A Motley Rut

This is a guest post from Ramit Sethi, the founder of  iwillteachyoutoberich.com , a blog on personal finance and entrepreneurship. His new book,  I Will Teach You To Be Rich , will be published on March 23rd. This post was featured on   Get Rich Slowly. A surprising thing happens to people in their forties. After working hard, buying a house, and starting a family, they suddenly realize that they’d better start being responsible with their money. They begin reading financial books and trying to learn how to set up a nest egg for themselves and their families. It’s a natural part of growing older. If you ask these people in their forties what their biggest life worry, the answer often is, quite simply, “money.” They  want  to learn to manage their money better, and they’ll tell you how important financial stability is to them. Yet  the evidence  shows something very different. In the table below, researchers followed employees at companies that offered financial-education seminars. Des...

Finance planning has become a thing of the past for many youths. It's a dying art. It is easily the greatest stress and most common rut of young adults. Responsibility and control are essential in escaping and avoiding this rut. In Brief: The first step is to end the cycle of poor spending habits. (A good 'Rule of Thumb' is that if  its not worth purchasing the good with your cash then you better reevaluate.) The next step is to reduce your 'fixed' expenses. And the final step is to make more money. Creating a working budget is key. It will help identify the causes of our financial weak areas; these may be obvious and subtle. For starters concentrate on the obvious. Poor budgeting of income and living beyond your means is the easiest way to fall into a deep rut, financially and perhaps in other fundamental ways as well. I would like to emphasize the importance of knowing where your money is going. If you don't track and understand where your money is going then ...

The mission statement of  The Motley Rut  is, so to speak, encased in the concept that we face periodic stagnancy, or ruts, in various aspects our life that we inevitably have to deal with.  Our goal is to highlight and  develop  the simple and sometimes complex solutions that will allow you to conquer your rut and delve into the "next step". Areas of concentration are to include priority management, debt elimination, the job search, increasing happiness, increasing wealth, beating stagnancy (at the work place/home), health and fitness, self sustenance and improving relationships. This concentration may at first appear broad and without meaningful focus, but I assure you that they are all intrinsically connected. Our aim is to eliminate the "cycle of ruts" that we encounter through practical and detailed measures.

This blog is meant to be a forum to encourage new and old ideas on how to create the best life for ourselves. For me, it's family ties, outdoor adventures and personal growth that are important; music, art and botany are also interests. Understanding that as individuals we each have different passions and goals, this blog is geared with the intention of stringing together bright ideas and stories that offer insights on how we can have everything we deserve.

Music, art, personal finance and the movement in and out of ruts