I Will Teach You To Be Rich: No Guilt. No Excuses. No BS. Just a 6-Week Program That Works

Born in California in 1980, Ramit Sethi is the child of first-generation South Asian immigrants. He grew up in Fair Oaks, California, and attended Stanford University, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in science, technology, and society and a minor in psychology. He proceeded to earn his master’s degree in sociology from Stanford.

Throughout I Will Teach You to Be Rich, Sethi relates anecdotes from his life as the child of South Asian immigrants who went on to attend an elite private university. Specifically, he uses depictions of South Asians and South Asian immigrants to emphasize the importance of practicality and bargaining. For example, he subtitles Chapter 3 “Negotiate Fees Like an Indian” (69).

By referring to himself as both “Indian” and “American,” Sethi establishes himself as both like and unlike his readers, whom he presumes to be American; he is both subject to the same desires and beliefs about money as they are and privy to alternative ways of looking at the world. For example, in Chapter 1, he tells a story about buying his first car in which he depicts himself as similar to other “Indian people,” who he says are “absolutely nuts about hammering down the price to the last penny” (23). After explaining how he negotiated with the car dealership as his South Asian father would, he proceeds to identify himself with “most Americans,” who “hate negotiating” (23). Sethi positions himself as both skilled at negotiating, as he says South Asians are, and uncomfortable with it, as Americans are. He thus presents himself as the ideal teacher for his readers because he both understands them and can see beyond their limitations.

In addition, Sethi uses good-humored depictions of his South Asian background to present himself as a success story of his own system. Characteristic of South Asians, he says, his parents were perpetually disappointed in the one A-minus he got on otherwise impeccable report cards, and they relied on him to fund his own college education. At the same time, they taught him how to save and bargain at an early age. As a very successful entrepreneur who is the child of South Asian immigrants, he presents himself as a walking testimonial to the effectiveness of his advice.