Comments on: Why your friends don’t save money, eat healthier, or clean their garages

By: Weekend Link Roundup

Weekend Link Roundup — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 16:10:40 +0000

[...] Why your friends don’t save money, eat healthier, or clean their garages, from I Will Teach You To Be Rich – This post appeared on Get Rich Slowly, but was written by Ramit at I Will Teach You To Be Rich. I really enjoyed this article and found it very motivating to take action on removing some barriers to success in my life. [...]

By: Weekly Dividend Investing Roundup - March 21, 2009 | The Dividend Guy Blog

Weekly Dividend Investing Roundup - March 21, 2009 | The Dividend Guy Blog — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 11:00:36 +0000

[...] Why your friends don’t save money [...]

By: Danielle

Danielle — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 03:38:55 +0000

This article sparked a good discussion with my husband, so thanks!

I will start to think about the goals I want to reach in terms of what barriers are in my way!

By: Fred

Fred — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 17:01:07 +0000

“why your friends don’t…” is indeed a great title. Why is indeed a good question. Even though the contest is over, here’s my take: 1. avoids defensive reaction, 2. social comparison theory, in that it suggests you can outperform your friends/peers, which is a human desire, 3. attribution theory (in that the title typecasts your friends as incurable overspenders, etc., while the truth is more nuanced – do I get that right?)

By: Julie

Julie — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:47:04 +0000

I found this article very helpful! I’ve been meaning to carve a new design out of wax but my barrier is that the wax is so hard it’s a pain to cut. You just gave my the motivation to do it. I’m sorry that people have to feel so threatened by a new set of ideas. I am glad you put yourself out there.

By: Ramit Sethi

Ramit Sethi — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 21:13:55 +0000

Dean, I agree that your reasons are also potential reasons why people don’t show up. But that doesn’t negate what I said, especially since I’ve spoken to many audiences on personal finance, and I know many other PF speakers who agree with exactly what I said. And while I’m perfectly happy to debate this, it’s really not polite to call anyone “a dick.” This is your warning — another ad hominem attack and you’re outta here.

By: Dean J

Dean J — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:28:23 +0000

“They also don’t like to attend personal-finance events because they don’t like to feel bad about themselves.”

That’s *amazingly* arrogant.

I’d guess two reasons that don’t seem to get airplay.
1. They care less than you do about the event, which isn’t unreasonable.
2. They don’t trust the advice of folks who do seminars, which isn’t unreasonable.

Wow, did your post come across as being a dick.

By: Anshu

Anshu — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:17:56 +0000

I so hear you in this post. As I was going through each of the examples you’d given, I was recalling incidents that happened to me because of those barriers. I pay close attention to not wasting any food, but there have been countless times when I let fruits or veggies rot in my fridge, just because they needed to be washed before I could eat/cook them. Now I try to wash the fruits as soon as I bring them home. Once they’re sitting on the counter, ready to be eaten, even my usually fruit-averse husband gets tempted to eat some. Yeah, we all should watch out for the barriers in our life, and try to get rid of them.

By: Alex R

Alex R — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:59:13 +0000

Sounds a bit like the Fundamental Attribution Error. Or in the words of the late George Carlin “Why is it that their stuff is shit and your shit is stuff?”

By: finance deals

finance deals — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 10:46:45 +0000

Do you think there is a correlation on how clean a person’s house is by how clean they keep their garage? No way…. hubby cleans the garage….. I clean the house. Not that men aren’t good housekeepers in general, but mine isn’t the best at it. But I’m not embarrassed to leave the garage door open.