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You Will Teach Me to Be Rich?
Recently a friend of mine badgered me into getting this book. It’s a personal finance book of sorts, titled “I Will Teach You To Be Rich” by Ramit Sethi, so I was less than thrilled to run out and buy it. I actually laughed when I read the title. I did start to read the author’s blog however, www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com, which ended up enticing me to go get the book.
The blog is FREE, and book is less that $15.
Managing personal finances isn’t fun, but it’s a necessary evil in life. Depending on what your goals are depends on how detailed you get with your financial organizing. I was already doing ok, with a little bit of credit card debt and a couple of student loans, all in good standing, but the underlying stress of knowing that I hadn’t set up any kind of retirement fund haunted me. Also, all the money wasted on interest rates was driving me to try to get rid of as much debt as possible. You can drive yourself nuts with all the things you’re “supposed” to do to have your finances in “good” shape, but Ramit clearly lays out small steps you can take to improve your situation, no matter where you are. (seriously in debt vs wanting to invest)
Ramit is hip, smart, real and ridiculously sarcastic. It’s awesome and refreshing. He appeals to a younger, social-media-influenced audience, those of us trying to make our way through these rocky times of unemployment and fraud. Things are different now in 2012, and rules and advice that may have applied 5-20 years ago no longer apply. For people just out of college or getting ready to start a family, we need different and/or better advice to help us navigate our way through the b.s. and find something that works for us, on an individual basis. He advises on how to reduce debt, lower your interest rates, ask for a raise, find your dream job and in the long run set up a retirement/investment account, among other things. This advice can also be applied to other areas of your life. It sounds daunting, which is why I never sat down to actually set up a retirement fund, but his six-week program takes you one tiny step at a time, and now that I’m actually doing it I’m wishing I had this book years ago.
It’s so easy it’s STUPID.
This is all in a nut shell. I would suggest start reading bits and pieces on the blog, and when you realize how valuable Ramit is you will run out and by the book, close-lining people on the way to the book store. My results: in two months time, I got a lower interest rate on one of my credit cards, set up a high-interest online savings account and paid off my car loan (I will use that money to fund a retirement account). If I want, from there I can open an investment account and start investing. For now though I’m happy to get my retirement account up and running, and worry about the rest later. One step at a time. I now have an overall extremely clear picture of where my finances are and what I want to happen next. Until I see something I want and max out my credit cards again. It’s life. Just have fun.