Book review: I will teach you to be rich by Ramit Sethi

I will teach you to be rich – Ramit Sethi

Synopsis:
As the title implies, this book is focused on teaching you to be rich. The book is focused on young people (in their 20s). A six week program is explained in detail on how to look at every aspect of your situation and improve it. From optimising your credit cards and bank accounts, to tracking your spending and simple investments. The book also looks at how you can negotiate to get a raise or even get a better deal on a house or car. The book uses plain English without any complicated formulas or number crunching.

What I gained from reading this book:
A more accurate title for this book would be ‘I will teach you to be in control with your money’ and if you follow the steps, you will be in control. This book can make you rich if you do follow the instructions. You won’t get rich tomorrow, or even in a years’ time, but eventually you will. Studies show that people who have a strong control over their income and spending become richer as time goes on. The great thing about this book is it is easy to implement.
This book was straight forward and very easy to read. My biggest gain from reading this book was seeing a fresh perspective on personal finance that I actually enjoyed. I had already implemented the steps that the author suggests, so although I didn’t learn anything new (I’ve read so many books on this subject), I did get much needed reinforcement that I am doing the right thing and one day it will pay off.

Positives:
This book is extremely easy to read and is enjoyable. Young people will relate to the author and his writing style. The advice given is practical and it works.

Negatives:
I thought that maybe it could go into more detail, but then readers would get bored and not implement the plan. So the fact that the book is short and basic is a good thing. The most important thing here is that the reader takes action, and I think the book will do a great job encouraging it.

Recommended for: All young people
Every young person (from teenage years onwards) should read this book. Even if you hate the word finance and don’t want to think about it, you should check it out. In forty years time you will be so glad you did.

Genre: Personal finance

Overall rating: 8 out of 10 stars

Australians can buy the book by clicking the picture below:

Where to from here:
If you want to go into more detail on the topics covered, I have reviewed many other books on personal finance that go into great depth. Click on ‘List of book reviews’ at the top of the page to see the ones I have reviewed.

If you have read this book, feel free to give it your own rating by posting a comment below.

What to spend your economic stimulus handout on

STIMULUS HANDOUTS
In Australia, the government is giving a range of taxpayers a small sum of money to help stimulate the economy. As far as I know, many other countries may do the same thing. So if you have received (or will receive) some money, you are probably wondering what to spend it on. There are smart things you can spend it on and there are dumb things to spend it on. Being a book review blog I’m sure you can guess what I suggest you spend your money on…

That’s right, educational books. Now don’t go running away now, let me explain why!

I majored in Finance at university so I am always focusing on the best ways to improve my personal financial situation. As a finance graduate, I strongly recommend you spend a little bit of your handout money on personal finance books. Even one book will help you out greatly. I suggest this because if you start improving your financial education now, by the time the next recession begins you will not be in a delicate situation and suffer like countless people are now. So I whole heartedly recommend spending (some of) this ‘stimulus’ money to improve your personal financial situation now and for the future. A new HDTV may be extremely tempting, but in ten years it will be obsolete junk. The knowledge you can gain from reading up on personal finance will improve your entire future.

HOW CAN A PERSONAL FINANCE BOOK HELP YOU?
If you find yourself in a situation where bills keep piling up and you find it hard to get ahead financially despite having a decent paying job, it may be due to a lack of financial education. Don’t be put off by hearing that, the majority of the population don’t even understand the basics of money. That’s why so many people see financial planners – so somebody else can ‘fix’ their problems. The truth is that it is a lot easier and cheaper to learn how to fix your own financial problems on your own. By understanding why the way you spend your money is not helping you, you can learn and stop doing it in the future. Compare that to paying a financial planner to tell you the same things a book can tell you. The bottom line: just reading one personal finance book can teach you to improve your situation now and in the future.

WHAT TO SPEND THE REST OF THE MONEY ON?
If you buy a couple personal finance books and read through them, you should have a good idea what to spend the rest of your handout money on. If you read the right books, you should hopefully realise that buying a new TV or some other gadget may be fun in the short term, but won’t put you in a better position in the future. That TV will depreciate so fast it will be worthless before you know it. So what should you spend the money on? That’s why I suggest buying personal finance books, to be able to answer this question on your own! I could go into a very lengthy article on investments, but learning from a reliable investment book is better than any article I could write. So go buy a couple personal finance books and investment books to learn how you should properly spend your money. If you do so, I strongly believe that in ten years time you will be glad you did.

WHICH BOOK SHOULD I GET?
I will be reviewing personal finance books as I read them so check back here often to see what books can help you out. But if you want to find a book on your own type in ‘personal finance’ in the Amazon search box to the right. Many of the personal finance books will teach the same thing so just make sure the book you choose has been given a decent rating. To see what investment/wealth books I have already reviewed, click on ‘list of book reviews’ at the top of the page.