I've had a handful of men ask if "Bachelor Pad Economics" would "work in Canada" or is "for men in Britain" and the answer is:
Yes, about 95% or so.
While the retirement chapter would be specific to the US retirement system (IRA's, 401k's, etc.) and would not directly apply, the vast majority of economic advice is still applicable to all men in all countries simply because the laws of economics are universal.
For example, women, no matter what country you're in, desire attention and men desire sex. This results in a universal set of rules or laws all humans operate by in the sexual market place.
Also, my advice that 16 year old boys should get their motorcycle license applies to British boys just as it does American boys, French boys or Vietnamese boys.
So in short, no you will not be wasting your money. BPE is basically a "father in a book" and will help any boys/men who need some kind of guidance or purpose in life, regardless of where you're living.
Available in paperback and kindle.
I haven't read the book yet, but as a Euro (Hungarian living in Austria) I have some misgivings about taking too much advice from people whose experience is mostly relevant to the US or the Anglosphere.
ReplyDeleteAgain I don't know the kind of advice in this book, but the following commonly given advices turned to be not so useful over here:
- "Cut cable." No, actually, cable is the one thing fairly cheap over here and we have no Hulu or Netflix.
- "Save time by watching less TV." And spend it how? Our culture is not so active, get-go than the American culture, most people don't really have much going on in their lives. We need to fill, read, waste some time somehow. I read books, work out, do useful stuff, but I still have hours to kill, and hobbies like whittling or leatherworking, AOM style, are not really part of the modern european culture anymore.
- "Gym, gym, gym." Well, I actually like lifting, but on the whole as we are less likely to live in a suburbia that was zoned to death by the council, there are often other and more fun ways of doing sports within walking distance. I can easily paddle a kayak on the Alte Donau for example.
- "Eat paleo." If your other option is burger and pizza, yes. But we are not so fast food focused, traditional European homecooked or restaurant (real restaurant, not fast food "restaurant") meals while not 100% healthy they are not horribly unhealthy either.
- "Don't get enslaved to a mortgage." Thanks, we know that already. Most folks I know live in co-operative apartments: buy 25% of it, government pays another 25%, pay a reduced rent for the rest.
- "Cut sugar." European culture is generally less sweets-friendly as American: we think chocolate is for women and kids and sweet flavors belong to the dessert, not the main meal. We see a bag of Smarties are profoundly childish and unmasculine. On the other hand we drink more booze - all the teetotaling Protestant preachers we have exported to the US long ago. We often have great bread and eat too much of it. Everybody eating sandwiches for breakfast and often for lunch too. So the Euro version is: "Cut beer/wine and bread."
- "Be an entrepreneur, you are not meant to have a 9 - 5 job." Sorry, the culture here is just not so entrepreneurial. We are not a Do-It-Yourself, get-go, self-employed, hustler culture, more like a "find and know your place" culture. This also includes consumer mentality. I can't explain it, but we are kind of more feudal and less capitalistic, e.g. most people having fully fixed salaries no bonus, have complicated roles instead of focusing on monetary exchange, so entrepreneurship is not so ideal here.
- "Join Toastmasters" - this actually works :-) I love it. Although it often feels uncomfortably repetitive, every meeting having the same structure. More anarchy, less structure please.
- "Travel, see the world." Travel inside Europe? Kinda boring. There is hardly any difference in how people live between say Copenhagen and Prague. Yawn. Most people just go to all-inclusive resorts to the Mediterrean or the latest trend of dumb: cruises. Double yawn. Outside Europe? Well, that sounds a bit scary, 10+ hour plane trips, oh my. Protip for Euros: backpack in Eastern Turkey. A real adventure at a very, very interestingly different (because backwards) place not too far away, and cheap as hell.
- "College is worthless." Well, the taxpayer paid it for me. It really depends on the country. In Germany nobody cares if you can write programs, they care whether you have a degree in programming. In Hungary not so much. Mitteleuropa tends to be very, very credentialist.