I Read ‘I Will Teach You To Be Rich’ So You Don’t Have To: The 5 Most Surprising Lessons

Let’s be honest: thinking about money is exhausting. Most of us either ignore it and feel a dull throb of guilt, or we obsess over it, debating the merits of lattes vs. retirement contributions. Most financial advice feels like a chore—a list of things you can’t do, wrapped in a thick layer of shame.

But what if the path to getting rich wasn’t about deprivation or willpower? What if it was about spending more on the things you love, and focusing on a few “big wins” instead of a thousand tiny sacrifices?

That’s the refreshingly counter-intuitive wisdom packed into Ramit Sethi’s book, “I Will Teach You to Be Rich.” Sethi’s core argument is that getting rich isn’t about willpower; it’s about designing an intelligent, automated system that makes the right decisions for you. I read the whole thing, and these are the five most surprising and impactful lessons that will change the way you think about money.

1. You Should Spend More Money, Not Less (On the Right Things)

The first piece of advice in most finance books is to create a restrictive budget. Sethi’s book opens with the exact opposite sentiment.

I hate budgeting. Budgeting is the worst word in the history of the world.

Instead of a budget, Sethi introduces the concept of a “Conscious Spending Plan.” This idea hinges on a critical distinction between being “cheap” and being “frugal.” Being cheap is about spending as little as possible, focusing only on cost. Being frugal is about spending on things you value and mercilessly cutting costs on things you don’t.

The goal isn’t to cut back on everything. It’s to identify what you truly love—whether that’s travel, high-end restaurants, or a specific hobby—and spend extravagantly on it, completely guilt-free. To afford this, you must mercilessly cut costs on things you don’t care much about.

Sethi illustrates this with the story of his friend who spends an astonishing $21,000 per year going out to bars and restaurants. This sounds outrageous, but he does it with zero guilt. Why? Because he has a plan. He consciously decided that a vibrant social life was his top priority. To fund it, he cut back on other areas; he doesn’t care much about vacations, home decor, or driving a fancy car. Because he’s hitting his savings and investment goals automatically, the rest of his money is his to spend on what he loves most.

Once you’ve defined your spending priorities, the next step in designing your system is to focus its power on the areas that matter most.

2. Forget the Lattes. Focus on the “Big Wins.”

Financial pundits love to tell you that the secret to wealth is cutting out your daily latte. While it feels productive, obsessing over minor expenses has a minimal impact compared to optimizing a few key areas of your finances. While others spend hours cutting coupons or trying to save a few dollars on grocery bills, they’re failing to see the bigger picture and focus on the “Big Wins” that truly matter.

Credit is a perfect example. Improving your credit score can save you hundreds of thousands of dollars over a lifetime. A better credit score means lower interest rates on the biggest purchases you’ll ever make: your car and your home.

Look at the real-world impact of a credit score on a 30-year, $200,000 mortgage:

Someone with a great credit score (760+) would pay over $90,000 less in interest than someone with a mediocre score (620-659). That single “Big Win” completely dwarfs a lifetime of skipped coffees.

Credit has a far greater impact on your finances than saving a few dollars a day on a cup of coffee.

3. Aim to Be a “Boring” Investor

The media portrays investing as a high-stakes game for stock-picking geniuses. We see people in suits shouting on TV, breathlessly discussing “this year’s hottest stock.” The reality of successful investing, according to Sethi, is the complete opposite: it’s boring, methodical, and simple.

He uses a fascinating analogy from the world of wine. In a 2001 experiment, 57 wine experts were asked to evaluate two glasses of wine. They described the red with classic red-wine terms (“intense,” “deep”) and the white with white-wine terms (“lively,” “fresh”). The twist? Both glasses contained the exact same white wine; the “red” one was just colored with food dye. Not one expert noticed.

This experiment highlights the “myth of financial expertise.” We assume that highly paid professionals must know more than us, but the data tells a different story.

Despite this astronomical compensation, fund managers from all companies still fail to beat the market 75 percent of the time.

If the vast majority of professionals who dedicate their lives to picking stocks can’t even match the average market return, what chance does an individual investor have? The winning strategy isn’t to be a sexy, active trader who has exciting stories for parties. It’s to be a rich, boring, long-term investor who uses a simple “buy-and-hold” approach with low-cost, diversified funds. As Sethi puts it, you have to decide if you want to be sexy or if you want to be rich.

This simple, ‘boring’ investment strategy is the engine of your wealth system. Now, let’s put it on autopilot.

4. Use Your Laziness to Get Rich

Most of us are lazy, inconsistent, and prone to forgetting things. We might have the best intentions to save and invest every month, but life gets in the way. Instead of fighting this human tendency, the book argues we should embrace it by building a system that runs on its own. The solution is automation.

The core of Sethi’s system is an “Automatic Money Flow.” The concept is simple: your paycheck gets deposited into your checking account, and a series of pre-scheduled, automatic transfers immediately routes that money where it needs to go. A portion is sent to your 401(k), another to your Roth IRA, another to your savings account, and another to pay your bills.

The “Automatic Money Flow” is what makes the “Conscious Spending Plan” from Lesson 1 actually work. By paying your savings and investments first, you are left with a pool of money you can spend without a shred of guilt, because you know the important things have already been handled.

This system uses psychology to work with our worst instincts, not against them. By making saving and investing the default action, you have to take active effort to stop being financially responsible. The money is invested before you even have a chance to miss it or spend it.

I never miss the money I invest because I never see it. In total I spend about thirty minutes a month on my finances.

5. The Weirdest Advice That Works: Ask for More Credit

This is one of the most counter-intuitive pieces of advice in the entire book, and it comes with a massive warning.

A SERIOUS WARNING: This tip is ONLY for people who have zero credit card debt and pay their bills in full and on time every single month. If you carry a balance, this strategy is not for you.

If you meet that criteria, a simple five-minute phone call could improve your credit score. Sethi humorously compares this to Salt ‘N Pepa’s song “Push It,” noting that this advice isn’t for everybody—”Only the sexy people,” which in this case means only the financially responsible.

The key is understanding your “credit utilization rate,” which makes up 30% of your FICO score. This rate is simply how much you owe divided by your total available credit.

For example:

• Owing 4,000 with a total credit limit of 4,000** is a 100% utilization rate. This is bad; it signals to lenders that you are maxed out.
• Owing 1,000 with a total credit limit of 4,000** is a 25% utilization rate. This is much better.

Lenders prefer to see a low utilization rate (ideally under 30%). Here’s the trick: you can instantly lower your utilization rate without changing your spending habits at all. Simply call your credit card company and ask for a credit limit increase. If they raise your limit from, say, $4,000 to $8,000, your $1,000 balance now represents a utilization rate of just 12.5% instead of 25%. This simple phone call can give your credit score a direct boost, making it easier and cheaper to borrow for those “Big Wins” down the road.

Final Thoughts

The overarching philosophy of I Will Teach You to Be Rich is liberating. Building wealth isn’t about guilt, complexity, or being a financial genius. It’s not about tracking every penny or giving up everything you enjoy.

Instead, it’s about designing a simple, automated system that handles the 85% of financial decisions that matter most. The five lessons in this article are the blueprints for that system:

1. Spend Extravagantly on What You Love: Define your priorities to create a “Conscious Spending Plan.”
2. Focus on the Big Wins: Direct your energy toward the 5-10 actions that yield massive results, like improving your credit.
3. Be a Boring (but Rich) Investor: Use a simple, proven buy-and-hold strategy instead of chasing “sexy” stocks.
4. Automate Everything: Build a system that uses your laziness to your advantage, making good financial habits the default.
5. Use Credit Strategically: Understand the rules of the game so you can use them to your benefit.

Once that system is in place, it runs silently in the background, handling the heavy lifting and freeing you to get on with actually living your life.

So, here’s a question to leave you with: Now that you know it’s not about cutting lattes, what is one thing you love enough to spend extravagantly on, and what will you cut mercilessly to afford it?