Our lives and finances are inseparable. And while there are hundreds of books websites and blogs on personal finance offering sound advice and insight none of them really explain how our finances actually work.

This book does exactly that. It explains how our personal finances are not just an impenetrable tangle of income expenses assets and debt but a straight-forward system - a machine - with inner workings and parts that connect and interact to help move us closer to or further away from the lives we want to lead.

We all think we understand how our finances work but do we really? The average value of a lifetime's earnings is over $15 million. Yet after 40 years of work we manage to keep less than 2%. If we don't understand how this incredibly powerful machine actually works we have little hope of harnessing and controlling our finances to achieve our goals.

Unfortunately the "Debt Merchants" know exactly how our finances work and they are waging a hidden battle for control of our multi-million dollar Personal Finance Machines... and by all measures they are winning...

Joe Galatowitsch teamed up with Chris Engstrom to write this book. Together Joe and Chris have over 60 years of combined experience in business management marketing and analytics. They have worked in and led complex businesses and functions at large multi-national corporations including Medtronic and Microsoft. They have extensive experience in quantitative analysis and the understanding of complex systems. Joe has also founded and led a highly successful medical technology consulting business. It is these business credentials and experiences in combination with extensive research into personal finance and the management of his own personal finances that enabled Joe to develop such a unique refreshing and practical approach to understanding the machine that is our personal finances. In addition Chris has brought a critical objective and practical eye along with many unique perspectives to refine the concepts and make the book as clear and compelling as possible.