Lately, I’ve been reading a number of books that are related to finances/investing, etc.  This all started because one night at a friend’s house, we were playing this game called Cashflow, which is like an updated, more realistic version of Monopoly.  This game was designed by Richard Kiyosaki, the central figure of the Rich Dad, Poor Dad empire. The game was fun, fast paced, and a lot of fun. The next day, I woke up at the crack of dawn (which was 2 pm, but come on, it was the weekend), and raced to the nearest Borders Books to purchase the related book: Rich Dad Poor Dad.  It was a book that through a thinly veiled ‘Richest Man in Babylon’ story format talked about finances with the ultimate message that there are those who work for money (ie most of us fools who work at jobs), and those who make their money work for them.  Their money didn’t just work, it worked HARD.  Overall, it was one of those books that was an interesting and motivating quick read. 

Dale and I got all fired up of the things we would do and the riches we would make and the lives we would lead by getting our money to work for us.  All sorts of ideas started rushing in of what we were going to do, how we’d do it, and how quickly we’d become financially independent just like them.  It was exciting to think of being considered ‘well off,’ given that I’m 35 , I live with my parents because rents/housing prices are out of control, and I work in a state where the jobs generally pay less than what they did in San Francisco 12 YEARS AGO.  Regardless, we were going to do this, and we were going to succeed!

The problem was, the buzz from the game and book wore off.  Soon, I found myself buying Rich Woman and Who Took My Money soon after. It was somewhere during reading Rich Woman that I started getting this vague feeling of being sucked into an infomercial. The book said much of the same as Rich Dad, and she (this one was written by the wife) did a lot of the same talking about how they started from nothing, and now they can do whatever they want because their money is working so hard for them. It, too, had a flimsy plot of four or five best high school girlfriends who get together for a reunion and end up having her teach them how she became so successful. In this book, I started looking for actual DETAILS on how she did this (like leveraging a bank when you have no money or credit), and I wasn’t very successful in finding any. While each of her ‘friends’ had a strategy of what they would do by the end, they were pretty ill-defined (‘I’m going to research stocks!’ or ‘I’m going to look into real estate!’).

By now, I was prety convinced I was pursuing ‘how to make the Kiyosaki’s rich’, but I needed ‘just one more book’ to make sure. I picked up a copy of Who Took My Money?, already basically knowing the storyline, and it wasn’t very different from the other two. I don’t know what it is, but there is something about these books that sucks you in, gives you the sense that ‘it’s just around the corner, we’re just about to tell you…’ that keeps gullible people like me buying them.

I believe I helped make Barnes and Noble rich with those two books.

To say I got nothing out of these books would be a lie, because I am more of a novice at finances than I am at web development, and I do feel more informed now. I learned that, just like with so many writers, they write one book, and it’s great. People love it, it sells well, maybe even becomes one of those household name books that EVERYONE has read. Unfortunately with this scenario, the writer spends the rest of his/her life writing variations from the one that made them famous. I thought this was largely reserved for the New Age community (and Dan Millman in particular), but I guess if you can write one, you can write a ton (see Rich Dad’s Catelog if you don’t believe me).

And don’t buy the game. I got it for Christmas after begging and pleading for it.  I would rather have the $200 in hindsight.