Dear David,
I am writing to thank you for being such an inspiration and for helping me to keep on track with my financial planning. I, like many others who have written to you, find your writing style easy to read. It truly feels as though I am listening to a friend give me advice.
I first picked up your Smart Couples Finish Rich and Automatic Millionaire books a couple of years ago. The titles of both peaked my interest and I was looking for a way to jumpstart my retirement savings which had taken a hit after the tech stock bust. As I was reading, I was pleased to see that I had already implemented many of your strategies.
From the time I was very young, I decided that there were only three things worth going into debt over: a house, an education, and a car [since you need transportation in order to get to work]. However, I hated the idea of debt and so, I worked part-time as an undergrad and full-time in grad school so that I would be able to finish my education debt free.
I really like your Values Circle idea. I had not tried the technique until about a year ago but when I did so, I realized that I didn’t have any financial plans to align with my value of my children except for having life insurance. So, that very day, I opened up 529 accounts for both of my children. By the time they finish high school, I should have enough in their accounts to pay for state university tuition for them.
