Ramit Sethi advice on how to get rich
In this post I am going to take Ramit Sethi's advice from the above video and add it into a FEEL4 path which you can follow.
For those of you new to FEEL4, please check out the book or the free course, or if you can't be bothered 😲 then for now just know that the great advantage of using a FEEL4 path is that you can use its structure to achieve anything else you want to achieve.
The benefit is that the more you use and become accustomed to the FEEL4 structure, the more experienced you will get at focusing, energizing, engaging and learning. This in turn is nature's formula for guaranteed success so you are always giving yourself the best framework to not only succeed but also to feel better. Yes, working through the FEEL4 steps actually makes you feel better.
Okay let's get you on a path to get rich!
FOCUS
I am focusing on becoming rich starting now.
ENERGIZE
I feel energized to do this because I want to ... pay off debts, buy my family a house, pay for surgery, build a better life ... Add your own energizing reasons here, remember they should be very powerful and be impossible to ignore, they should make you absolutely want to move on to the next step and engage with all of the action steps you need to make sure you get rich.
ENGAGE & LEARN
To be rich I am going to engage with these things:
401k / Pension
3m58: Invest in a 401k (for those in the USA). In the UK invest in your pension plan and an ISA from as early an age as is possible.
Know how much you owe!
5m01: Know how much debt you have so you can start to plan how to reduce it.
Rich mindset / rich influences
6m00: Have the right mindset to manage your finances. Have an open flexible mindset, in other words don't always assume what society says as a whole is the correct way to save money - the example being buying a house, in "some" cases if the monthly rental is low enough and your circumstances are suited to renting, you will pay less a month over a longer term because you are avoiding having to maintain the property, your money is also freed up to invest in things that can bring you a higher rate of return compared to the house price increase.
Also surround yourself with financially optimistic people who strongly believe everyone can become rich. Join a group on Facebook etc where you can routinely discuss investment ideas, find a money mentor. If you do not believe it is possible to become rich you will always be up against it!
Small steps / feel rich along the way
9m28: You can start with small steps to become rich. One example is a woman who asked Ramit if he could help her convince her husband not to waste money. When asked what she thought her husband's spending issues were, she responded he spends so much money on ice tea. Ramit asked how much money? She replied he buys ice tea about twenty times a month (almost every day) at $1.50 each. Ramit then asked what was her household income? After a while she replied she wasn't comfortable sharing but eventually admitted it was around $600k annually. Ramit could then pick this example apart and come to the conclusion this woman had the wrong belief system. She was fixated on such a trivial spending pattern which likely means there is something deeper going on. To have a rich person mindset you need to be able to treat yourself to the things you love and not feel guilty about it, especially if your income shows you can clearly afford to do this! Do not be afraid to spend extravagantly and enable yourself to "feel" rich. This energy helps to attract more money, have you heard of the law of attraction? Point is, the small steps are about changing your mindset to think rich, to tell yourself you deserve it.
Think like a rich person
14m35: Think outside the box. So many people when asked the question of what would they do if they had more money seem to focus on one brand or type of product. If you can expand your outlook on where and how you can spend your money then you are already closer to becoming rich. For example, you might find if you love clothes and want more, if you change your brand to another which is cheaper then you can buy four times the amount of clothing you normally buy. Or perhaps if you fly to the factory you can get a bulk deal for the year! Most people have too narrow a mindset. And like FEEL4 promotes, the key is to "feeling" the change you wish to see, feeling yourself growing richer by the smart decisions you make.
What does it mean to be rich
15m25: Have an idea of what a rich life means to you. What are your "rich person" dreams? Use vision boards, write it down. Know where it is you are heading to. Each person's idea of being "rich" will be different. To some being rich is going around in an RV/Camper vehicle. To others it is about owning a massive yacht or a Ferrari. Using FEEL4 methodology to elaborate, the sharper your FOCUS the more likely you will be able to aim and hit it! Also know that you can bring your long term plan of being a billionaire closer by having a set of paths that lead you there. So for example, this month your path could be to focus on hiring a Ferrari and driving it around for a day. That is something much easier to achieve than to actually wait until you are a billionaire to drive a Ferrari. And you know what, if you cannot afford to hire a Ferrari buy a toy one until you can! Learn to break down your goals and feel your way to your ultimate goal.
Be unstoppable
18m38: You should have an OBSESSIVE belief that you can become rich. In FEEL4 this is the energy step, you should be energizing yourself constantly so you simply cannot be stopped becoming rich.
Use FEEL4!! Systems ...
20m08: Build systems to get you what you want ... Okay at this point I have to again point out FEEL4. Why? Because that is EXACTLY what FEEL4 does for you; it gives you a repeatable four step "system" which if followed step by step will always lead you to achieve your goals and make you feel better for it. So why waste your time figuring out loads of different systems when you can simply use the FEEL4 steps every single time. And the more you use them the better you will become at using them. This will mean the more efficient you will become at reaching your goals. A win-win. Apologies for hijacking your advice Ramit but I have to use these opportunities to promote what I know to be the world's most powerful success formula.
Learn Learn Learn
I'm excited now! If you listen to 20m18 Ramit actually again spells out FEEL4's fourth step - to learn! Again if you use FEEL4 you will automatically take the correct steps every time to be able to reach your goals. The whole idea of step four is, as Ramit says, to ask yourself "What did I learn from that? How can I improve?". Your lessons learnt are the paving stone for the path that will lead you to achieve your goals.
21m49: If you look at any money book in chapter one it usually asks you to know how much money you spend. Most people don't know how much they spend. This is one of the fastest ways to get control of your money and build a plan to become rich. Your psychology and beliefs are key to becoming wealthy.
How to increase your salary!
23m21: Avoid listing out all of the reasons you cannot make and save money. So for example if you want to increase the money you earn with your job, instead of thinking you do not deserve a raise or it is too difficult because someone else you know deserves it more, start thinking positively - you do deserve it - others who do less than you earn more so why not you. Once you change your mindset then asking for a raise becomes a realistic and expected goal. By asking for a raise you are actually increasing your value, people who deserve raises are hard working skilled people which a company will want to pay more to keep - by now you should be thinking that is you!
The approach to your boss is important of course. Don't just kick the door down and demand a raise. Instead try emailing them saying "I would love to meet with you and I would love to discuss what it takes to be an absolute top performer, to make your life easier, can we set up some time in the next week or two to meet?". Then repeat this verbally when you meet your boss so they feel impressed, why wouldn't they want someone to help them? Next you add more energy to this impressed feeling by stating you have several ideas you have already come up with which you'd like their feedback on. You have to go above and beyond. You then look for a financial improvement angle for what it is your role is able to achieve in the next few months. So if you are in sales and you are set to meet a sales target of 3%, how about you say to your boss what if you can meet 6%, would this be an example of someone who is a valued top performer for the company? At this point your boss should be eating out of your hand. But you keep going. You say you will provide an update for them every week and then in six months you would like to discuss a salary adjustment but for now no need to look at that but do you agree in principle? Most times a boss will nod in agreement, and that is the door opening to you getting a raise later on.
28m18: After six months you should then be prepared with all of your 6 month stats. So for example go to www.glassdoor.co.uk/Salaries/ and compare how much the maximum salary is for what you do. This helps you know what level of salary increase you can realistically ask for. You should also go to your colleagues who have been working with you (and of course you should have been helping them like mad over the last few months so they are bursting at the seems to do the following) and you ask them to email the boss saying you have been a fantastic help to them and any other bit of info you feel will increase your boss' image of your work ethic. You then go and meet your boss and restate what it is you promised you would do. You then add a few theatrics like pulling charts out of a briefcase. Your aim is to impress and energize your boss so much they cannot refuse your salary increase request.
Be honest with yourself
31m00: Be truthful about your finances. So know how much you earn and how much you spend. Know your figures inside and out if someone asks you. Don't hide behind lies; if you say you want to be rich then don't not know how much you earn and spend, don't just expect to win the lottery. Make it happen through the numbers. Use whatever resource you have to change your debt into a savings balance.
Don't be a victim of poverty
32m32: Do not victimise yourself. Do not get into competition with people about how bad or tough you have got it. Do not add psychological obstacles that will slow you in progressing down your path to getting rich. You can take control at the basic level. You can take decisions that help you on your way to becoming rich such as saving up $5 a month or 10 cents! Save what you can and grow your pot. Seeing it grow will bring you a feeling of growing rich which will grow like a snowball!
Ramit's 10 rules
35m06: Have rules around money. Ramit has 10 basic rules:
1. Save 20-30% consistently (now Ramit says this is an overall target per month whereas I say perhaps try and save 20-30% on everything you do - i.e. if you want a coffee then perhaps change brand to save 20%, or only buy it with a savings coupon - where there is a will there is a way and all of these savings add up!)
2. Marry the right person - the most important financial rule! Meet someone whose work ethic matches your own. Marry someone who is kind and unlikely to want to take everything away from you if you separate (if you can see money means more to them than your happiness then run)! Marry someone who is a team player and improves you, someone positive about money. When you first meet discuss what money means to each of you, are your meanings the same, if they are different do they at least compliment each other (so if one person wants to be rich to home children and the other likes to buy a big house, these two are compatible). Try and agree on at least five core values (to take care of family, to have regular holidays).
3-10. Ramit and Tom are having so much fun that they actually go off script and instead of completing the 10 rules that talk about relationships :-) but don't worry I went web surfing and found them for you here: Be tactical
40m47: Have tactical sessions with either your partner or your friends or a mentor or a group. Set aside time to have tactical conversations aimed at what can you do to get rich. With regards to FEEL4, you should be writing a FEEL4 journal and in this you will constantly be updating your paths and running through the four steps again and again and this will automatically make sure you are tactically doing what you need to do.
Have rules
43m26: Rules for new couples. For accounts have one joint account and then each have your own accounts. Contributions should be based on what each other agrees. Each individual will have a different view. So first of all discuss what the "Dream" joint bank account model would look like. How much do each of you expect to put in if you had the same salary and job. What is the balance you would like to see each month. How much savings would you like to have. What kind of pension would you both expect to see. Do you want a baby account to start saving for a family? If you can define the rules early on then you will find money much easier to manage later on. Couples need to be a solid team about this or else things are likely to go bottoms up later no matter how much you love each other right now.
Savings & debts
46m05: Savings and debt. According to Ramit there is a mathematical and psychological answer. So if for example you have a debt with a high amount of interest then you should be paying that off as quickly as is possible, but you can avoid making your spending life dull by thinking smart. So if your debt interest rate is 10% per year and you owe $1000 which equates to $100 more debt added every year if you don't pay anything off, if what you earn actually enables you to comfortably meet that 10% interest rate (as in you can easily afford it) then look around for another loan which is perhaps 5% and use it to pay the 10% loan off in full! In effect you suddenly have an extra 5% breathing space available in your finances. With that extra 5% you save you could in fact be investing it each month. That way not only are you paying your debt off but your investment pot is also growing. By the time you pay off the $1000 loan you will actually have gained some savings! Ramit is also saying that another thing to do is, be happy spending that extra 5% on the things you love. The psychology of that is by spending you find that you actually don't get yourself into further debt over an above the original 10%; an example is dieting - if someone says don't eat then you feel hungry!
Also see my Quora answer to how to get out of debt.
Spreadsheets
Spreadsheets are king when it comes to understanding and growing your wealth. Right now you can start your journey to becoming rich by opening up a Google Sheet and adding three basic columns: What you earn | What you spend | What's left over. Obviously your goal is to make sure your "What's left over" column is growing positively (as in you are never in debt and growing that number every month).
If you want to know more about Ramit Sethi then visit his website iwillteachyoutoberich.com.
Thank you for following this path, I hope you start your journey to becoming rich today. Take care and please let me know how you get on?
Author: Cn
Discuss
For those of you new to FEEL4, please check out the book or the free course, or if you can't be bothered 😲 then for now just know that the great advantage of using a FEEL4 path is that you can use its structure to achieve anything else you want to achieve.
The benefit is that the more you use and become accustomed to the FEEL4 structure, the more experienced you will get at focusing, energizing, engaging and learning. This in turn is nature's formula for guaranteed success so you are always giving yourself the best framework to not only succeed but also to feel better. Yes, working through the FEEL4 steps actually makes you feel better.
Okay let's get you on a path to get rich!
FEEL4 PATH - RAMIT SETHI
FOCUS
I am focusing on becoming rich starting now.
ENERGIZE
I feel energized to do this because I want to ... pay off debts, buy my family a house, pay for surgery, build a better life ... Add your own energizing reasons here, remember they should be very powerful and be impossible to ignore, they should make you absolutely want to move on to the next step and engage with all of the action steps you need to make sure you get rich.
ENGAGE & LEARN
To be rich I am going to engage with these things:
401k / Pension
3m58: Invest in a 401k (for those in the USA). In the UK invest in your pension plan and an ISA from as early an age as is possible.
Know how much you owe!
5m01: Know how much debt you have so you can start to plan how to reduce it.
Rich mindset / rich influences
6m00: Have the right mindset to manage your finances. Have an open flexible mindset, in other words don't always assume what society says as a whole is the correct way to save money - the example being buying a house, in "some" cases if the monthly rental is low enough and your circumstances are suited to renting, you will pay less a month over a longer term because you are avoiding having to maintain the property, your money is also freed up to invest in things that can bring you a higher rate of return compared to the house price increase.
Also surround yourself with financially optimistic people who strongly believe everyone can become rich. Join a group on Facebook etc where you can routinely discuss investment ideas, find a money mentor. If you do not believe it is possible to become rich you will always be up against it!
Small steps / feel rich along the way
9m28: You can start with small steps to become rich. One example is a woman who asked Ramit if he could help her convince her husband not to waste money. When asked what she thought her husband's spending issues were, she responded he spends so much money on ice tea. Ramit asked how much money? She replied he buys ice tea about twenty times a month (almost every day) at $1.50 each. Ramit then asked what was her household income? After a while she replied she wasn't comfortable sharing but eventually admitted it was around $600k annually. Ramit could then pick this example apart and come to the conclusion this woman had the wrong belief system. She was fixated on such a trivial spending pattern which likely means there is something deeper going on. To have a rich person mindset you need to be able to treat yourself to the things you love and not feel guilty about it, especially if your income shows you can clearly afford to do this! Do not be afraid to spend extravagantly and enable yourself to "feel" rich. This energy helps to attract more money, have you heard of the law of attraction? Point is, the small steps are about changing your mindset to think rich, to tell yourself you deserve it.
Think like a rich person
14m35: Think outside the box. So many people when asked the question of what would they do if they had more money seem to focus on one brand or type of product. If you can expand your outlook on where and how you can spend your money then you are already closer to becoming rich. For example, you might find if you love clothes and want more, if you change your brand to another which is cheaper then you can buy four times the amount of clothing you normally buy. Or perhaps if you fly to the factory you can get a bulk deal for the year! Most people have too narrow a mindset. And like FEEL4 promotes, the key is to "feeling" the change you wish to see, feeling yourself growing richer by the smart decisions you make.
What does it mean to be rich
15m25: Have an idea of what a rich life means to you. What are your "rich person" dreams? Use vision boards, write it down. Know where it is you are heading to. Each person's idea of being "rich" will be different. To some being rich is going around in an RV/Camper vehicle. To others it is about owning a massive yacht or a Ferrari. Using FEEL4 methodology to elaborate, the sharper your FOCUS the more likely you will be able to aim and hit it! Also know that you can bring your long term plan of being a billionaire closer by having a set of paths that lead you there. So for example, this month your path could be to focus on hiring a Ferrari and driving it around for a day. That is something much easier to achieve than to actually wait until you are a billionaire to drive a Ferrari. And you know what, if you cannot afford to hire a Ferrari buy a toy one until you can! Learn to break down your goals and feel your way to your ultimate goal.
Be unstoppable
18m38: You should have an OBSESSIVE belief that you can become rich. In FEEL4 this is the energy step, you should be energizing yourself constantly so you simply cannot be stopped becoming rich.
Use FEEL4!! Systems ...
20m08: Build systems to get you what you want ... Okay at this point I have to again point out FEEL4. Why? Because that is EXACTLY what FEEL4 does for you; it gives you a repeatable four step "system" which if followed step by step will always lead you to achieve your goals and make you feel better for it. So why waste your time figuring out loads of different systems when you can simply use the FEEL4 steps every single time. And the more you use them the better you will become at using them. This will mean the more efficient you will become at reaching your goals. A win-win. Apologies for hijacking your advice Ramit but I have to use these opportunities to promote what I know to be the world's most powerful success formula.
Learn Learn Learn
I'm excited now! If you listen to 20m18 Ramit actually again spells out FEEL4's fourth step - to learn! Again if you use FEEL4 you will automatically take the correct steps every time to be able to reach your goals. The whole idea of step four is, as Ramit says, to ask yourself "What did I learn from that? How can I improve?". Your lessons learnt are the paving stone for the path that will lead you to achieve your goals.
Your lessons learnt are the paving stones for the path that will lead you to achieve your goalsPsychology
21m49: If you look at any money book in chapter one it usually asks you to know how much money you spend. Most people don't know how much they spend. This is one of the fastest ways to get control of your money and build a plan to become rich. Your psychology and beliefs are key to becoming wealthy.
How to increase your salary!
23m21: Avoid listing out all of the reasons you cannot make and save money. So for example if you want to increase the money you earn with your job, instead of thinking you do not deserve a raise or it is too difficult because someone else you know deserves it more, start thinking positively - you do deserve it - others who do less than you earn more so why not you. Once you change your mindset then asking for a raise becomes a realistic and expected goal. By asking for a raise you are actually increasing your value, people who deserve raises are hard working skilled people which a company will want to pay more to keep - by now you should be thinking that is you!
The approach to your boss is important of course. Don't just kick the door down and demand a raise. Instead try emailing them saying "I would love to meet with you and I would love to discuss what it takes to be an absolute top performer, to make your life easier, can we set up some time in the next week or two to meet?". Then repeat this verbally when you meet your boss so they feel impressed, why wouldn't they want someone to help them? Next you add more energy to this impressed feeling by stating you have several ideas you have already come up with which you'd like their feedback on. You have to go above and beyond. You then look for a financial improvement angle for what it is your role is able to achieve in the next few months. So if you are in sales and you are set to meet a sales target of 3%, how about you say to your boss what if you can meet 6%, would this be an example of someone who is a valued top performer for the company? At this point your boss should be eating out of your hand. But you keep going. You say you will provide an update for them every week and then in six months you would like to discuss a salary adjustment but for now no need to look at that but do you agree in principle? Most times a boss will nod in agreement, and that is the door opening to you getting a raise later on.
28m18: After six months you should then be prepared with all of your 6 month stats. So for example go to www.glassdoor.co.uk/Salaries/ and compare how much the maximum salary is for what you do. This helps you know what level of salary increase you can realistically ask for. You should also go to your colleagues who have been working with you (and of course you should have been helping them like mad over the last few months so they are bursting at the seems to do the following) and you ask them to email the boss saying you have been a fantastic help to them and any other bit of info you feel will increase your boss' image of your work ethic. You then go and meet your boss and restate what it is you promised you would do. You then add a few theatrics like pulling charts out of a briefcase. Your aim is to impress and energize your boss so much they cannot refuse your salary increase request.
Be honest with yourself
31m00: Be truthful about your finances. So know how much you earn and how much you spend. Know your figures inside and out if someone asks you. Don't hide behind lies; if you say you want to be rich then don't not know how much you earn and spend, don't just expect to win the lottery. Make it happen through the numbers. Use whatever resource you have to change your debt into a savings balance.
Don't be a victim of poverty
32m32: Do not victimise yourself. Do not get into competition with people about how bad or tough you have got it. Do not add psychological obstacles that will slow you in progressing down your path to getting rich. You can take control at the basic level. You can take decisions that help you on your way to becoming rich such as saving up $5 a month or 10 cents! Save what you can and grow your pot. Seeing it grow will bring you a feeling of growing rich which will grow like a snowball!
Ramit's 10 rules
35m06: Have rules around money. Ramit has 10 basic rules:
1. Save 20-30% consistently (now Ramit says this is an overall target per month whereas I say perhaps try and save 20-30% on everything you do - i.e. if you want a coffee then perhaps change brand to save 20%, or only buy it with a savings coupon - where there is a will there is a way and all of these savings add up!)
2. Marry the right person - the most important financial rule! Meet someone whose work ethic matches your own. Marry someone who is kind and unlikely to want to take everything away from you if you separate (if you can see money means more to them than your happiness then run)! Marry someone who is a team player and improves you, someone positive about money. When you first meet discuss what money means to each of you, are your meanings the same, if they are different do they at least compliment each other (so if one person wants to be rich to home children and the other likes to buy a big house, these two are compatible). Try and agree on at least five core values (to take care of family, to have regular holidays).
3-10. Ramit and Tom are having so much fun that they actually go off script and instead of completing the 10 rules that talk about relationships :-) but don't worry I went web surfing and found them for you here: Be tactical
40m47: Have tactical sessions with either your partner or your friends or a mentor or a group. Set aside time to have tactical conversations aimed at what can you do to get rich. With regards to FEEL4, you should be writing a FEEL4 journal and in this you will constantly be updating your paths and running through the four steps again and again and this will automatically make sure you are tactically doing what you need to do.
Have rules
43m26: Rules for new couples. For accounts have one joint account and then each have your own accounts. Contributions should be based on what each other agrees. Each individual will have a different view. So first of all discuss what the "Dream" joint bank account model would look like. How much do each of you expect to put in if you had the same salary and job. What is the balance you would like to see each month. How much savings would you like to have. What kind of pension would you both expect to see. Do you want a baby account to start saving for a family? If you can define the rules early on then you will find money much easier to manage later on. Couples need to be a solid team about this or else things are likely to go bottoms up later no matter how much you love each other right now.
Savings & debts
46m05: Savings and debt. According to Ramit there is a mathematical and psychological answer. So if for example you have a debt with a high amount of interest then you should be paying that off as quickly as is possible, but you can avoid making your spending life dull by thinking smart. So if your debt interest rate is 10% per year and you owe $1000 which equates to $100 more debt added every year if you don't pay anything off, if what you earn actually enables you to comfortably meet that 10% interest rate (as in you can easily afford it) then look around for another loan which is perhaps 5% and use it to pay the 10% loan off in full! In effect you suddenly have an extra 5% breathing space available in your finances. With that extra 5% you save you could in fact be investing it each month. That way not only are you paying your debt off but your investment pot is also growing. By the time you pay off the $1000 loan you will actually have gained some savings! Ramit is also saying that another thing to do is, be happy spending that extra 5% on the things you love. The psychology of that is by spending you find that you actually don't get yourself into further debt over an above the original 10%; an example is dieting - if someone says don't eat then you feel hungry!
Also see my Quora answer to how to get out of debt.
Spreadsheets
Spreadsheets are king when it comes to understanding and growing your wealth. Right now you can start your journey to becoming rich by opening up a Google Sheet and adding three basic columns: What you earn | What you spend | What's left over. Obviously your goal is to make sure your "What's left over" column is growing positively (as in you are never in debt and growing that number every month).
Thank you for following this path, I hope you start your journey to becoming rich today. Take care and please let me know how you get on?
Author: Cn
Discuss
