From the shelf · 102 money books
Does I Will Teach You to Be Rich hold up?
I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi is one of the 102 money books on The Money Shelf. The shelf links it to 3 of the 22 claims that the book tests against official records from the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Each verdict below comes from that test.
Claim 2 · The book argues against this claimSmall spending: cut the daily coffee
Weak diagnosisThe arithmetic of small purchases is correct, and a daily 5 is between 2.3 and 5.2 per cent of the average spending in the three sources, while housing and transport take between 31.7 and 50.4 per cent, far larger shares than the coffee in all three sources.
Read the full test →Claim 3 · The book makes this claimPay yourself first: save before you spend
Holds with conditionsThe paper’s own results support pre-committed saving out of future pay rises as a way of raising saving rates among employees who agree to join, and the condition is that the household has income left after essential spending, because the national ratios show only average room.
Read the full test →Claim 4 · The book makes this claimIndex funds: own the index
HoldsOver every period of five years or longer, at least 83 per cent of US large-cap funds, at least 92 per cent of UK large- and mid-cap funds and at least 81.6 per cent of Australian equity general funds lagged their index, and the one figure below 80 per cent over those periods, UK small-cap funds over 10 years at 76.62 per cent, is still a majority.
Read the full test →I Will Teach You to Be Rich raised the question. The records take it further: every figure dated, every source named, and the arithmetic worked through for three countries.
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