Every time a provocative article about personal finance comes out (like this recent one about 401(k)s), dozens of people forward it to me, complaining, “Ugh, if only we had better education.” Kind of like how everyone looks at me, expectantly, whenever I’m in a club and bhangra music comes on. Get a life.
Doesn’t it seem like people throw “education” around as the solution to every problem in personal finance? Oh, if we could just get young people better educated. How? Who’ll do it? Why hasn’t it been done for 50 years? Oh, those are just details.
This has been driving me nuts for a long time, and I’ve been spending the last few years thinking about better ways to change people’s attitudes and behaviors (here are some of my results). I’ve recently ranted on how personal finance is not about willpower, and how we love to demonize fat and poor people for not trying hard enough.
So when it comes to education, I start rolling my eyes when people suggest education is the magic bullet. Let’s get real, please. As heretical as it is to say in our society, “education” is not the panacea for personal finance. That’s a simplistic throw-away answer that does nothing to address real solutions.
I completely disagree
People have been saying that for 50 years and it hasn’t worked for many, many reasons. “Wishing” there was more education doesn’t accomplish anything except making us feel better about ourselves for feeling bad about our society.
Here are a few ideas I’ll argue:
- Nobody wants to learn about financial literacy — but instructors and organizations keep teaching this worthless topic. People may want to learn about being rich or paying for their wedding or how to travel to Tahiti, but I’ve never, ever heard a young person say, “Hey Ramit! I really want to become financial literate!” Its dry, boring, and unrewarding.
In fact, even I don’t care about financial literacy. Did you know that the back cover of my book says, “6 weeks to financial literacy” — copy I accidentally glossed over when we developed the design — and when I noticed it after launch, I immediately had it changed for the next reprint?
- There are powerful interests against teaching personal-finance in schools for reasons including the following: Not enough qualified people to teach it, perceived (or real) liability, “it’s never been done,” “what are the metrics?” and “we are already overloaded.”
- Many purported “educational” seminars and organizations are really thinly veiled fronts to sell expensive, scammy products that benefit their salespeople. I have no problems charging people premium prices for premium goods, but when people are paying unnecessary fees that cost tens of thousands of dollars, I start getting pissed
And by the way, when we say that people in America are financially illiterate, what do we mean? Let’s take a look at a sample quiz:
1. Suppose you had $100 in a savings account and the interest rate was 2 percent per year. After 5 years, how much do you think you would have in the account if you left the money to grow?
a. More than $102
b. Exactly $102
c. Less than $102
d. Do not know
2. Imagine that the interest rate on your savings account was 1 percent per year and inflation was 2 percent per year. After 1 year, would you be able to buy more than, exactly the same as, or less than today with the money in this account?
a. More than today
b. Exactly the same as today
c. Less than today
d. Do not know
3. Do you think that the following statement is true or false? “Buying a single company stock usually provides a safer return than a stock mutual fund.”
a. True
b. False
c. Do not know
The results are predictably terrible. Here’s an example (see more at the Jump$tart Coalition):
[F]ewer than one-third of young adults possess basic knowledge of interest rates, inflation, and risk diversification.
Ok, so people suck at personal finance. They don’t know what they’re doing, they get into all kinds of debt, pick incorrect investments and asset allocations, and then blame everybody else for their problems.
So what should we do?
We should make powerful defaults that do the right thing, because most people will never change their defaults. This is also known as “libertarian paternalism.” For example, automatic enrollment has produced astonishing results to encourage people to contribute to their 401(k)s. Isn’t that better than no default at all?
Whenever our own judgment has proven time and time again to be incorrect (see investor psychology), we should have products that make up for own fallibility. This is the same reason I have a GPS device in my car: because no matter how hard I try, no matter how much willpower I use, no matter how important it is…I still get lost.
We should segment people who are willing to invest time and resources for bigger wins, and reward them. Most people take what’s given to them and never proactively seek out a personal finance book or the huge amount of free, great information online. (That’s because we don’t want information, we want solutions.) But if you do — if you’re willing to pay for value — there should be tools that help you get far ahead of others who accept vanilla defaults.
We should unite the disparate behavioral elements to improve us in a holistic way. Think about career, negotiation, entrepreneurship, health and fitness. If you can use techniques to master one, you can use similar techniques to master all of these.
I’m going to start suggesting possible solutions over time, some of which will be controversial. For example, my blog works for a very self-selected group of internet nerds who read a lot of blogs. You guys are not typical — you are an elite, niche audience. I love that, but this is just one piece of the puzzle.
Bottom line: Don’t think that the magical idea of “education” will solve all personal-finance problems. Yes, education is important — both the quality of education and the quantity — but more important is changing the surrounding systems: better investment products for customers, understanding how our community affects our health and money, offering tailored options for different people (e.g., poor immigrant family of 5 vs. upper-middle-class of 3) and using automation and technology whenever our own judgment proves consistently faulty.
I’ll dig into these more over time.
This is a great example of why you shouldn’t try to pick individual stocks.
Just because you can write down a top-of-mind analysis on a napkin doesn’t mean you understand a company’s financials. And remember, most professional investors — who are paid millions of dollars per year — can’t either. Investing is not about picking stocks. TELL YOUR FRIENDS THIS.
My Prognostication Failed
“Five years ago I had a friend who was sitting with Netflix stock which had increased in value by 500% when he came to me and asked for some advice: Should he sell? My response was yes based on the following criteria.
Strong Competition- Blockbuster had recently entered the fray; they had a strong competitive strength with their local stores and had plenty of money to target Netflix. I figured even if Netflix did win the costs associated with acquiring and retaining subscriptions in a competitive atmosphere would erode substantial earnings.
Digital Transition- At the time 5 years ago many were predicting a strong push to web based content delivery. It made a lot of sense and would have an impact on Netflix. Expectations were that strong players like Microsoft, Google, Sony, and Apple would crowd out Netflix.
Content Acquisition- With the digital transition I expected consumers to transition to watching web video. As such, companies interested in this market would need to negotiate new deals with the film companies. The Netflix model is somewhat disruptive and they lacked strong relationships with the film companies. This would require a hurdle that Netflix would have to overcome, which introduced substantial risk.
Increasing costs of doing business- Netflix’s primary model was based upon delivery by mail, the more customers used the service the more expensive it would become. Additionally the US Postal Service had shown an interest in continuing to increase the cost of shipping.
Business Transition- Netflix was looking to radically change their business model from mail delivery to digital delivery. It was unclear they had the Intellectual Property, or business assets to smoothly make this transition.
While these were all valid concerns at the time, Netflix has been validated. My friend sold Netflix around $10, and it’s now hovering near $45 (yes up another 500% from where he had it).”
It continually enraged me when individual investors think “investing=real estate” or “investing=picking stocks.” Even worse is when this lie prevents people from ever investing in the first place because it’s too complicated.
There is a simpler way: lifecycle funds. I cover this all in chapter 7 of my book, including picking long-term investments, automating investing, and various investments based on your appetite for risk.
Today is another post in the Money Diaries series, which is based off New York Magazine’s Sex Diaries. We’ve collected stories from real people about their spending habits over seven days, anonymized them, and posted them here.
This week’s post is by a 36-year-old IT professional who describes himself as a “fledgling financial connoisseur.” He’s still working out the kinks to automating his finances and actively implementing my Scrooge Strategy tips. Read on to see how he’s doing — and notice how there’s a transition period between not managing your money and getting it fully automated.
* * *
Day 1
5:50 a.m.: Wake up and check email. Notification that EZTag has automatically charged $40 to my check card. Also see email reminders for electric bill and gas bill (~$219 and ~$26), but they are both due in 2 weeks, well after my next paycheck. $40.
6:45 a.m.: Arrive at work and eat breakfast – a granola bar and apple that I brought from home. Since I eat lunch out almost every day, I try to at least bring my breakfast.
11:40 a.m.: The work crew wants to go to the local Thai buffet for lunch. $12 including tip.
3:50 p.m.: Get roped into going to a work social for a few drinks after work. $20 including tip.
6:40 p.m.: Fill the gas tank up on the way home from the work social. $31.08
6:50 p.m.: Check mail when I get home. Totally unexpected bill from the radiologist for $231.34. I’ll have to remember to phone my oncologist and/or insurance provider next week to find out why this portion wasn’t covered by my “100% plan” health insurance, especially since the procedure was “covered” by a copay. I expect the run around, but thankfully we have an emergency fund setup just for this type of thing.
7:45 p.m.: Make our grocery list for tomorrow. It’s decidedly thin, since we spent so much for 4th of July weekend. Net cash outlay for day 1: $103.08. Looking forward to the upcoming weekend, we usually spend less money than during the week.
Day 2
7:45 a.m.: Arrive at work, get invited to breakfast. I had already eaten my apple and granola bar so passed on breakfast, but joined them and had a coffee instead. $1.86
10:40 a.m.: Receive email that my company’s semi-annual employee discount stock distribution has been deposited to my stock account. +$4495.39 available for withdrawal once it clears. Need to discuss with my wife how we want to distribute the proceeds (typically we put 25% in savings, 50% towards debt, and reserve 25% for “guilt-free spending.” I really regret not contributing the maximum allowed for the full enrollment period.
11:30 a.m.: Go to lunch at a local dive. Had a jalapeno/cheese chicken sandwhich. $10 including tip.
2:30 p.m.: Login to ING to initiate a distribution from my Homeowners Association and Car Insurance subaccounts. Both are due by the end of the month. $61o and $450. Will fire off payments once it clears and I receive the invoice for my car insurance.
5:45 p.m.: Go to the mall to exchange some drinking glasses that we bought a couple of weeks ago for a different color. End up getting +$3.65 cash back for the exchange.
5:55 p.m.: Buy an espresso from Starbucks on the way out of the mall. $2
6:45 p.m.: Weekly grocery shopping trip. We shop at a different Kroger than normal this week since it was on the way home from the mall. End up seeing some friends and get asked out for dinner. Kroger was out of my wife’s favorite yogurt, I’ll have to remember to pick up some tomorrow. Somehow our “thin” grocery list still cost $68.26.
8 p.m.: Dinner with friends at a sushi bar/Chinese restaurant. $26 including tip. Net cash outlay for day 2: $104.47.
Day 3
8:25 a.m.: Head to my parents to help them go grocery shopping. Stop at Starbucks for a coffee. $2
11:30 a.m.: Go to Whole Foods for lunch and a few things. $28.61
12:45 p.m.: Wife goes to Sally Beauty Supply to pick up a few cosmetics. $14.38
4 p.m.: Head to Randalls to pick up produce and some ice cream. $22.36
7:15 p.m.: Go to Kroger to get the yogurt they were sold out of yesterday. $2
7:25 p.m.: Pick up an espresso on the way home. $2
10:22 p.m.: Read “Scrooge Strategy: Save hundreds by not spending money in the first place” email. Discuss with my wife. We cancel 4 online gaming subscriptions that we haven’t used in months, and decide to open an ING subaccount to save for a really nice espresso machine (and pertinent accessories) to satiate my espresso habit. Net result: $60/month extra go into savings instead of paying for something we don’t use, and in a few months we’ll have a nice espresso machine out of the deal. Awesome. Net cash outlay for day 3: $71.35.
Day 4
Took our little doggie to the dogpark, but otherwise stayed home. Cooked all our meals at home. No cash expenses today, yay! Net cash outlay for day 4: $0.
Day 5
7:30 a.m.: Breakfast courtesy of work – new team moved to our floor (they closed down another office location and merged the two) so they had a catered continental breakfast. $0
11:45 a.m.: Lunch crew met a former colleague at Berryhill Baja Grill for fish tacos and seafood burritos. Lunch comped as a business meeting. $0
4:55 p.m.: Filled up the gas tank again. $30.06
7:45 p.m.: Mowers finally show up to mow/trim/weed the lawn. They’ll charge me tomorrow for their services tonight. Net cash outlay for day 5: $30.06
Day 6
7:45 a.m.: Regular breakfast at work (apple & granola bar). $0
9:15 a.m.: Receive lawn services invoice & receipt via email. $35.36 after taxes.
11:30 a.m.: Kung pao shrimp at local Chinese restaurant. $8 including tip.
2:00 p.m.: Pay July car payment. $322
2:05 p.m.: Tomorrow is payday so I pay extra on the credit card bill – 3x monthly minimum. $100
4:45 p.m.: Meet my brother at Buffalo Wild Wings for a few drinks after work. $22 including tip.
8:45 p.m.: Wife and I go to the local butcher to stock up on pork baby back ribs & pork tenderloin which is on sale. Get 4 racks of ribs (and a few other things), and a rain check on the pork tenderloin. $51.78 total.
9:07 p.m.: Login to checking account and see that my ING withdrawal has cleared. +$1060. Will pay homeowners association tomorrow. Still waiting on semi-annual insurance invoice so I can pay that… Net cash outlay for day 6: $539.14
Day 7
5:00 a.m.: Woke up early. Breakfast at home, and fix lunch to take to work.
6:25 a.m.: Arrive at work. It’s Payday! Login to my bank account, credit accounts, savings accounts, etc to make sure my “automatic savings plan” and “automatic payments” all cleared. Net cash result to checking after 401k, savings, discount stock plan, credit card payments, mid-month mortgage payment, etc = +$1858.20.
11:00 a.m.: Lunch is catered due to an event on my floor, so my lunch sits in the fridge. Free lunch = rule.
10:00 a.m.: Receive email from Scrooge Strategy that my credit card was declined. Update billing info to reflect new card as the previous one expired. $8
12:30 p.m.: Pop over to the Godiva store at the Galleria to pick up some chocolates as a surprise for my wife. $15.70
2 p.m.: Remember to call about the medical bill I received last week. Turns out it’s legit. Because the new “medical plan fiscal year” just started, I haven’t yet cleared my deductible for out of network services. I’ll have to pull out the $231.34 from my emergency fund for this unexpected expense, and also setup an “Unexpected Medical Expenses” subaccount on ING for this type of thing.
6 p.m.: Try to login to homeowners association website to pay HOA bill, but it’s down for maintenance. Will try again tomorrow. Net cash income for day 7: +$1834.50
In Sum
Net income for the week was $986.40 to checking (stock deposit notwithstanding). However there are still a lot of outstanding bills (gas, electricity, cell phone, cable/internet) that need to be paid, plus living expenses for the next 2.5 weeks until next payday. Thoughts about this experience:
- Damn, I eat out a lot. Stark contrast to my previous job when I only ate out maybe once a month because I couldn’t afford it…
- Damn, I pay to drink a lot of espresso/coffee! After reading Scrooge Strategy and deciding to cancel a few unused subscriptions, it really was a no-brainer what to save for. Hah!
- This experiment made me realize that while my finances are fairly automated, there is still room for improvement. Still, being the fledgling financial connoisseur that I am, I still like a lot of hands on especially when it comes to paying for non-credit card bills. There have been too many instances where the bill doesn’t match the services rendered for me to trust automatically paying them. Plus, by manually paying them, it forces me to realize and accept said services on a monthly basis – and to feel the financial impact first hand.
- Also realized that we are living paycheck to paycheck – even though we have enough income/money in the bank not to. We’ll have to discuss this and see if we need to realign our financial strategy. Reading my diary comments like “but they are both due in 2 weeks, well after my next paycheck” make me realize that either we aren’t saving enough or aren’t proactive enough in paying bills (or both.)
- Poignant comment my wife made when we were discussing our ING accounts a couple of nights ago (when we setup the espresso subaccount): “We have $350 saved for that dresser already? Why didn’t we start this years ago? We should do this for ALL major purchases!”
- Reviewing my money diary for the past week really has made me realize just how much I’ve changed due to I Will Teach You To Be Rich. Thanks, Ramit.
* * *
Note from Ramit:
This is a pretty good example of someone who’s starting to pay attention to his finances. Notice the transition period between “not paying attention” and “automating finances” — it requires more attention for a few weeks, which is a big enough barrier that most people don’t do this for their entire lives. But if you do it, you don’t have to worry about the day-to-day logistics for the rest of your life.
To be featured anonymously in a future Money Diary, click here.
A couple days ago, I asked if you guys wanted to hear about the business side of iwillteachyoutoberich, and with 375+ comments, the response was an overwhelming yes.
Today, I’m going to share how I use beta tests to get rapid feedback on in-depth projects I’m creating. This will show you what I’m doing behind the scenes, and how you can use these same techniques for your entrepreneurial projects.
What you’ll find in this guide
- How I decide which products to build
- Why a beta test? Using the 85% Solution when building products
- The logistics of testing (and: Charging for a beta test? Are you crazy?)
- Mistakes I’ve made in beta testing
“Rich” is about more than money
Although I Will Teach You To Be Rich sounds like a get-rich-quick scam, you know it’s not — it’s about living a rich life, with money as part of that. Since the early days of this blog, I’ve always emphasized that rich is about more than just money.
My book, I Will Teach You To Be Rich, crystallized my automation system and philosophy about money.
But there are so many areas that I want to cover, some of them dealing with money, some of them dealing with other ways to live a rich life. (As an interesting data point, the guest post on becoming a full-time traveler for $14,000/year was my most popular guest post — ever).
So I’ve been working on specific, in-depth projects that I hope will help you live a rich life. For example, they’ll include automation techniques and scripts you can use to earn more, save more, negotiate, get better service, etc. These are far more complex than a simple blog post. They involve significant research, months of writing, interviews and case studies, custom design, and lots of testing. And while it’s a lot of work, it’s too easy to be a commodity blogger who simply uses cheap tricks (5 posts/day!! Top 10 ways to…!! Look at the new ING interest rate!!) instead of taking the slow path to building something that you’ll be proud of in 10 years.
Now that I’ve set the context, let’s get to the part about building a beta program to test these.
How I decide which products to build
There are an infinite number of in-depth projects I could do. I could talk more about automation, walk people through my book and help them to change money attitudes/behaviors, help people negotiate, focus on debt reduction, show people the similarities between food and personal finance, and on and on.
Just like the infinite number of financial decisions we have when we wake up each morning — which invariably cause us to get overwhelmed and do nothing — I prefer to limit the scope to a few Big Wins.
I take two approaches when deciding which products to create.
- Listening to users. I get dozens of emails from iwillteachyoutoberich readers each day and I read every single one, trying to see what the patterns are. For example, people LOVE the scripts in my book…interesting. On the other hand, I get a lot fewer emails about debt reduction (probably because debt isn’t really my focus, if you have a lot of debt, there are better sites than iwillteachyoutoberich to handle it). Again, another data point.
- Intuition. After 5+ years of blogging, emailing, and meeting you guys in person, I think I have a pretty good idea of what you’ll respond to.
I admit that this is a luxury of having a large user base, but don’t commit the Shrug Effect and think you can’t do the same thing. I use this blog as a laboratory and test frequently to hone my intuition.
Once I come up with an idea, I don’t keep it secret — my idea is never good enough to keep secret. I start asking people around me what they think. Is it a problem for them? I’ll tweet it. I’ll search and see what else is out there.
The truth is, because iwillteachyoutoberich has grown so much, I could basically release anything and get some sales and interest from people. The point is not to release anything, though. I try to pick projects that will (1) optimize my returns and (2) make me proud of what I’ve built by helping a lot of people — and not just iwillteachyoutoberich readers, but outside people.
See also: My bookmarks for customer research.
Why a beta test? Using the 85% Solution when building products
Beta testing is a great way to test your product and get real feedback from people to let you iterate (or improve) on what you’ve got. Here’s how I do it.
Once I’ve decided on a product, I focus on building it. (More on that process later.) I do check in with a close group of friends along the way, but mostly it’s just heads-down to create something that I think will be useful. Whether it’s an ebook that I have to write, or a video product that I structure and record, my goal is build a skeleton that’s 85% complete.
Basically, it should be good enough that it can be used by people and get them very impressive results — but not be polished in terms of design, testimonials, outbound marketing, or even content, because I can do that later. Sometimes, the positioning may even be wildly off, but it’s good enough to send out to a small group for testing.
The point of testing is to validate the following:
- Is this useful?
- Is this better than anything on the market
- Where do people get stuck? What’s their favorite part?
- What kind of feedback/testimonials/impressive stats can I collect from people?
Usually by this stage, you don’t get a lot of catastrophic feedback that your product sucks. If so, something has gone very, very wrong in the product-creation and micro-testing process. But I ALWAYS get feedback on areas that are broken, not easy to understand, or can be improved.
The other thing I ask people is to go through the product, try every step of it, and give me explicit feedback on what works. In this stage, I’m looking for awesome testimonials I can use to put in the product so others can see how well it works.
So, bottom line: I’m trying to identify the weaknesses in the product, as well as get feedback on the strengths of the product. This is a classic product/marketing exercise that helps you stay on track and comes in very, very handy when it’s time to launch the product.
See also: My bookmarks on testimonials.
The logistics of testing (and: Charging for a beta test? Are you crazy?)
Here’s the fun stuff: How do you actually run these tests?
I’ve done it in a variety of ways. For my book launch, I created a pre-launch community where people could join a private community, get PDFs of the book before anyone else, and go through my 6-week bootcamp with a group of similarly aggressive people. Check out the original announcement.
For other projects, I’ll have people buy the 85%-complete product at a steep discount, work through it, and survey them with very specific questions on what works and what doesn’t.
The commonality is this: For beta testers, I always look for qualified people. This means paying in some way, whether pre-ordering my book or buying the product at a large discount.
Why do I charge for beta tests?
Because I’m looking for the type of people who will pay for value — these are the same types of people who will pay for the product when it launches at full price. If I opened it up to anyone for free testing, I’d get 100x the response rate, but the type of tester would be totally different than the real customers. In other words, people who pay are far more likely to actually open, use, and give feedback on a beta test. I have statistics to back this up by unimaginably huge margins, which I’ll share later.
The beta price actually doesn’t matter — usually I’ll offer steep discounts for the beta product when it will end up costing many times that on launch day, and I always offer generous money-back guarantees if it doesn’t work. The point is simply to separate the serious people from curious looky-loos who will never buy the product, anyway.
I also intentionally limit the number of testers to keep it small yet ensure I get enough responses. (For example, if I need 10 testimonials over 5 different topics, most people won’t give you really superb quotes, so you need a lot more than 10 people.)
In exchange for paying a dramatically reduced price, they get early access to a product that’s 85% complete (and presumably works very well), a chance to give feedback and shape the final polish of the product, and we all get a chance to interact via webcast and share feedback about ways to make it better. I usually send them a copy of the final product in exchange for their help.
Bottom line: In exchange for their feedback, beta testers get early access to the product, a dramatically reduced price, and the ability to help shape the final version — and usually the final version of the product for no additional charge.
More about logistics
I usually get beta testers from my newsletter list. This is because of (1) qualification strategy and (2) I can track clicks, opens, and the entire engagement funnel more closely. More on these in future posts.
When newsletter subscribers join the beta program, I add them to a separate email list where I send them automatic followup messages to get their feedback about the product via email, survey, and even video or Twitter. I share some of the best feedback with others because collecting feedback is difficult — people often don’t know how to articulate their feedback, so showing examples helps.
I collect people’s name/email address because there are often a few people — usually 2%-5% — whose feedback is so outstanding that I personally reach out to them to chat with them over the phone, put together an interview, etc. This helps not only the product development, but marketing for the launch.
Mistakes I’ve made
I’ve made a lot of stupid mistakes in running beta tests. The most common is simply working on too many projects, so I end up with 4 of them stuck at 70%, while nothing is getting completed. To help that, I’ve brought someone on to help me project-manage and kick my ass to get things out the door and prioritize better.
Other mistakes I’ve made with beta testing:
- Not planning the beta test in advance of launch. If you try to do run a beta program without planning how it will flow beforehand, you will run into lots of problems and wish you were dead. Also, you’ll be so busy polishing the product that you won’t have time to build the beta program on the fly, and your feedback will suffer. Now, I do it beforehand and automate it as much as possible.
- Not creating buckets for feedback. One dumb mistake was when I forgot to specify where the feedback should go. It all went to my email inbox, which was a mess. Now, responses go to specific buckets. For example, I might collect “day 5″ feedback in one Surveymonkey, and I’ll collect “day 10″ in another Surveymonkey. This makes it really easy to find the right feedback/testimonials when we’re ready to iterate.
- Not thanking the beta testers! It’s thrilling to get real feedback on the project you’ve been working on for so long. Once you get beta responses, it’s off to the races to complete it and launch. I’ve forgotten to take some time to thank the beta testers for taking a risk and helping with feedback, and that was a mistake. Always be sure to thank the people who helped get you the final 20%
So, that’s an overview of how I run beta tests with new projects coming out on I Will Teach You To Be Rich.
Coming up: Beta invites for 2 new domination guides
I’ll be releasing a number of beta products in the next few days. I send beta announcements out via my email list, so if you want access to the beta tests, sign up for the free list below.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot and I want to get your feedback.
For a while now, behind the scenes, I’ve been working on a bunch of projects to create several in-depth projects/products for you that I’ll be rolling out over the next few months. These are specific projects with more scripts that you can use to dominate, techniques for earning money (like the earn money bootcamp I hinted about), recommendations for the best accounts, etc. Some are free, some will be paid.
Believe it. Amazingly accurate cartoon (and brilliant marketing strategy) by the guys at Creditcardfinder.com.au
So…
I was just planning to announce them when they were ready, but I just realized you might want to see stuff like:
- How I come up with product ideas
- How I decide when to charge (e.g., with The Scrooge Strategy and my book) vs. offer stuff for free (blog, Twitter, YouTube, newsletter, etc)
- How to set pricing
- How I do market analysis and craft a marketing plan — including online and offline
- When to hire other people vs. doing it yourself
Stuff like that.
This is more related to entrepreneurship than personal finance, but I think it’s relevant to iwillteachyoutoberich readers: It demonstrates how to take a simple idea (personal finance for young people) and build a business (and income) around it.
Leave a comment to let me know if you’re interested in seeing what I’m doing behind the scenes. If you guys are interested, I’ll do some occasional posts on the business side of iwillteachyoutoberich.
If not, no hard feelings. Just let me know in the comments!
[Edit] Lots of “Yes” comments below, so let me know specifically what topics you’d like me to cover.
[Edit] The first post is up: How I use beta tests to rapidly optimize new products
If you’ve heard an ignorant comment like that, you’ve probably been to any of a thousand online forums.
People love to demonize others for overspending and overeating, especially behind the anonymity of online commenting. Nothing drives me crazier than people who ignore decades of research to judge others for their supposed lack of willpower.
This is why you’ll see the personal-responsibility zealots who repeatedly chant, “Ugh, let’s talk about personal responsibility,” as if that simplistic argument explains why people who genuinely want to spend and eat less simply cannot.
This superb New York Times article offers more evidence of ancillary factors in behavioral change:
“I have grave concerns about how many of these television shows stigmatize overweight people by making them a spectacle,” said Kelly D. Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale. “They suggest that if you only try hard enough you can be thin. A far better message is that it’s hard to lose weight and that it’s not just willpower and personal responsibility, but that both biology and the environment are players.”
I’ve written about the similarities between food and personal finance before.
Former FDA commissioner David Kessler has written a terrific book describing how food companies systematically engineer foods to overeaten (including designing foods that can be swallowed quicker so we can consumer more and more in one sitting). These are tested, refined, and optimized processes, not mere accidents.
Most importantly, behavioral change is not simply about trying harder. Yes, effort is important, but whether it’s passive barriers or the variety of other reasons that illustrate how personal finance is not about more willpower, let’s be real: Behavioral change is incredibly complex and difficult.
Anyone who believes people overeat and overspend simply because of a lack of willpower is simplistically ignoring decades of research so they can ideologically mislead themselves.
