A bunch of days gone by since I started this series and we’ve reached another month. This means another month with a book where I can use my Amazon Affiliate links and tell you without any pressure about this amazing book.
Disclaimer: All book links in this article are affiliate links. Your purchase through them supports my site. If you decide not to use them, that is your decision and I respect it. Now, continue reading, you beautiful person.
The recommendation
The book we will talk about today is called I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi. And teach you he will. Ramit is an amazing tutor, who will explain to you the world of finances in a way, that actually works. He won’t give you any pyramid schemes, overnight success stories or quick ways to scam you. Just hard set of rules that actually work. He will pretty much teach you how to be rich (or at least how to manage your finances at worst).
The book is pretty much for American audiences but a lot of the details can be applied to other countries as well. I am from Czech Republic, which is in the heart of Europe and even I took an incredible amount of information out of it.
How I got to the book we are talking about
When I started my journey of side hustling, I found out not many people actually knew how money works. I was one of them. Thanks to my school system, I had no idea how the fuel that drives the entire world’s economy works. But I remembered Pythagorean theorem that you use daily, right?
One day, at the company I worked at, I sat down with a financial advisor, who asked me questions about my finances and where to invest. I just jokingly said that I am financially illiterate and just tried to understand what he’s talking about. That night I went home, thinking about my talk with him. I asked my friends about finances, my parents, my partner and nobody actually knew anything about them. They all had their own advice and tips. When asked how they know these things work, no one answered. They didn’t even know if anything else would work better or worse. It was the only thing they knew so they did it and believed it to be the best. I found this absolutely shocking and so I bought this book after seeing the video below. It was the best choice I’ve ever made. Let me show you why.
About the author
Ramit Sethi is a New York Times best-selling author but more importantly, a man that knows what he’s talking about. As a college student, Ramit thought he knew about money, so he took his college fund and invested into stocks without much of prior knowledge. Of course, he lost half of his money and realized, through failure, that he doesn’t know as much as he thought.
And so, he started learning about money. During the same time, Ramit studied psychology and, as his knowledge of money grew, he started his blog IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com where he provides an incredible value about finances (please check it out, I really like the guy). Later he wrote the book we are talking about today, namely, I Will Teach You To Be Rich which blew up. And for a good reason. If you want to find out more about Ramit (and his book of course), I recommend watching this video, which is also how I found him.
About the book
The book is an incredible resource of financial knowledge. Ramit lays down a 6-week plan that sets you up to be rich in the future. We are not talking about being rich in 6 weeks. We are talking about actually fixing your finances and putting you on the path that works.
He explains to you how money works. Then he goes to explain how banks work, how to use credit cards, how to get rid of debt. Also, why is it important to invest correctly, where and when. But most importantly, he will motivate you to learn about finances.
Not so common knowledge
When reading Ramit’s words, you start to realize that the path he gives you to follow is pretty simple, but not many people follow it. For example, in one chapter, he talks about bank accounts and the difference between them. He explains to you why you should have more than one bank account and how to get one without any fees. He gives you the exact step-by-step tutorial on how to call to the bank and try to get rid of your fees by saying the right words. He will teach you how to negotiate better terms.
People don’t like change
What I was shocked by, was what he said about people and their unwillingness to learn about money, because it’s too abstract, is actually true.
One day, I was reading his chapter about bank accounts. He explained how people will stay with a bank account with horrible fees when there’s no reason to, just because they don’t like change. That or they just simply don’t care. In my naive mind, I thought that has to be an overstatement, so I asked my friends and my family. When I found out that most of them had horrible fees on their accounts due to an old contract, which would take one call to change, I stood speechless.
Applying the book’s advice
The next day I went to my bank and changed my bank account. I got rid of all my fees and got a bank account with an interest of 2%. This percentage might not sound as much, but for a saving account, it is more than most banks. Weirdly enough, all I had to do was simply ask. Like Ramit said.
I also made my first investment and do so monthly ever since then. Quite to the opposite of the common belief, you don’t need a big amount of money to invest. A small amount each month can accumulate to massive amounts later if invested correctly and soon enough. The sooner you invest the better and how to do that? Well, for that you’ll have to read the book to find out.
Once again, buy this book if you want to know about finances
Seriously, I know I sound like I am overselling this book, but it opened my eyes to the world of finances more than anything ever could. It made me realize the scary or boring word “finances” is not that at all. That it can be a very interesting topic with a lot to gain.
And so, a year later, here I am with my own finance blog, recommending this book to others. If the book from the previous month started my side-hustling journey, this book placed the foundations of my financial decisions that allowed these choices to be made.
Summary
Hopefully, you liked my pitch of this book. I can’t stress enough how good Ramit is with his advice and how knowledgeable he is about the topic. I’m so glad I read it when I am still this young (26) and makes me kind of sad I haven’t read it earlier. It would’ve made a lot of my financial decisions, earlier in life, easier. I hope it will make yours as well.
Give it a try and, please, share this article with people you think could benefit from it as well. I 100% believe it will give you a great value for the money. (If not I believe you can return it in 30 days, no questions asked. But you haven’t heard that from me.)
