Rich Dad, Poor Dad

I have just finished reading "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" and it has really changed the way I am looking at my finances. There is nothing in this book that is really all that different or against what you probably already know but it is constructed in a way that really makes it make sense, and although it doesn't contain anything I didn't already know what it has done is shown me that my thinking has been back to front, essentially (And very basically) I have always tried to pay all my bills and then save what I have left, this has caused me to have very slightly more money at the end of each year, I have then worked to improve my Job so that the amount of extra money is slightly more each year, according to Rich Dad what I should have been doing is improving my Assets (Basically anything that creates a passive income) so that they pay my expenses in fact other than as a way to buy assets the Job I have worked so hard to get really is irrelevant to my future wealth. Anyway as I say this is a very basic lesson I learned from the book so I am now going to try and follow the advice and see how it goes.

Since reading the book and to make sure I am not just being taken in by some slick advertising I have also read a lot of views that are against the book.

Taking both sides into account I think I would still happily recommend this book, Most of the "Anti" comments I have read are basically saying that Robert Kiyosaki isn't being honest with his stories or that he doesn't have a proven business reputation but to be honest I am not all that worried about these things as my advice is read the book and absorb the lessons but don't worry that much about the actual stories, to me it seemed these were more there to illustrate the message, they were not the message itself. (Even the books title could be seen as false as the Rich Dad referred too isn't Robert's Dad even if you believe everything in the book) So don't take it too seriously and you should enjoy it a lot.

Sir Philip Green Set to Save us £20Bn

Sir Philip Green has completed a review into public spending and has announced that he can save the country £20bn a year in efficiency savings based on procurement and economies of scale, apparently the owner of Top Shop suggests that there is a possibility of saving 6-700M in telecoms alone. This is really just confirmation of what we have known about the Labour Governments attitude to our money all along, The attitude seems to have varied from “It’s not our money so why worry.” All the way to “We need to spend as much as possible otherwise we won’t get as much next year.” And it is this attitude as much as the actual waste that needs to be challenged if we are to ever get a real chance of closing the budget gap, and this is not just the civil servants but has been led from the politicians from the top and the Unions who seem to feel their members have a right to waste this money.

Now this £20Bn saving, if it is achieved will help protect many front line services, unfortunately it will not mean a lot in helping the Quangos and other bodies already facing cuts as after all the deficit last year was £159.8Bn so a further £139Bn of cuts are needed (Just to break even, this will not even start to pay off our now 1 Trillion of debt (or 71% of GDP) simply stop us building up anymore debt and interest. But it is 20Bn less to need to spend than if Labour had been allowed to carry on their policies of waste. After all despite what the last administration seem to believe and the attitude of many people currently living off the state – This is our Money, It comes from our hard work and taxes and it is about time someone started to look after it!