What do you want to read about on iwillteachyoutoberich?

I would be very interested in “saving”-stuff. This is my weakest point

Hey Ramit,

I would love to read an article on Building an automated infrastructure and Investing (I don’t know where to get started). Keep up the great posts!!

Research and stories. And do budgets really work. I’m a non-believer – sorta, mostly.

Ramit – I’d love to see more on tools or picking the best credit card, etc. Thanks!

ETFs vs index funds

This one would top my list.

Is it generally better to put money into an IRA, principal on your home, or improvements on your home (new siding, new fence, that sort of thing)?

Ramit, I really enjoyed reading your articles on general saving practices. I would like to read more on how one can begin investing.

It’s something I am hesitating to do mostly because I don’t know where/what to begin.

Would love more on the psychology of saving/spending – why some people are better at saving than others, how early our relationships with money are formed in life, how to overcome bad relationships with money from youth, etc.

I’ve always been interested in aggressive investing but never had the capital to throw at anything very high-risk. Aside from hands-on experience, what is the best return for your money/time that you’ve found. Are high-risk investments ever worth it? Let’s look at this from a short-term perspective (realizing that high-risk is never good for the long term investor).

Also, what’s your opinion on the general inflation/rising cost-of-living versus salaries that don’t follow suit? It’s something that’s worried me lately.

Asset allocation with ETFs/index funds would be good to know, for sure. There are so many different ideas floating around out there, it would be nice to know some of the specifics of how to develop a personalized asset allocation strategy to help minimize risk and act as a buffer against fluctuations.

As for tools, you had mentioned a while back that you were in the process of developing a community-enabled finance application? What is the status of this?

I’d like to see some things on planning for retirement, do you or don’t you need a good financial planner, your attitude about freedom funds, what percentage is the right percentage of current income for retirement and why… should your home be considered in your retirment calculation…if we are budgeting and saving and planning I would like to know the reality of what I am going to do with my money, when and why…

I personally need to know how to find someone that can help;

A good (cheap) accountant would be great since I have had my own home business for a while and (complicated) home finances.

Even just a “what to look for and where to look” would be great.. Then I can answer some of the other Qs for myself without you having to post an article

Hey Ramit,
Maybe you should conduct a poll it might give you a clearer picture. Comments rarely get through to everyone and it’s just usually a vocal minority of readers.

That being said i’de like to hear more stories. All the basic information has been hashed and rehashed on other PF blogs. Stories are what make them unique.

J

yeah… pretty much!!!

I especially like your anecdotes about your friends, and why their behaviors are completely acceptable/ non acceptable. Stories involving you are fun too, but I especially liked your story about your two friends– the girl who had the ridiculously expensive shoes and the guy who would spent so much money on his hobby, because that’s where he liked to spend money. etc.

Keep up the good work!

Hi Ramit,
I would love to have pointers to finding scholarships/money for education and your thoughts and recommendations on entrepreneurship (if this fits under the theme of you blog)
Thanks and keep it up!
Mahesh

Investing, and saving for investing, and types of investing for what you want to save for/timeframe of thing you’re saving for.

I think I speak for most of us that general philosophy towards money always welcome (like the classic “$21k for on going out” story).

I’d like to see some knowledge regarding home ownership versus renting. For instance, would it be better to buy a house and pay off a mortgage as opposed to paying rent? Clearly there is a casde there however I’m interested in what other facotrs need to be considered. Can mortgage payments offer tax savings? Could upfront lump sum payments work better invested in the stock market rather than put against a mortgage payment, particularly given the 10 or 30 term of the mortgage? Are low interest federal loans available and to whom?

Thanks,

More about investing and tools will be great.

Investing
ETFs vs index funds

How about a post on Wesabe? Quicken has always struck me as quaint in an age where all my banking info is already online. I’d like to hear what you think of it, and maybe some tips on applying your money management strategies using Wesabe.

Also I’ve been hearing a lot about online only checking accounts lately? Are they worth it?

1. How to cope with well-meaning financial advice and when to listen – if your parents keep emailing you about stock picks, girlfriend complains about the budget, etc.

2. Negotiation.

3. Often folks (myself included) will try to overoptimize and end up wasting an hour searching for a penny off. A kick in the pants on this is always appreciated.

4. How to get younger siblings/cousins/etc. started early so they don’t end up in the same “help, I’ve just graduated college and… what’s an IRA?” boat

Budgeting, saving and grad school. Is it worth maxing out the Roth IRA even if it requires taking out b-school loans?

I’d love some insight into how to go about selecting your first index fund (or whatever the outcome of the ETF vs index fund comes up with).

Even though index funds seem simpler than mutual funds, there are just so many to choose from. i’d love to see break down of what, exactly, someone should be considering when they start looking at the options.

What criteria should the average person evaluate to see if it’s an appropriate fund for them?

Thanks!

–matthew

Where should I open an investment account? That is what I want to know about most. But what about something on college kids and what they should do with their money. I happen to have scholarships to pay for what I have to pay for school, but what should I do with my summer job money. I don’t spend much as it all goes straight to the bank. Any ideas?

I second budgeting/saving with uncertain incomes.

One artile from each topic per month would be ideal, all interest me

The last 4

Building an automated infrastructure
Tools
Picking the best accounts: What’s the best…
Research and stories

I would love to hear advice about record keeping for income tax purposes. Which receipts should I keep? How do I organize them? Where can I find the latest information on expenses that will qualify for a tax credit?

want to leave my high income job and go study/work abroad (making significantly less). I have school debt that can be paid off within two years if I stay disciplined about my finances. What financial considerations should I be making?

I would love to hear more about spending/making money while in college. Internships/scholarships/being cheap/being realistic, etc.

So, I live in Burlingame, CA just south of San Francisco. It’s a very affluent area and I’d say similar to Palo Alto in some ways. (I rent a 1 bedroom apartment with my wife, so I hardly consider us in this affluent group.) We walk around our neighborhood and its one multi-million dollar home after another. Who are these people? What do they do? How did they afford these places? What’s the secret?

My wife and I make a healthy combined incoming, but definitely under $200k. What are we doing wrong? Are these people with big houses getting bigger salaries? Better at investing? In debt up to their eyeballs?

Investing (both stock and real estate) and learning more about setups for trading of stocks (Possible short term). For real estate, possibly on valuation tips etc. Thanks a lot. This site rocks!

I’d have to go with

1) ETF/Index Fund
2) Tools
3) Credit card recommendations

Not like that helps narrow it down or anything…

Hi Ramit. I was wondering if you recommended people continue to save 10% of their income when they have a mortgage, or do you think the act of having a mortgage is sufficient for future planning? Cheers!

Tools and best pracice reports will be very useful~.
Thx

I’m interested in just about everything you’ve written about, but I REALLY want to know how to save as a college student whose financial aid package is affected by how much she has in her savings account.. how can I save without having to worry about having to put a big chunk of it towards tuition?

I’d like to read snapshots of individuals or young couples and their financial situation–what they are doing right and what they could do better. Being recently engaged, I’m willing to offer myself up as an example. Also, info on combining finances with your significant other would be helpful right now.

Being a college/co-op student with 6 months of rotating steady and then very uncertain (or no) income it would extremely helpful if you could write about budgeting for uncertain incomes. I find that to be my biggest roadblock whenever I start trying to lay out a budget. My required expenses, income, and discretionary spending seems to fluctuate wildly.

Other than that, I would read any of the articles you’ve suggested.

Thanks!

how do you evaluate a stock?

What does a sensible research about any stock mean to you?

What kinds of sources do you check with about a stock?

Is it about the stock(price) or the company(behind the price) that you/we/anybody should worry about?

Could you please counsel us on these?

Wow, quite a diversified readership.

Hi Ramit,

I’d sugget writing about what interests you, and allow the rest to fall into place. Obviously everyone is aching for different topics here. But if you feel passionate about a certain subject, it will shine through your writing and draw us (your audience) in with you.

There are certainly some great starting ideas here!
=^..^=

Wow…it must feel good to know that your advice is REALLY wanted.

I think the savings and debt reduction advice is great and I love to read it, but most people know what they need to do, its actually doing it thats the HARD part (I am no different).

I would like to see more posts on entrepreneurship, or your thoughts on how to balance finances in a marriage (AKA – How to stop your wife from spending all your money!).

Thanks

Two things for me…

One) What are the alternatives to Quicken or MS Money? (Web bases, cross platform, the works)

Two) Given the financials of a few companies, how do I read them to know which will prosper the best?

Thanks

i think more “tools” discussion and time-saving tips would be a great addition to the site! specific how-to’s and tricks on programs like microsoft money, for example, would be amazing.

I’d love to see posts on increasing income through a side business or other means. I have a solid saving/investing plan in place, but I need more money to funnel into it!

My vote:

How do I make all my personal finances as automatic as possible?

A logical and practical progression from rags to riches for the poor mass, but maybe useful for only those who are actually determined and smart enough to do it.

all of those sound good.

Mix it up, the best personal finance bloggers (Simple Dollar, Get Rich Slowly) do! What do you feel like writing about (personal finance and entrepreneurship-wise)? Your interest and enthusiasm will show through, rather than “damn, I guess I have to write about ETFs then”. You will know from reader comments and questions if you’re going in the direction your audience wants. But please just start writing, this site has seemed quite content free in the last while.

Topics I’d like to see:
1) Why someone who’s doing okay in terms of saving, not building up any debt, and has a general idea of what they spend where should make a budget, how to do so, and what to do with it once you’ve made it. (I’m looking to be persuaded on the first point, since right now we’re pretty intuitive spenders.)

2) How to move beyond your 401K / Roth IRA when you’ve maxed out your contributions to the retirement plans.

Automated finances would be my top pick. Followed by ETFs vs index funds

Hi Ramit,

I always enjoyed the Friday Entrepreneurs series.

I would like to see more topics like:
- how to start a business
- how to expand a business
- other investing ideas like real estate

Great blog, and keep up the good work.

More stories about people…specifically your Friday entrepreneur-style posts.

More about entrepreneurship in general, such as how to successfully move from a “real job” to starting your own company when there are obstacles such as proprietary information agreements and such with your employer (making it harder to just start the business on the side).

More posts about people that are dumb and you calling them dumb. I always enjoy those.

Automation and Tools!

This might not require a complete post but I would like to find out this:

“Is there a tool that I can take my monthly credit-card statements (excel or xml or whatever format) and summarize where i spend my money … for eg. food, clothes, cable, travel, etc could be one of the cateogries.”

Once u’ve such a tool, it would be easier to figure out how exactly I’m spending my money and maybe even find certain trends in consecutive statements.

Thanks for reading through so many comments Ramit..

How about a crash course in starting a basic “business”? I bet most of your readers would be interested in and could benefit from a corporation, even if they weren’t selling things or providing services.

I’d like to understand insurance and how it fits into personal financial goals.

I’d like to see more entrepreneurship articles as well … in fact … I’d like to be in one!

okay…tell us about your….how is it going….we all believe you write very good content

…when are you gonna finish it and make it available for us ?

well, u are understandably fair…atleast u left partial comment of mine

I’d like to read more about investing (ETFs vs index funds, assett allocation) and entrepreneurship. I really like the Friday Entrepreneurs series !
Also, great redesign of the site !

I’d like to hear about ETFs vs Index funds, as I have some of both but haven’t read nearly as much information regarding ETFs and would love to hear your opinion on it.

Hi Ramit,
I would like to know more about keeping living expenses down, especially the biggest catagories like housing, food, health insurance, etc, and what would be a good percentage of your salary to spend on each of those categories. Oh yea, stories about your friends are interesting too. Thanks for writing such great stuff.

Ever experience having to take over a parents finances to become the defacto “parent” as a young 20 something after they’ve experienced a serious health event? Maybe a comment on a way to manage another pile of bills and making sure to maintain their credit standing while they’re recovering.

My question deals with saving versus debt payoff. I have used Hugh Chou’s nifty calculators to figure some things out, but I was wondering whether you might have any words of wisdom…

A detailed breakdown:

I currently have about $23,000 in student loan debt (at an interest rate of 3.25% – thanks to Uncle Sam). A year ago, I signed a contract to finance a new Toyota Corolla for 3 years (at 1.9% interest). And, at the moment, I have a balance of approximately $900.00 on my credit card (at 7.9% interest).

This week, I withdrew $300 from my savings account in consideration of using it to further decrease my credit card balance. My savings accounts (one with ING Direct, one with E-Trade) now total a bit over $1,000. Beginning next month, I will be attending school (court reporting) and I anticipate using loans to decrease my out-of-pocket expenses. I have already applied for a $3,500 federal student loan (6.8% interest) and a $5,500 private loan from Bank of America (8.07% in-school rate). According to my school’s requirements, I have just begun a lease on stenographic equipment and software ($118/month, 24 months, no prepayment after 12 months). I also put nearly $600 on my credit card for a new laptop (the software won’t run on Macs) and for a new Home/Student edition of MS Office. Hence, the $900 balance.

With proceeds from the loans, I anticipate having approximately $200/month left. Perhaps half of that will be recycled into immediate re-payments of my shiny new loans; the other half will be stashed for oil changes and other miscellaneous expenses.

I am not sure whether or not I should siphon money away from my savings to tame my higher-interest debt. From reading personal finance articles for the past several months, I know the wisdom of building savings, especially in case a catastrophic emergency befalls me. However, no matter how stupid this sounds… nothing ever happens to me! It’s illogical to assume that therefore nothing will EVER happen to me, but these are my sentiments, and I’m sure that I’m not the only one who has them. I wish I could have my cake and eat it, too, but I’m afraid that my debt and my savings are at war with each other with no clear victor in sight.

I should also mention that I am employed full-time and earn $23,000 after taxes.

Thanks for your time and consideration, Ramit. Take care.

Should I pay off debt or save

Holy Crapes Ramit!
You have bloody nailed it. I want articles on how to budget, how to crowbar a savings plan into my income, how to get things as automatic as possible, and how to let my 30 year old son learn about investing and experience some success instead of the foozle he has had. (That’s a real word, I got skunked in Scrabble over that one.)
Thanks a huge bunch, you da MAN!

Investing
*ETFs vs index funds
Where should I open an investment account?
Asset allocation specifics (intermediate / advanced)

Ramit:

No one is going to get rich without having a system for organizing, planning and managing their money. This is the one topic that is rarely covered on blogs and in the traditional media, but is critical to attracting wealth. For example, are you able to locate a year’s worth of bank statements, brokerage statements and credit card bills? Do you have all of your account information/userids written down? Do you have written financial goals? Do you know if you have enough life insurance. There are a lot of people who don’t have any of this, nor do they know where to start to put such a sysyem together.

paying off student loans, investing for retirement vs. home downpayment. How to decide which one to concentrate on? All three at the same time? Or one at a time? What’s the best course of action?

I’d like to see more about automated infrastructure.

Wow Ramit, how does it feel to be loved? This should be comment 139. That’s got to be a great feeling, even if not very clarifying for you.

I’ll read what ever you write, because I will admit I don’t keep alot of these things in the forefront of my brain.

I agree with Plus6. Most other finance sites/blogs rehash the same general information. I like your stories about what individuals are doing and see others cope with the same situations so i can rate what I’M doing

Would like answers to these questions

I don’t know where to get started with a bad credit(debt)

“I don’t make enough to save”
How to keep a budget with uncertain incomes
Picking the best accounts: What’s the best…
Checking account?
Savings account?
Credit card?
Thanks

I didn’t read the comments, so forgive me if I am repeating something.
If I could get a customized article just for me, it would be on how to learn about investing poossibilities in my country, what changes from country to country in finances and what doesn’t, how does international investing work.
I noticed someone mention budgeting. That’s a thin that doesn’t change, but I’m afraid that I need practise more than I need advice.

Ramit,

We need a definitive credit card strategy guide based on the most popular card incentive programs: cash back, points, airline miles, rewards, etc. Should I have two different cards: one for paying for gas and groceries, another for big purchases (that I’ve saved for of course) ?

Should I pay off debt or save? Good topic

Please write more about working in public organizations – libraries, schools, government, etc. Do you always have to be a second class citizen as far as financial rewards? Do horrific college loans mean that we cannot go into these professions and have a better than average living like our friends in profit-making businesses?

Give a few ideas or case histories or something memorable on how easy it is to blow it all with drinking, drugging or even sex.
How many careers have been cut short or cut down by the misuse of any of these and how to avoid it and still have a normal, happy life like you hope to have.

I would be interested in automating my personal finances including keeping track of the cash flow, my income statement and my balance sheet with minimum data entry and building in an element of budgetary control.

Thanks

Interested in investing; esp non-USA residents investments in USA EFTs

Tax matters

Excellent Post. My compliments to the author.

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Hi, I would love to hear more about the steps involved in building wealth from a small amount of savings and a lower bracket salary.

Also is getting finance for buying small to medium businesses a good idea, or too risky?

Fantastic Blogs BTW.