Interesting things to note:

• Green rooms are the best places to meet people. I walked in and Maya Angelou was sitting there. In hair/makeup, Marissa Mayer and a bunch of other interesting people were there
• You enter NBC through a totally unmarked door, not the conspicuous 30 Rockefeller entrance you’d think
• They steam your shirt/coat, do your hair/makeup, and have lots of food available to eat before going on air. But nobody eats anything
• Camera operators came into our studio literally 15 seconds before going to air. It’s that close to the wire.
• Notice how Meredith asks me about “safe” investments, when young people should really be seeking out aggressive investments due to our age. Remember, it’s just as risky to run out of money as to lose it in a market crash.
• The producer spent at least 5 hours coordinating this 5-minute segment. Imagine how much time it takes to create each show, every day
• There are enormous time constraints to get your point across, so you have to have a crystal-clear message.

Invite me to speak at your organization.

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.

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

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

In this video, learn how to:

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

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

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

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

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.

But first, some context:

1. A few weeks ago, I posted this Twitter message about Corn Nuts. Right before I went on camera, I was craving them. Now the interview will make sense…

2. Note where I tell the host how to negotiate cable, and he starts freaking out that I’m recommending negotiating with Comcast (which G4TV is on). Priceless. GOD I LOVE THIS SHOW!!

Special note to Luis H: Printing out my blog doesn’t do anything!! Get off your ass and handle your money! I do like that you quote me, though.

Spotted around the Web..

The question was, “How many false starts have you had?” but in my response, I mention something I’ve been meaning to write about: The Tripod of Stability.

This basically means that I try to keep the big things in my life ultra-stable — car, where I live, relationships — so I can afford to be ultra-aggressive about other things. This alone has had a huge effect on my ability to take on risky and new projects all the time.

Check out the clip:

More videos

• On Tim’s blog, see 3 more clips on blogging tactics and self-publishing vs. traditional publishers.

• I’ve put up 75+ other videos at youtube.com/ramitsethi.

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

Today, the second in the gut-wrenching series. When we left off, I had just fainted after receiving a phone call from Suze.

This time, I show my softer side.

BOOK COUNTDOWN: 3 days until my new book, I Will Teach You To Be Rich, launches!!

Forward your receipt to iboughtthebook@iwillteachyoutoberich.com for bonuses, spreadsheets, and more.

And I promise, you’ll want to be here Monday.

Over the next few days, I’m going to share tons of tips from the book and show you how others have saved tens of thousands of dollars using my tips. I want you to know that this isn’t yet another boring personal-finance book.

But I’m also going to show you the darker side of iwillteachyoutoberich.com. The back story behind how this site came to be — and the cruel, secret obsession behind it.

Today, I’m unveiling part 1 of The Suze Orman saga.

Next: See Part 2 of the saga.

BOOK COUNTDOWN: 3 days until my new book, I Will Teach You To Be Rich, launches!!

Forward your receipt to iboughtthebook@iwillteachyoutoberich.com for bonuses, spreadsheets, and more.

Here’s how I do it (this is from an upcoming lifehacking movie):

I cover this in more detail in tip #1 of The Scrooge Strategy, where I show you exactly how to implement what I call “The Two-Headed Savings Approach.” Here’s a preview of the 1,095-word tip: