Go Green, Live Rich (Canadian Edition) Paperback - 2008

Summary

Excerpt

What if I told you that in just an hour or two I could share with you fifty simple tips that would have a dramatic impact on our ability to turn the tide on global warming, PLUS save you money and potentially turn you into a future “green millionaire”?

Most people fear global warming and want a healthier planet. I am sure you are one of these people or you would not be holding this book in your hands right now.
BUT most people also believe that “going green” is a luxury, an expensive choice they can’t afford. What if I told you that going green doesn’t have to be expensive–and, in fact, you can go green and SAVE money–and if you invest green you can get RICH?

What if there were easy, simple things you could do that not only protect the Earth but also protect your family’s finances?

Would you spend a few hours with me to learn the ways? Would you join the movement to be “eco-friendlier” and environmentally conscious? Would you like to GO GREEN AND LIVE RICH?

–David Bach


Why Go Green?

You hold in your hands a book that could not only change your life but also help turn the tide on the devastating effect that global warming could have on our planet.

This is my ninth book in nine years, and it’s very possible that you have read one or more of the previous eight. There are currently more than 5 million copies of my FinishRich books in print. I’m known for my take-action advice on your finances. I’ve inspired and motivated millions around the world to be smarter with their money and to live and finish rich.

So why now write a book about “Going Green”–and why should you read it?

The answer is simple:
Going green is the most important issue that will shape our future.

I believe, as many around the world do, that we have reached a turning point (or tipping point, as Malcolm Gladwell would say) on the environment. We have come to a point in time where what we do as people to change the tide of global warming and reverse its effects on our planet requires stronger action than we have taken.

Second, I believe that the world IS taking action and that the United States in particular has lagged in its actions over the last twenty years and now needs to catch up. As citizens and tenants of our planet, we cannot allow the disaster of global warming to continue. We have to change the tide of the global warming epidemic, or our lives, our children’s lives, and their children’s lives will be forever affected.

We have done tremendous damage to our planet. We have been bad tenantsWe have done tremendous damage to our planet. We have been bad tenantsWe have done tremendous damage to our planet. We have been bad tenantsWe have done tremendous damage to our planet. We have been bad tenants, and the landlord (our planet) is sufferingand the landlord (our planet) is sufferingand the landlord (our planet) is sufferingand the landlord (our planet) is suffering, but in truth it is we who will suffer the most if we don’t do something and take drastic action.but in truth it is we who will suffer the most if we don’t do something and take drastic action.but in truth it is we who will suffer the most if we don’t do something and take drastic action.but in truth it is we who will suffer the most if we don’t do something and take drastic action.

Third, I am convinced that WE WILL TAKE ACTION, and that the action we take to become environmentally smarter will shape the environmental and economic futures of all of us.

Going green can make you rich – not going green can make you poor

I am convinced that we are waking up to the need to live greener and protect the planet. As a result, one of the biggest factors affecting your ability to build wealth over the next twenty years is going to be the global environment and what we’re doing (or not doing) to protect it.

If you missed investing in the computer and technology revolution in the 1980s and 1990s, you missed one of the biggest investment opportunities of the twentieth century. Well, green is the new technology. Investing green will be to the twenty-first century what investing in technology was to the twentieth century. From a financial point of view, you simply cannot afford to ignore it. This book will help you see the opportunities that exist to catch this life-changing movement.

Going green is about our kids, our families, our lives

As I write this, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is meeting in Bali to set a global agenda for action. Earlier this year, the UN—sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) completed its fourth assessment of the science and impacts of climate change. It concluded that greenhouse gas emissions from human activity rose by 70% from 1970 to 2004, and continue to rise at an increasing pace. As a result, climate change is “unequivocal.” The impacts, according to the report, will include an increased risk of extreme-weather events such as hurricanes and drought, a decrease in the availability of fresh water for hundreds of millions of people, an increase in potentially deadly heat waves, and serious food-supply problems in Africa and other parts of the world. (I encourage you to read parts of this report at www.ipcc.ch. Look for “The AR4 Synthesis Report” and “Summary for Policymakers.”)

As a father, I cannot read a report like this–supported by thousands of scientists and people from 130 countries–and not act. I cannot simply sit by knowing that one day I will have to explain to my son Jack why I didn’t do anything to make a difference. And if you are a parent, I am sure you feel the same way.

As adults, we are not yet seeing the worst of the effects of global warming, but our kids, our grandchildren, and their kids will.

We must act and we must care. And we CAN do “something.” Our kids who see our behaviour change will change with us. In many cases, they are changing before we are. We may be learning now from them.


Just do one “green thing today”–it will lead to more

My personal transformation to becoming more environmentally conscious happened suddenly and, I must admit, by accident.

It started by doing “just one green thing.” My green action was to move into one of the leading green apartment buildings in the country. I did this at the time not so much for the “green building” as for the location–the building was located next to my son’s favourite park. But then something happened when I moved in and it stopped me in my tracks–our health improved within weeks.

For one thing, my allergies, which I had suffered from my entire life, simply disappeared. I was taking three prescription drugs a day when I moved in; within six weeks, I had pretty much stopped needing them. And my son’s mild asthma disappeared completely. He has not had an asthma attack since we moved there (knock on wood). We have also started to sleep longer and more soundly.

I immediately started paying attention to the building. What was in this building and why were we feeling better? Why was it that a building that was designed to be environmentally friendly could make us feel better? Within weeks, I made more changes. My cleaning products at home are now all green. So are the dry cleaners we now use. I looked at my car, a gas-guzzling SUV, and gave it up. I also started noticing that I wasn’t spending more money to make these changes. I was actually saving money! And then I started telling my friends (all of those who would listen).

Now, the truth is I’m still transforming, but I have become green-conscious–and it is changing both my life and that of my son.

I share this with you not to brag but to demonstrate that if a guy like me who used to hate to recycle can change, so can you. And that’s what this book is meant to help you do–to take action to Go Green and Live Rich!


What does it mean to live rich?

Many of the books I’ve written have “Finish Rich” in the title. They have taught people with ordinary incomes, some of whom are living paycheque to paycheque, that they can afford to save for their future. One key step in that process is deciding to live in line with your values. For most families, a secure future IS a value, though not necessarily one that they are living.

Go Green, Live Rich is, like those books, about the kind of small daily savings that can add up to a richer future. But I decided to call it Go Green, Live Rich to make the point that living a life in line with your deepest values is a gift we give ourselves every single day. There is peace in knowing that the houses we live in, the way we work and travel, and our daily habits are serving the planet, our true home, not destroying it.


50 simple steps to go green–pick one today

The surprising message of my book is that you can have it both ways. You can live a life in line with your green values AND you can put a million dollars in the bank. You can save the earth and get rich trying.
Go Green, Live Rich is organized into 50 “tips” of just two or three pages each, designed to make it easy for you to learn all you need to know about each “green thing.” First, the chapter called “Know Your Impact” helps you understand the effects of your own current behaviour on the planet in a way that I hope will motivate you to change. The next eight sections show you how to make greener choices in all the areas of your life, from driving the right car to making your home energy smart, from supporting green causes to making dinner for your kids. You will learn ways to spend less, save more, and pay fewer taxes, even as you are reducing your negative impact on the Earth. Each tip focuses on simple actions you can take, and I’ve provided all the resources–web sites, stores, and phone numbers–that you need to get started right away.

Then, once you’ve made a few changes, the section called “Finish RICH: Make Your First Green Million” will show you how to spin your green daily savings into gold.


Becoming a green millionaire on a few dollars a day

Some people will read the title of this book and think, Green is for people who can afford to buy fancy organic coffee, not for me. And if they flip through the book and look at some of the money-saving tips, they will say that saving 30% on their electric bill and 30% on their water bill, and even using hundreds of litres less gasoline every year (which, as I write, costs more than a dollar a litre where I live), is nice but not enough to make a person rich. Well, they would be wrong.


The little things make the difference between rich and poor

If I have learned one thing in my nearly twenty years as a financial adviser and coach, it is this:
It is not what you earn that makes you rich or poor; it is what you spend.

Hundreds of thousands of Canadians are burning up money every day while they squander the planet’s non-renewable resources and pollute the environment in ways that lead to global warming and climate change. And we don’t even realize it. We are just doing things the way we have always done them.

We buy a car because we like the way it looks and handles. We build a house with as many square feet as the bank’s mortgage officer will allow. We renovate our kitchens with Sub-Zero refrigerators to increase our home’s resale value. We run the sprinkler on our lawns using water that is so cheap that it is practically “free.” It’s all just common sense, right?

Wrong. There is a “new” way of doing all of these things that you will learn in this book. When you change your mind-set to a green way of thinking, you will change your actions, and those actions will put money back in your pocket. And over time, the money you save will make you rich.

Consider this. Perhaps, after you read this book, you will decide to try just four tips: 3, 10, 12, and 37. You improve your car’s fuel economy and save $884 annually. You save $129 on your energy bills by sealing the leaks in your home, and $85 more by adjusting your thermostat three degrees. And you start bringing your lunch to work and pocket $1,560. That’s a total of $3,758 per year, or approximately $10 a day of green savings.

And here’s the best part: If you were to invest that $10 a day (instead of finding new things to spend it on), and you earn a 10% annual return (some of the green funds you’ll learn about later have earned far higher returns), in 30 years you would have . . . $678,146.

With just four of the tips in this book you could earn nearly $700,000 for your future, all while living a greener lifestyle today. How many tips would you follow to become a Green Millionaire?

That is the promise of this little book. Imagine a present in which you are living lightly on the Earth, using power from renewable resources, breathing fresher air, and spending more time with the people you love. Then imagine that all the while you are building wealth–the kind of wealth that lets you do what you want to do when you want to do it, the kind of wealth that lets you give back so you can make a difference in the lives of others and in the fate of our planet. That is what it means to Go Green and Live Rich.


Join our community

My hope is that this book will inspire you to Go Green and Live Rich–and that you will prosper both personally and financially as a result. Will you let me know how it goes for you? You can email me your stories at success@greengreen.com. And please visit the new website we have built at www.greengreen.com to help you live a greener life. I invite you to join our community there and get a free daily Green Tip of the Day.

However you get there, the journey to an environmentally friendly world is a journey we all need to take.

Live Green, Live Rich

David Bach