Keeping it Simple...Ben Stein...

[d]

since K implies, in many if not all of his writings, that most of us are idiots, i see no problem in calling him a @#$(#! !!

 

[megacorp-firee]

So what is he then? A successful businessman, a con artist, a criminal? Help!

I vote for door number 1.2 .. .successful con artist.

 

[clifp]

My older sister and her husband are looking at retiring soon (he just turned 59.5), since sadly he seems to accumulate things at prodigious rate and spend money LBYM has been a challenge even for my frugal sister.

This Xmas I spent an afternoon reading the retirement books at Borders, I finally narrowed it down to two. Ben's book on retirement, Yes, You Can Still Retire Comfortably while far from perfect, was head and shoulder above the rest of the crap out there. Kiyosaki, being a local boy sadly has several feet of shelf space.

Unfortunately, they haven't read it yet...

 

[teejayevans]

Are we allowed to criticize Kiyosaki?
Ha

ok, now he is an idiot based on the comments I read.

BTW, are we sure he just doesn't have a dry sense of humor? And the part about
the lottery was in jest?

TJ

 

[Nords]

Kiyosaki, being a local boy sadly has several feet of shelf space.

He may be a kama'aina but I doubt that he feels welcome around here...

 

[bssc]

He may be a kama'aina but I doubt that he feels welcome around here...

I think that he claims Phoenix as home although I have not had the privledge of meeting him.

 

[tikitoast]

I hung out with Ben Stein briefly in the early 1990's. He worships the affluent and is an image spender par excellence. He probably feels he should be doing something other than spending every dime he gets, but his lifestyle requires that he fit in with the celebrities he constantly courts. So he's conflicted. I have this image of him sitting there curled up with his head in his hands, moaning: "I'm so worried about money..."

The gist of one of his self-help articles for women was: "Girls, stop beating up on your boyfriend/spouse/husband/significant other! He's the real victim in any relationship, not you! You're just a stupid, self-obsessed tramp!" (Or words to that effect.) Frankly he doesn't know much about relationships either, but that doesn't stop him writing about them.

I shouldn't have said any of this, it's probably bad karma...I try to stay positive and not trash people who've done me wrong. But boy, did that guy wreck my life for about a year.

 

[Cut-Throat]

I hung out with Ben Stein briefly in the early 1990's. He worships the affluent and is an image spender par excellence. He probably feels he should be doing something other than spending every dime he gets, but his lifestyle requires that he fit in with the celebrities he constantly courts. So he's conflicted. I have this image of him sitting there curled up with his head in his hands, moaning: "I'm so worried about money..."

The gist of one of his self-help articles for women was: "Girls, stop beating up on your boyfriend/spouse/husband/significant other! He's the real victim in any relationship, not you! You're just a stupid, self-obsessed tramp!" (Or words to that effect.) Frankly he doesn't know much about relationships either, but that doesn't stop him writing about them.

I shouldn't have said any of this, it's probably bad karma...I try to stay positive and not trash people who've done me wrong. But boy, did that guy wreck my life for about a year.

Yup! - He sounds like an Idiot to me!

 

[Mwsinron]

I hung out with Ben Stein briefly in the early 1990's. He worships the affluent and is an image spender par excellence. He probably feels he should be doing something other than spending every dime he gets, but his lifestyle requires that he fit in with the celebrities he constantly courts. So he's conflicted. I have this image of him sitting there curled up with his head in his hands, moaning: "I'm so worried about money..."

The gist of one of his self-help articles for women was: "Girls, stop beating up on your boyfriend/spouse/husband/significant other! He's the real victim in any relationship, not you! You're just a stupid, self-obsessed tramp!" (Or words to that effect.) Frankly he doesn't know much about relationships either, but that doesn't stop him writing about them.

I shouldn't have said any of this, it's probably bad karma...I try to stay positive and not trash people who've done me wrong. But boy, did that guy wreck my life for about a year.

Yep bad karma for sure :

 

[Anansi]

Ben Stein and Suze Orman are Yahoo journalists in this higher quality category who come readily to mind.

Suze Orman? Higher quality? Something is wrong here.

 

[CybrMike]

Being nosy i know, but I'd definitely like to hear more about this.

I hung out with Ben Stein briefly in the early 1990's. He worships the affluent and is an image spender par excellence. He probably feels he should be doing something other than spending every dime he gets, but his lifestyle requires that he fit in with the celebrities he constantly courts. So he's conflicted. I have this image of him sitting there curled up with his head in his hands, moaning: "I'm so worried about money..."

The gist of one of his self-help articles for women was: "Girls, stop beating up on your boyfriend/spouse/husband/significant other! He's the real victim in any relationship, not you! You're just a stupid, self-obsessed tramp!" (Or words to that effect.) Frankly he doesn't know much about relationships either, but that doesn't stop him writing about them.

I shouldn't have said any of this, it's probably bad karma...I try to stay positive and not trash people who've done me wrong. But boy, did that guy wreck my life for about a year.

 

[Milton]

Ben Stein ... worships the affluent and is an image spender par excellence.... I have this image of him sitting there curled up with his head in his hands, moaning: "I'm so worried about money..."

Hillarious!

 

[kcowan]

I hung out with Ben Stein briefly in the early 1990's. He worships the affluent and is an image spender par excellence. He probably feels he should be doing something other than spending every dime he gets, but his lifestyle requires that he fit in with the celebrities he constantly courts. So he's conflicted. I have this image of him sitting there curled up with his head in his hands, moaning: "I'm so worried about money...

Thanks for sharing your personal experience. It gives us a great insight into the man. And frankly it helps me to position him. I used to be troubled by his obscure positions that did not seem to make sense from an otherwise sensible man. Now I understand that he is a sycophant and his various opinions are intended to improve his position with his target groups.

 

[nun]

Thanks for sharing your personal experience. It gives us a great insight into the man. And frankly it helps me to position him. I used to be troubled by his obscure positions that did not seem to make sense from an otherwise sensible man. Now I understand that he is a sycophant and his various opinions are intended to improve his position with his target groups.

Ben Stein.......

Like most of his advice, except his promotion of annuities
Hate his politics
Liked him in Ferris Beuller

 

[Milton]

FWIW, here is a link to a recent background article on Ben Stein, as published in the Yale Economic Review magazine:

http://www.yaleeconomicreview.com/issues/spring2006/benstein

 

[MasterBlaster]

I liked this quote of Ben's...

"Work is the sovereign cure for low self-esteem. Work is the best thing for mental health that has ever been invented. If [someone] doesn't work, he will pay the price for it in a big way. [He'll have] no self-esteem, no feeling that he's capable of doing anything, and it's all because [he will have] no experience working."

 

[haha]

Good article. Ever since I watched Win Ben Stein's Money I decided he was worth listening to. Another recommendation in his favor is that he is not boring.

Ha

 

[tikitoast]

Cybrmike, it's such a weird story.

When I met Stein, I'd never seen Ferris Bueller's Day Off and had no idea who he was. My father had just died and he reminded me so much of Dad. I think that's why I liked him initially. Kind of sad on my part, but I'm offering it as a mitigating circumstance.

Gosh, I want to say some good things about him first. He is utterly brilliant, and one of the funniest guys I've ever spent time with. He's a very good writer. His personal, witty and quirky American Spectator column is the kind of thing he does best--his personal essays are much better than his journalism if you ask me. But he's a true Renaissance man. He's a hilarious character actor. He's a lawyer. The guy can do anything. And he turned my head.

Stein can be charming as all get out when he feels like it. But my newnewss wore off soon, I guess. Finally he was just utterly contemptuous of me. Long story short, he's a classic narcissist with every personality disorder in the book. We lived in separate cities, and he never wanted to come up here. I always had to go see him, but he felt free to constantly change our plans at the last minute. I think he just enjoyed jerking me around. One example of many: I was trying to arrange a visit once (he lives in LA), and he changed my plans eight times. If I complained that his shenanigans were making it difficult for me to get time off of work, to arrange my flight, or whatever, he just kept doing it. Sometimes it would work to tell him that someone else in my life was affected. When I told him I thought he should make a decision, already, because my cat sitter was a nice lady and I didn't want to keep jerking her around, a light went on. But he didn't mind jerking me around for some reason. (Can you say passive-aggressive?)

It all became too much when I was expected to be part of a posse of his many other girlfriends and not complain about it. And it was clear he would never stop yakking about how wonderful and beautiful his ex-wife was, and that I would never measure up. One of the most hurtful things he did was to call up a friend once when I was within hearshot, and complain loudly about my childishness. He would also say warm, supportive things to me like, "I wish you were famous."

Stein's financial writing is full of contradictions, as you all have noted, but I want to say it's possible he's actually not a spendthrift. I really don't know. For all I know he's got a huge net worth. Maybe when he said he was worried about money, it meant that he had so much money he was afraid of losing it. It was a long time ago. But it seems to me that his financial advice has more than a hint of "I'm writing this so I'll remember what I need to do myself." I believe writing is therapeutic for him, that his books are mostly for himself. If I find it hard to accept him as an authority, it's because I see him as a person who is struggling to learn lessons which he's pretended to master. I'd be more comfortable if he'd written a confessional account of his money struggles, without purporting to tell anyone else what they ought to do.

He's not a crackpot. He's got some good ideas. I just think he could present them with a little more humility and honesty.

 

[Nords]

He's not a crackpot. He's got some good ideas. I just think he could present them with a little more humility and honesty.

Bummer, another media/entertainment hero leaving clay tracks...

 

[haha]

Wow Tiki, I understand why you were so hurt. There is nothing to quite compare with being treated with open contempt by someone we care about.

Ha

 

[tikitoast]

Thanks guys. Sometimes I think all I do is whine on here. Don't want to be a downer! Just had to respond to the thread though.

Things happen for a reason. (What reason, I'm never quite sure.) But things have been much better in general for me in recent years. I'm happily married, enjoy my work, and have enough money that I've been able to start worrying, in true Ben Stein fashion, about what to do with it

 

[OKLibrarian]

Things happen for a reason. (What reason, I'm never quite sure.) But things have been much better in general for me in recent years. I'm happily married, enjoy my work, and have enough money that I've been able to start worrying, in true Ben Stein fashion, about what to do with it

Sounds like you traded up to me.

 

[spideyrdpd]

Well if you bought a second home ten yrs ago you would be laughing your way to the bank. Most cars are depreciating assets. Not sure if a bentley would be any different.
Its sorta along the lines that many people preach. Buy the most expensive home you can afford. Of course the word afford tends to mean different things you different peoples.

 

[Cut-Throat]

Well if you bought a second home ten yrs ago you would be laughing your way to the bank. Most cars are depreciating assets. Not sure if a bentley would be any different.

Well yeah, if you bought a Skyscraper in Manhattan 10 years ago you could laugh at the guy that bought a second home.

The problem is that he is not comparing apples to apples. The Handyman vs. the MIT guy - the handyman's Bentley was probably pretty cheap compared to the MIT guys 1st or 2nd home! -

I take it back Ben Stein is not an idiot, he's a dipsh!t

 

[spideyrdpd]

I would think you guys would appreciate the fact that the mit guys homes were paid off. Of course maintaining a house is still more than a car. Even without debt.