Money Ain't A Thang

Four political and financial thoughts:

1. Does it bother anyone else that we have a president who, after serving six years in office, still cannot properly pronounce the word "nuclear"?

2. I'm linked on Google Finance! (At least for now.) This is kind of a dream come true for me, being a personal finance geek and whatnot.

3. I love that more and more experts (financial and otherwise) are beginning to speak out about income inequality. It's one of the most important issues facing American society today, in my opinion. Here's a recent article I liked from Yahoo Finance. (Sorry, Google; Yahoo has better original content.)

4. But don't get too cocky, Yahoo Finance. Now I'm going to take you down a peg. As much as people fawn over Robert Kiyosaki, I just don't get the draw. I've read a good number of articles by him, and after I finish each one, I think to myself, "Now, what am I supposed to do?" Sure, the guy tells some nice parables, but the moral of the story is completely lost on me. Read his most recent Yahoo Finance column here. Now tell me if you can figure out what the hell he's telling us to do. Am I better off for reading this article? No. Am I feeling confused and oddly chastised for being "middle class"? Absolutely.

Take this passage:

Financially, there are three classes of people. The rich are those who play to win. The middle class plays not to lose. For the middle class, financial security is more important than financial opportunity. Ironically, today there's far more financial opportunity than financial security, yet the middle class still seeks security.

You'd expect some sort of logic to come after that to explain the mumbo-jumbo he just handed to us, but no. There's no explanation. There is smoke and there are mirrors.

That's why I love Yahoo's other columnists: Suze Orman. Ben Stein. The Automatic Millionaire. Because every time I read their columns, there's some sort of financial call to action or at least a nice tip that I can bear in mind or ponder and discard if I so choose. Lose Kiyosaki, Yahoo. That's my two cents. (As it were.)