So there. Suckas. (Or at least that’s what I think Ramit would end with )

I also want to applaud your honesty. You are the first PF blogger that has admitted, up front, that there is a friendly relationship between you and the book’s author. No one else seems to want to admit it in spite of fawning reviews.

You’re da man!

For your situation, I’d look at either David Bach’s “Smart Couples Finish Rich” or “Smart Women Finish Rich”.

I don’t like some of Bach’s newer books, but “Smart Women Finish Rich” really hit the right spot with me a few years back.

Somebody else mentioned the Tobias book but I didn’t care for it — I thought the book itself seemed aged. I think he wrote it in the early 90s?

Re Ramit Sethi’s book, I’m also Not-A-Fan of the title or tone of his work. Can’t stand the blog, so doubt I’ll peek at the book.

But my basic thought on this is — how many personal finance books do we really need? I look at the dizzying selection in the book store. So many of them say the same darn things.

That’s all, didn’t mean to take over the comments section with this.

Flexo is anonymous because he shares more about his life than most other pfbloggers do. I don’t share my income or net worth because everything else is public. Flexo can share that stuff because he’s anonymous.

Also, at least one of the others in your list (not me, not Ramit) is semi-anonymous — but hasn’t taken the name of a cartoon robot!

Here are the writers mentioned in this post: Leo Babauta, Trent Hamm, Michael Mihalik, Suze Orman, Ramit Sethi, Gina Trapan, Flexo, and J.D. Roth. Which one of these names stands out as most looking like a joke? Note that *none* of these other authors feel the need to hide behind anonymity.

And no, I haven’t read the article. It may be very good. I personally don’t have a lot of interest in reading an article who’s author won’t even take credit for it. That doesn’t project much confidence in its content to me. You are free to take issue with my viewpoint here, and obviously you disagree, but at least you know who you’re disagreeing with.

I don’t want to derail J.D.’s comments section any further. If you’re still interested in discussing this, my name at the top of this comment will take you to my site, where you can contact me.

Let me add that from my point of view, his tone and attitude are not tolerable for most of us humans. His writing betrays his authoritarian attitude, which is so over the top as to be bordering on condescending.

It seems like he is about to scream at you: “YOU’RE A DAMN FOOL FOR GETTING YOURSELF INTO THIS MESS, IDIOT!”

So who wants to read that in a PF help book/blog?

I think I’ll go lie down now. Whew!

Thanks for all the great book suggestions JD!

2) “Would you rather be sexy or rich?” Is a really strange title for a section of a personal finance book review.

3) Does anyone else find it difficult to take someone seriously who refers to himself by the name of a fictional cartoon robot (flexo)?

And a couple of on-topic notes:
I think having a personal finance book targeted specifically towards young adults with college educations is great. Having books like this with a targeted audience means that, as long as you’re in that audience, you’ll get more applicable advice than you would in a general book targeted at everyone. More books should do this, and target specific groups of people, as long as they make it clear who that audience is on the cover.

I probably wont be buying this book, but not because I doubt it’s a good book, more because a, “highly tactical six-week program” doesn’t sound interesting to me, and because I find that most books by bloggers don’t offer a lot that you can’t learn on their websites. I know you say he has new material, but does it offer any new lessons not in his online material?

If you feel good about it, great. Brand recognition, name recognition, etc. are there for you to gain from this book being successful. But just a difference of opinion.

I guess my real point w/ the title and all is for people just to realize that financial self help gurus get rich from the advice they give, not from following it. If enough people believe the book will make them rich, the people who will be rich are Ramit and his partners, not from setting up a 401k, but from working hard and selling books.

I bet there is good advice in there, debt reduction saving and investing can be good advice, but won’t make people “rich” just hopefully allow them to retire at a decent age. There is no such thing as “easy money”

I do think that the two problems people will have with this are:

1. Ramit’s tone/voice/attitude. I already know that many GRS readers find it grating, and I’m not about to suggest that these folks should read the book.

2. The title *does* seem scammy. But so does Get Rich Slowly. I’m constantly frustrated by the people who think that I’m running some sort of scam site. Ramit isn’t doing this, either…

Anyhow, I think your question is perfectly valid. But trust me: this is a good book.

@JamesM- agreed, I’m also not fond of the title of the book (and the blog.)