Reddit mentions of Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money-That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!

There's 3 kinds of incomes: A, B, and C income:

C - A job, the worst way to make a living. Working for another man trading dollars for hours. Slogan: "I'll learn to love (tolerate) what I do and live with what it gives me, at least until I save up enough money to strike out on my own."

B - Contracting work, a business you work. Trading dollars for hours still, but you work for yourself and set your own price. Example, creating and selling products or providing a service. Slogan: "I get paid what I'm worth because I work hard, make my own hours and prices"

A - Passive income streams, AKA residual income, a business that runs itself. Acquire a system of assets. Assets vary greatly and are generally built over time. Examples: Owning a rental unit, owning rental boats, owning a storage facility, really anything you can rent out is an asset, owning an online business that generates enough money for you to pay a manager to run it for you, investments in an institution that pays off high-yields, a copyright that leads to royalty payments, Or setting something up so others can make money, and take a small percentage (Facebook & twitter). Slogan: "Key word: Ownership. I've worked hard, sacrificed for the future, and made tough decisions most people don't. So now I don't have to work for money anymore... my money works for me now!"

Some books on how to get to Level A: 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad', 'The Richest Man in Babylon' Good luck out there :)

Whatever you do, do not sacrifice your own financial security for their sake. Make sure you have your emergency fund set up; do not ever under any circumstances ever ever ever co-sign any loans for them or give them any credit cards under your name ever, on any planet. Ever. See this previous post of mine for just one reason why.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad is a good book for understanding different perspectives on personal finance.

For stubborn parents, I find that a little bit of a guilt trip goes a long way in helping them understand the potential impact of their actions -- i.e., they have no savings for retirement, what do they expect to do when they want to stop working in 5-10 years? Live off of your income? How is that fair to you? You would most likely just be starting a family of your own and trying to save for potential children's educations and your own retirement, do they really want to be an impediment to that?

Edit: Link to book

No problem at all. Honestly the best thing I have ever read that has given me the most beneficial mind set towards money is the book Rich Dad Poor Dad. Its my financial principle bible. Ive read it at least 4 times thought high school and up to now. Listen to me when I say this and Just Read It. As far as stock specific goes, I used a site called wall street survivor Stock Simulation Game
It follows the stock market exactly and teaches you the basics starting out with a mock up 100K. I played it all through highschool and it has taught me SO much and saved me SO much. There are several other sites like this one but its just the one I've found to like the most. To give relation I'm in the same boat as you. In college and have a few thousand in the bank that I'm trying to make something with. When I say make something I mean I'm aiming for a 10% return on my portfolio after tax and commissions. Lastly and most important are my own personal rules, DONT touch your real cash until you have spent at least 6-8 consecutive months playing the security and keeping track of it in relation to it's industry. And when you do don't put more than 10% in any one security. Also Dont invest in anything you don't understand. And finally, the ultimate goal is to have all your money working for you creating a steady cash flow of passive income. <-- This is something I have still yet to accomplish but am hoping to in the next few years.

I can tell from your perspective that your work experience is limited in the corporate world to one or few companies. I'm 40 and worked in tech startups most of my career before starting a business. When you work in tech startups, the average time you're at a company is a year or two, so I've worked at a lot of places. I also consulted for a couple of years and bounced from company to company. I've worked at plenty of places where the executives all have corporate credit cards and charge meals regularly. I've charged meals at companies I've worked for thousands of times. At several dotcoms I've worked at it was customary to have breakfast provided daily and lunches catered on a regular basis. When my company had offices we provided breakfast each Monday, and did a bbq every Friday, and it's all deducted as business expenses on taxes. None of that appears on anyone's pay stub. Your company may have a policy of billing execs for your corporate cafeteria, but that's not how the rest of the business world works.

I've also worked for companies that have kept permanent corporate apartments. They were regularly used by software engineers that we would fly in from other states or Russia where we had an office. Some were in these apartments for over a year and none were billed for rent. They kept their primary residence and some were flown back regularly. One guy from AZ was going back every weekend.

My mother owned a real estate business. She wrote off part of the house where her office was, and wrote off her car as a business expense. I once worked at a software company where someone in the accounting department sent an email to all asking who had a particular cell number because it was being billed to the company and wasn't on the internal phone list. The phone was being used by the CEO's 75 year old father who didn't work for the company or know how to turn on a computer. Companies can write off plenty of things which benefit executives.

Companies that are pre-IPO can offer shares at much lower rates than what they know it will IPO for in a year or two. There's a flaw in your assumption that a particular executive has a hand in the success of the company when stock prices go up and they profit from ISOs. Sometimes a certain sector becomes the hot stocks and the price goes up. Other times executives offshore jobs, sell off assets and divisions of the company to artificially boost profits and the stocks go up temporarily, but it hurts the company in the long run. Sometimes companies acquire other companies and the stock goes up temporarily, but it hurts the company in the long run. I worked at a company where we begged the CEO not to do an acquisition. The stock went up, he made millions. Six months later, when the competitor was able to sell their stock, they dumped it on the market, and drove the stock into a downward spiral that the company never recovered from. There are thousands of dotcom millionaires that worked at companies which never made a penny in profit and went out of business.

If I want, I can setup a company that is seeking commercial real estate opportunities. Then, I can expense trips to Hawaii, Europe, or anywhere I want to go. The company can operate at a loss for a couple of years, and all of my trips can be deducted as a business expense even if I don't buy any real estate. Then, I can fold up that company, and open one that looks for timeshare opportunities.

The top 1% is not paying 35% federal, 8% state and 3.876% city. They are using these loopholes to pay far less. A lot of stars don't get paid directly from studios, they incorporate themselves so they get to write off everything they can, and pay taxes only on what's left over at the end of the year.

There's a book you should really read called, "Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money--That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!" by Robert T. Kiyosaki. It's only about 200 pages and it's a quick read, not very academic, but full of good business information and a nice story. Here's the amazon link, but it's probably at any bookstore you pass by. http://www.amazon.com/Rich-Dad-Poor-Money-That-Middle/dp/0446677450

Learn some basic accounting. Learn to balance cash flow. Use Quickbooks/Quicken and bill pay.

Try to not buy things that cost money. Try to buy things that will make you money.

Separate your career from your business.

Best book I ever read was Rich Dad Poor Dad ( http://www.amazon.com/Rich-Dad-Poor-Money-That-Middle/dp/0446677450/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_a ) buy it used for a couple dollars. This book, through a 3rd grade reading level, will teach the basics of getting ahead...and most importantly, get you excited about it.

(Free video: http://www.betterdaystv.net/play.php?vid=190). Stay away from the courses and stuff...they're really expen$ive and I'm not convinced they're all that useful. ...and read other authors who's view points are different to round yourself out.

And so you know, I am closing on my 13th profitable real estate investment thanks to the teachings of this book. It's a great start.

Get the book Poor Dad Rich Dad and read it. Then invest in assets.