Originally Posted by raging moderate

The problem with Robert Kiyosaki is that, if you look into his actual strategies, it's more of a get-rich-quick scheme than any kind of actual instructions for long-term wealth. Buy low, sell high. Find a house that is for sale for much less than the value, buy it, sell it at value, make money. that's fine, assuming everyone selling real estate is a complete moron. he is a good writer and makes an excellent pep talk, but as for real advice, he comes up somewhat short.

lest i be accused of stepping on one idea without suggesting another, my financial guru of choice is Dave Ramsey. I'm not in cahoots with him or anything but he gives really good, sensible advice for real people trying to make their financial lives better. Stash a small emergency fund, snowball your payments by paying off the smallest debts first, rejoice in your successes, use your smaller paid-off debt payments to compound payments on larger debt, repeat. It was my strategy for paying off debt and it as worked outstandingly well. I've yet to find an house underpriced that i was able to buy and then sell outright for profit, but by paying off debt and then using that monthly payment amount plus the payment on the next smallest debt, and so on, i was able to get rid of almost all of my debt without considerable hardship.

edit: PS in our house, we discuss money on a daily basis. We go online to see our bank accounts and make sure we are on track for our budget, we make nearly all purchasing decisions together, and we work towards our financial goals together. that's the most important thing - to set goals and work towards them. to quote whoever said this, if you don't know where you're going, you'll probably end up somewhere else.