to change. You know, your life changes when you change. And so you can listen to the show. You can get exciting, get motivated. You can hear a great idea. You can read a book and you have to do it. Everything I've spent my life doing is about action. It's about it's about getting you to take action. Because without action, we were just a form of entertainment. And I don't actually, I mean, look, I love being entertaining. But at the end of the day, I really want you to change your life. That's why I did this work. That's my because I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. All right, they're working people

27:14find and follow you. Thank you for the love being with you. This is really fun. They can come over and visit me at davidbock.com. So we're at davidbock.com. Everything's on my website. I'm on social media, Instagram, Facebook, X. But just come on over the website. Check it all out. And yeah, it's really good. And I've got, and I've done a lot of podcast. So if you want to watch more shows and go to YouTube, they can find all kinds of shows. There you go. And I'll have links to everything in the show notes and descriptions. David again, honored to have you on. Thank you for the wisdom. Thank you for what you've done in my household that you didn't even know that you were doing. I'm truly, I'm truly, and I don't even know the right words. Like to say, I'm honored, doesn't do it justice to say I admire you, doesn't do it justice. Just know there's a special place in my heart for you. Thank you. You just touched my hearts. God bless you. Thank you. And I really enjoyed this. Have and continue success. Keep doing this because you're doing a lot of good work. And and so keep it up. I appreciate you more than you know. And to all the viewers on listeners, remember, your because is your superpower. Go unleash it.

28:16That's another powerful conversation on Mick Unplugged. If this episode moved you, and I'm sure it did, follow the show wherever you listen, share it with someone who needs that spark and leave a review so more people can find there because I'm Rudy Rush. And until next time, stay driven, stay focused and stay Unplugged.