Rich Dad, Poor Dad chronicles the story of the authors two dads, his own father, who was the superintendent of education in Hawaii and who ended up dying penniless and his best friends father who dropped out of school at age 13 and went on to become one of the wealthiest men in Hawaii.

Kiyosaki uses the story of these two men and their varying financial strategies to illustrate the need for a new financial paradigm in order to achieve financial success in the new millennium.

Listening Location
Old Town Murrieta. Walked the entire length of Old Town Both ways.

Experience
Took me back into time to the 1950’s. I found myself immersed in the story and could relate to the experiences.

Excerpt from my step by step account…

I plugged in the earphones, put on my jacket, and clipped the Ipod to my belt. I started walking south along Washington Ave about 7pm. The story on the Ipod was one of two boys growing up in Hawaii in the 1950’s. The reality I was seeing was an old town that could have been out of that book. As the Author talked about his adventures growing up and the lessons that he learned it was if I had been transported back in time. Robert talked about working in Mrs Martin’s store for 10 cents and hour… I looked across the street and there was the rustic Murrieta Market. There was a young boy in the door dust mopping the floor and shaking the dust off in a huge cloud. Probably the same thing had been happening for 40 or 50 years… different kids… different times..

I walked further and I passed a Bar & Grill. The noise was loud and somebody inside was causing a commotion. I walked past the entrance and the story on the Ipod talked about people who didn’t understand how money worked would always be spending their money on frivolous things like alcohol and gambling. This was getting more profound by the minute. I continued down the street fascinated by Mr. Kiyosaki’s stories. The words were literally before my eyes.

As I reached the other end of town, I crossed the street and headed back. I soon heard people singing and I noticed a very small church building off to the left in the darkness. It could probably hold 30 people at the most. There was a glow around the front door and the singing got louder as I approached. All of a sudden the front door burst open and a young gal came running out at full speed. She ran right in front of me and continued down the street to a tattered mini van. She grabbed a book out of the back, muttered a faint hello, and hurried back in. The interesting thing was there was no name on the building… no worship times , no denomination, … nothing.

The audio book was talking about the desperation of people and businesses that didn’t understand financial principles. I couldn’t help thinking that this church needed to invest in a sign so the people of the neighborhood could get more information. Why wasn’t there a name or other information? If I lived nearby how could I get involved? It seemed so odd. And then it got more interesting as I walked further. Across the street there was more of a ruckus at the Bar. The noise level increased and someone was yelling from the front porch. What would happen if that little church had an outreach and a name, I wondered?

I continued on and Robert talked about the lesson’s he learned from his rich dad and how he invested in Real Estate. The stories of how he took dilapidated old buildings and turned them into high rises. I looked up to see an amazing dichotomy. On one side of the street was an old house from the turn of the century… boarded up and a rickety for-sale sign hanging from a post. The other side was a new two story office building that was under construction.

I had now reached the other end of town and I headed back to my car. When I opened the door I turned off the Ipod and I was suddenly transported from 1956 back to 2006. I can’t tell you how amazing this short little journey was. I will finish this audio book up in the next few days and then I hope to interview someone who has learned some of Robert’s financial principles.

This book tells an amazing story..

Back to the future 2006… Wow!

Interview Upcoming with real estate investor.

Three Main Takeaways

1. They don’t teach you about money in school.

2. Learning about wealth equals freedom.

3. You can be well educated and have a large salary but still be poor.

The venerable ipod has really changed the way I learn from books. With an audio title, I always finish the book. I can easily bookmark sections, and play popular sections over and over.

The only real problem I have with the format is making notes while listening. If I’m driving, or out walking it’s hard to write down notes. Since I usually don’t have a written copy for reference it’s hard to go back and find an exact section to capture notes at a later date. This also makes it harder to review the book since I don’t have access to the written copy for pullouts and quotes.

With over 30 great books to review, I’ve struggled to find a way to bring them to you in a review format. I’ve resorted to buying the hard copy in some instances or relying on an author’s website for additional information. In preparing for a seminar that I’m doing this week on podcasting, I’ve run into a little device that may really help to capture notes along the way.

The device is called the I-talk Pro from Griffen technologies. It’s a small microphone that plugs into the bottom of newer iPods and allows you to record hi quality stereo audio to your iPod in Wav format. When you sync your iPod with your computer, this audio is automatically moved from your iPod to your computer and the disk space is reclaimed.

I ordered one of these from Amazon last week and have been amazed how well it works. You plug the device into your sync port at the bottom of the iPod and it automatically pulls up a recording screen. It gives you a choice of high quality (stereo) or low quality (mono) audio recording and has a recording button. It’s as simple as that.

I usually choose high quality on my video iPod since I have a lot of disk space. The recording quality of this unit is superb. When I want to make notes about an audio book I’m listening to, I just plug it in and record. It’s really as simple as that. To go back to listening to my Audio book, I just remove the unit. It’s fast and simple.

This is an ideal unit for recording podcasts. It is especially useful for recording group conversations as it can be placed on a desk or table where everyone can talk into it. The pickup range is good and the stereo separation really adds a spacial effect.

After recording some podcast material I have realized how useful this will be for Audio book reviews. When I’m done listening to an Audio book, I can listen to my notes at home and put together an informative outline. Then it is just a matter of putting together a book review podcast. This unit makes it fast and easy to record the podcast almost anywhere, with great sound.

I plan to use this unit to create reviews of many of the great books I have listened to over the past year and bring them to you with a written outline, three major points, and a podcast that you can subscribe to. I hope to be able to make this site a resource for audio book reviews that you can take with you.