Ramit Sethi

[catherine]

“ support” comes in many flavors. Catherine probably made a good compromise to use an existing income stream to fix the boat, I mean good for her situation. It would not be good for me if I had any debt and I would not allow my spouse to get me into debt for something that is not essential.

I think she held her boundary of “no more loans “and that’s very very important at her (and our) stage of life. I remember there was a time when Catherine was paying off his old business debt, and I don’t need to know if that is still happening, but that is something that formed my opinion in this matter.

Thanks, IL. Yes that was a big business loan I wound up paying for a while--until we consolidated that debt and a couple of others with a refi. Thankfully, the situation that made that venture fail does not exist anymore, and, as you said, I am not going into debt for this one. It's not an ideal situation, but I feel much more confident that he can pull this off and if he can't, ... well, we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

[jp1]

I agree with iris. The boat is not your problem Catherine. The boat tour thing was never going to be a big money maker so don’t go into debt for it. I understand that your natural instinct is to want to help people when they ‘need’ money for something but this is a situation where your DH needs to figure out how he’s going to fix this on his own. 600 hour lifespan of a boat engine? That sounds crazy. Maybe he needs to just get an old Detroit diesel that will last forever. Otherwise he’ll be replacing the engine every year and that would turn the financials of his boat business on it’s head.

[Portuguese John Here]

I don't really like the title of his book: I Will Teach You To Be Rich

[iris lilies]

I don't really like the title of his book: I Will Teach You To Be Rich

You have to know what he’s going for. He wants to have people connect the dots between what they value ( their “rich “life ) and a financial plan to get there.

it is related to classic Joe Dominguez philosophy about spending money on what you value, drill down to figure out what you REALLY value. Don’t spend money mindlessly on everything, but identify the things that give your life “richness. “

[iris lilies]

Ramit’s show was great today.

He is counseling a married couple in their 30s who makes $80,000 a year and live in a modest house where their mortgage is only $500 a month. On the surface, they should be able to manage just fine, but they are spending 100% of what they make. Clearly the wife has a spending problem.

So Ramit was delving into their payments and came across an expensive telecommunications charge for their eight-year-old daughter. He asked them “does she really need this phone?”

The wife said yes, she wants her daughter to have it for safety.

Then BAM! Ramit made the observation That this little girl is not safe. Her parents are one paycheck away from disaster. Her parents have no savings. This is not a stable, safe environment.

[catherine]

The rude awakening I had while reading his recent newsletter about the people whose net monthly income is $45k a month is that many of their living expenses were in line with mine! Their mortgage was at least 5x more than mine ($6750 vs 1331) and I don't have child care, but otherwise, my fixed costs were WAY too similar to these people making millions a year. Ramit chided them on having a "guilt-free spending" line item that was "abysmal" in that it was TOO LOW for their income, but still....

This couple is worried about their future because they are in tech and are afraid that AI will replace their jobs, so they are putting 25k in investments A MONTH! Ramit says:

"Right here, this tells me that they are playing life on defense. They are so far ahead of almost anyone else and yet they still feel worried. Because they tell me that they're immigrants from India, a culture which I understand, I can tell you that they're probably going to go the rest of their life worrying about money, thinking they're behind, agonizing over tiny expenses and never actually zooming out and recognizing that they have already won the game. They could get laid off and they would be fine and that in and of itself is unlikely to happen."

Very interesting. Where "worry" sits on people's roadmaps relative to their financial situation is really interesting. I don't like worrying about money, yet I do. But I feel I have a right to. I truly try to live like the admonition in the Bible to "not worry about the morrow; the morrow has worries of its own" and "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these" but it's not that easy to put into practice.

The topic of "worry" vs one's financial standing would be an interesting topic to explore in another thread.

[iris lilies]

Ramit’s show was great today.

He is counseling a married couple in their 30s who make $80,000 a year and live in a modest house where their mortgage is only $500 a month. On the surface they should be able to manage just fine, but they are spending 100% of what they make. Clearly the wife has a spending problem.

So Ramit was delving into their payments and came across an expensive telecommunications charge for their eight-year-old daughter. He asked them “does she really need this phone?

The wife said yes, she wants her daughter to have it for safety.

Then BAM! Ramit made the observation That this little girl is not safe. Her parents are one paycheck away from disaster. Her parents have no savings. There is no safety and stability in their home.

[Tybee]

I don't know, that sounds stressful to me, to listen to that, with the BAM thing happening, and someone saying my kid wasn't safe living with me. I mean I get the point but jeesh, talk about "thank God I am not like other men."

Maybe that is what people need but it's not an approach that helps me.

Catherine, I hope you start a money worry thread, interesting topic.

[iris lilies]

I don't know, that sounds stressful to me, to listen to that, with the BAM thing happening, and someone saying my kid wasn't safe living with me. I mean I get the point but jeesh, talk about "thank God I am not like other men."

Maybe that is what people need but it's not an approach that helps me.

Catherine, I hope you start a money worry thread, interesting topic.

This video is getting many positive comments saying this couple is like so much of !America and Ramit needs to have more like them on his show rather than the high earners he usually has.

So, what facts would you give to this couple to convince them they are spending money on the wrong stuff IF they claim to value safety and security? He really does try to honor people’s stated values.

[iris lilies]

The rude awakening I had while reading his recent newsletter about the people whose net monthly income is $45k a month is that many of their living expenses were in line with mine! Their mortgage was at least 5x more than mine ($6750 vs 1331) and I don't have child care, but otherwise, my fixed costs were WAY too similar to these people making millions a year. Ramit chided them on having a "guilt-free spending" line item that was "abysmal" in that it was TOO LOW for their income, but still....

This couple is worried about their future because they are in tech and are afraid that AI will replace their jobs, so they are putting 25k in investments A MONTH! Ramit says:

"Right here, this tells me that they are playing life on defense. They are so far ahead of almost anyone else and yet they still feel worried. Because they tell me that they're immigrants from India, a culture which I understand, I can tell you that they're probably going to go the rest of their life worrying about money, thinking they're behind, agonizing over tiny expenses and never actually zooming out and recognizing that they have already won the game. They could get laid off and they would be fine and that in and of itself is unlikely to happen."

Very interesting. Where "worry" sits on people's roadmaps relative to their financial situation is really interesting. I don't like worrying about money, yet I do. But I feel I have a right to. I truly try to live like the admonition in the Bible to "not worry about the morrow; the morrow has worries of its own" and "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these" but it's not that easy to put into practice.

The topic of "worry" vs one's financial standing would be an interesting topic to explore in another thread.

tangential comment: the “ lilies of the field” were, most likely, iris. Lilies don’t grow in that part of the world. Iris, on the other hand, love desert lands.