When Robert Kiyosaki started writing this book on line. I was invited to read the book as it evolved. This book in its physical form really summarizes and refreshes my memory. The book, except for the frequent repetition, drives home Rich Dad’s message. We’re living in a rapidly changing global-economy world. It’s not your father’s world any more, given the new financial crises, waves after waves. Time to learn while riding on the roller coaster ride.

4 main forces that keep people struggling financially: taxes, debt, inflation, and retirement.
1. Conspiracy against our education: academic, professional, and financial education (most important in the information age). New rule of money #1: Money is knowledge.

2. Conspiracy against our money: The bank never goes broke. New rule of money #2: Learn how to use debt. New rule of Money #3: Learn to control cash flow. Observe three things: jobs, people, and cash – where they are flowing to and from.

3. Conspiracy against our wealth: socialism taking control. US-type (deflation) vs. German-type (inflation) depression. New Rule of Money #4: Prepare for the bad times and you will only know good times.

4. Conspiracy against our financial intelligence: The invisible bank robbery: 1. Fractional reserve banking. 2. Deposit insurance. New Rule of Money #5: The need for speed. Those who will succeed in the future will be entrepreneurs who understand how quickly business and money are changing, and who have the ability and flexibility to quickly change and adapt.

The author’s crystal ball: 1. Old industries are dying, 2. taxes will rise, 3. US is the biggest debtor nation in the world, 4. China is threatening the reserve status of the US dollar. 5. The US consumer is loaded with debt and strapped for cash. 6. Unemployment is rising. 7. Technology is invisible and relatively inexpensive., 8. Our school systems have not prepared students for the information age., 9. Frugality is now cool.

New Rule of Money #6: Learn the language of money. Knowledge begins with words: words of a poor person, middle-class person, and a rich person. Capital gain (gambling) vs. cash flow (focuses of investments). Cash flow for average people: 1. savings, 2. stocks, 3. pensions, 4. annuities.

The secret of success: Sell, become a student of the word Sell. Financial Fairy Tale #1: Live Below Your Means. #2: Go to school so you can get a secure job. #3: Social security and the stock market.

Building for the future: Integrity #1 Mission, #2 Team, #3 Leader, #4 Product, #5, Legal, #6 System, #7 Communications, #8 Cash Flow. New Rule of Money #7: Live is a team sport. Choose your team carefully.

Financial Education: An Unfair Advantage. 1. Expanding your means rather than living below your means. 2. Printing your own money. New Rule of Money #8: Since money is becoming worthless and less, learn to print your own. Learn by: reading (10% retention), lecture, participating in group discussion increases retention, via simulation or games.

15 financial lessons: 1. The history of money, 2. Understanding your financial statement, 3. The difference between an asset and liability, 4. The differences between capital gains and cash flow, 5. The difference between fundamental and technical investing. 6. Measuring the asset’s strength. 7 Know how to choose good people. 8. Know what asset is best for you. 9. Know when to focus and when to diversify. 10. Minimize risk. 11. Know how to minimize taxes, 12. The difference between debt and credibility. 13. Know how to use derivatives. 14. Know how to your wealth is chosen. 15. Know how to make mistakes.

There are lots of wisdom from the author’s father, Sam Halpern, in this book. The story started out at the present when the author moved back to his parents home where he captured all the nuggets of wise quotes from his father. The quotes started out as innocent, funny twitter one-liners, which eventually evolved into this book. The chapters were organized as themes of their own but chronologically organized from the author’s birth to the present.

The father, Sam Halpern, is a wise man whose cavalier personality and the mastery of foul language makes this book particularly funny and the truth hard hitting.

I enjoyed the story of Sam’s chasing after the noise after the 1am curfew and ended up being full monty in front of his wife’s sister. Another funny story was when the author was crawling under the chairs when his father was giving a speech on Nuclear medicine to the physicians. His father’s belief in religion and afterlife is very clear – non-existent – focus on living, dying is the easy part. How true! The father at one time forced his son to apologize to the entire class of his faking the scientific experiment project, which speaks loudly about the father’s integrity.

My favorite quotes are below:
On getting his son to consume all the energy from the candies, “Don’t come back in until ready to sleep or shit.” On sportmanship, “No, you can’t go getting mad at people because they’re shitty. Life will get mad at them. Don’t worry.” On getting a dog, “.. if someone has shit on their hands, it’s an indicator that maybe the whole responsibility thing isn’t for them.” More funny quotes: “Well, I’ll say it’s never a good sign when a fat kid laughs at you.” “.. it’s disturbing to smell your wife on your thirteen-year-old son.” On LEGOs, “Listen, I don’t want to stifle your creativity, but that thing you built there, it looks like a pile a shit.” On sharing, “ You always have the right to be an asshole – you just shouldn’t use that right very often.” On dealing with bullies, “… It’s not the size of the asshole you worry about, it’s how much shit comes out of it.” On his 8th-grade graduation ceremony, “… why don’t they just throw a fucking party every time you properly wipe your ass?” On accidentally eating dog treats, “… Fuck it, they’re delicious. I will not be shamed by this.” On being intimidated, “Nobody is that important. They eat, shit and screw, just like you….” On his first driving lesson, “… OK, first thing before that first thing; Farting in a car that’s not moving makes you an asshole.” On curfew, “… That’s your curfew: not waking me up.” On democratic system, “ … Yeah, democracy ain’t so fun when it fucks you, huh?” On taking his girlfriend to Las Vegas, “… The only thing you’re old enough to do is rent a hotel and – ah, I gotcha. That’s smart.” On house-sitting, “Call me if something’s on fire, and don’t screw in my bed.” On furnishing one’s home, “Pick your furniture like you pick a wife; it should make you feel comfortable and look nice, but not so nice that if someone walks past it they want to steal it.” On today’s hairstyles, “Do people your age know how to comb their fucking hair? It looks like two squirrels crawled on their head and started fucking.”

The foul language may at times be disturbing but it’s the hard truth that most people would be uncomfortable with. Good to have a dad like that for boys; don’t beat around the bushes just let you have the truths. For girls, this may be a little obtuse. In fact, I’ll bet if Sam has one girl, his demeanor/conversation may not be quite the same. Overall, it’s a nice short book to read on vacation – not too serious and full of life lessons.

Ernest Hemingway was born in 1899 and died of suicide in 1961 of age 61. Born to a reasonably well off family (father being a physician) and surrounded by sisters, he possessed an healthy amount of egotism. Determined to be a hero, he volunteered to participate in World War I by becoming an ambulance driver for the Red Cross in Italy. He became an hero when he rescued a couple of Italian soldiers risking his own life, though the extent of his injury may had been exaggerated or fibbed as he had been prone to do.

Throughout his life, he seemed to be living from one marriage to the next (total of 4) and traveling in and out of country as he continued fine-tuning his writing. The author sited several of his writings as exemplary but wasn’t generous in the portrait of Hemingway’s personal life. Most of the characters he used in his writing are taken from the people he met as most authors do. He had a dark side that he seemed to be most critical of the people who treated him the best, like some of his early mentors and his mother. This might have been a early sign of his bipolar disorder.

Unfortunately, Hemingway’s drinking and his two plane-crash accidents contributed the his poor health and early demise when he took his own life. But he was able to do one of the best work like “Old Man and the Sea” at his old age of 52, recovering from the low point of his writing. In 1954, he was award the Nobel Prize for literature.

I enjoyed his writing in “Old Man and the Sea;” it was simple to understand and yet elegant. After knowing a little of his life story (Wikipedia Link here), now I can truly appreciate his other work like the short stories. Will be reading them soon.