Quote
“Remember that life is lived outside the spreadsheet.”
— Ramit Sethi, in I Will Teach You to Be Rich (2009) · I Will Teach You to Be Rich →
Why it was said
Ramit Sethi makes this point while warning against treating personal finance as an end in itself. The passage around it encourages ambitious goals but reminds the reader that money is only a small part of what he calls a Rich Life.
What it actually means
Sethi's book is full of numbers: savings rates, fees, asset allocations, automatic transfers. This line puts them in their place. The purpose of the system is to let money run in the background so that attention can go to the things money is for, which differ from person to person. A plan that is mathematically optimal but leaves no room for what you value will be abandoned. The test of a financial plan is not the spreadsheet; it is whether the life it pays for is the one you want.
How to use it
- 1Write down three specific things that would make up your Rich Life, and check that your budget funds at least one of them.
- 2Automate your savings and bills once, then stop checking the numbers every day.
- 3When you are tempted to shave a small fee further, ask whether the time would be better spent on something on your list.