I Will Teach You to be Fit

A cheesy blog title inspired by a personal finance book with an equally cheesy title. 

The author of I Will Teach You To Be Rich, Ramit Sethi, knows his book has a horrible title. It is in your face. It sounds like a immoral sales meeting. Guru worthy knowledge for only $15.95 that promises to earn your millions…

Ramit chose his title purposefully. It grabs the reader. It seems like an offer that is too good to be true. Who doesn’t want to be rich, right?

Well, in his book he does teach the reader to be rich; not by complex options trading, get-rich-quick schemes, pyramids, or further “investments” to the author “required".

Instead, Ramit teaches lessons of how to get a hold of your personal finances through simple steps that add up over time. Sounds just like your own personal health, right? Exactly! Personal finance and personal care are the same thing.

Ramit creates a Six-Week Program to help the reader manage debt, leverage credit card rewards, open low cost accounts, streamline savings, and invest in broad market index funds. For those who are educated in finance or those who already have a handle on these kinds of things, it seems very simple and obvious. However, for those who feel they are drowning in debt and cannot save, these lessons can be daunting and paralyzing to the point of never starting.

“There aren’t any secrets to getting rich- it just takes small steps and some discipline, and you can do it with a little bit of work.”

We could same the same thing about getting our own health under control.

Luckily, Ramit breaks it down to be thought provoking for the old pro, but simple and easy to follow for the beginner.

Here’s where this blog comes in. Many of the lessons in this book can be directly tied to managing your health and habits.

Within the first 7 pages of his book, Ramit makes it easy for us imagine how these two topics are so similar. He smoothly draws the parallel between personal finance and nutrition.

I Will Teach You To Be Rich Second Edition, pg 7 Ramit Sethi

Ramit makes it clear that our behaviors in one area (money) are often so similar to our behaviors in another (food).

While this book is very positive and helpful, like any good teacher or parent, Ramit is a bit stern. Fair, but stern. He recognizes and voices his concerns that people, often younger, find themselves in positions of being a victim.

We are human it is easy to stay the same. Don’t change. Continue to be cynical. Taking on the mentality that “Boomers ruined the economy for us. I can’t even save $10 because rent is so high. How can I invest, when I can’t even buy pizza?” We all know people that do this, maybe we are even one of those people sometimes.

The same thing happens when it comes to getting started improving out health. Common excuses include, “My genetics keep me from losing weight. I was born with bad knees. Nobody ever taught me to eat healthy.”

Yes, we all come this conversation of personal finance or healthy living from different backgrounds. The way we grew up, biases, role models, etc . . . all impact the current situation that we are in.

Like it's explained in the book, we can recognize our past, but we shouldn’t let it dictate our future. We need to change our mindset. Our debt, either monetary or metabolically, can not stop you from improving your situation 6-weeks, 6 months, 1 year, or 10 years down the road.

Changing the direction of our lives, begins with a decision to change our mindset. We are not trapped in debt. We are not shackled by diabetes. We can and will, with some simple steps, improve ourselves.

This goes for everyone, old and young.

For the younger readers, there are some advantages. Ramit writes extensively about compounding interest. The earlier you start investing, the more interest that can be earned. That earned interest also earns interest in a repeating cycle of wealth accumulation. We’ve all seen the charts.

Just like investing, the earlier you get started in forming healthy habits, the better. Everyone knows how hard it is to reverse old habits. Bad habits that are only a few weeks old are much easier to change than bad habits that have been around for decades.

When the good habits are formed earlier in life, the health benefits are compounded. Let’s take sleep for example. A twenty-year-old who commits to getting an extra 10 minutes of sleep each night vs. a 50 years-old who does this same thing will have hand over hand more positive benefits. By the time each person is 60 years-old, the (formerly) 20 years-old will have accumulated 1,825 more hours of sleep than the (formerly) 60 years-old. 

We all know how important sleep is. So many healing and balancing processes occur during this time. This extra sleep will help influence how quickly the person will heal from minor injuries, push back preventable diseases, improve cognition, etc. . . the positive benefits are exponential.

Now, this is important, if you’re not younger and you are just beginning, don’t be deterred. You will still make great improvements and you will notice them quickly. More importantly you will notice them today, tomorrow, next year, next decade. It is not too late to start!

Okay, maybe 10 extra minutes of sleep isn’t the most relatable way to improve our health (It could be. Everyone is different in their goals and actions).  Frankly, when it comes to improving our health, many of us (see the previous section on mentality) don’t know where to begin.

Hopefully this website and blog have been helpful for you to start.

Anyway, when asking oneself this question, the answer could be hire a personal trainer for 5 days each week, go on the Keto Diet, or start running 10K daily. These are all very big steps. If you’ve familiarized yourself with this website, you’ll know that most of us have success with REASONABLE actions that improve our health over the long term.

Ramit gives the same advice as we do on this site. Maybe you cannot save $500 dollars a month, but could you save $100? No, well could you save $20, $10, or $5? If nothing, what steps could be taken to help get to the point where you could save the $5?

Really, what it boils down to with both health and money is simple. Ramit says, “The single most important factor to getting rich is getting started.” Really, we could replace “rich” with nearly any other adjective and the equation still works.

Me, I say “The single most important factor to getting rich is getting started.”

Yep, that’s the same sentence Ramit wrote. “Rich” did not change. That is because I believe that, “health is wealth.” That is a long philosophical thought that I will save for another time.

Until then, let’s get started!