Books

Roberty Koyasaki made his money in a world that no longer exists. I've been dragged to one of his seminars by a friend who is an OT Baller but doesn't want to work to do it anymore.

Free seminar where you're offered $300 in materials w/"discounts" available to knock it down to $250, and for those "serious" about becoming rich, they want you to fork over $3K to attend a "weekend event", where they offer you to come to an even more expensive event elsewhere.

It's all a ripoff. He went on CNBC and completely flopped on how to make money on a small scale. It's all about finding distressed properties and flipping them, using your own credit to float your own real-estate investment business.

Complete schister.

Dave Ramsey: Total Money Makeover

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I think rich dad poor dad's message is good. it tells you to put your money into income producing assets, and to use that income to buy more income producing assets.

but dont take his investment advice. from what I remember he was heavy into flipping real estate, and buying ipo and junk bonds. pretty sure he makes most of his money these days from his books and seminars.

I completely agree with you.

However a guy who has a sociological plan to fix personal finance (which is very effective) doesn't mean anything to me personally. Anyone can figure out spend less, earn/save more, he's a motivator and good at what he does, but that doesn't make him someone I want to listen to about the merits of investing.

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

Thank me later.

As far as Dave Ramsey goes, his "wisdom" is just plain common sense for most of us here. However, as it is apparent from the callers on his show, common sense eludes a great number of people, especially when dealing with financial matters.

I disagree with him on a few items. He advocates not using a credit card under any circumstances and dismisses the perceived importance of a good credit score.

A credit card can a valuable financial tool for someone who is responsible with it. I've received about $1000 in credit cards rewards over the past two years by simply making a lot of purchases on credit and paying them off each month. IMO, it is one of the closest things to free money. I feel like he thinks the majority of his followers are too weak to own a credit card and not run up excessive amounts of debt.

Also, I'm not sure about completely dismissing the idea of maintaining a healthy credit score. When I purchased my home, I got a very good interest rate. The lender told me that it was my excellent credit score that played heavily into me getting the best rate available. Saving a half of a percentage point on a home loan due to an excellent credit score (as compared to the poor one you obtain following Dave Ramsey's advice) can lead to a significant amount of savings over time.

I've stalled out about a quarter of the way through The Truth About Money by Ric Edelman. It's greatly increased my knowledge of personal investment vehicles, which isn't saying much I suppose. I should get back to it once I finish A Confederacy of Dunces.

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but fill out this one little form for a VISA at LSU & you get this cool T-Shirt!

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I've received several cool T-shirts over the years.

I don't have the credit cards anymore and other than my home mortgage and business loan, it IS nice to not have revolving credit debt.

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Complete schister

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Shyster, brah, shyster, otherwise people may be clueless as to what you mean....and I agree on Kyosaki, guy is worthless.

Economics/finance/personal finance is like everything else, most Americans are too lazy to lift a finger to try and improve. Kudos on what you have accomplished clearing debt/credit blemishes.

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Expected Returns: An Investor's Guide to Harvesting Market Rewards (The Wiley Finance Series)

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The above is a great book for future reading.