[Update]: Most of the questions near the top of each category have lots of answers. Please try to answer the ones near the bottom!
I have a new iwillteachyoutoberich book on the way, and I’m looking for some stories and data to feature in my book.
Credit cards. Tell me about…
- General survey — credit-card usage
- If you’ve had trouble getting a large purchase because of a lack of credit (e.g., renting an apartment, buying a car, getting a mortgage).
- Your biggest mistake with credit cards.
- Your worst experience using credit cards.
- Your best experience using credit cards.
- The coolest credit-card story you’ve ever heard (can be you or one of your friends.)
- If you opened up a credit card from a credit-card offer specifically for college students.
- If you opened up a retail credit card (e.g., Gap, Express, etc).
- If you’ve ever opened up a secured credit card.
- How people react when you bring up your credit score with them? (e.g., they think you’re weird for talking about it, they’re embarrassed, they’re shy, they say it’s private)
- What the barriers were to using your credit card effectively?
- If you (or your friends) don’t pay off your full credit-card balance every month.
- If you missed a credit-card payment.
- If you called up your credit card and negotiated a late fee or interest charge.
- If you ever do the 0% credit-card transfer game.
- If you were in credit card debt.
Investment accounts. Tell me about…
- What were the barriers to opening up an investment account?
- About someone (you? someone you know?) who created a self-fulfilling prophecy of staying poor. For example, they continued spending on frivolous stuff without paying off their credit cards while always complaining about being broke).
- People you know who don’t believe saving is the right way to get rich. They have far-fetched opinions about winning the lottery or inheriting money, so they blow all their money today because saving is “boring” and they’re “sure” they’ll hit it big somehow.
- People who don’t plan until it’s too late — they realized, too late, that they needed to save money.
- People who spend more than they make and don’t know it.
- If you opened up an investment account in your early 20s.
- If you’ve ever done something with the goal of seeming sexy instead of rich.
- How you chose your investment account
I'm the New York Times bestselling author of I Will Teach You To Be Rich. I co-founded PBwiki and graduated from Stanford.
8 comments
Leave a commentooooh, surveys and stories. Any way I can help.
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Also, I got your book using my personal development funds at work. Through with about 1/4 of it and so far I really like it. My boss wants to borrow it after I’m done. I think she’ll also find it really enlightening. So far I agree a lot with the student views expressed in the book.
When H and I met in ’99 he was $70k+ in debt (credit cards and truck payments).
He had no savings, no IRA, no 401k.
I had 6 digits on my balance sheet and debt only in the form of a mortgage.
He quickly saw the errors of his financial ways (he was miserable and embarrassed to have no idea how money worked), buckled down, started contributing at max amount towards 401k, and paid off all his debt within 3 years (I supported us while he threw most of his salary towards debt).
We now are “this close” to 7 digits on our balance sheet, live off of one income, and are plugging away full force towards early retirement in 10 years.
It comes down to lifestyle, visualizing goals, and fierce determination to manage your balance sheet like it’s your own company, “The Business of You”.
I’ve seen the error of my financial ways (e.g. I took out student loans) but I have no idea what I’m supposed to do about it.
minimum- nothing wrong with student loans, as long as they are used as an investment in the future with reasonable expectations for the ROR of the investment.
Case and point, two friends of mine:
First one went to an in-state public school (inexpensive) and got a double major in civil / environmental engineering using student loans. The investment has paid off and now he’s living and working as a professional engineer in a reasonable cost-of-living part of the country making plenty of money to pay back the loans and follow the American dream.
Second one got student loans to attend a small private liberal arts college (expensive) to study philosophy and minor in Asian studies. Believe it or not, she’s had trouble finding a job cabable of supporting her living expenses and pay back her student loans. After 10 years (wow, I’m getting old), she’s still struggling just to break even.
Yes, I understand, it’s just that my student loans had a highly negative ROI (or ROR). It’s very depressing just to think about it and I haver this mountain of debt and have no idea how to pay it off – or how to have a life in the meantime because I am perpetually broke – on minimum wage.
We’ll put finance girl. I was also in a similar situation as you were. My wife and I met about 2 years ago. I was (and still am) debt free (exept for a mortgage and car lease). She had no savings, a small 401k and about 20k in Credit card debt. Not too bad but did it was difficult for her to knock them down. The first thing we did was pay them all down with our wedding gift money and managed to stay debt free from that point on. It seems that everyone I meet with a similar story that manages to get out of debt are determined to stay debt free from that point on. It changes your entire perpective on life. Good luck!
MW, I understand your frustration, if only because when I got out of engineering school I experienced months of unemployment before being able to break into my field.
Not knowing much about your background, is it just that you’re having difficulties breaking into your field or is your field just a low paying one? I can’t imagine a college grad having difficulty finding a job better paying than minimum wage in most parts of the country. Sometimes colleges have resources for landing interviews and leads… have you consulted your alma mater? Sorry if I’m coming off as pushy or nosey… just trying to lend some advice (although I know it wasn’t even requested).
Keep your chin up!
I am well into middle age and have nothing which could remotely be considered career-related experience, so I don’t think there’s a good job in my future.
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