I find his preaching on the one true way to success just as frustrating as a pushy parent who insists their child do all of the extra curricular activities, is so gifted, and so on and so forth.

I get that we all draw from personal experience when defining our world view - but I'm reluctant to make blanket statements about anything. As for the idea that this one short list of rules will guarantee your children are "successful"? I just don't buy into it. At all.

Agreed, it's annoying and frustrating. If you read the "Start Here" section, the author talks about the secret to financial success is to not have an "overpriced phone" and to "not drive a car". Yeah, those are realistic for most people.

You don't need an iPhone. Live close to work if you can, or remote. If you cannot, buy a reliable used car.

He's preaching simple financial common sense that far too many folks lack. Live below your means, save a significant portion of your income into investments. This is not rocket science.

Protip: You cannot achieve financial independence living in the Bay Area unless you strike the options lottery; the cost of living is simply too high to save the amount of income necessary to do so (can't live below your means when ~50% of your income goes to rent).

I spend just under 50% of my income on rent. I save around 20% per month.

This is London, not the Bay, but I'm reasonably sure it's possible to accumulate savings even there - it just depends what you choose to spend money on.

Guy I work with spends less than half what I do on rent (he shares a room with his gf in a larger house and lives further out), but spends a fortune on things I'd never countenance. A vive, a £400 graphics card etc.

Clothes? Alcohol? Expensive meals? Coffees? Phones? Computer games? Peripherals? All choices that we make, all costs we can avoid/minimise.

He is right, but ... he means something different by "elite." Knowing technology will get you a good job and benefit you in other ways, it is not the fastest and surest path to social prestige.

Attending a top university is the fastest and surest path (though, like everything in life, not guaranteed) to that tiny class that rules the world.

Whether you want to play that game, or whether you prefer to win that game the hard way, is another question.

I'd argue that being skilled in your own right is a surer path than riding coattails. Granted, most of us would like the latter method to be even less reliable, but in most lines of work it's hard to turn down who's hard working and very good at what they do.