I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi

I'm reading a lot of non-fiction lately pertaining to personal projects.  But one thing I did want to share was about I Will Teach You To Be Rich.  I do think it's worth reading, especially if you chronically don't have enough money.  Unfortunately I can only give it * * *

I would like to give this book a higher rating. A pensioner with very low debt and a hobby that could become a passive income stream, I'm clearly not Sethi's target audience. But this book did contain the exact perspective and information that I needed.

What I got from this book was a few very key pieces of advice:


* How to shop for bank accounts and credit cards
* When, how, and why to use credit cards
* How to set up my banking system
* A strategy for how to pay off my debt


I was doing all of that wrong before. So this book was very useful for me. I immediately went through my bank statement and found several recurring charges that I was able to cut off.

I appreciate Sethi's approach of cutting out money that you waste on things you don't enjoy, like annual charges on credit cards when other cards won't charge you that. BOOM. That's $100 you can spend on something you enjoy that year. Do the work properly once, and then don't spend all your time chasing after money. Spend your time and money living your life. YES.

Because he also teaches you to parlay your winnings by also making sure you're maxing out your rewards from those same credit cards. So you spend less in the first place and get more back overall. And he encourages you to pamper yourself in the ways that are meaningful to you. On that point, he and I have a Vulcan mind meld that will never include Dave Ramsey.

Possibly the most valuable part of the book for me, aside from the instruction on how to choose a bank account/credit card, and the strategic use of credit cards, was the education on investments. Now I feel very confident about getting myself an IRA and a 401(k). I understand what I need to do, how and why to do it. All of that is beautifully demystified.

The reason I needed that information, and why I needed this book at all, is the same reason I need to drop one star on the review. Because I had trash parents who didn't teach me any of this. They were immature, financially irresponsible people who lived their entire lives without regard for my future. They truly DGAF about my outcome in a way that I'm sure Ramit Sethi can't imagine.

Sethi explains at the beginning of the book that all of this was drilled into his head by his parents from such a young age that he can't imagine seeing or doing things any other way. And unfortunately, he allows his disdain for his target audience to show through in some very petty ways. For example, if you don't eat every tiny scrap of meat off of a chicken wing, Ramit Sethi hates you. He not only hates you, he judges you for being poor because you don't want to eat gristle. And he's comfortable leaving that in the book.

Which brings me to the other star that I had to deduct, on a library book that I found so helpful in revamping my financial life. It's in desperate need of an editor.

Clearly Ramit Sethi doesn't need the money from this book. He's sharing what he knows out of his passion for the material. He may feel like he's doing us all a big favor, I don't know. I did appreciate reading the material, for what it's worth.

But it would have been 100% more valuable for me with an editor on board. I get that this book was written for millennials. There is a certain built-in audience mismatch. But some of it is pure laziness. The book often feels chaotic, repetitive, and disorganized.

Sethi will make a good point or explain something. Then there will be extended quotes from random people about whatever, going on and on. I had to skip past so much filler that it became very distracting.

That's the main reason I won't purchase a copy of this book, even used. I will get another copy from the library, and create my own personal workbook with it. You really only need to look at a few pages, go over a few core concepts. Beyond that, it will be easier to simply DIY a framework for making it your own. At least that was my case, because my situation is very different than what Sethi described. I both am and am not his target audience.

I am his target audience in that I needed the financial literacy that his parents gifted him, the silver spoon he was born with and I have to craft for myself while old and disabled. And I'm also not at all who he's talking to. I read this book with very low debt, a decent pension, and a plan in progress to significantly upgrade my income. Sethi never imagines such a person in this narrative.

For me as an author, I think it's weird to be openly disdainful of your audience, as Sethi is on several occasions, saying how much he hates people with poor money habits. It's also kind of trash to write a book about how rich you are and not hire an editor because you're so amazing you can just phone it in for the poors.