I Will Teach You To Be Rich

Today i finished reading I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi.  Much like Dave Ramsey has his plan for financial success, Ramit Sethi has a plan for financial success. His 6 week plan sets up financial automation, replaces a budget with a Conscious Spending Plan, and starts a retirement fund.  He frequently points out the biggest (and possibly only) hurdle to being rich is planning and getting started.

Ramit asks his readers “Would you rather be rich or sexy?”  He does this because often the path to riches are not sexy.  Sure some people play professional sports.  Some win the lottery.  This book is not for them.  This book is written for people under the age of 35.  He gives advice for every age group but expects the 20-35 group to be the ones reading.

Having followed the blog at IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com the first chapters sounded real familiar.  Ramit uses the same examples on his blog as in his book.  I have no problem with this as it reiterates what he is saying. His plan and the advice on his blog is great.  The biggest problem with the book was it was hard to finish.  With all the action steps i’d read something, put the book down, then go do what Ramit said.  I’d then start doing something else and have to come back to the book later.  This book is top of the three i’ve reviewed so far.

 

Have you read this book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad or The Millionaire Next Door (check out my reviews)?  Give your thoughts in the comments.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad

Being another staple in many financial libraries my next read was Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter.  This book is subtitled ‘What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money - That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!’  This book left me with conflicted feelings.  While reading it was suggested that the Rich Dad was made up.  I did not have a problem as he was a means of teaching the points of the book.  For the first half of the book all the points are backed by a story of how Rich Dad taught through practice then followed up with the lecture.

The second half of the book the feeling changed.  The points were no longer about Rich Dad as much as they were “Here is how i did it through Real Estate speculation.”  Each example through real estate was followed with a caveat of don’t do it this way.  Just learn the principle.  The last couple of chapters suggest to learn the process for real estate speculation go to seminars.  I was not surprised to learn that Richard Kiyosaki has a series of seminars on learning real estate.

Anterior motives aside, the principles seem sound.  The book does not ever teach you how implement the principles.  This is a good thing.  It allows the book to remain relevant longer.  Implementation is also dependant on your situation.  Many other subjects teach in a similar way.  Computer Science is one; the implementations change over time so principles are more important than thing to do.  There is a chapter at the end on things to do.  It is sparse and seems an afterthought.

Have you read this book or The Millionaire Next Door (check out my review)?  Give your thoughts in the comments.

New York Number

I was reading a post on Consumerism Commentary.  Flexo’s post Let’s Stop Envying Millionaires suggests with the increase of millionaires in the world that we should look at a lighter level of savings  He also suggests that $1,000,000 won’t be enough to retire on.  He also introduced me to the best retirement calculator i’ve seen.  This calculator asks a few questions about your preferences instead of asking about money.  Based on your preferences it calculates your recommended retirement amount.  This calculator is your New York Number.

My score from this questionnaire is 20 correlating to a $1 million retirement amount.  This amount makes me feel more comfortable with the What is your current salary and how long until you retire based projections.  My normal range was $700,000 - $2,000,000.  One thing i don’t like about most retirement calculators is they want you to predict what rate of return your portfolio will have until you retire and the rate after you retire.  If i could predict the markets that well i’d be rich enough to not need to worry about financial planning.

What you you think?  How much are you planning to retire with?  How did you determine the amount needed?