Here's an unexpected lesson I learned: The world wants you to be vanilla. They will always push you to look and act the same as everyone else. - Ramit Sethi

There is power in saying no to the things we don't care about. But there is even more power in saying a big YES to the things we love.

As a bonus for using index funds, you'll anger your friends in finance because you'll be throwing up your middle finger to their entire industry — and you'll keep their fees for yourself.

Listen up, crybabies: This isn't your grandma's house and I'm not going to bake you cookies and coddle you. A lot of your financial problems are caused by one person: you. Instead of blaming "the economy" and corporate America for your financial situation, you need to focus on what you can change yourself. Just as the diet industry has overwhelmed us with too many choices, personal finance is a confusing mess of overblown hype, myths, outright deception — and us, feeling guilty about not doing enough or not doing it right. But we can't just blame corporations and the media: With both food and money, we're not taking personal responsibility to step up, learn this stuff, and get started.