I came across this book last month at the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe in the city. I felt like it appeared to me by chance. I've been a big fan of self-development and personal wealth books for some time and seeing this definitely caught my eye. The book is from 2008 and still find its content as relevant today. Without hesitation, I bought the book. It was used and I was happy to support the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe. It's an organization that is fighting AIDS.
The book is short but offers a lot of good tips and insight to going green. I want to help save the environment, but at the same time, I want to save money and create wealth. Money to me is still important and it buys me time. Time to spend on the causes I care about. I also want to have enough money so that once we have children, we are not too busy looking for the next dollar.
"Go Green, Live Rich" was written by David Bach. He has 8 other New York Times bestsellers. His philosophy has always been to start small but start early. I think this applies not only to money but to also all of the ways to save money. We can't change all of our bad habits in one day, but we can change them one at a time.
Some people ask how does being green help you save money? I think a lot of it is the relationship between spending and consumption. We live in a throw-away society. We spend a lot of money buying single-use items to satisfy our instant gratification needs. We pay a few extra dollars for packaging, for name brands, for marketing. This all adds up!
David Bach was the first to introduce "The Latte Factor" in which he posits that each small expenditures add up to a large sum at the end of the year. He famously mentioned that each take out coffee that you purchase add up to hundreds of dollars of spending a year. The same applies to fast food, cigarettes, bottled water, etc. With the "Go Green, Live Rich" book, he introduced us to the "Litter Factor." What are you wasting your money on and hurting the planet with?
I put up this graphic before and it's as relevant now.
I am by no means perfect in reducing waste, but I am trying to reduce my consumption. To coincide with the campaign #plasticfreejuly, I will also run down some of David Bach's suggestions to Save the Earth and Get Rich Trying for the month of July.
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#SaveMoneySaveThePlanet Project.
