Here’s the interview in streaming MP3 form, plus a transcript below.

George Hofheimer: Hello, this is George Hofheimer, Chief Research Officer at the Filene Research Institute and welcome to our podcast series entitled ‘Ideas Grow Here’. Today, we will be having a conversation with Ramit Sethi, Founder of the Personal advice site, iwillteachyoutoberich.com. He is also the author of an upcoming book by the same name. Ramit, a 26-year-old Stanford graduate will furnish a young adult’s perspective on what role credit unions can play for today’s stressed out consumers. We hope you enjoy today’s show.

Today, I want to welcome our guest. His name is Ramit Sethi and he is the founder of the website iwillteachyoutoberich.com, and Ramit, I was wondering if you could tell our audience, today, a little bit about yourself, your background, and a little bit about your business. It’s kind of unique.

Ramit Sethi: Sure, I am 26-years-old. I started, ‘I Will Teach You to Be Rich’ when I was a student at Stanford and I actually started it for reasons before that because when I was applying to colleges, I had to get a bunch of scholarships to be able to afford it. The first scholarship I got was $2,000. I turned around and invested that in the stock market and I lost half my money. So when I got to Stanford I decided that I probably should learn about money. I then started teaching it to my friends and, of course, they never attended my classes, they said it sounded great, but they never came.

So finally I started a blog and that blog iwillteachyoutoberich.com really took off; the blog posts about 180,000 readers per month and it’s been featured in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, on TV, etcetera. What I try to do with this site is talk about personal finance and personal entrepreneurship as if you and I are sitting around the table just chatting about money. So it’s not the same old browbeating about stopping your spending on lattes because frankly, that hasn’t worked. It’s more punchy points about things that we care about and how to try and achieve those goals, whether it’s negotiating with your bank, negotiating with your credit union, saving up for a vacation, or even getting a second job or doing some kind of entrepreneurial thing on the site.

George Hofheimer: So how can you teach me to be rich?

Ramit Sethi: Well I think the first thing is that rich is not just about money. A lot of people say, “Well, do you have a million dollars?” and the question is, “Well doesn’t it depend, if you have a million dollars, is that rich? What about if you live in Manhattan, or what about if you are 26 versus 65?” Rich is not just about money, so it’s really important to understand what rich means to you. And for many people it means being able to take an international trip once-a-year or being able to help your parents out with their retirement. The first thing you do is understand what it means to you.

The second thing to set some modest goals. And I think most people have pretty modest dreams that are actually very achievable. If you do want to go to China next June, no problem. I can help you plan for that and help you save up the money to do that. If you want to invest your money so that at a certain point in the future you are earning more from your investments than from your savings I can help you do that. The key is, it’s not about being the fanciest, smartest person in the room and knowing P/E Ratios. The hardest part is really just getting started.

George Hofheimer: Well that’s good news for me, because I am never the smartest person in the room, but, kind of, considering the advice that you are giving consumers and some of the ideas that you are throwing out there what could credit unions be doing more effectively?

Ramit Sethi: Well, I think it’s a great time to reach out to consumers. I read a report yesterday that said 8 out of 10 Americans are stressed out about their personal financing. I found that astonishing and I think there are a couple things that credit unions can be doing and I know this has been well debated among your organization. I have read your blog and some of your reports CUNA, CUES, etcetera; but I think first is reassurance.

Right now, as a typical consumer, I hear nothing but bad news and I think the financial companies like banks have really fallen short in reassuring customers. The second thing is guidance. How to save, how do you preserve your money. What should you be doing? They should be saying “Hey! Here’s what’s going on. Here’s why we’re going to be around.” Instead, they are just leaving a vacuum of information.

I think credit unions really do well at this on the community level because they have got such great and deep roots with the communities. They’re going out there and helping to not only educate their own base but also giving their base the tools to spread the word and I can talk about that a little bit later too.

(00:04:52)

George Hofheimer: So delving into that a little bit further, and I am a reader of your blog. A lot of the advice that you do give to consumers is really common sensical stuff. So why do you think people, number one, are so stressed out about it. Number two, why do they have such a hard time dealing with their finances?

Ramit Sethi: Well, why do you think people can’t lose weight? There are no secrets to losing weight just as there are no secrets to getting rich. If you want to lose weight, you eat less and exercise more. It’s very simple, but instead we get caught up in these ideas of, “Well I better eat carbs before I go to sleep, and then I should eat fiber right after I go running, and I should buy this pedometer.” You know what, if you do those two big things, exercise more and eat less, chances are you are going to lose weight, and the same is true with personal finance.

I think it’s very sensible, but there’s a lot of blame. We love to assign blame to everybody. There’s a lot of blame to go around as to why we are not succeeding as consumers at managing our money.

First of all, we are not trained. We didn’t learn this stuff in school. Most of my friends, even those who graduated and made great amounts of money, still don’t know how to manage their money.

We have bad examples. Our parents taught us about money. Chances are they didn’t know what they were doing. We see what’s on TV; you see these shows where people are changing their stock picks everyday, that’s crazy. Wall Street, they have a profit motive and our friends, they are not actually encouraging us to have a life of frugality; instead we try to see who can one up each other. Finally though, I think most importantly it comes back to us.

Personal finance is shrouded in a sense of mystery and I mentioned that 8 out of 10 people are stressed about their personal financing. How many of those people do you think have ever read one book on personal finance? There can be all the tools in the world, but if we are stepping up to learn them and the rest of it is disappointment.

George Hofheimer: So it’s kind of getting to the old-fashioned notion of thrift. Is that going to be hip again? Do you truly think we are entering a new era of how people consider their finances and know that the era we are leaving is one where asset prices go up? You can trade stocks on a daily basis and you will become rich easily. Is thrift an old-fashioned term that is going to be hip again?

Ramit Sethi: I think in some ways, yes. When I add things on my blog I write things like how to negotiate like an Indian. I have taught people how to call up their banks, their credit card companies, or any financial institution or and negotiate fees. I literally write the script of words they can use to negotiate specifically and people love that. So that is something that is really, really effective. I don’t think savings are sexy yet. It’s not quite so attractive to say, “How do you get that amazing quote.”

“I calmly put aside $25-a-week in an automatic withdrawal and after six months, I was able to afford it.” That doesn’t sound great, but when people asked, “How did you buy that new car?” I said, “I used the service called Fighting Chance and I was able to get about $5,000 off the asking price of the car, $2,000 under invoice because I had some information that other people didn’t, people’s ears will perk up.

So I think the take-away there is that thrift can be hip, it can be cool, if the vision is big enough. Saving $5 here and there is not a big vision, but being able to say, “Hey, I saved $50,000 on my mortgage because I knew something that you didn’t,” that is really, really alluring.

George Hofheimer: Yes, absolutely. Now, we operate in the credit union space and anytime people from the same industry get together, there is a lot of navel-gazing and conventional wisdom. And the conventional wisdom in credit unions, one of them is that we offer a better deal for the consumer and we are the best-kept secret. As I have become accustomed to your website, I notice that you talk about the types of accounts that you have and I notice that you don’t have a credit union account, I’m curious as to why?

Ramit Sethi: Yes. George, I am on thin ice because I spoke at CUES, the Credit Union Executive Society last year in Hawaii and I got in big trouble because I didn’t have a Credit Union Account. So, I am going to go into this knowing full well that I am treading water here. This is what I would say. You are right, I don’t have a Credit Union Account. I think credit unions are fundamentally about change and I think it’s very similar to a political issue we have got going on right now.

Because most Americans have bank accounts, not credit union accounts, credit unions require consumers to make a change. And to be frank, I am lazy and so are most people. We are cognitive misers; we have enough going on in our life and we don’t want to worry or even pay attention to our financing. Even me, and I have read about personal finances every day.

(00:09:52)

To be a little less glib, I have evaluated a lot of credit union accounts and bank accounts and I guess the question is, is there enough activation energy for me to change to a credit union or even for me to go to a website and open up an account. I think, “Why would I?” And, I think, fundamentally, it’s certainly not because credit unions are member-owned. To be completely honest, none of my friends care about that or even know about that. “Do I get extra services?” I paid, I think, $50 for a Costco account because I could clearly measure my ROI. I am not so sure that it’s easy to do that with a credit union. Even though I love the services and when I go to buy a house, I will absolutely go and see if there are competitive rates there. I have heard about credit unions from a trusted source.

I want to give you an example. You read my blog and know that I talk about my ING Savings Account a great deal. I love it and the reason is two-part. One is that they have a really beautiful simple service that pays me a decent rate and they do not send me a bunch of stuff in the mail. They just leave me alone and I can do what I need to do. The second thing and this is the key, they have given me the tools to spread the word to other people and I have referred thousands of customers to ING.

I think that goes back to a huge part of the community outreach that credit unions do but can do better. It is like you have members that are passionate about credit unions. In fact, I would take a guess that the average credit union member is much more of an evangelist than say a Wells Fargo Bank Account holder. But, as a credit union member, are you giving your members the tools to spread the word?

I would argue, George, that referral should be a strategic metric that’s held up at the executive level every month. How many referrals did we get and programs should be put into place to help members refer other people. I think that is the way that young people hear about financial services. And when I am having conversations with friends about different tools, credit unions just aren’t in those conversations.

George Hofheimer: Interesting. And actually those thoughts that you just had were confirmed by a study that we did. We went into credit union member’s homes several years ago and asked them why they chose the credit union. One of the questions we asked them is “what are you a member of?”, and remember that they knew that they were part of a study examining why they joined a credit union, and the majority of folks did not mention that they were members of credit unions. So it’s the whole notion of having a tangible benefit and something to talk about, I think is a pretty compelling argument as well?

Ramit Sethi: That’s very interesting.

George Hofheimer: And so not to be tone-deaf to what’s going on outside the four walls of everyone’s lives and that’s the economy. The general consensus is that we are entering a pretty deep recession and it’s going to impact consumers tremendously. What can credit unions do, in your opinion, to help consumers through this recessionary time?

Ramit Sethi: That’s a good question. That’s a tough one. I am sure there are much smarter people in the credit union field that are thinking about this, but I will give it a shot as a consumer. I think the first thing is reach out to consumers. We are looking for leaders and we are looking for leadership to be honest with us. Just last night, after watching a presidential debate, I was furious and I wrote up a post on my blog saying, “Here is what Obama and McCain didn’t tell you about your money. They didn’t tell you x, y, z because it’s political suicide to do so.”

We are looking for leadership and it’s not coming from Washington as to what’s going on with the economy. Are we really expecting things to get better by the end of the year? I don’t think so, but nobody is going to tell you that. You can take a top-down and bottom-up approach. Top-down, you have got CUNA, you have got CUES, you have got other national organizations evangelizing credit union as a whole. Then from the bottom-up, at the community level you reach out to the local community and evangelize credit union, again, as change. It’s different than the same old banks you have had.

Locally, credit unions have resources that banks can’t beat. I have seen credit unions come and speak at high schools and universities that banks are too busy minting money to go to. This is a tactical piece of advice. When you go out to the community I would strongly recommend you attend events where people are forced to attend. That sounds somewhat counterintuitive. We always like to think if people care they will come. But I bet anybody listening to this knows that if you are hosting an event where you talk about credit unions or financial planning, your attendance rate is going to dismal.

(00:14:49)

So I prefer to go to places where people are forced to attend. If you are going to go speak at a classroom, make sure the professor require students to attend. If you are going to speak at a company, make sure the manager forces his or her direct reports to attend. And when you are there speaking to people, give them tools right there on the spot to sign up. Coming back to what credit unions can do in this economy, I think it’s time to think of revolution, and not evolution.

I have spoken to a lot of credit unions over the last couple of years and I still hear conversations about which paperweight should we offer to get people to sign up for our service or should we increase our yield rate 1%. You know that doesn’t fly anymore, increasing it 1% doesn’t make me pay attention to the computer screen and go sign up for an account.

We are talking about huge different ways of getting people to change. Offer us a system that will take us through our 20s and 30s. Don’t just say, “The services are available if you want it;” say, “We are going to make you a deal. We will give you better rates. We are going to work with you in a detailed basis and build a system for finances that will come through in your 20s and 30s.”

And finally, finally, finally and most importantly use your existing base of members to spread the word. If you don’t do that you just can’t compete with the deep pockets of banks but I will tell you this, having 10 people come to me and say, “Ramit, I got this amazing deal at this credit union, you should check it out,” that is more influential than any amount of advertising I could see on TV.

George Hofheimer: Well that’s great, Ramit. I think all of these are great points and coming from a generation where credit unions are struggling to effectively serve in the young adult market. I think the advice is sages and hopefully folks will take action in these tough times to help consumers out.

So once again, Ramit Sethi from iwillteachyoutoberich.com. If you haven’t checked out that website, I think it’s a great resource and a very keen consumer perspective on financial services and what you can do to help better serve today’s consumers. So Ramit, really, I appreciate your help today and your thoughts. So have a great day.

Ramit Sethi: Thank you.

Total Duration: 17 Minutes.

So last week, it occurred to me that there’s a way to cut down on the out-of-pocket expenses for some of these events. I was in New York meeting my publisher and had a GREAT time.

In fact, if I had to put a monetary number on it, I’d say my experience was worth the equivalent of $5,000 in my book advance. Why?

1. When my editor saw me looking at the books on the bookshelf, she said, “Take whatever books you want! In fact, just let us know and we’ll ship them to you.” This isn’t the case at all publishers: My friend, who published a book at another publisher, told me that his publisher offered 30% off their books. The fact that they were so willing to give me free books was such a remarkable attitude. So remarkable that I’m telling thousands of people about it today.

2. I got my photo taken, and I accidentally left a pair of jeans at the publisher. When I sent an email to one of my editors, she sent this back:

You did indeed leave your jeans here and I just got them from downstairs. If you want to swing by, I can leave them at our reception desk for you. Or, if someone (either someone in the apt. or a doorman) is around [where you're staying], I can messenger them there. Or, if you prefer not to drag them home with you, I can just FedEx them back to you in SF.

This is top-notch service from a publisher, or anyone for that matter. She didn’t have to go above and beyond, but she did. It might cost $100 to ship those jeans and a few books, but it’s worth many times more to the recipient.

There are ways to apply this to your own life. If you’re trying to build a business relationship with someone, send them a book. It costs $15 (even cheaper than lunch! Which you should do, too) and is one of the easiest ways to show that you’re thinking about someone else.

If you can’t afford a $100 gift for your friend’s wedding, send something home-made or dig up old photos from high school.

At PBwiki, beyond some of the other perks we offer, we recently rolled out a new perk: If you want to have lunch with someone at the company, we’ll pay for it. It might cost $20 or $30, but the value of letting us all meet others in the company is much, much higher than that.

I’m curious if you’ve found ways of saving money but offering something of higher value. Do you have any examples? Share them in the forums.

Interested in having me speak at your company, university, or organization? Check out my speaking page.

I accidentally overdrafted a couple weeks ago (overdrafting is when you don’t have enough money in your checking account to pay off your bills, so your bank helpfully transfers money from your savings or credit-card account. They also helpfully charge you $15-$30 for the service, wiping out all your interest for the year).

I had transferred money from my savings account to checking account to cover a temporary shortage, and the transfer arrived one day late. I saw the overdraft fee, sighed, and called the bank up to get it waived.

Here’s how it went last time I called my bank to negotiate fees.

This time, I had a feeling they would be less than happy to waive my fees, but with a little coaxing…

Ramit: “Hi, I just saw this bank charge for overdrafting and I’d like to have it waived.”
Bank rep: “I see that fee…hmm…let me just see here. Unfortunately, sir, we’re not able to waive that fee. It was [some excuse about how it's not waiveable].

Bad things to say here:

• “Are you sure?” Don’t make it easy for the rep to say no.
• “Is there anything else I can do?” Again, imagine if you were a customer service rep and someone said this. It would make your life easier to just say “no.” As a customer, don’t make it easy for companies to say no.
• “Well, this Indian blogger dude told me I could.” Nobody cares…but it would be cool if 1,000 customers called their banks and said this.
• “Okay.” Don’t give up here. Despite what you learned in sex ed, “No” does not mean “No” when it comes from a bank.

Try this
Ramit: “Well, I see the fee here and I’d really like to get it waived. What else can you do to help me?” (Repeat your complaint and ask them how to constructively fix it.)
Bank rep: “Hmm, one second, sir. I see that you’re a really good customer…I’m going to check with my supervisor. Can you hold for a second?”
(I’ve been with the bank for many years, which you should always use to your advantage when calling to complain. Banks pay hundreds and sometimes even thousands of dollars in customer-acquisition costs and don’t want to lose you.)
Bank rep: “Sir, I was able to check with my supervisor and waive the fee. Is there anything else I can help you with today?”

Key takeaways:

• Mistakes happen, but don’t be dumb and overdraft like me
• When complaining, have a clear goal and don’t make it easy for companies to say ‘no’ to your complaint
• “No” is the beginning of the conversation

[Update]: Always, always track your customer service calls (you can use this free spreadsheet). When I logged in this morning, I saw that the bank had categorized the overdraft as a cash advance from my credit card and and charged me a $27.10 finance charge. I got that waived (with a fight), but imagine if you’re earning $400/week. Those ridiculous fees just took 10% of your income away, underlining this recent Washington Post article about Americans’ dissatisfaction with credit card fees. If you’re going to say, “But consumers should just read the documentation,” it’s just not that simple.

[Update 2]: To open a high-interest ING savings account (I use one), click here.

Related articles:

• If I were a bank, here’s how I’d deal with overdraft fees
• ”My bank earns 0.5% interest
• Or just browse the entire archives of 400+ articles

I’m being interviewed by Pamela Slim (who was one of my most popular Friday Entrepreneurs interviewees ever) today at 11am Pacific. This will be a live interview and you can stream it online, free.

We’ll be talking about iwillteachyoutoberich, PBwiki, my book deals, and my thoughts about entrepreneurship. I’m usually bad at keeping secrets on live interviews, so I might let a few things slip about future plans here.

The interview is today and will be streamed live.

• Time: 11am-12pm Pacific
• Date: Friday, April 6th (today)
• Details about the interview here
• Direct link to the streaming interview here

If you miss it live, there will be an archive of the chat up there soon after the interview.

Last week, I needed to be measured for some formal wear, so I went to a tux shop at a nearby mall in San Bruno, CA, where I walked in and asked if they could measure my chest. This is a 30-second procedure that involves using a simple measuring tape.

It was the middle of the day on a weekday, and there was only other customer in the store. The couple who worked there (and own the place, I think) looked at me and snarled, “Are you going to rent or buy something?” I wasn’t, so I just politely repeated my request for a quick measurement. They weren’t having any of it. “We charge $5 if you’re not going to rent or buy.”

Um, I don’t think so. “I’m not paying $5 for a measurement that takes 30 seconds,” I told them, “and I’m definitely not renting here.” And then I left.

Here’s the thing: Things could have gone much differently. Imagine if they’d said, “Oh sure, we can do that.” Then, as they were measuring me, they could have tried to make a sale:

Owner: “So, are you getting married?”
Me: “No, not me, I’m too young!”
Owner: “Why, you’re a handsome man? You must have a lot of girls?”
Me: (Laughing)
Owner: “Well, when it comes time to get married, you come back and see us, ok? Here’s your size.”

And guess what? The next time I needed to get formalwear, I would have gone back there. To me, this is a no-brainer: I hardly ever go to a tux shop, so next time I need one, I would just go to the first one that came to mind–especially if I had good memories of the place. For places we go to infrequently, we’re guided by the availability heuristic, or what’s familiar to us.

Those rude owners thought of their shop as a one-time transactional shop, but I think formalwear shops can be a relationship business, and you can be sure that I’ll never, ever go back to Nicole’s Bridal and Formalwear in the Tanforan Mall. Unfortunately, if anyone searches for formalwear San Bruno or Nicole’s Bridal and Formalwear or formalwear Tanforan, this post will come up to let others know about how poor their customer service is.

Is this just the rant of an unhappy person who was trying to get a free service from a company? Maybe a little, but I think there are larger implications here. How long would it have taken to measure someone? 10 seconds? 20 seconds? Even if 10 people per day come in for a free measurement, that’s less than 10 minutes. And there’s something else.

It’s the difference in trying to make a quick buck, or treating your company as a relationship business. For example, at PBwiki, we could charge everyone for every wiki and try relentlessly to upsell them. And we’d probably make a little more money — for a while. We chose to do it another way: by giving everyone free accounts and making our service valuable enough to to upgrade. We don’t know if it’s the right answer, but so far it’s working, and I’d rather build a community of people who love our service than run a closed service that nickel-and-dimes everyone for everything. Same thing for iwillteachyoutoberich. It’s the difference between making a quick buck or trying to build relationships.

“The holidays…time to give thanks, spread joy and shop for the best sales. Now, here’s the perfect “gift” to help you stretch your holiday dollar. Volkswagen Credit is offering you the opportunity to ’skip’ your December 2006 payment on your current account listed above.

[...]

Upon receipt of your extension agreement, we will assess your account a $25.00 extension fee, payable on your next due invoice. There is no need to send money at this time.

[...]

Happy Holidays!”

In other words, skip this “holiday” payment because you don’t have enough money to pay it and buy your Christmas gifts. That’s fine! Just go buy those gifts that you explicitly can’t afford. Also, we’llchargeyou$25laterbutdon’tworryaboutthatrightnowit’sChristmasafterallhappyholidays!!!

Two things:

First, click the images to read the full text. It’s unreal. “Why Not Skip a Payment This Holiday Season?” How about Why Not Stop Being Predatory Jackasses and Stop Mailing This Kind of Thing to People, of Whom I’m Willing to Bet Predominantly Lower-Income People Will Reply? See, I can use caps too. Some marketer is feeling very proud of himself, but I’m just full of pity and derision. Also, guys, take some responsibility for yourself. If you get offers like these, throw them away. (Unfortunately, the people who actually did this “deal” are probably not reading personal-finance blogs.) Better yet, send them to me so I can make an example of them.

The front (click for a larger version):

The back:

Yes! First, I have to say thanks to everyone who reads iwillteachyoutoberich. Every time I get a comment or an email, I hope you know how happy I am. It’s the reason I plaster my email address everywhere.

My agent, Lisa DiMona of Lark Productions, is the most positive person I’ve ever worked with–and she can close deals. Thanks, Lisa! I also look forward to working with Susan Bolotin, my editor at Workman, to make this book something you’ll love. And yes–there will be lots of new stuff.

Finally, thanks to my parents, who always told me, “Why don’t you write that up? How about submitting it to the newspaper? What’s the worst that could happen?”

More details to come later. But for now, thanks!!

Thanks for the great blog. It just saved me 20 bucks in about 5 minutes. I just recently moved, and in all the mess, the payments for my 2 credit card bills arrived exactly 1 day late, as I found out by the finance charges on my next bill. I knew why I got the extra charges, and I also knew it was my fault, but because of your blog, I called the companies, something I never would have done before. I played dumb and simply asked why I had this new charge on my bill, and both companies took care of it immeadiately, without me even asking! “Oh, it appears your payment arrived one day late last month; that is why you have the finance charges. I’ll give you a credit for that right away.”

Thanks for giving me the mindset that I am a customer who deserves to be treated well.

Sincerely,

Michael

* * *

A few months ago, when setting up my new number over the phone I requested a business savings plan for calling internationally. My new bill came this week, with $250 in international calls, some at over $10 a minute. I realized the international calling plan was never added to my bill – I just hadn’t noticed because there were no international calls on the previous bill.

My hopes weren’t high, because there was no proof I’d requested the plan, just my word. However, I called customer service, explained the situation as nicely as possible, and within a few minutes, my international phone bill was adjusted at the savings rate, saving me $232. It never hurts to ask, folks.

Gabe

* * *

I actually called up Schwab, and told them about Ing and Emigrant. They immediately offered to put my cash in a Money Market with 5% interest, just to keep me with them. I decided to do that, until I figure out the next steps.

Thanks again!

Alex

My goal with these kinds of posts is to get us all to take more initiative about the companies we do business with. I remember when I was a kid, I used to get so embarrassed when my parents would complain about the service or try to get lower fees. It took me a long time to realize that these companies work for me.

I’m willing to bet that if you called up the top 5 companies you pay money to today, you could get reduced fees on at least one thing. Better yet, if you save $30/month, you’re actually saving $360/year. Two or three of those deals start to add up.

These emails made me think of something. There are so many little things in our lives that we can call and negotiate to save $10, $50, $100, or more per month. I’m going to start posting one thing to do each week, every Monday.

PS–Yeah, I saw that the first email was actually his fault, slight as it was. If you’re trying to get fees waived for your own mistakes, that only goes so far. I once had a girl tell me about how she was negotiating her EIGHTEENTH OVERDRAFT THAT YEAR. I just stared at her, blinking.

Today, I took a minute to catch my breath and look back over the last couple of years. Good god, I had no idea what I was getting into when I wrote my first post (which you’ll notice still has 0 comments). Here are some stats I just dug up:

Number of posts: Over 300
Number of comments: Over 2,000
Number of ads run on or off the site: 0
Number of people I’ve given my 1-hour talk to in person: Over 4,000 around the country
Emails received and replied to: Thousands (I lost count)
Growth: I don’t know how this happened, but iwillteachyoutoberich.com receives more visitors before noon each day than I received in all of May 2005

The traffic is cool, but who really cares about that. Today, I think this blog has some of the smartest readers of any blog, anywhere. Check the comments and I think you’ll agree. Notice the lack of trolls and the actual conversation that goes on!! How novel!!

As I’ve written this blog, I’ve tried to keep a few simple things in mind: Getting started is more important than being the smartest person in the room. It’s ok to make mistakes. Read a lot so you know when to call BS, but not too much–action is more important than reading. Ordinary actions get ordinary results. And there’s a difference between being sexy and being Rich.

This year, there’s much, much more to come. I have an entire series planned on getting your dream job (how to find the best job, how to out-interview anybody, and how to win at work), more advanced and beginner topics on investing, more posts on personal entrepreneurship, more talks around the country, and a couple of big announcements to come.

Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks for reading, commenting, and emailing. I know it’s hard to dig through some of the older posts, so today I went through and picked 5 of my favorite posts from each category. Take a look. And thanks for being with me.

Introductory Articles
Why do you want to be rich?
The Best Decision vs. The Financially Smart One
Cheap versus frugal
A big fear I have of this site
2006 Makeover, Step #4: Open your retirement accounts

Investing
An analysis of 1000+ IWillTeachYouToBeRich survey responses– and some new decisions (Best feedback ever)
Dumb: “Don’t invest; you can’t beat the pros”
All about stocks and bonds
All about mutual funds
Read Warren Buffet’s letters

Miscellaneous
What are we doing on this site?
I bought a tie (I love this post because of how angry the comments are)
Cost vs. value: Why I bought a new car (Sorry guys, but I stand by what I wrote)
Probably one of the best comments this site has ever gotten
Boy am I stupid

Personal Entrepreneurship
Barriers are your enemy
We love to debate minutiae
Your College is Not a Technical School
On greed and speed
The Myth of the Great Idea

Saving
Here’s how I set up my financial accounts
Letting your parents manage your money is dumb
The Power of Compounding
Time is NOT money–at least, not yours
Cook at home, you lazy bastard

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Companies put you on hold
“Cellphone companies, banks, DSL providers, spend a ton of money on marketing but then put you on hold for 1/2 hour for the simplest customer service. Amazon is the only company that seems to get this part consistently right.”

Yahoo wastes its real estate
“Another example – Yahoo! spent tons of effort on Internet search and then throws it away at the last mile by running too many ads above their search results, relative to Google.”

Sound systems don’t work and so you are sad
“Going to hear a wonderful, amazing, famous speaker, and the sound system/ microphones doesn’t work properly.”

Reservations should save you time
“Reservations: Why make a reservation for anything when you still have to wait once you arrive? For example, restaurants, airline flights (overbooked), apointments for your car to be serviced.”

Rain plans are key
“Not having a “plan B” if the weather doesn’t do what you want it to.”

Newspaper never optimizes distribution
From a journalist friend: “For my paper, what has always struck me is that we have an entire circulation department spending a lot of time and money trying to get people to buy and read the paper, to the point of sending out thousands of free copies as samples. Those postage fees mount up. Ironically, we don’t bother to fill up our streetside boxes which also act as billboards for the paper, and we haven’t increased the number of curbside drop boxes we own, which means that when people call up and ask where they can find the paper, the answer is literally “nowhere, it isn’t available to anyone who isn’t already a subscriber.”

Stupid newspaper also cuts off own circulation
“Also (you’ve got me going now), we have been repeatedly told that we must get on this “web thing” and yet company policy is to charge anyone who links to our articles. We are charging for free publicity. We are charging people who are pointing others to our site. Even worse, we are charging them $5, which is such a feeble amount it is an insult to buyer and seller.”

Investment banker gets reamed for small mistake
“How about an investment banking example. I spent an entire week and an all nighter working on a pitch to a client. Tons of valuation work, tweaking powerpoint slides, etc. When final books were printed, everyone saw on the front of the presentation that I misspelled the name of the client on the front page. And then I proceeded to get railed by my superiors.”

Any examples? Add a comment here.