Book review: Rich Dad, Poor Dad
Feb. 1st, 2008 11:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beth_leonardI flipped through the book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" in a store once, and finally read it this year. In some ways it was more simplistic than I needed, but in other ways it was just right. I recommend it if you're squeamish about money and investing.
For me, one of the main take-aways is that my investments are real money. In fact, investments are more important than my full time employment for my long term income stream. Before reading this book, I'd certainly had the mindset that my money was the cash held in the bank, and my stocks were figurative play money to be invested and grown, but never to be touched. Stocks were for giving to charity, earned income (after taking out the max for 401K, company stock purchase, and taxes) was to be lived on.
When Jon and I both left our "real" jobs a few years ago that mindset began to change. I knew that our investments produced income, but never really had a handle on how to best spend/save/reinvest it. We set spending limits and developed the frivolous expense budget (which has been working quite well) but I still didn't know what sort of income was necessary to maintain our lifestyle.
Now that I've finished the book, I'm trying much harder to figure out our whole financial picture -- to learn the story the numbers are telling me. My gut says we're doing ok, but my brain wants to check and doesn't know how. I'm now planning to learn how to figure that out. I suppose you could say that one of my New Year's Resolutions (along with "wean at least one child" and "lose 5 lbs") is to learn more about our finances and to manage them better.
The second take-away is that it's important to learn these things, take classes and study it. Knowing the tax code is useful.
--Beth
For me, one of the main take-aways is that my investments are real money. In fact, investments are more important than my full time employment for my long term income stream. Before reading this book, I'd certainly had the mindset that my money was the cash held in the bank, and my stocks were figurative play money to be invested and grown, but never to be touched. Stocks were for giving to charity, earned income (after taking out the max for 401K, company stock purchase, and taxes) was to be lived on.
When Jon and I both left our "real" jobs a few years ago that mindset began to change. I knew that our investments produced income, but never really had a handle on how to best spend/save/reinvest it. We set spending limits and developed the frivolous expense budget (which has been working quite well) but I still didn't know what sort of income was necessary to maintain our lifestyle.
Now that I've finished the book, I'm trying much harder to figure out our whole financial picture -- to learn the story the numbers are telling me. My gut says we're doing ok, but my brain wants to check and doesn't know how. I'm now planning to learn how to figure that out. I suppose you could say that one of my New Year's Resolutions (along with "wean at least one child" and "lose 5 lbs") is to learn more about our finances and to manage them better.
The second take-away is that it's important to learn these things, take classes and study it. Knowing the tax code is useful.
--Beth
