I Will Teach You To Be Rich

I didn't like this book - I loved it. I hardly love anything and find most books covering finances and 'how to be better off' to usually be a bit contrived and poorly written. They hype complicated methods that are guaranteed to get results and it doesn't seem to apply to those who aren't making a lot of money. That's not the case for 'I Will Teach You to be Rich'. Sethi has written a book that not only offers great advice for people of every income level but he seems to crafted a book on finances and improving your condition that goes against the usual recommendations and advice you get from financial experts and gurus. As a young adult who is pretty early in his career and who is interested in investing in his future, this book was perfect for me. This book covers it all - from looking at your monthly expenses and creating a spending/allocation plan, investing and tons of more.The Good: This book covers a lot ground in a short amount of pages. Unlike a lot of books, I liked that Sethi didn't waste time or pages repeating himself. From the first chapter, he hits the ground running and does a great job of describing his plan to make you rich. His plan really isn't a gimmick or ridiculous because it's basically all about educating you about how to manage your money, showing and describing how to do it and then giving you steps and a plan to actually get it done. Even though I'd heard of some of the things he mentioned in the book (Roth IRAs, high yield savings accounts, 401(k)), he explained each a step further than anybody or piece of literature I've heard before. I liked that the book is structured in a way to really take you from knowing little about managing your money to leaving you feeling more confident and inspired to get your financial life in order. By following his simple suggestions, I took a hard look at my own budget and where my money goes and managed to restructure my spending habits so that I will (hopefully) manage to save twice as much as planned, start investing and start aggressively paying down my student loan debts - all on my salary which isn't by any means huge. That's what I liked about the book - it was written more so for those with time on their side who are younger and haven't made too many mistakes. Yes, if you're 30 and older, you can still pick up this book and get some great advice but I feel some of the advice and tips offered would be scoffed at by older readers while younger ones would be more willing and inclined to follow Ramit Sethi's advice.The Bad: There really isn't much to complain about. His snarky/casual tone throughout the book can be a bit annoying or eye-roll inducing (he takes on the tone of a frat guy at times with countless references to hot babes and dining at Taco Bell), but once you get into the book, you get used to his style and look past this annoyance. As I said, I felt the book was written more for those in their 20s and early 30s than the older crowd. This isn't necessarily bad but I think an older audience isn't going to like some of his advice. Some may take it as being overly frugal and being young and a bit foolish (such as his statement about how investing in real estate or buying a house is a bit of an old school, outdated, belief). I'd caution some readers that this isn't for the financial faint of heart - there's a lot of great advice offered but if you read this with the belief that you're an expert or have little room for improvement, you're not going to get much out of this book and will argue with him in each chapter.In all, if you're looking for a book that's all about getting your financial life in order, this book is for you. The book covers a variety of topics including (but not limited to) investing, savings accounts, restructuring your spending habits to save for things you want to buy or enjoy, how to negotiate a raise, getting a deal on a new car, then really, you should pick up this book. It was very easy to get through but far more informative than most finance 'get rich' books out there on the market. A must-read for anyone serious about their money.

I find it surprising that many other reviewers gave this book a lower rating because of its title. This book doesn't claim to be anything other than a personal finance book, and getting your personal finances in order and having the proper framework for thinking about finances is the first step to accumulating wealth.I'm reading Orman's "Young, Broke, and Fabulous" right now for example, and this book is MUCH better. Here's why its different:1) Its organization is well thought out.The author lays out that the steps in a clear manner how one might TRANSITION from being somewhat disorganized about finances to being extremely efficient. The book is structured to tackle bank accounts and credit cards first, then moves to setting up the retirement accounts, then automating the payments of expenses and routing money to retirement accounts, and finally tackles investing and setting aside money for the big ticket purchases.2) The content of the individual sections is of extremely high quality.What do I mean by this? In the bank account section Sethi suggests moving to an interest checking account (many checking accounts don't pay you interest). He suggests moving savings to an online savings account that offers a high interest rate (double to triple what I got at Citibank). He also suggests keeping no more than is absolutely necessary in the checking account, so as to maximize the high interest savings account. For me personally, I used to keep large amounts in my checking to avoid Citibank's fees (which I also found out would be waived at many other banks). Basically through a few changes with my accounts, I'll probably be making hundreds of dollars this year on interest. As the balances within the accounts grow, that will change to thousands more on interest. This sort of extremely good, specific, actionable advice is sprinkled all over the book. The credit card section also has a lot of great actionable advice on simple ways to improve your FICO score.3) In addition to teaching you how to save money, the book also teaches you how to save TIME.A huge part of this book teaches you a method for automating your accounts so that your money gets routed to retirement accounts, savings accounts, and paying bills and credit cards flawlessly on time, without any effort on your part. This is probably the most useful section of the entire book. I've definitely wasted a lot of time in the past individually mailing checks, and then later individually paying bills online... The system as a whole is powerful, and will save me time as I begin to implement it.***My one criticism of this book is the section on investing. While I think Sethi is correct about everything else in the book, he is wrong to tell individuals never to pick their own stocks. His advice on index funds and lifecycle funds is good for most people, but its not good for everyone. Some people SHOULD pick their own stocks. I also don't agree with Sethi's take on asset allocation. He suggests that an investor should begin shifting from stocks to bonds as he/she gets older. I personally believe that bonds should be bought or sold depending on whether stocks are in a bull market or bear market cycle.Despite these investing criticisms, I still gave this book 5 stars, because for 80% of people it doesn't matter. They SHOULD just stick their money in index funds or lifecycle funds. The other 20% of people who want to pick stocks would be well served by reading a book devoted solely to investing.If you are interested in picking stocks, read The Intelligent Investor by Ben Graham. Its the single greatest book on investing, as stated by Warren Buffet.