Below are 7 stories, straight from readers just like you, who have saved and earned thousands of dollars using I Will Teach You To Be Rich techniques. The stories include details on how they got out of debt, saved more, and earned more so they could travel, buy a house, and live a richer life.

Remember — tomorrow I launch the I Will Teach You To Be Rich Boot Camp (early details), where I’ll unveil a 6-week course and curriculum to force you to take ACTION and automate, invest, and start thinking about entrepreneurship.

Jason Demant saved $50,000 in 2 years and is now taking a 1-year vacation

“The reason I’m writing is to thank you for your help in automating my money, getting my 401K properly allocated, and pushing me to sell my crap to make some cash. Using your step-by-step instructions and advice, my girlfriend and I have been able to save over $50,000 the past couple of years and now, in a couple weeks, we will be quitting our Silicon Valley jobs and traveling around Asia on an extremely extended vacation (1-year minimum)! I’ve been reading your site for a few years now and I’ve never properly thanked you for the help, so I decided it was time. Thank you!”

Terry Martin got off his ass and paid off thousands in debt — and earned more

“I’m writing you to let you know how much your blog has helped my wife and I take charge of our finances. I’m actually embarrassed to say this, but we were some of the people you mentioned in tip #25 of the save $1000 in a month challenge. We would complain about our financial situation, but did nothing to change it.

After I realized this, I got to work. I read all your tips and made a game plan. I saved $100 a month on cable, $20 on our cell phone bill, created several ING savings accounts, my wife got serious about cutting coupons (she has a 3 ring binder!), I sold an old camcorder on craigslist, and cut off my Sirius account (but when I called to cancel it, they gave me 3 more months free with the option to cancel it for good afterwards—who would have thought?). We cut back on eating out except we each get twice a month at lunch time. My wife got overtime at work along with a raise, I started a side job, and I will start teaching night classes soon. Not only did we cut our spending drastically, we also have more money coming in. Our debt will be cut in half by the end of the year and eliminated by the end of the next!

Update: “Right now we are just over 18,500 in debt not counting my wife’s newly added student loan which would add about another $8000 . By the end of the year, we will have paid about $14,000 off while putting at least $500 a month in savings for a down payment on a house and 50 a month into another savings. This is, of course, things keep going as planned.

But not only are we saving money, we are increasing how much we make too! I have started a side business, while its not bringing in a lot of extra money now, things are starting to pick up. I also talked my company into paying for training classes for a certification that will greatly increase my value $15 to $20K a year in the workplace. Especially helpful during these tough times. My wife is also getting her company to pay for most of her classes to get her bachelor’s degree so she can move up to a new, higher paying position. During this whole process, we have been saving for a down payment on a house and I’m happy to say we are closing on our first home July 20th.

I would personally like to thank you for website and your book. The tips were inspiration to get up and do more than just complain about our financial situation. Although we are not rich money wise, we love where we are at and what the future holds. You have truly taught us how to be rich. Thank you.”

Christopher P. is saving hundreds of dollars and earning more

“I would say i have saved: $320 from cutting my cable bill by 40 dollars last 8 months (they raised it again 2 months ago. I just called right back and got it lowered . I put $30 a week into savings accounts (960 total saved 8/months)

8 months ago i decided that i would earn more money. First I asked for a 5% raise at work and got it. (This was scary because we had just had 3 rounds of firings.) Then i sat down and figured out what interested me and I could make money doing. I was in love with the iPhone but too poor to buy one. But I taught myself to program for the iPhone anyways and just 2 months ago finally purchased one. It was slow going at first and the amount i was putting away seemed pretty insignificant. But 8 months later looking back i am really seeing the transformation that took place.

Two weeks ago I finally finished and started selling my first app. It has been such a great experience and your website gave me the kick in the pants i needed. (Thank You) I haven’t done any advertising and on my first day i sold 17 copies! Not enough to quit my job but extra income. Since then the amount of units I have sold has been slowly but steadily increasing. (It’s been rated 5 stars)

People all over the wold have purchased my app now. (Japan, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, Netherlands and United States so far) In the first two weeks after Apple’s cut i made $200. October looks like it will be a much better month!”

Brian Drolet is saving $2,880/year

“Big wins =

• Dropping cable $40/month
• $1 raise at work = $240/month extra
• Closed checkings account = $13/month extra
• Automated my cell phone bill = $7/month

I’m saving $720/year just from those 3 things and earning $2880/year extra.”

Misha has turned her savings around

“I wanted to write to you and say thank you. After reading your book I was able to get a good handle on my finances. I think the most helpful was the chart you use to show the movement of the money and the automation. Check out a snapshot of my my mint NET INCOME.”

Josh G has saved $14,000 in a few months

“I have saved 14k so far since I started May 2008 and I’m on track for 20k by the end of the year!
Fear kept me from automating my savings previously. I had bills and it seems that was all I thought about every month.

There was a blog post that you did which you mentioned using ING Direct to create sub accounts. It was in that post I decided to try the full automated savings because I could do sub accounts for future purposes.”

Michael Hagan saved hundreds from March to July of this year

“I’ve saved: $900 in savings since March, $700 towards Roth IRA since March. I started the whole thing around February/March

I would say that the things that held me back the most was a) not knowing what to do in the first place b) getting out of college saddled with massive credit card and student loan debt (working a full-time, unpaid internship in LA was expensive!) c) messing around in high school just enough to where I couldn’t qualify for scholarships and being just too middle class to get gov’t $$ for college, and finally d) trying to keep up with all my friends that had good jobs and nice things. A fool’s game!”

The difference between these people and others is they took ACTION. It’s easy to read blog post after blog post, but when you decide to take action — and you have a clear plan of which Big Wins to attack — the results can come quickly.

The Boot Camp will include a step-by-step plan to take action on your finances, automate, create a plan to pay off debt, and more. I’m including psychological techniques to use against yourself to lock the behavioral changes in. Plus, live video webcasts from me each week (where I’ll answer your questions), as well as guest speakers to cover entrepreneurship topics like marketing, pricing, and critical business mistakes to avoid.

Check back tomorrow, when I’ll open up Boot Camp registration.

I taught my friend how to negotiate an $8,000 increase in salary and a 50% boost in equity in 4 hours. And this was after she’s committed the cardinal sin of negotiating: revealing what her salary expectations were.

This is the kind of thing we all know we “should” do…but we don’t do it. Even though we can get the information for “free” online. Hmm….

In this video, learn how to:

• Negotiate with an experienced recruiter
• Rebound after you undercut yourself
• Why reading a negotiation book is not enough
• Know when to be adversarial and when to be cooperative

This video is probably worth $3,000 – $10,000 for my average reader IF YOU IMPLEMENT IT AND IMPLEMENT IT CORRECTLY.

Oh yeah…I have more videos on negotiation (thanks to Chris Whitmore for filming/editing).

Get more negotiation videos: For detailed videos of EXACT phrases, situations, and tactics for dealing with tough recruiters and intimidating executives, join the Boot Camp pre-launch list. Do it today because I’m closing it down soon.

To skip the entire explanation below: Get a preview and new bonuses I’ve never released on entrepreneurship, negotiation, and personal finance at http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/bootcamp

Last week, I asked I Will Teach You To Be Rich readers what you want to do before the end of 2009. Look at the #1 result:

Taking ACTION. Aww yeah…

• One of my readers, Paul, cut 30% off his 30-year mortgage, saving $5,000/year
• Another reader saved $1,455 with two phone calls
• And in a personal example, I took my friend’s advice exactly one year ago and implemented it in a month. Since then, it’s generated tens of thousands of dollars for me

The key is not just learning more, it’s IMPLEMENTING the tips you’ve read about.

So in 7 days, I’m launching the first official I Will Teach You To Be Rich Boot Camp to help people invest in themselves — to stop reading and start taking ACTION with their finances.

What’s an online bootcamp?

You’re reading this site, so you’re already dedicated to saving money by focusing on the Big Wins. But there’s more than just saving money — there’s picking the right accounts, earning more, optimizing your spending (including automation).

I’ve put together an online 6-week boot camp that will take you through my entire automation system, including picking the right accounts, creating a plan to pay off debt, opening and funding the right investment accounts, and automating your money.

You want to know how to turn your idea into a business? Have a specific question about your finances or want to get input on a marketing plan? Yep, we’ll cover that.

The bootcamp includes:

• Weekly live classes from me where I’ll kick your ass to take action implementing an advanced automation system, and answer your specific questions (new topics)
• Expert guest speakers on entrepreneurship, finding dream jobs, earning more, and advanced topics — every week (new)
• Curriculum with detailed action steps on saving, earning more, automation, and entrepreneurship — which will let you start 2010 off fresh (some new material)
• Private community with hundreds of other members who are going through the same thing as you (and are dedicated to taking ACTION)

I’m sick of people reading blogs and books and websites and doing nothing. The point is not reading, it’s automating your money, starting to invest, and using conscious spending to live a Rich Life!

Why a bootcamp?

Because there are 2 months left in 2009, and I want to show you how you can make life changes in just 6 weeks. I have tons and tons of examples of people who’ve taken action and gotten out of thousands of debt, started earning more, etc.

I’ve spent months developing the curriculum and building a system that will help you take action on your finances. After all, if you’re going to spend time learning about personal finance, you might as well go the extra step and apply it to your OWN life.

By the end of the bootcamp, I guarantee you’ll have saved money, automated your finances…and stopped worrying about your day-to-day finances.

What you should do

I’ve put together a pre-launch list with tons of bonuses, including a video on how I spilled coffee on my brand-new laptop (and still got over $1,000 reimbursed to me for my mistake), an extremely detailed video on how I helped my friend Susan negotiate $8,000 in a salary negotiation, and MANY other bonuses.

Everyone who signs up for the pre-launch list will get a discount to the bootcamp when it launches on November 3rd.

Sign up instantly for the pre-list here and get 7 days of unreleased bonuses (videos, case studies, and surprises):

http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/bootcamp

Today, I want to pull back the curtain to tell you about 3 people I’ve heard from in the last few days.

• A 32-year-old woman who just discovered she’s been paying unnecessary fees to her financial “advisor” for the last 13 years
• A 40-something female surgeon who makes $500,000/year but isn’t sure what to do with her money
• A 24-year-old guy who negotiated $200 back with one phone call

At the bottom of each profile, I’ve added a “lessons learned” section.

#1: “Am I really allowed to ask what his commission is?”

Over the weekend, I was out for drinks with some friends and ended up sitting next to this girl who, once she heard what I do, started asking money questions. It turns out that she was very interested in investing, and had actually just bought a condo in San Francisco (with a $500 monthly HOA fee). You probably already know my thoughts on real estate as an investment, so I just kept quiet.

But then she mentioned that she’d also been investing in life insurance, and I started choking on my drink. Why does a 32-year-old with no dependents need life insurance, much less as an “investment”? But it gets worse. I found out she’d “locked up the money”…for the last 13 years. I almost had to stop myself from shaving down my tortilla chips to the fine point of a shiv and stabbing myself in the throat.

I tried to play it cool but she asked me, point-blank, “What do you think? Don’t sugar-coat it.” So I told her that her “advisor” was probably making a fat commission off her, and there’s virtually no reason for someone in her financial situation to be investing in life insurance. (I didn’t mention the condo — not much she could do about that now.)

She was receptive. And she was concerned that she was being taken advantage of. “I only call my advisor once a year,” she said. “And I’ve gotten my entire family into life insurance since that’s what he recommended to me.”

So I told her to go ask her broker what his commissions are — how he makes money — and why he chose life insurance for her. Maybe there was a legitimate reason, although I doubted it. She looked at me and said, “Am I really allowed to ask what his commission is?” Don’t you guys find that interesting? “Of course,” I said. “He works for you, and he’s probably making money off your money. You have the right to know.” She said, “Oh, okay. Because if someone asked me what my profit margins were, I wouldn’t tell them.”

Good point. But if you’re using a commission-based advisor (which you shouldn’t), you have the right to know. And you have the right to put your money in a more appropriate investment than life insurance for a young woman, larded up with unnecessary fees.

Lessons learned

• Don’t dismiss this girl as stupid. She actually got engaged with her money, which is more than most people do. Unfortunately, she didn’t do her research and probably got taken advantage of by an unscrupulous advisor. Ironically, even though she got sub-optimal returns (and made a questionable real-estate “investment”), she’s better off than the vast majority of people in this country who never pay attention to their finances at all. She can get this back on track. And she’s already shown the initiative to take action
• Her investment probably did fine — it just could have done better without the fees. Costs matter
• Evaluate your investments and major expenditures each month. Chances are you’re getting ripped off somewhere. I have a super-detailed script on calls to make once/year as one of my Scrooge Strategy tips

#2: “Well, I made $500,000 last year…”

I was in Lake Tahoe a few weeks ago kayaking with a group (yes, some bloggers leave their room) and a woman came up next to me on the water. She had heard me speak and had no idea what to do with her money. She really caught my attention with this exchange.

Her: “The thing is, I earned a LOT of money last year, but it’s just sitting in the bank.
Me: “How much are we talking about, ballpark?”
Her: “I earned $500,000 last year. And I have $200,000 just sitting in a bank account.”
Me: (Stops rowing)

It’s totally fascinating to meet a woman who’s supremely alpha in one area but has no idea what to do in another. She was in her 40s, single, and a surgeon. She was considering buying a house (”for the tax deduction”…one of the few times this might actually make sense) but also because she didn’t know anything else about investing.

We started talking about other business stuff and a few minutes later she asked me, “What’s your consulting rate?” I told her and, without blinking, she said, “Can you just take care of my money? I can pay you.” Now, I charge a ridiculous amount for consulting, so the fact that she didn’t even FLINCH when I told her my rate was really surprising — and tempting.

But no, I told her. “I don’t do portfolio management. I rarely say this, but you should really talk to a financial advisor. You can find a good, fee-only advisor at http://www.napfa.org/ or I can recommend one by email.”

Why did I recommend a financial advisor for her and not the earlier woman? Because in my book, I mention there are only a few categories of people who generally should use financial advisors in the 20-35 year-old range (typically people who are earning a tremendous amount, need more sophisticated money-management strategies, and are too busy to do this on their own.) Not only does this woman fit the description by being busy and very successful, she’s older and likely won’t do anything without someone helping her.

I’m thrilled to tell you that she’s started to take control of her money. But the lessons learned with this woman are very interesting.

Lessons learned

• A high income solves most financial problems. People don’t like to hear this because they like to judge people’s financial behavior, but it’s true. Yes, she’s in her 40s. Yes, she missed the prime time of her life to invest and compound her growth. But at $500,000 per year, she can catch up quickly and have a very good quality of life
• Paying for value is a sign of successful people. She caught me off guard when she offered to hire me as a consultant, but when I was thinking about it later, it didn’t surprise me. Most of the successful people I know are willing to pay for value. They pay for training courses and understand that you can’t out-frugal your way to being rich — you sometimes have to spend money to earn money.

  Compare this philosophy to people who believe there’s only a limited amount of money (and they have to protect theirs) or people who expect everything to be free. Though she hadn’t started investing, the fact that she’s she’s dominated her career and is willing to pay a significant amount of money to handle her money — and she falls into a category of really busy professionals who could benefit from a fee-based advisor — means can quickly ramp up on the financial side

#3: “I was charged with $200 in overdraft fees”

David Howe, 24, emailed me from D.C.

“I made a mistake in my checking account, I thought I had transferred money to cover pending transactions but I didn’t “confirm” the transfer. I was charged with $200 in overdraft fees.

I called the bank using your template, and I think there were 3 consecutive lines you suggested in your book.

After the first line she credited me $70.

After the second line she credited me $105. I repeated the second line again almost verbatim and she credit me $120.

Then I used the third line, $150, the third again $200.

The funniest part was she responded to every line almost in the exact way you said she would in the book!! I just found it comical (and I’m very glad to have the $200 back!) Maybe I’ll use it to open a Roth IRA…”

Lessons learned

• My negotiation tips are fucking awesome. I literally have hundreds and hundreds of people who have negotiated significant amounts back from banks (here are just a few). If you don’t have my book, buy it now — there is a lot of completely new stuff you’ve never seen in there. Order I Will Teach You To Be Rich (includes negotiation scripts and a 6-week plan to dominate your finances)
• David knew to negotiate like an Indian — meaning he recognized that he has more control in his relationships with companies. While many people simply sit back and take it, he called them and got $200 back within a few minutes. Once you do this with one company, you realize how much power you have to do it with many companies.

Hope you guys enjoyed these profiles. I’m always hearing interesting money stories, so if you like these, I’ll try to share more of them.

Here’s a good example of how you can get many fees waived in 2 minutes with a phone call. (It’s kind of curious that people email me instead of the company directly, but…)

From: Stephen T.
To: Ramit

Hey Ramit, enjoyed your book and it’s been a great help.

I signed up at myfico.com to get my credit information, and this morning (a month later) got a happy note from them telling me they’d billed me $89 for the next year. I’d rather not use their service for the next year.

Perfectly reasonable request. So what should he do?

From: Ramit
To: Stephen T.

Call them

Sent from my iPhone

Let’s see what happens…

From: Stephen T.
To: Ramit

Hey, just an update on the MyFICO billing. I called them per your suggestion and they immediately offered a refund, and processed the refund while I was on the line. Impressive customer service.

Thanks!

Since you’ll be setting up an automatic monthly review of your finances (as I illustrate in extreme detail in my personal finance book), charges like this will never, ever slip past you.

Also, CALL COMPANIES — it saves you a LOT of money. No need to be scared. In fact, when I call companies, they get scared. Once you realize that you have the skills and leverage to get most fees reversed, your interactions with companies will be a lot more pleasant (since you’ll dominate them). Read more about negotiating fees.

I include a call script in Chapters 1 and 2 of my book to do this.

Aaron T. writes:

I was fortunate enough to come out of school with no student loans, but do have $4364.11 in credit card debt over 2 cards. One is $999.03 and the other is 3,365.08. I just started reading your book yesterday, today I called the card with the higher balance to lower my APR from 19.99%. I have had this card for almost 4 years. My Mom had been paying the minimum for a year or so, but since I became full time I took over any other bills my parents were paying. I have paid $200 the last 3 months and my minimum payment is around $89.

Anyways, I just called and asked, (I had to do no negotiating really, I just followed the script you have in your book) and I got my APR lowered from 19.99% to 14.24%, effective immediately.

Basically, the $13.95 my girlfriend paid for your book will more than pay for itself by the time I get my next bill.

See for yourself with full-chapter excerpts of my book.

Then get the book at Amazon or B&N.

Check out how he earned more than $13,000 in 5 months (and turned down $25,000 during the same time). I’ve bolded my favorite parts.

Hi Ramit,

I feel like I’ve known you for a long time. I’ve been reading your blog since the middle of last year… and ever since, I’ve really had my financial life turned around.

It sounds dramatic, but honestly, my entire outlook on life has changed. A small bit of history before I get to the really juicy stuff.

I worked at a company for 10 years – ever since I finished college. After 10 years, I was only making about 55k/year.

Most of it was my fault – I was always comfortable with my salary since I lived with my parents and I felt a sort of loyalty to the company that took me in when I was really down on my luck. Once I got married and moved into a house… that changed.

I worked my ass off – especially the last couple of years I was there. The final couple of years of my employment, I spent at least 10 hours a day doing whatever I could to learn more about the industry I was in. I took the company up on all offers to send me to formal Oracle training. I took advantage of opportunities to learn new software products, and take on as many responsibilities as I could. When I was diagnosed with cancer (Lymphoma), I didn’t quit my job or anything else… I worked harder. I felt that if I focused my mind on something positive that it would help me beat the cancer, which it did. (today I’m cancer free, by the way!)

However, it didn’t pay me what I was worth – at least not in my view, my coworkers view, or any of my clients’ views, and definitely not in my wife’s view (the fact I could barely pay the bills despite working 10-14 hours a day really strained our marriage). Once I beat cancer, I found your blog. I spent a while just reading it and considering the various advice you gave, etc. Meanwhile, I was getting deeper and deeper in debt.

The big thing that changed my life was realizing that one should not “spend less than you earn” but “earn more than you spend”. That right there changed my life!

Immediately I asked for a raise. I was promised a 25% raise – which never came after several months. I would followup every 2 weeks (when I got paid) and I would keep getting stonewalled – one excuse after another. Finally, I stopped asking. I took the initiative to update my CV and asked some colleagues to review it. One of them, a lady I now work with, saw it and her jaw dropped. She forwarded it to a manager at her company and a few weeks later I had a job offer.

I put in my 2 weeks notice – and immediately the company freaked out. The vice president of the division made a special visit to my office and offered me not 25%, but 25 THOUSAND to stay. I was tempted, but the new job was too tempting.

I declined and moved on. In a matter of days I more than doubled my salary, all because I started reading your blog.

Now the juicy stuff!

Since then (October 2008), I’ve reduced my non-mortgage debt by more than $10,000 and increased my savings from a big fat $0 to over $3000. I’ve also increased my credit score by over 100 points. Oh! Another benefit? The company I used to work for now pays me $65/hr to do consulting work on the side… more than double what they used to pay me full time. In fact, I did 2.5 hours of work for them tonight as a side job (thanks again to your tips)! DO NOT BURN YOUR BRIDGES!

Honestly most of the things you preach SHOULD be common sense… but the fact of the matter is that most people don’t THINK that way. The sooner they do, the better off they will be.

This is a great kick in the ass for people who feel stuck at work. Note: Yes, in this economy it’s extremely difficult to negotiate your salary…but how else could you apply Todd’s principles to your own situation?

Note: In Chapter 9 of my book, I include a highly tactical script + multi-month plan to getting a raise at your current job.

If you guys want, I’ll give you a behind-the-scenes look at what a media tour is all about. But for now…

How I’m saving $25,000 in 2009. What to do when you make major purchases, keeping account information in one place, negotiating down service providers (cable, cellphone) once per year, working on side projects, setting up sub-savings accounts.

Use gas prices to become your own hedge fund. One of my favorite tips of all: setting up sub-savings accounts to save money for specific things (down payment, vacation, etc). I show you how with screenshots.

Stop being a loser and spend money to make money. You can’t out-frugal your way to being rich, and life isn’t just about cutting costs. Think of your personal finances like a business, where it’s sometimes ok to spend $10 to make $20. I’ll show you examples in this post.

Sometimes, you just need to make more money. The importance of side projects, second jobs, and other ways to make money. You can’t out-frugal your way to rich! Here’s how to become a freelancer/consultant.

Money Diaries: The spoiled 20-something used to living beyond his means. Part of The Money Diaries series, where real people write about their actual spending over 7 days. Oddly voyeuristic.

How to negotiate your car insurance (highly tactical tips). Includes phone numbers, websites, and an actual call script to use once you reach your insurance company. People saved hundreds with this tip alone.

Save thousands by pre-paying your debt. By paying an extra $100/month towards your debt now, you can save thousands over the long term. We tend to ignore this, since the “long term” represents phantom costs, but thousands of dollars later for a small change now is often well worth it. Includes charts and illustrations.

Optimize your cellphone bill. Simple, fast, and it works.

See more tips on the Save $1,000 in 30 Days Challenge page (scroll down for the tips).

Btw, for premium savings tips, check out something I launched: The Scrooge Strategy.

Just wanted to say thanks for inspiring me to get my $95 annual credit card fee waived tonight. I remembered reading one of your previous entries about asking your bank (or credit card company) nicely for these types of things. I just got an AMEX and I asked if they’d waive my fee the first year…I think for $95, the 1 minute I spent on hold was worth it.

Of course, most people shouldn’t even pay an annual fee on their credit card. But if you spend enough to justify it, you can often get it waived by using the same principles I use when negotiating my bank: See Part 1 and Part 2.

Leave me a comment and let me know how it goes for you.