What do you want to read about on iwillteachyoutoberich in 2008?

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What do you want to read about on iwillteachyoutoberich in 2008?

50 comments — written on January 3rd, 2008

Happy New Year!

(And welcome to new readers from my NPR interview. To get started, here’s a list of my most popular articles.)

There are lots of grand 2008 blog posts going around, but before I get to them: What do you want to read about in 2008 on iwillteachyoutoberich?

Do you want more audio / video features? Interviews with money managers? Articles about entrepreneurship?

Would you like to learn how to track your money? Learn more about the nuts and bolts of investments and asset allocation? Learn how to talk about money issues with your friends?

Or…something else?

When it comes to getting rich — whether that’s money or entrepreneurship or creating a seamless personal-finance infrastructure — what would you like to read about on iwillteachyoutoberich in 2008?

Note: Listen to my interview with NPR about personal finance for the new year.

[Update]: Interesting comments about what other people want to read (Melanie’s is my favorite).

50 comments

Leave your own

1

January 3, 2008
Vik

One of my biggest questions about my life is if it’s a better idea to put extra money into your mortgage or into home improvements (such as new windows, kitchen remodel, finishing the attic, etc). Your thoughts on that would be of interest to me.
2

January 3, 2008
Laura

I would love to read some articles dealing with careers, specifically reaching out potential employers. I’m a recent graduate and I would like to learn how to email employers and get their attention to get an interview.

I really enjoy reading your blog and look forward to 2008 for your site. Thanks Ramit!
3

January 3, 2008
Michele

I’d like to read frequent, quality posts like you used to do in the old days, instead of the occasional gem mixed in with a lot of self promotion — which seems to have been the case recently.

To answer your question more directly, I’d be interested in reading more about asset allocation and investment, as well as concrete personal finance tips. I find the interview less interesting or useful, but that may just be me.
4

January 3, 2008
Ragamuffin280

I too would like to see posts regarding asset allocations and investments. Perhaps a look into how to research and find investments, like methods for using stock screeners, etc.
5

January 3, 2008
Derek

I would like to see a bit more about asset allocation and showing people a rough template on how to setup their finances. I think that would help a lot of personal finance newcomers. I plan on writing about it one of these days on my new blog. Come check it out if you get the chance. Have a great 2008!

http://learningtoberich.blogspot.com/
6

January 3, 2008
Carl

Just write something. Anything. You’re pretty smart, and no doubt you’re doing lots of cool stuff all the time, so why not put it on this blog. I’m a little perturbed by the 2 posts in nearly 2 months thing you’ve been doing for a while. I’m guessing its cause you are trying to come up with huge stuff to write about or are busy doing your best 50 Cent impression (getting money). So I say, you don’t always have to come up with big new stuff to say, and maybe write about the stuff you’re doign to market yourself. You must be doing something. I’m sure you gave NPR a little help in finding your site, maybe you can explain that. I’m sure you think aobut how to improve some of your other posts, write about those. Just write some stuff.
7

January 3, 2008
Frugal Dad

I think audio/video would be cool…maybe some PF podcasts or something like that. Maybe you could even interview other PF bloggers and post. I only recently discovered your site, but an anxious to dig in and review.
8

January 3, 2008
Pamela Slim

Happy New Year Ramit!

After listening to your interview on NPR (loved it! you are such a great interviewee), I was really interested in the measurement focus this year.

My eyes glaze over when tracking systems get really complex since finance is definitely not my topic of interest (though I love this blog), so could you share SIMPLE tools that even finance weenies like me could use?

Also, on a personal note as a Mom of a college student, I would LOVE some tips for parents on how to teach your kids about budgeting. I realize that it is their responsibility, but I often feel like I am not doing enough to guide and encourage the right behavior. It is hard not to come across as bossy and parental which I know is not appropriate since my son is 21.

I can imagine a fun post that would be something your 20-something readers could pass on to their parents and say “Read this!”

And I have to comment on what Michele said: I know we all love the long posts, but those take a LOT of time. It is really a challenge to keep up consistent blog writing when you have so much else going on in your work and personal life. I don’t think people realize just how much of your mind, body and soul you put into writing a good quality blog … and you do it for free mostly (you just started advertising here). So I consider self-promotion to be well-deserved, given all I have gotten from this blog.

I am sure Michele was not trying to be harsh (she is very entitled to her opinion, and you asked for it), but I just wanted to give the perspective from the other side of the coin, protective mother hen that I am.

I wish you much fun, good growth opportunities personally and professionally, fame and fortune and maybe even time for a girlfriend in 2008. It wouldn’t kill you to go on a date, you know. (there I go, being maternal again)

-Pam
9

January 3, 2008
James

Some more “nuts and bolts” of asset allocation would be great.

I’m looking for a simple way to invest through dollar-cost averaging, but some funds (such as the large-cap socially-responsible index DSI) are only available as ETFs. I would eventually like to set up a good asset allocation of large- and small-cap domestic stocks, international stocks, and a small amount of bonds.

How can I maintain a diversified portfolio while maintaining a simple way of doing automatic investments? I don’t want to spend a lot of money on brokerage commissions for ETFs every month.

I would just use a balanced “Target Retirement” mutual fund but I want to buy only socially-responsible funds whenever possible.
10

January 3, 2008
Tim!

I’d definitely like to hear more about entrepreneurship. I’d prefer less/no audio visual stuff (I much prefer reading blogs to watching them). Talking about money issues with friends sounds cool.
11

January 3, 2008
Jean

I’d like to hear more about entrepreneurship and how to make yourself more valuable through learning new skills. What skills are becoming increasingly important among entrepreneurs and how can I learn them?
Also, I recently purchased a car and realized I don’t know as much about credit, loans, and refinancing as I thought I did.
What kind of credit should I be building right now (or at different stages in your life)? What are some of the myths about credit (I always hear having a lot of different credit cards is bad, but I don’t buy it)? Is identity theft really as scary as the media makes it out to be?
12

January 4, 2008
Vicki

Hi Ramit and Happy New Year,

I too would like to see more posts. I have your website set to refresh every morning and am disappointed that it is not updated as frequently as other great finance sites like Get Rich Slowly, especially since you have said that you strive for your target audience to be young college students and grads and (yay me) females who care about finance.

I love the posts that you have and understand that it can be a challenge to prioritize all of your other projects, but don’t neglect this blog and write maybe once a day or once every two days, please!
13

January 4, 2008
Brad

Stories from people who have used “The Snowball” as well as other methods to become debt free. I would like to see examples of how people have eliminated their debt as opposed to using leverage to become wealthy.
14

January 4, 2008
Kibrika

Budgeting – how to find the balance between tracking my money and not overdoing it (wich results in stoping). And how to find out about stuff when you don’t study economy and are not a USA rezident. And maby something more on index funds.
15

January 4, 2008
topseekrit

I’d like to read more about entrepreneurship and video/audio would be a plus as well.

Also, I’ve been hearing about this strategy people use to pay down debt using balance transfer arbitrage? Somehow you can cut down a 30 yr. mortgage to about 10-15 yrs. Is this a scam or some ‘cash flow/maneuvering strategy? Your insights would be helpful.

On to the NPR Interview…
16

January 4, 2008
Yvette

Hello Ramit!

Happy New Year! I would like to read more blogs about small business entrepreneurship (successes and failures) from diverse people (women, men, black, Asian, Hispanic, white, adults, children, etc).

Also, it would be nice to read articles about “side hustles”, when you can’t quite your day job, but want to make money on the side doing something you love or that simple generates extra cash.

Thanks!
17

January 4, 2008
James

Hi Ramit,

As others have mentioned, I am interested in reading about how to research stocks. What would really be useful to be is following someone’s thought process in buying a particular stock (or sets of stocks).

For example: I looked at the yahoo finance page on ABC Company stock, and looked at x,y, and z. I found that z was growing at a rate of xx.x% which is greater than the rest of the market according to this Gartner report, and I have also read these articles about where they are growing in the WSK and business week. I decided to buy $500 worth of stock in ABC Company as I had $1000 saved to invest, and I will put the other 500 else where for x, y, and z reasons.

I really don’t know the exact reasons that make some people buy certain stocks and I’d like to follow the thought processes of someone doing so.

Also, and perhaps more importantly, you should WRITE MORE. It is more important to write something, than to write the perfect sexy article.

How many people linked from the WSJ, or NPR came to your site, read the front page, liked it. Then came back two weeks later and saw that nothing had changed and haven’t come back?
18

January 4, 2008
Andrew

Nuts and Bolts please!
19

January 4, 2008
Dan

Entrepreneurship please.
20

January 4, 2008
Melanie

I’d love articles on how to talk to your friends about money, but for me it’s much more difficult with family — basically my parents think I spend far too much on my rent (I’m 25 and live in the same town as them, though in a different area). For me it’s worth it, but I would love some advice on how to talk to them about this without getting frustrated. And any ideas on how to actually make them listen, and realize that I have thought things through.

I’d also love some ideas on how to save money while still paying off debt — outside money sources for those of us who have minimal computer access, and who can’t, for one reason or another, just get a second job.

Thank you for the opportunity to give out input — I really appreciate it, and I am sure that everyone else does as well!
21

January 4, 2008
mina

I would like to learn how to talk to family about money. I was given a gift to get started in real estate and with the gift came a lot of advice. I would like to know how to accept the gift and the advice without feeling guilty about not taking the advice…I have a different level of comfort with the risk they are advising me to take.

I would also like to learn or be reminded of the basics of personal finance in general.
22

January 4, 2008
Joanna

I like the articles about “how we live today” and personal finance. I like how you focus on balancing and prioritizing for what you want. A post on saving for indulgences (a new TV, a vacation) would be interesting to me. I save money on a regular basis, but when it comes time for a big purchase, I wonder am I “allowed” to take that money out of my savings? Or should I be allocating separately for that?
23

January 4, 2008
Odalys

How about some creative ways for college students to make money.
24

January 4, 2008
Corey Friedman

Hi Ramit,

I’d love to see more about the nuts and bolts of investments and asset allocation. I’ll be graduating from college in May and starting my first “real” job. I’d like to get a jump start on a sound financial future because I know how important starting early is.
25

January 4, 2008
Tom

I’m a big reader of the blog and I love reading posts about budgeting your money. Posts with unique ideas, etc. I also love hearing about other success stories. Nothing is better than being motivated by a blog

Happy new year!
26

January 4, 2008
Kerry O'Hare

3 words: SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE INVESTING.
27

January 4, 2008
Nicole

Easy peasy ways to save money. (Seriously.)
28

January 4, 2008
Sam

1) More about tracking your finances. There are so many options out there (Quicken, MSMoney, Mint, Wesabe, etc) and I can’t figure out which will fit my needs the best. As a young post-undergrad professional, I find your advice to be very relevant, and I’d love to learn more about tracking finances.

2) Similarly, budget advice. What portion of your income should you spend on x, y and z?

3) Your wedding post. That was the post that got me hooked, it was so insightful, interesting and surprising. I shared it with a ton of friends. More like that! Happy new year!
29

January 4, 2008
David

I’d like advice on how to start a small side business…something simple that automates itself once I set it all up. Just bring a little bit of extra cash on the side and it runs itself…I think I remember you doing a t-shirt bit like that, but I’d like to know what tools are used, what parts are necessary, how they work together, etc. Basically, I’d like to see how the machine runs and understand the engineering behind it, so then I would have an easier time of thinking something and implementing it by using an example as guidance…
30

January 5, 2008
Sam

Hi Ramit,

A couple of months ago you mentioned that you’d started pulling together some tips on how to get meetings with people, but because it was around Thanksgiving you never published them. It’d be really great to hear what you have to say.

Thanks!
31

January 5, 2008
lhamo

Write about what you know best — financial matters for new grads (how to build a financial foundation, pay down/stay out of debt, start investing, etc.), and life in the start-up culture. Don’t stretch too far from what you know personally. Do post more often. I just found your blog and then the posting rate dropped off, and it was a disappointment to me. I know you must be incredibly busy with your business, but that is a great reason to keep the focus on what you are doing. You can give people great insights on what it is like to jump into entrepreneurship with both feet, without a lot of experience/hangups about what the accepted culture/wisdom is in typical business environments.

Good luck and best wishes for a great 2008!
32

January 5, 2008
Sunil

I’d love to know if you won your weight gain bet.
33

January 5, 2008
Mike

I would also like more info on tracking your finances. I’ve installed two versions of MS Money and both times nuked them, not because I can’t track my finances but because I can’t get my head around how these programs try to think for me. I use Quickbooks to run a small business and Taxcut to do my taxes, so it’s not like I’m stupid (I hope), but if you skip a step or make a mistake, these programs don’t want to let you correct them and you end up with a mess.

Alternate suggestions, explanations or even links to what you think are good tutorials would be a big help.

I’m not a recent grad (by a long shot), but I’m here to learn as well.
34

January 5, 2008
Frank

Hi, I am really waiting for the email tips mentioned before.
35

January 6, 2008
Adam

I’d love to see some ways for a simple-minded person like myself to get into investments, particularly in commodities. I’d love to buy silver, but is there a secure, hands-off way to do it in the same way you can buy and sell stocks online? There may already be an obvious solution my question staring me in the face, but I’m quite the new guy at investing. Aside from a 401k, I’m not an investor. I’d really like to explore secure investment options (outside of stocks) that will give me access to my money before retirement, if needed.
36

January 7, 2008
Ben

I would like to read more welcome messages for readers being sent here via mass media (just kidding).

How about some discussions about life insurance?
37

January 7, 2008
Ali

Do you have any tips for upstart teens, I’m about to start college and if you have any tips on what to do starting now on how to manage and invest money that’d be great. Hope you a great 2008!
38

January 7, 2008
J.D. Roth

Count me in the “write more” camp. Yours is still my favorite personal finance blog (other than my own, of course), and I can’t get enough. Congrats on everything, my friend, and best wishes for 2008.
39

January 7, 2008
Ed

Please post on entrepreneurship, and perhaps on networking or building social capital, small business skills and how to start a small business.

Thanks for a great website
40

January 7, 2008
Nicole

I already commented but have another one–a lot of your articles seem to be about “this is something smart a rich person did with money”/”this is something dumb a rich person did with money”

I know this is totally antithetical to your philosophies about money but if people are already rich, I am not at all concerned about what they do with their money. How about the rest of us? What should WE do with our money?
41

January 8, 2008
quiesmare

I personally need a psychology-based approach to investing in retirement accounts. I simply cannot get past the ‘I can’t touch this for a loooong time’ aspect, despite knowing intellectually how ridiculous that is. I don’t know if that would be helpful for others but it is an almost insurmountable obstacle for me!
42

January 8, 2008
Will

Starting small businesses and entrepreneurship
43

January 8, 2008
Eric

I know this has been said earlier, but I’m going to college next year and I’d like to know how I can make the most out of my money (not just while in college but also to earn more with it for when i graduate.)
44

January 12, 2008
Anthony Avila

You’ve even commented yourself, Ramit, about how smart your readers are. While we’re all here primarily for your advice, thoughts, sarcasm, etc, I wonder if there’s a way to have readers network, help each other…we all share interests and questions, I think it would be awesome if we could all lend help where we have strength, and benefit from others’ in the same way… ? we can dream, right?
45

January 12, 2008
Ramit Sethi

Anthony,

Indeed there is. For the last few months, I’ve been quietly testing out user forums, which I’ll roll out to everyone soon. To check them out, please visit http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/forums
46

January 13, 2008
JT

Hmmmm…I would actually love to see some more information on nuts-and-bolts/tools, specfically spreadsheets vs. MS Money vs. Quicken vs. manual methods. I say this as I had used Money in the past, used spreadsheets last year and just went back to Money this year. I just spent a day of my weekend trying to intall a new version (wtf with this Microsoft Live ID/password it demands???) get it working with my accounts, and get a budget into the stupid thing that made sense…very frustrating and *almost* makes me want to regress (or advance?) to spreadsheets
47

January 13, 2008
Tertius

Ramit, what would you like to learn this year? As you probably know, one of the best ways to learn is to teach others. What is it that you would like to learn about personal finance this year?
48

January 13, 2008
Sendhil

I’m interested in a primer on insurance: The most important policies to have, how to decide how much coverage you need, and simple ways to research and select the best providers and policies.

(I have extensive business and finance experience, but somehow don’t know squat about insurance. Besides my own hangups about spending money and real estate, this seems like the biggest thing I need to know more about.)
49

January 15, 2008
jspin77

I was reading another blog on money and I find I like this blogs comments better most of the time.

So they were having car problems and were talking about the cost of repairing it. I have had discussion about used versus new cars with people and thought I would pose the question to you.

I recently had to pay ~3,000 to fix car problems for a 1999 model car. The car while its worth more than that, it certainly isn’t worth much more maybe say $6,000. I started thinking about it and thought, man if this were to continue, I would be WAY better off with a new car or just leasing one. It would be a little more money but not much. Essentially, its costing me a lot to drive this old car… and its OLD so I am not even enjoying it.

I would love to hear what others think.
50

March 5, 2008
Suzanne

Thanks for your blog–always a great read and always full of great tips and ideas!

I would love to see some in-depth analysis of the socially-repsonsible investment choices out there. I’m young and idealistic; I want to be savvy with my long-term saving/investing, but I also want to use my money to fund initiatives that make the world better!