newnoise1 reviews the genius of Robert Kiyosaki

Some nights I wake up in a cold sweat after a recurring nightmare. In this dream Robert Kiyosaki first publishes his books on money, saving and investment in 2030, five years before I retire.

I feel like Allison DuBois in Medium when I wake up and realize I still have a year or two to get what he's saying. My only wish is that he said it when I was twenty and not forty. Not that I would have cared one dot about what he was saying then. I felt, as a writer, that money is not what it is about. Little did I know that, even if you are some kind of artist, money is still what makes the world go round. Like someone once said show business is one part business.

Like most twenty year olds I never imagined I would make it to forty. Like the majority I am just as surprised. Frankly, during that time my life was about pursuing experiences as a writer. These experiences often centered on going to dozens of parties in the tradition of The Great Gatsby. Don't let me go there . . .

No matter, even if you are 80 years old you can learn from Robert. However, it would help if you can start reading Robert's books when you are 6 years old. This will provide you with a priceless foundation to start off your investment career and your life in general.

Writers of genius make their readers adjust their focus. Robert's magic is that he turns how average people think about money on its head. He bluntly reveals that the average salary earner has many reasons to panic. He forces you to take a reality check on what you think of as a safe and secure monthly income.

He will inspire you if you had a hard time at school. He had a worse time. If you lost money, he lost more. Don't be fooled, no matter how easy he makes it look it's hard, hard work that takes extreme discipline.

His books are not textbooks. You won't need a degree in Economy or at least an MBA to understand them. His sophistication and knowledge is of such a quality that he can share his life experiences in simple terms. You have to concentrate or you will miss what he's saying.

Which is basically don't buy crap. Rather save or invest your money until you find something worthwhile buying. Something worthwhile is something that will provide you with an income in the long term something that will not depreciate in value.

Furthermore, learn about money, know how it works. Not knowing anything about money, savings and investments is the root of all evil. Ever heard of the guy who won a million in the lottery and was bankrupt three years later? That explains why having money does not mean you know what to do with it.

Don't go overboard with Robert's advice. Once you get what he's saying in Rich Dad's Cashflow Quadrant and Rich Dad Poor Dad don't hand in your resignation and start your own business or buy three houses with your nest egg. First read Before you Quit Your Job and The ABC's of Real Estate Investing.

The minute you think you know it all read Rich Dad's Guide to Investing.

We can't all be Robert Kiyosaki but we can at least find out how and why the minds of the rich and wealthy work.

newnoise1 rushes the read

Rushing the Read


The saying goes that you shouldn't buy shares on media reports. This is easy to say but what are you suppose to do? Go out there and work for the company for a few years?

Look at the news I scanned through today:

One news report claimed that according to Ricky Ponting, the Australian cricket team captain, the pitches they were playing on are life threatening. Then, when I watched the game, the commentators couldn't get over how wonderful the pitch was. So, I probably scanned so fast and through some twist of fate still don't know where they were playing today. Okay, so I fell asleep once or twice during the game and missed out on that part.

So this left me quite confused in a day when I needed every bit of my alleged intelligence to try and understand why Julius Malema was raving on about Nedbank. It's like I've missed some important episode of Dallas - the one where JR got shot. How hard to I have to concentrate to know what's going on!!?? The entire thing sounds like you need to have at least some post graduate training to understand the issues. I think what I'll do is go to Nedbank and open an account and while I'm there perhaps they'll kindly inform me on what the hell is going on.

The other thing I picked up in the Business Report this week is that e-books will do well in South Africa but hand held reading devices are more popular in America. My conclusion in the end was that to download an e-book to your computer is probably cheaper than buying a reading device to do it with. Your guess is as good as mine.

Other confusing news is that FNB is quite optimistic about house prices starting to rise soon while Standard Bank isn't or something like that.



How's that for noise?

Things to write about

Everyday brings dozens of ideas to write about.

• You can write about your day. Was it colourful, drab or nasty. My day was colourful. I was in the thick of things watching two thousand people marching through the streets of Pretoria, on strike for wage increases.
• Did you learn anything new? I learned that my computer has a cd writer. This was amazing after months of begging people to write things on cd for me.
• Listen to old people talk. They have many a story about what happened when Steven wanted to marry Lucy but Lucy was more into Jim and then poor Jim died.
• Listen to children.
• Read the papers for some good ideas. I saw a poster on a lamppost this morning: Neighbour stole my toilet! The mind boggles.
• Remember your childhood and the things you got up to. Write about the colourful characters. If they weren't colourful, make them colourful! Think again of the people and see them now through the eyes of a grown up - do you realise things about them now that you didn't realise then?
• Bonzai, birthdays, beaches, ballrooms, billiards, bedrooms, bicycles. Free associate.
• Draw up a chart and write something new about each character every now and then until it feels as if you know them and they actually exist.
• Smell things.
• Write about the future, how you think things will be like two hundred years from now.

Find your voice!

Warm bath Binchy

Reading Maeve Binchy is like soaking in a warm bath filled with foamy suds before you've considered opening a tap. Her characters are complex and grow throughout her stories, her style is warm and smooth forcing you to turn the pages even when you know you have to get up early for work. She gives a unique perspective with each character experiencing the same events from a personal point of view. Her deep love of Ireland shines through in all her writing.

Maeve Binchy is a master at work. She is an ideal author for the beginning writer to study, especially her character perspectives and expert story telling style.

Know your wallpaper and find your writing voice

Wallpaper is what forms the background to what you are actually busy with. It could be the television that's on while you're doing the dishes. This wallpaper is light green with a dark green paisley motive.

Wallpaper can be a death in the family that you are thinking about at work. This kind is in your face, you can't think of anything else. Actually, the death is not the wallpaper the work becomes the wallpaper. The work as wallpaper is a watery yellow color with no pictures.

I'm thinking of the book A day in the life of Ivan Ilych, his wallpaper was his own authentic voice that he ignored. His life was based on what others wanted of him at home and at work.

I can make a list of things that make excellent, colorful wallpaper. So real is this wallpaper you could think it's more real than death and confuse it with stuff that's real:

Celebrities
Soap operas
Fashion
Hype
Advertising
Things that distract you from your goals
Things that scream louder than your own authenticity
Hype

T.S Eliot was very good at describing wallpaper. He described it as measuring out his days in coffee spoons and cigarette buts.

My point is, find out what is your wallpaper and what is real. Of course everything is real and part of reality. As George Orwell would put it: some things are more real than others.

Don't be so blinded by the unreal that you miss out on the reality of your life.

Find your writing voice!