Just when I thought I’d read the best of the best, I Will Teach You To Be Rich comes along and jumps into my Top 3 Favs :)

BOOK: I Will Teach You To Be Rich
AUTHOR: Ramit Sethi
SEXINESS: Off the charts!

While each book I’ve read adds a little somethin’ somethin’ to the PF world, this one comes the closest in capturing the main qualities I look for in a book: Theory, practicality, “how to’s”, and most importantly, entertainment! If you don’t enjoy what you’re reading, you’ll never finish it – and I guarantee this one does the trick (unless you don’t have a sense of humor, in which case you should stop reading now…)

But one of the coolest things is that I now have a book that I can recommend to all “young” people, esp. those fresh out of graduation. While The Richest Man in Babylon and The Automatic Millionaire are fantastic reads, they don’t completely circle the realm of personal finance (or at least not modernly). IWTYTBR is the perfect mash-up of both of these books, except with even MORE flair and energy. Which is exactly what us young people need – a quick kick in the pants and a few jokes to get us going in the right direction.

If you like my style of writing, you’ll definitely love Ramit’s….if he weren’t Indian I’d have wondered if we were separated at birth ;) Here’s what I mean:

“Why does just about everything I read about personal finance make me want to paint myself with honey and jump into a nest of fire ants? Personal-finance advice has been geared toward old white men and taught by old white men for far too long.”

So yeah, he’s pretty damn funny. But he’s also smart as hell. A graduate of Stanford and creator of IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com – one of the more successful pf blogs out there – he really knows his stuff. I’d like to think I’ve mastered most of this over time, but there’s always something new to learn! In my case, it was the “investing” section of his book. Unlike the other books, he gets into this pretty well and gives some solid advice as to how to EASILY do this w/out much worry. He also gets into optimizing credit cards, savings accounts, automation, and a handful of other goodies. There’s even a 6-week program to follow to REALLY get your ish in order – I highly recommend it.

And while he doesn’t regard the budget as sexy (gasp!), he does offer a “Conscious Savings Plan” in its place – which is fine with me, as long as people STICK to it. In fact, I believe Ramit says that budgeting is the worst word in the history of the world! Remind me to punch him in the face later for that, okay? Good, good.

So there you have it – one of my new (again) favorite books! It just hit Amazon last week, so it’s hot of the press baby! And guess what? Your boy J. Money has 3 copies to give away! Yup, and all you have to do is leave a comment – that’s it. Tell us what you’re eating, what you’re working on, or just tell us a joke :) Either way, leave it in the comments by this Friday (April 3rd) by 12 noon EST for your chance to win your very own FREE copy.

And as my brotha from another motha (Ramit) would say, “Getting started is more important than becoming an expert“. Follow this 85% solution to your finances and it’s smooth sailing ahead!

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*UPDATE: Giveaway now closed…Winners will be shown tomorrow at noon est :)