Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki

Reviewed by Sarah
Start Date: July 1
Finish Date: July 5
Star/Movie Rating: N/A, This is NOT a novel
richdad.com

The poor and the middle class work for money. The rich have money work for them.

Yes, most of my reading has been novels, because, well, novels are awesome. I love them. But, as I keep mentioning, I've been experiencing a readers slump for the last few weeks--nothing I've picked up has really kept my attention, even though I know that otherwise I would be really interested in it.

So on the way home from California on Wednesday, when Lymond was speaking gibberish and the Coyote Road trickster tales weren't entertaining, I picked up this book that mom had brought for herself--Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I didn't really have any clear idea of what it would be about. I read about 2/3 of it on the road, stole it from mom took it back to school with me and picked it up today to read the last of it.

Wow, am I financially illiterate. Before reading this book I knew so little, like a newborn baby. (Help! I'm a babe in arms!) Now, I'm... still a baby. There is a whole lot of information in this book, but I believe the main thing I learned from this book is how very, very little I know about money. I've done fairly well in school, I'm doing fairly well in college, I'm well on my way to a highly specialized career so that I can spend my life working for money (or I could get married and yadda yadda yadda, but we're not talking about that right now). Sounds like a great life, the american dream or some such. Well, it doesn't seem quite so ideal anymore.

Going into this with essentially NO financial knowledge was both a good and a bad thing. I mean, I'd heard of assets and liabilities and cash flow and such before, but they'd never really been explained to me. So when the author offered a "new" definition for these terms, I had no "old" one to get rid of. He says, "A house is a liability and this is why," I say, "Ok, so why are you talking about people saying it isn't one? Because according to your explanation I don't see how it could be anything else."

But going in without knowledge was also a bad thing. Many of the things he talked about were a bit over my head, or required some basic knowledge that I don't have. I need to take a class, think, and then re-read, and of course read other books on the subject. But I still want to read my novels. And I want plenty of money in the future, so I can have my very own awesome library. (And birds, and a kitchen, and an art studio, and a dance floor. And maybe somewhere to sleep.) So what should I read?

The writing in the book was simple, nothing flowery or extra that you come across in novels. Not what anyone would call "great" writing, but it was completely adequate for its purpose. There were many real-life stories that kept the subject interesting. Well, more interesting--I would like to make money, and when you show me how with pictures and stories along with the regular lecturing, so much the better.

It was interesting how much self-searching this book inspired. It talked about human traits, both positive and negative, which I could see the presence or lack of in myself. And, though it made sense the way it was explained, its kind of weird looking back on it--I swear that in order to be rich you need to have Multiplue Personalities. You must be greedy and generous, ambitious and humble. Nobody is pretending that making money work for you is easy, not around here. (*groan*)

Who wants to play CASHFLOW? I do, but I'm not quite brave enough to spend that $200 that needs to go toward tuition in a couple months. Gotta work on frying that chicken, remembering the Alamo and thinking like a Texan.