In my half-assed attempt at reading every personal finance book ever written, I recently finished Ramit Sethi’s I Will Teach You To Be Rich. It’s not a perfect book, but as far as comprehensive entry-level personal finance content is concerned, it’s pretty close. While The Simple Path to Wealth and Retire Before Mom & Dad are still 1a/1b for me in recent personal finance reads, Sethi’s book gets it 85% right and is the one I would most likely recommend to a friend who possesses no baseline personal finance know-how.

The 85% Solution

In I Will Teach You To Be Rich, Sethi preaches the 85% solution to personal finance, meaning you don’t have to do everything right. Get 85% of your personal finance house in order, and the 15% won’t matter (it does of course, for those seeking optimal results, but the point remains). For many beginners, the thought of budgeting and investing is so complicated and daunting upon first glance that taking a second look at our finances is avoided. There is information overload if you don’t know where to look—or what exactly you’re looking for—and there’s a fear of failure in screwing up something so important. The pursuit of perfection often leads to inaction.

Ramit talks openly of his own mistakes and shares testimonials that help paint the picture that pobody’s nerfect. Getting 85% of your finances right is plenty, and I think the same is true for this book. I very much agree with 85% of the text, but let’s do some nit-picking.

My 15% quibbles

Fittingly, I would give the book an overall grade of around that B/B+ range. A few dings on the report card include:

• There are a few references to further (paid) I Will Teach You To Be Rich courses—subtle, but there—that are turn off for me, even if they are in reference to extracurricular learning on a super specific topic.
• As the title reminds the reader in bold letters, RAMIT will teach you to be rich. There’s a reason it’s not called This Is How You Become Rich. I could do with just a little bit less Ramit in a book about how I can improve MY finances, but that could just be an Impersonal preference.
• Some of the chapters could be condensed, but perhaps the somewhat repetitive content is engaging enough for someone who has never read a word about saving money.
• I tend to disagree with Target Date Funds over a straight VTSAX investment, though I’ll concede that Target Date Funds probably work better as blanket advice to someone who doesn’t know—or want to know—a whole lot about investing. Considering the large audience appeal, Target Date is probably the right advice. The Simple Path to Wealth should be next on the reading list to take the full index fund plunge.
• While I applaud his overall point on asking for a raise (your full-time job will almost always be your main source of income), but depending on various circumstances, not everyone is in a position to ask for more money—and doing so could hurt their chance at a job opportunity. Along those lines, a few of the sample scripts were a little cringy for my Corporate America tastes. They may have worked for others, but I wouldn’t recommend following these scripts verbatim.

I Will Teach You To Be Rich will do just that, eventually

All in all, minor grievances for such a comprehensive introductory overview of a nuanced topic. I focus on the negative only to prove that I am not shilling for Sethi, who has surely made enough money off of this book (and subsequent courses!). Not as much as I’ll make if you buy the book through one of those magic Amazon affiliate links posted above, but close. And good for him. He’s helped countless people organize their finances and empower themselves in their careers. By comparison, I’ve helped encourage people to skip jury duty and pile into frivolous class action lawsuits. Advantage: Ramit.

Ultimately, I Will Teach You To Be Rich gives you all the tools to deliver on that promise. It’s deliberately obnoxious in ways, almost presented as a Get Rich Quick scheme–which it can be, depending on your concept of time and your relationship to money.

The realization that hits when most embark upon a deep dive into their own personal finance situation is that becoming rich isn’t as difficult as it seemed. All you really need is a little bit of money and a lot of bit of time. Ramit does a great job of communicating this to a broad audience with an Us vs. Them slant to help galvanize the FI-curious.

Why isn’t there more early education about money?

But why are we left to seek out these types of books on our own? Why isn’t there more of an emphasis on financial education in our public schools and universities? I Will Teach You To Be Rich is structured very similarly to a college textbook. Why not just make it one? Learning the basics of personal finance is arguably the most important lesson there is for a young adult, and yet we’re left to our own curiosity to discover financial literature. And not everyone possesses that curiosity.

For those who do, I Will Teach You To Be Rich is a great starter kit into the world of money, and I book I’d recommend to those beginning their personal finance path.