Tonight (Thursday, 11/5), I’m doing a live webcast to show you 5 psychological techniques to change your financial behavior. You’re learn how to trick yourself to save and earn more using powerful techniques I haven’t mentioned anywhere else.

After showing you the new psychological models, I’ll do a Lightning Talk to answer YOUR questions. I’ll also answer questions about the Boot Camp.

I want to pack this full of information in 30 minutes, so here’s what I’m covering…

7:00pm – 7:10pm: 5 Psychological Techniques to Trick Yourself:
Forced Constraints, Accountability Partners (used the RIGHT way), Subscription Snafus, Better Than Cash, and Mental Accounting. These have saved me thousands of dollars since I started my blog in 2004

7:10pm – 7:20pm: LIGHTNING Round:
10 minutes of questions — ask me ANYTHING — and I’ll spend a maximum of 30 seconds per question. It’s going to get nutty

7:20 – 7:30pm Boot Camp questions:
I’ll share the Country Club Effect, details of the Boot Camp, tell you more about the guest speakers, and share some of the surprising things that have already happened inside

How to attend:
Go to http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog and click refresh at 7pm Pacific TONIGHT (Thursday). A video feed will appear with me creepily staring at you and likely screaming at you. Greetings!

Q: Will this be recorded?
A: No

Q: Please, can you record it? I have to be in Guatemala building houses for poor quadriplegic children
A: No

Q: What if something is wrong and nothing is showing up at iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog at 7pm tonight?
A: (1) 7pm PACIFIC, and (2) if something goes wrong, check twitter.com/ramit for updates

One last thing — if you plan to make it, leave your name and a question so I can keep an eye out for you.

See you tonight.

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.

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

To find supporting evidence for my theory, I Googled “bmw asshole” and got 1,500+ responses, including this one. I rest my case.

There has only been one exception (he was a startup CTO…who by definition cannot be an asshole). Also, Asians don’t count because they don’t drive BMWs.

The point is this: There are patterns you can recognize. We like to believe we’re individual and different, but the entire field of social psychology illustrates how we mistakenly believe we’re in control of our own lives while systematically underestimating situational and social influence.

As we get older, the vast majority of us fall into predictable patterns: We become more conservative with our investments. We have kids. We spend on things we never imagined we would (like window treatments, homeowners’ insurance, and childcare).

Recently, I wrote a post about the 10 Year Savings Strategy, where I recommended that people who are already saving and investing and maxing out their retirement accounts do one simple thing: Find some people who are 10 years older and ask them what they wish they’d saved for. Then start saving for those things.

This isn’t as sexy as alternative investments or currency arbitrage, but it works. It also forces us to confront the fact that most of us will live very similar lives as everyone else. We’ll start really paying attention to our money around age 40. Our wedding cost will be far higher than we planned. We’ll buy a house.

Sure, there are exceptions. But chances are you’re not going to be one of them. None of us is.

The comments that people submitted to the post were some of the most interesting and infuriating I can remember, prompting me to write a 456-word comment in response. Here are a few selected comments from the original post:

Delusional Guy:

“First of all, I’m not getting married. No, this isn’t just the talk of someone who can’t see far enough into the future. We all know the only benefit of getting married is in avoiding divorce. If you get divorced, you’re screwed. For anyone who would ever put themselves into that situation, I have no sympathy because it is completely avoidable. Marriage is a contract and (especially for guys) if you enter into it, you will be on the losing end from the get go. You recommend getting advice from your elders. What do they tell me? Don’t get married. That’s some advice I’ll be taking because I care too much about my assets.

Actually I see kids as a complete waste of money, time, and freedom. There are many people out there who live child free (and loving it) and I will be one of them. Don’t believe it? Believe it when i get a vasectomy sometime in the near future.”

Smart Person Who Understands The Point of the Post, Not Just The Superficial Words

“Ramit, I really liked this. The take-away was still the same despite that I don’t intend to have children (and neither does my g/f). Plan for large expenses I will encounter on my path in life, whether or not it’s children or lots of travel or whatever hobby I choose. The action is not, “save for children.” The action is: ask and try to predict what your major expenses will be in 10 years and save for it. Don’t think you’re going to be above average and beat the system. Reality is sometimes harsh on us 20-somethings. Realize I am not an exception to every rule. Realize that reality will bite me sometimes and I will want to be prepared.”

Hilarious Person I Want To Marry

“Good lord….To pretend you know exactly what you want now (at say, 25) for when you are 50 is the equivalent of adamantly stating when you are 5 that you hate all boys/girls and will never like them. It’s utterly ridiculous. All you can do is acknowledge that your current self cannot predict everything that will happen in your life, or everything that you will want, but it’s probably going to cost more than you think. So instead of spending so much energy being defensive, why don’t you critically think about his point, and whether you want to apply it to your finances?”

And finally, here’s the response that I left in the comments:

“Exactly. Some phenomenal comments on this post and some very, very stupid ones.

The most absurd thing about many of the negative comments is the inability to take a strategy or tactic and apply it to the commenters’ own lives. If you’re not going to get married (which you probably are, despite what you think now), you’re still going to have many other expenses that you simply can’t predict yet. If you claim you’re determined to have a frugal wedding (which many people say, by the way), then the question to ask is this: “Under what conditions might I find significant future expenses that I didn’t predict?” Ever hear of the hedonic treadmill?

I’m willing to bet one of the commenters who complained this post is “obvious” hasn’t cut costs, automated, created a Conscious Spending Plan, earned more, optimized his spending, maxed out investments, and created sub-accounts for his future 10+ year spending. I’m not being sarcastic — if you have, please let me know and I’ll call you because I’d love to profile you for my readers.

“Obvious” doesn’t mean “easy.” But that’s the point of the post, isn’t it?

As commenter Sara said:

“To pretend you know exactly what you want now (at say, 25) for when you are 50 is the equivalent of adamantly stating when you are 5 that you hate all boys/girls and will never like them. It’s utterly ridiculous. All you can do is acknowledge that your current self cannot predict everything that will happen in your life, or everything that you will want, but it’s probably going to cost more than you think. So instead of spending so much energy being defensive, why don’t you critically think about his point, and whether you want to apply it to your finances?”

Now that I’m writing, let me go on a little bit: One key insight of writing a blog for a large audience has been how entitled people feel in getting a tip that’s exactly written for their specific situation. “I’m 60 and widowed!” people say. Or, “But I’m gonna have a vasectomy!”

A post addressing your specific situation is not going to happen here — you need to use your imagination and think about how to apply them to your life. And I’m not going to water down this blog with equivocations and qualifications (as ec213 points out).

The sad thing about this is the smart people already know this. I have to write this comment for whiners who (1) constantly complain about this site, (2) will never buy anything, and (3) repeatedly threaten to leave.

With that said, I LOVED writing this post and I love reading these comments even more. Look for MORE posts like this.”

By planning to live an ordinary life, you give yourself the means to be extraordinary.

The original post on the 10 Year Savings Strategy is here.

Follow me on Twitter to get frequent micro-updates that I only post there.

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.

When I wrote An Ode to Jim Blomo, I talked about my friend who’s honed his conscious spending and spends thousands on the things he loves:

Jim has told me over and over that he doesn’t care much about living in a fancy place, so he saves money on that. He cooks at home when he can instead of eating out every day. But he loves outdoor stuff–biking, camping, travel. And so he splurges on those things. He has a top-of-the-line bike. He just got back from a week-long trip to New York, just for fun.

Jim also cuts costs mercilessly on his housing, choosing to live in a place far smaller than he can afford. To him, it’s not important, and he’d rather spend his money elsewhere.

This decision — of what’s important as well as not important — is at the heart of the Conscious Spending Plan I describe in chapter 4 of my personal finance book.

Previously, I’ve written about friends who spend $21,000/year going out and $5,000 on shoes.

But we haven’t focused on what you choose not to spend on.

When I asked friends this, they were quick to answer what they valued — “organic food” or “travel” or “nice clothes” — but almost uniformly found it difficult to answer what they didn’t value. When I asked one friend, “What do you not care about? What would you be willing to buy a lower quality of (or not at all)?” he looked at me blankly. I considered violence.

It’s critically important to be explicit about what you don’t value as much as what you do. By writing it down — on a blog or a notepad or an Excel doc — you can prioritize your purchases and avoid being sucked into spending on things you really don’t care about. As Jeff Solomon writes:

“When I come to work tomorrow I’ve got to figure out what NOT to do first and focus on the single most important item first. No matter how hard it is, I’ve just got to get through it. It’s just too easy to get sucked into the unimportant. There are too many things on my lists that just don’t move the needle or don’t make a difference. At work and at home, some things have more impact than others. And when the lists get long, I’ve got to know what NOT to do before I can figure out what to do.”

What do you not care about spending money on? I’ll start. When it comes to spending, I don’t care about…

• A fancy sports car. I’d rather have a Honda Accord and drive it for 10+ years (more on how I bought a car)
• The type of cheese I eat — Kraft singles are just fine
• Shampoo, etc. They’re all the same to me
• Super-fancy restaurants. I’d rather eat out a lot with friends at a bowling alley than eat at the fanciest places. (Note: This specifically fits into my Conscious Spending Plan by letting me see more people at less-expensive restaurants. If I cared about expensive restaurants, I would eat fewer meals at higher-end places.)

As part of your conscious spending plan, what do you NOT care about spending money on?

I get this question a lot. “I’ve already set up my automatic infrastructure and I’m investing money every month. My 401(k) is maxed out and I have sub-savings accounts set up. What else should I be doing?”

So you’ve already handled the basics of personal finance: automation, negotiation, using my Scrooge Strategy advanced tactics, and you’re earning more. Maybe you have $10k in your account and you’re wondering what you should be doing next.

There’s always more to do. But be clear: Lots of people expect that after you handle the basics, you beat the next Mario level and get access to “secret” personal-finance investments.

While many people want “secret” alternative investments — despite all evidence pointing out that they don’t beat the market for individual investors — the truth is much more prosaic. It’s not sexy, but it will make you rich. Today, if you’re already handling your finances and are looking for the next step to get ahead, I’ll show you how to use the 10 Year Savings Strategy to leave your friends in the dust.

Step 1: Admit you’re like everyone else

If you’re already handling your money, you make more than you spend each month, and you’ve even implemented a Conscious Spending Plan and investment (as described in my personal finance book), this is for you.

The 10 Year Strategy involves asking people ten years older than you what they wish they’d saved for, and starting to save for that.

Sounds obvious, but it requires admitting that despite your superior financial abilities, you’re still going to have the same expenses as everyone else. Young people love to pretend we’re going to millionaires, work from the beach, and somehow magically make money and have low expenses all our life.

Here is what will happen to you as you get older:

1. Yes, you WILL have a nice and very expensive wedding (even if you’re a hypocrite and think you’ll have a “small, beautiful” wedding)
2. Yes, you WILL have kids and want to buy them nice stuff
3. Yes, you will need things like family health insurance and life insurance and homeowners’ insurance and family vacations and other things that you can’t predict right now because you’re not in that life situation
4. Yes, these expenses WILL come up. People like to believe they’re the exception. BUT YOU’RE NOT. YOU WILL HAVE KIDS. YOUR KIDS WILL BE WHINY AND REQUIRE LOTS OF DIAPERS. THEY WILL POOP ALL OVER THE PLACE AND REQUIRE 10X MORE PAPER TOWELS AND CLOTHES AND CRIBS. PLEASE BELIEVE THIS.

How The 10-Year Savings Strategy works

From my book:

If you’re in your 20s and you ask someone in their 30s what they wish they’d saved for, they’ll say things you’d have NEVER thought about:

• Diapers
• Homeowner’s insurance, health insurance, life insurance
• Family vacations

I want to show you how much this will affect you, so yesterday I put out a quick survey to people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. I got over 2,000 responses, and the results are fascinating.

What people wish they’d saved for in their 20s, 30s, and 40s

Really fascinating data in there.

People in their 20s wish they’d saved more for travel, in their 30s it starts switching to retirement, and by their 40s, people are predominantly concerned with retirement. When we’re younger, we save for ourselves, and as we get older, we increasingly care about saving for our family. These trends are similar for nearly everyone.

As I wrote in my book, “…ask your parents what they worry about most. I’ll bet you their answer is, simply, ‘money.’”

So you’re making more than you spend, possibly maxing out your investment accounts, and this sounds reasonable. So why don’t people do this? Let’s take a quick detour down whiner’s lane to see why most people don’t take the simple step of implementing the 10-Year Savings Strategy.

Why they don’t do it #1: “I hate the President / bailout / taxes”

I recently did an online web chat with over 600 people from a newspaper site. I was walking them through some of my Save $1,000 in 30 Days tips, and yet many of them wanted to complain about taxes, bailouts, furloughs, and the government. As you know, I have little patience for people who debate minutiae and get nothing done. For every single complainer, have they ever read one good personal finance book? Have they maxed out their accounts or, if they don’t have enough money, earned money on the side?

Of course not. Because it’s easier to complain and to point fingers than to do anything about your money.

Here’s a common exchange I have with complainers:

• Complainer: “Hard to save when the governor is taking 50% in taxes and wasting it!!!!!!!”
• Seemingly calm yet-about-to-explode Ramit: “Yeah, that really sucks…so what do you suggest?”
• Complainer: “Who knows. But this state is headed for DOOM!!!!!!!!”

Others complain that they simply don’t have enough money to save significant amounts of money. “If that’s true,” I tell them, “then you simply need to earn more money.” They don’t like to hear that. Often the responses are:

• “Craigslist is only paying $10/hour” (So? You have to start somewhere. Or you can develop your skills to get a higher-paying job. Or network. Just get off your ass! Note that my readers have earned thousands and thousands of dollars following my strategies to earn more.)
• “Easy for u to say but u dont have kids” (True. I wish it were easier, but it’s called “work” for a reason)
• “I’m too exhausted after work and kids to get a part-time job” (That’s your choice, but f you make no changes to your work situation, why do you expect your finances to change?)

Complaining is fun for about 10 seconds. Then you realize that these same people will be complaining for the next three decades, while you’ll quietly be automating your money and growing your bank account and investment accounts each month — automatically.

I can’t emphasize this enough: Complaining is contagious. Even though I’m an eternal optimist, even I find myself complaining about the world when I get around these people, so I avoid them like the plague.

Yet there’s an even more insidious type of excuse that is all-too-common, especially online.

Why they don’t do it #2: “That’s too simple”

This excuse is common around programmers, kooky Ron-Paul/real-estate/gold fans, and reddit users. “Oh Ramit,” they chide, “long-term indexing doesn’t work! You’re just telling losers to stay losers by trying to “match” the market. You need to invest in [insert crazy investing strategy here, including "only alternative energy stocks" or "only bonds" or "opportunistic stock purchasing with alternative strategies including hedge funds and private equity"].

For many people, especially those who deal with highly technical information in their day jobs, something must be difficult to be useful. Yet as a professor in the much-maligned communications department at Stanford told me, “The value of this material is not in the difficulty, but in the usefulness.”

There are some valid reasons for this skepticism — including the fact that most personal-finance advice is terrible, boring, and trite — but to object to the overall strategy is to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Many of these people love timing the market (even though market timing doesn’t work). They love the allure of hedge funds (even though hedge funds are not as impressive as you think).

Yet they insist that the current buy-and-hold strategy doesn’t work and that saving for expenses ten years down the road is “not enough.” Unfortunately, you can’t simply be skeptical and call that a strategy. To have any credibility, you need to show me real, peer-reviewed research showing that your strategy is better than the time-tested approach of low-cost indexing. Otherwise, you’re simply another pie-in-the-sky dreamer.

Let me add one more thing: Nobody cares what you think. Or what I think. What matters is if you’ve executed on your plan. If you ask these people if they’ve invested using their “alternative” strategies, the answer is invariably this: “Oh, uh…not yet.” Try it. It’s fun to ask.

A few months ago, I wrote how I intentionally bulked up by strategically gaining 25lbs in one year using psychological techniques including commitment and attribution theory.

I picked one person to help me: my co-worker, Brian. No, he isn’t a huge bodybuilder. And no, he doesn’t read Men’s Health every day or bring a giant jar of creatine to work every day. But out of all the people who offered advice, Brian is the only person I know who consistently goes to the gym almost every single day. I’d rather learn from the person who is boringly disciplined rather than someone who has sexy ideas.

I didn’t pick the person who had the fanciest weight-training strategy. I picked the guy who went to the gym every day.

Here’s another example from Ian Rogers:

I told Kid Rock I was doing the Cool J workout and he laughed, “You are the worst spokesman for his book! Just what he needs, a skinny white kid telling people, ‘hey look at me, I did the Cool J workout!’ That’s like me wearing Russel Simmons clothes!” Probably true. But I’m also probably one of the only people on earth who did everything the book told me to for six months. I completed the LL Cool J Platinum Workout 100%. In its entirety. End-to-end. Anyone else? Anyone?

Exactly. It’s not about the difficulty, but the fact that you need to get it done. So if this seems too simple and you dismiss it, good! The ease of it is a barrier that’s caused you to select yourself out of it. The rest of us will get it done and scoff at you 10 years from now.

When you pick advice to follow, think carefully about how practical it is and how readily you can implement it. You know all these investment sites and blogs? How many of their readers have actually implemented the advice? How many of you have?

The point is action, not ideas. If your neighborhood skeptic hasn’t taken measurable action and isn’t willing to show you what exactly he’s done with his own money, politely smile and calmly walk quickly. And then handle your own finances while he exists in Kooky Kook land.

The survey responses above are all iwillteach readers, which means they’re (1) nerdy and (2) far ahead of most people in their finances. But even they wish they’d saved more money. You can always save more. When you get down to the nitty-gritty, you notice the differences in what they wish they’d saved for, and in how you approach it (savings account, CD laddering, investing, etc). But if you simply save for the big things in your next 10 years, you will be ahead of the game by far.

Yet most people constantly look for the fanciest next thing…instead of focusing on tried-and-true techniques. If you’d done this 10 years ago, you would quantitatively be ahead AND you’d feel great. But you can always start today.

What are you going to do today?

If you’re not earning more than you spend, automating your money, and maxing out your accounts, that can be your first goal. This is the majority of iwillteachyoutoberich readers.

If you’ve done all that and are looking for the next step, implement the 10-Year Savings Strategy using sub-accounts.

One more thing: You can’t just scoff at this for being too easy and do nothing. You have to consciously choose:

1. I’m going to do this within the week
2. I’m not going to do this because I’m going to do another strategy within the week
3. I’m not at this stage yet…I’m going to pick up your book (or another book, or just do it) and get there

Note: There is no #4 (”I’m not going to do this at all…I’m just going to do nothing”) because that is a cop-out for losers. Get it done.

To implement the 10-Year Savings Strategy…

Now that you know what to do, I run a premium savings program at http://www.scroogestrategy.com — one premium, super-tactical tip per week. I include 2 tips specifically on The 10-Year Savings Strategy, including an in-depth exploration of the best way to implement it, including:

• A script of what to ask people 10 years older than you
• Psychological techniques to get you to take action implement The 10 Year Savings Strategy
• Pre-built spreadsheet of expenses to use

Plus, a super-tactical savings tip every week. Use ScroogeStrategy.com to start saving hundreds today.

“It’s easy enough to point out the insignificance of planting a garden, buying fewer clothes, or using fluorescent bulbs…But the ecological irrelevance of these practices was beside the point. What downscalers offered was not a better way to reduce emissions, but rather, a way to reduce guilt. In 2007, we asked environmentalists in focus groups about green consumption. None thought that consuming green would do much of anything to address a huge challenge like global warming. They did it anyway, they said, because it made them feel better.”

What is the point of saving money on obsessing about small expenses like lattes? Is it to truly save money, or is it to reduce guilt?

I’m curious to hear what you think, although iwillteachyoutoberich readers are self-selected against small frugality.

I’ve always believed that you can’t out-frugal your way to rich. And it’s not just about the math ($3/day doesn’t really add up to that much). More importantly, it’s about the psychology of big wins: Most of us are never going to completely stop spending money on the things we love — especially daily things like our morning coffee — so exhortations to “just stop buying those lattes” are invariably meaningless. Plus, there’s the Paradox of Choice: The more things we worry about, the less we do of anything at all.

And then there’s guilt.

If there is one thing I hate, it’s behavioral change based on guilt. Yes, guilt can cause you to change your eating habits or spending, but the attitudinal and behavioral change is usually short-lived and ineffective.

In Guilt and Our Choices, I wrote:

In college, I never understood the jackasses who would say they had “tons of work to do” and that they “should work” and would go to the library for 13 hours, where they would chat on AIM, read maybe a total of 25 pages, and come back telling everyone they’d been at the library “all day” (wipe brow). This smacks of stupidity and when I saw this, I thanked god that he made me a tall but frail man, because if I were Mike-Tyson-sized, there would be some trouble for everybody.

I’ve found that guilt is a hugely insidious influence for people, especially people our age. We’re making decisions about classes, careers, money, and life because of guilt in a hugely disproportionate way. How many people do you know that major in econ because they’re guilty about their parents paying $160,000 for them to attend college? Or they go to law school? Or choose some particular job because they “should”?

How much of “saving” money is about guilt? Do we feel guilty about splurging for dessert or buying those jeans…but then do it any way? How many friends do we know who say, “Yeah, I really should save more money…”

Or do we create a conscious spending plan, decide strategically what we love and what we don’t, and spend accordingly?

I’m curious to hear what you think about guilt and spending. What do you do? What do your friends do?

Any time you make a major purchase, there is a huge amount of money to optimize. And buying a house is the best example of this.

Even though buying a house is usually not a good investment, once you have a mortgage, you can optimize the hell out of it.

Today, Andy Jolls from videocreditscore.com is going to show you one way to save $71,000+ on your mortgage.

Dominate Your 30 Year Mortgage in 25 Years

01:16 — Typical Mortgage Payments
01:36 — Extra Payments
02:07 — $71,000 Savings
02:23 — What if your credit is worse?
03:29 — Scrooge Strategy members can learn more

Today let’s see some real world examples of how you can save money on your biggest-ticket item: housing.

Instead of paying off your mortgage once per month, set up a system to pay it twice per month. I’m not telling you to double your payments. I’m saying that paying every two weeks WILL mean several years less of payments.

Here’s how it works with Bank of America [Countrywide] and I’ll assuming it works this way with others. BofA has a plan (PayPlan/26) which means instead of making 12 payments a year you are paying 26 payments a year. Note the math. It seems like you should be paying 24 payments a year, but that’s not how the calendar works, so you make extra payments. But, that’s a good thing. It’s like you are making 13 payments a year [the way BofA does it, more on this below*] Let’s take a look.

Scenario 1: Typical Mortgage

APR: 6%, $300K, 12 monthly payments of $1798.65, total interest paid over 30 years, $347,514.57

Scenario 2: Making an extra payment each year

APR: 6%, $300K,? 26 bi-weekly payments of $899.38, total interest paid over 25 years, $276,591

You just saved almost $71,000 in interest payments. Wow, that’s like 18,000 lattes or one every day for the next 50 years.

What’s happens if you have bad credit and have higher interest rates than 6%. Moving to every two weeks helps even more. At a 7% interest rate, you will shorten your loan by 6 years instead of 5 years for the 6% rate. Better yet, you save from paying $98,545 in interest.

Scenario 3: Making extra payments each month

Okay, this doesn’t save you a lot more, but you stop payments 5 months sooner and your interest payout is $273,852 for an extra savings of $2739.

The problem with the scenarios above is unless they are automated, most of us will never do it. That’s why the BofA PayPlan/26 plan is great. It’s automatic.

Here’s what sucks about the plan. One, they charge a $4 fee every month. Okay that’s $2600 over the course of the loan. But, the bigger issue is this. They don’t apply your mid month payment right way, rather, they hold your money like a bank and then make a payment with your two payments at the end of the month. Thus, the plan really is a 13 payment plan. This is pretty downright snaky in my book and I think [hope] the regulators jump on this. According the scenarios above I should be saving another $2739, but I’m not.

I’ve seen many posts that complain about the fact that the banks charge for this service in many different ways. I agree with these complaints, but I want to point out that I disagree with the advice most posters give. They say, get a bunch of envelopes and be disciplined about this. I just don’t think “discipline” is realistic for most busy people. (Note from Ramit: See Personal finance is not about more willpower.) Sure, I’m bummed about paying $2600 for something I should be able to remember to do, but that $2600 is saving me $71,000. So, it’s a tradeoff I willingly accept.

But all this said, the upside totally outweighs the downside. It’s an automatic way to save you more money than you could save almost anywhere else and you’ll be paid off 5 years earlier.

###
Andy is an ex-FICO executive and Chief Educator at VideoCreditScore.com. Check out these videos:

• Do apartment evictions impact your credit score?
• Avoid Cell Phone Scams
• Student loan debt vs. credit card debt
• How to translate your credit score into an interest rate.

See the specifics: If you liked this, Andy recorded a more in-depth premium video for Scrooge Strategy members, which shows specific tactics, phone numbers, and an additional tip for saving $117,600 on the lifetime of a typical mortgage. Sample screenshot:

My Scrooge Strategy members get proven, specific tips like this every week — and if the tips aren’t useful for you, you get 100% of your money back. See how to focus on the big wins and save thousands — no risk.

This week, I’m a guest writer at the New York Times. Here’s a quote from something I wrote:

“Your friends will try to convince you that target-date retirement funds aren’t as high-returning and exciting as their fancy stocks (which they probably picked using a dartboard, three beers and a sponge cake). Ignore them. You’re focused on growth, not impressing your friends…”

As you can see, I toned it down for the paper of record. No curse words this time.

There are lots of questions & answers for recent graduates, including college loans, Roth IRAs, and buying a house.

Check out the Money Q&A at the New York Times.