“A unique voice on money,

“irreverent style of this

i w r d an
do
Don’t let the breezy,

I Will Teach You To Be Rich

i l l ail d i
wn
fo ds,
one singularly attuned to…his generation.”

t e y t nt
loa

a c ac er
I Will

h y tic act
Vis u t o l tip e sp
—San Francisco Chronicle

o a iv
it b e r s, b re
i c on ads
h . us h
co
m
book fool you.

ee
ts
It contains serious

TEach
advice on personal-finance decisions from budgeting and
savings to spending and investing.” —Burton G. Malkiel,
author of A Random Walk
Down Wall Street

W
Six Weeks to itty, entertaining, wise,

Financial Literacy and practical, Ramit Sethi

You
is an irresistible force for
learning how to master
Week 1, you’ll optimize your credit
✔ in
cards and learn exactly what to say to get
money with the least
amount of effort. He ex-
fees waived. plains how to automate your money flow— by
in Week 2, you’ll set up no-fee, high-
✔ interest bank accounts that won’t gouge you
for every penny.
i.e., earn while sleeping. Why your new best
friend should be named Roth—the IRA, that
is. How to beat banks and credit cards at the
Ramit Sethi
founder and writer of
fee game. How to negotiate for a raise. How iwillteachyoutoberich.com

in Week 3, you’ll open investment
✔ accounts (even if you only have $50 to start).
in Week 4, you’ll figure out how much
✔ you’re spending. And then you’ll learn how to
make your money go where you want it to go.
in Week 5, you’ll automate your new
✔ infrastructure to make your accounts play
together nicely.
ToBe
to manage student loans. Why you can enjoy
daily lattes or buy those Manolo Blahniks you
adore if you practice conscious spending.
You don’t have to be perfect to be rich. Or
the smartest person in the room. Or a type-A
personality. Just do 85 percent of what Sethi No Guilt.
says, and then get on with your life.
No Excuses.
Ramit Sethi is the founder and writer of
No B.S.
Sethi

iwillteachyoutoberich.com, which hosts over

in Week 6, you’ll learn why investing

✔ isn’t the same as picking stocks—and how

200,000 readers every month. He is a recent
graduate of Stanford University and a co-founder Just a
you can get the most out of the market with
very little work.
of PBwiki, an online collaboration company.
He lives in San Francisco, and can be reached 6-Week
at ramit@iwillteachyoutoberich.com.
Program
bookland ean
Workman Publishing, New York That Works
www.workman.com
isbn 978-0-7611-4748-0 • $13.95 U.S.
 I Will Teach You to Be Rich

Financial Options for

Super-Achievers: Make the
Ten-Year Plan That Few Others Do

I ’m always surprised by the e-mails I get from people who have

optimized every part of their investing strategy and are nonetheless
still looking for more ways they can optimize their finances. It’s easy:
Just ask people five to ten years older than you what they wish they had
started earlier, then do that. You’ll get three answers right off the bat:

1. Create an emergency fund. An emergency fund is simply

another savings goal that is a way to protect against job loss, dis-
ability, or simple bad luck. Most people in their twenties don’t need
emergency funds because we can just borrow money from our other
savings goals or, worst case, go home to Mom and Dad. But if you
have a mortgage or you need to provide for your family, an emer-
gency fund is a critical piece of being financially secure. To create
one, just set up an extra savings goal and then funnel money to it
in the same way you would your other goals. Eventually, your emer-
gency fund should contain six months of spending money (which
includes everything: your mortgage, other loans, food, transportation,
taxes, gifts, and anything else you would conceivably spend on).

2. Insurance. As you get older and more crotchety, you’ll want

more and more types of insurance to protect yourself from loss. This
includes home-owner insurance (fire, flood, and earthquake) and life
insurance. If you own a home, you need insurance, but young, single
people don’t need life insurance. First of all, statistically, we hardly
ever die, and the insurance payout is useful only for people who
depend on your livelihood, like your spouse and kids. Beyond that,
insurance is really out of the scope of this book, but if you’re truly
interested, I encourage you talk to your parents and their friends,
and search for “life insurance” online to research the various options.
You probably don’t need to buy a bunch of insurance options right
now, but you can certainly set up a savings goal so when you do need
them, you’ll have money to use. One last thing: Insurance is almost

216
 EASY MAINTENANCE

never a good investment, despite what financial salespeople (or

clueless parents) will tell you. So use it as protection from downside
risk—like for fires or accidental death when you have a family—but
don’t think of it as a growth investment.

3. CHILDREN’S EDUCATION. Whether or not you have children yet,

your first goal should be to excel financially for yourself. I always
get confused when I see people on TV who are in debt yet want to
save for their children’s education. What the hell? Listen up, Momma:
First, get out of debt and save for your own retirement. Then you can
worry about your kids. That said, just as Roth IRAs are great retirement
accounts, 529s—educational savings plans with significant tax
advantages—are great for children’s education. If you’ve got kids (or
know that one day you will) and some spare cash, pour it into a 529.

These are just a few of the things you’ll be forced to think about
in the next ten years. The best way to prepare yourself is to talk to
successful people who are somewhat older than you and have their act
together. Their advice can be invaluable—and can give you an edge
on planning for the next decade.

217
 Get the full
book at
Amazon.com

About the book

At last, for a generation that's materially ambitious

yet financially clueless comes I Will Teach You To
Be Rich, Ramit Sethi's 6-week personal finance
program for 20-to-35-year-olds. A completely
practical approach based around the four pillars of
personal finance—banking, saving, budgeting, and
investing—and the wealth-building ideas of
personal entrepreneurship.