A book deal for I Will Teach You To Be Rich!

November 15 85 Comments latest by John Bano

I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve signed a book deal with Workman Publishing for the I Will Teach You To Be Rich book.

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!!

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85 Comments latest by John Bano

How to make more money per hour than Michael Jordan

October 19 17 Comments latest by Andre

The reason I chose Michael Jordan is that he is the only famous athlete that comes to mind. Sadly, the second person I thought of was Bo Jackson. Man, how sad is that shit. Anyway, here are some emails I’ve gotten in the last few weeks about calling up companies and asking for better rates.

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.

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17 Comments latest by Andre

IWillTeachYouToBeRich turns 2 years old today

August 17 17 Comments latest by ryanvilla

Two years ago today, on August 17, 2004, I wrote my first post for I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

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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17 Comments latest by ryanvilla

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