Welcome back to the 301st episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!
My guest on today’s podcast is Ramit Sethi. Ramit is the author of the New York Times’s bestselling book, I Will Teach You To Be Rich, and the owner of the online platform of the same name that offers financial education content and programs to consumers so they can get refocused on their personal finances and the things they love.
What’s unique about Ramit, though, is how he literally wrote the book (and subsequently launched an online educational platform and brand) on how consumers can not just learn more about their finances but change their financial behaviors, without focusing on a budget or setting retirement savings goals, and instead helping them focus their money more directly on what they envision to be their “rich life”… and the paths they can take to make that a reality.
In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Ramit helps people design their rich life through the use of spending dials, where, like a radio dial, he encourages people to turn up and spend extravagantly on the things they love (and cut mercilessly on the rest) so that they can enjoy their money throughout their life and not just after retirement, how Ramit was inspired while attending Stanford to write his book, I Will Teach You To Be Rich, after gaining a decently sized audience from his blog that focused on teaching people about personal finance and realizing the potential for its growth as a brand, and why Ramit is unapologetic about his brand, its sometimes unique positions on money and financial behavior, and how he got comfortable charging thousands of dollars for his financial education programs as after years of fine tuning his product (because he knows that the people who are truly a good fit will find value in what he offers, and will know its worth).
We also talk about how Ramit’s interactions with people on his platform and on his social media channels has led him to increasingly focus not just on personal finance but how psychology plays a major role in the way people prioritize their finances and sometimes create unrealistic or unhealthy relationships with their money, why Ramit supports the use of financial advisors but is critical about the traditional AUM model many financial advisors implement and feels that advisors (and their clients) would benefit more from a model that is based on charging for behavioral management because, like hiring a personal trainer, clients are seeking more ways to be held accountable, and how the tough decision to let go of some of his trusted team due to a retrenchment in his business in 2016, forced Ramit to reevaluate his company’s internal processes, which, unexpectedly reinvigorated him and the team as they realized they needed to concentrate on the ways they can innovate and propel the company forward.
And be certain to listen to the end, where Ramit shares how, going through his own personal dilemma of talking to his fiancé about a pre-nup and experiencing firsthand how finances take shape in a marriage inspired Ramit to create a podcast that focused on couples and their money struggles so that he could bring to light the real conversations people, and especially couples, have when it comes to money and the alignment of values, why Ramit feels it is important for younger advisors to find what makes them unique early on and how they can market that uniqueness as a valuable differentiator when trying to find clients and build a successful practice, and why, after experiencing it himself, Ramit understands that entrepreneurs put undue pressure on themselves to be the core competency of their business, and how over time he has learned to delegate responsibilities to a great team of people so that his time can be better spent on the value he as the founder brings to the company and its ability to keep growing into the future.
So, whether you’re interested in learning about how Ramit helps people shape their “rich life” and focus on spending money on the things they love, why Ramit thinks financial psychology is huge contributing factor in how we develop relationships with money, or why, despite writing a book and offering educational programs, Ramit gives most of his material away for free, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Ramit Sethi.
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