Buy what you love: Finance guru Ramit Sethi’s advice

A self-made financial guru has shared his philosophy with Newsweek, saying that those wanting to get rich need to envision what their rich life will look like.

Ramit Sethi, author of the bestselling book I Will Teach You How to Be Rich and star of Netflix’s How to Get Rich, said he thinks “rich” is a loaded word.

“When we think of rich, a lot of times we think of somebody sitting in the back of a limo or going on a yacht,” Sethi told Newsweek Editor-in-Chief Jennifer H. Cunningham for Newsmakers Impact. “But when I think about rich, rich could be picking up your kids from school every afternoon. It could be buying a beautiful cashmere coat. It could traveling for two or three months a year. Your rich life is yours and my rich life is mine and that’s the way it should be.”

Sethi said that he never asks clients how much they spend on coffee or eating out. Instead, he starts by finding out what their vision of a rich life is. That, he said, often stuns clients because they have never actually envisioned it.

“We go to work, we come home, we spend money maybe on delivery or our house or our car. And we don’t actually think to ourselves, what is this for? What is the purpose?” he said.

Living in a time when thousands of financial content creators are vying for followers, and often admonishing them for spending on so-called luxuries, Sethi, who started talking about money more than 20 years ago, said he felt it was important for those seeking financial advice to not feel judged about their decisions.

“We should be mindful of what we buy, but no amount of saving on avocado toast is going to allow a young person to buy a house,” he said, explaining that there are structural problems, barriers, that are built into banking and the wider financial industry that need to be navigated.

The wide-ranging conversation explored couples bringing their finances together, concerns around Buy Now, Pay Later offerings, and how money plays in to the male loneliness epidemic.

“I see it with money a lot. Younger men often who do not feel they have a sense of hope of being able to perhaps buy a house, perhaps be financially successful, they’re looking around saying, ‘I’m never going to be able to do this,’” Sethi said. “They often become involved in high-risk financial products, gambling, crypto, things where the likelihood of long-term success is probably low.”

Instead, he said he advises men to look at ways to grow their money without flashy apps or big risks–even if the suggestion is that going without them is boring.

“Living a rich life is not boring,” he said. “Living a rich life can mean I can eat out, I can splurge on my friends and family and loved ones. That’s not boring.”

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