If experience really is the best teacher, then Ramit Sethi is qualified to help you become a millionaire.
Sethi became a millionaire in his 20s, which, according to Fortune, was several years ahead of Warren Buffett, who didn’t enter the seven-digit club until he was 32.
Sethi began investing at the age of 14 on his Dad’s advice. But while he was studying psychology and sociology at Stanford University, he realized that many people were approaching their finances with misconceptions and anxiety. He believed that if he could help them change their mindset, he could also change their financial trajectory.
There was just one problem. No one showed up to his financial seminars.
So, Sethi decided to meet people where they were — online — by starting a blog, I Will Teach You To Be Rich, in 2004. That grew into two books, I Will Teach You To Be Rich (2009 and 2019) and Money for Couples (2024), which became popular podcasts of the same name and, most recently, a Netflix series called How to Get Rich.
Sethi even lost money — by making speculative investments with part of his college scholarship money — only to learn better, wiser investment principles in the process. This helped him recoup his losses and generate exponentially more wealth.
And all he wants to do is share what he knows, so you can achieve millionaire status, too.
How to live a ‘rich life,’ according to Ramit Sethi
As a successful Millennial content creator with a background in psychology, Sethi explains personal finance concepts differently than, say, older financial gurus who emphasize frugality and deprivation — because his approach is different.
In fact, Sethi believes most money advice is “outdated and irrelevant.”
Related: Warren Buffett’s net worth: A look at his fortune in retirement
He frequently uses terms like “conscious spending,” “financial trauma,” and “future you,” but his insights aren’t just feel-good wellness-speak: They’re also rooted in time-tested principles.
At the core of his philosophy is the timeless concept of setting a budget, but “most budgeting plans tell you what you can’t do. Don’t buy that coffee. Don’t eat out. Sethi encourages people instead to “focus on what matters to you while ensuring your financial priorities are taken care of.”
“It’s not about micromanaging every dollar,” he adds, “it’s about having a clear, intentional plan.”
Ramit Sethi’s 5 proven ways to become a millionaire?
Here are Sethi’s five best ways to hit that million-dollar milestone:
1. Create a “conscious spending” plan
Sethi’s “conscious spending” plan is otherwise known as a budget. He wants you to divide your spending into four “intentional buckets:”
- Fixed costs, or monthly expenses like rent or mortgage, utilities, etc. Ideally, this should add up to no more than around 50–60% of your monthly pay.
- Investments, or “savings for future you,” should add up to around 10% of your take-home pay.
- An emergency fund that will eventually contain 3–6 months of living expenses, stored in a high-yield savings account, should be funded with about 5–10% of your monthly income.
- A “guilt-free” spending account that lets you enjoy whatever it is you love, like your daily latte, eating out, travel, or concert tickets should amount to 20–35% of your gross monthly pay.
The key to ensuring you’re making progress, Sethi says, is to check in regularly during the first few months after you’ve implemented your plan. He says if your fixed costs are too high, then you should consider downsizing to a smaller home or refinancing. If your guilt-free spending account feels “underwhelming,” then consider cutting out unused subscriptions to be able to afford something you find to be more meaningful.
2. Automate your finances
Automation is a hallmark of Sethi’s philosophy. He advises people to set up a checking account for their fixed costs and separate savings accounts for their investments, an emergency fund, and a guilt-free spending account.
Next, scheduled automatic transfers to and from each account.
“This way, you won’t need to rely on willpower or memory to stay on track,” Sethi writes, “your system does the heavy lifting for you.”
Automating contributions ensures that saving and investing happen without relying on willpower, helping people stay organized and reducing decision fatigue — and that makes wealth-building almost effortless.
Here are a few lessons about compound interest that were worth millions of dollars to me. I hope they help you, tooWe’ve all seen an example of investing money over decades to become a millionaire. It works, but it takes time — like with my assumptions below, it takes 25 years… pic.twitter.com/Hq9BCCEBLy
— Ramit Sethi (@ramit) April 29, 2024
3. Start investing early
This “deceptively simple” strategy, Sethi told CNBC, is the number-one way to grow your wealth: Boring, disciplined investing.
That’s because of the miracle of compound interest, where investors earn returns on both their principal and their accumulated interest. Regular contributions help amplify this effect, thus generating millions of dollars in net wealth.
In addition, the U.S. stock market has generally outperformed other major asset classes in the past century — and that includes real estate. Between 1926 and mid-2023, for instance, the S&P 500 delivered an annualized return of 10.34%, which illustrates the benefits of long-term market exposure.
Sethi wants everyone to invest in low-cost index funds — he’s a big fan of Vanguard’s index funds, like the Vanguard 500 Index Fund (VFIAX) or the Vanguard Total Start Market Index Fund (VTSMX). He also likes Target Retirement funds, which offer a diversified “set-it-and-forget-it” approach because they automatically rebalance (shifting from stocks to bonds) over time.
4. Increase your income
Cutting out unnecessary spending is only part of the equation. In I Will Teach You to Be Rich, Sethi shares that “there is a limit to how much you can cut but there is no limit to how much you can earn.”
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Some ways to generate higher earnings include negotiating salary increases, switching to a higher-paying job, or starting a side hustle. Say you were able to secure a $10,000 raise, he told Nasdaq: “If you took the entire amount of your raise every year, that full $10,000, and you invested it in your 401(k), you’d hit your million-dollar goal in only 16 years.”
Sethi also believes that “Your ability to earn money is your greatest asset,” and is a proponent of investing in the skills you need to increase your income, especially in areas like sales, marketing, programming, or management, which are currently in high demand.
5. Don’t feel ashamed about spending money
“Spend extravagantly on the things you love, and cut costs mercilessly on the things you don’t,” Sethi says. This contrasts with the guilt-inducing sermons and other psychological torture imparted by traditional financial experts like Dave Ramsey.
Sethi wants his followers to enjoy life now while still building wealth. And they can — by aligning their spending with their priorities while sticking to their budgets.
His philosophy of wealth is similar to a classic dieting debacle: Extreme tactics only result in frustration and setbacks, while an automated, reasonable, long-term approach with room for guilty pleasures tends to produce better results.
That’s why 20–35% of Sethi’s “conscious spending” plan is allocated to “guilt-free spending.” By adding in some flexibility, people are more likely to stick with their financial systems long-term, which is crucial to achieving millionaire status.
Ramit Sethi’s net worth in 2026
Having surpassed the million-dollar mark two decades ago, Ramit Sethi has an estimated net worth of at least $25 million in 2026, according to Fortune.
Sethi’s first million came from investments; he’s also built wealth from book sales, content monetization from his podcasts and Netflix series, and his financial coaching programs.
He does not own real estate and still drives the Honda Accord he bought in 2005 because the expenses of maintaining a home or paying for a new car do not interest him, he told CNBC. He’d rather put that money towards travel, donations, and investments.
Sethi has been married to stylist and entrepreneur Cassandra Campa since 2018.