Rich Like Them by Ryan D'Agostino isbn978-0-316-02146-3

This book is about interviews of a random sampling of people who live in the richest zip codes in the US believing that if they lived there they knew how to make money. The author knocked on doors without even knowing if the people would be home and asked to interview them if they answered the door. Quite a few people did answer the door and they gave very interesting interviews.

Keep your goal in front of you so you will notice opportunities.

Connect with the people you meet and meet new people to open up new avenues in your life.

Identify the things you don't want to do. Identify what you love and be committed to whatever it is you're going to spend your money on. Make up a rule or rules that will help you reach your goals and post it everywhere you look.

Be willing to take measured, rational, calculated risks. Curiosity is one of the defining features of risk takers.

Carefully manage your money and thoughtfully give to worthy causes.

Know yourself, your limits and limitations.

When things don't work out, figure out why. Don't give up. Thank people who take time for you.

Go after what you want. The more info you have the better prepared you are for opportunities

How to get started Selling Your Art by Carole Katchen isbn:0-89134-685-6

This book starts with exercises to conquer your fears and build your goals.

Then it discusses setting up a support structure of people, space, time and money. Once you've prepared your mind and set up an environment conducive to producing art then she discusses how to price your art and the tools needed to sell it. Tools such as mailing list, newsletter, business cards, pictures, artist statement, resume, brochures to name a few.

She then discusses what is needed to sell art at various venues. Art can be sold in your home, your studio, group show, art fairs, festivals and galleries. Marketing is discussed both in preparing for a show and ways to market your art.

A Million Bucks by 30 by Alan Corey

A Million Bucks by 30, How to overcome a crap job, stingy parents, and a useless degree to become a millionaire before (or after) turning 30, by Alan Corey.

This is basically a story of how he decided to become a millionaire despite living in an expensive city and working at a moderate income job. It's very entertaining. First he studied and read about rich and famous people. He found out there is no one way to get rich. So he decided to focus on first saving through a very frugal lifestyle and then investing to reach his goal. His main investment areas were a 401k, a mutual fund and real estate.

He made a plan, followed a budget, looked for ways to make and save money in order to reach his goal. As he progressed he planned rewards and people who heard of his successes wanted to know how he did it. However, they were disappointed that his plan required some sacrifice and that there was no easy trick to getting rich.

Guide to Investing, What the Rich Invest In, that the poor and middle class do not by Robert T. Kiyosaki

This is a very thorough book and goes into detail about the various levels of investors and an overview of the processes he followed. The most important things that I got out of the book that you need to have a plan to get you from where you are to where you want to be. People invest for the following 3 reasons, security, comfort and to be rich. You should have an simple, basic automatic plan in place that you understand to be secure and comfortable before you invest in becoming rich. You should also have a plan on what to do with the money that you make before you make it. By having a dream, the dedication and drive you can get the data and dollars. Today it easier than ever to convert ideas into assets.

The Next Conservatism by Paul M. Weyrich & William S. Lind

This book is about conservatism and what steps conservatives should take to restore the United States. Some of their points are below.

Basically the government has grown too big & is not responsive to it's citizens. In fact a separate bureaucrat class runs our nations no matter which political party is in office. This bureaucrat class can not make things work, is insulated from the consequences of its acts and is only interested in remaining a separate class.

In addition our nation is headed to socialism & a victim society where people want to be taken care of, not delay gratification, not take responsibility for their actions and are willing to give up our basic freedoms.

In general, their solution is to set up a separate culture that acts & thinks locally, evaluates technology on whether it draws us together or apart and to lead by example.

Increase your Financial IQ by Robert T. Kiyosaki

There are several different intelligences, academic, professional, health & financial. This book can motivate you to improve your financial intelligence. One of the main points it made was that everyone uses money and everyone has money problems just different ones. Start by solving small problems and work your way up to bigger ones. The process of solving financial problems increases your financial intelligence and can make you richer.

The top 10 distinctions between Millionaires and the Middle Class by Keith Cameron Smith

I really enjoyed this book because it was easy to read yet thought provoking. It discussed in general how the different classes of people, from the very poor to the very rich, view life. Some points that I learned were: Long term planning & life time learning is very important. Studying what you love, loving life, learning to ask empowering questions and learning how to generate multiple sources of passive income is also important if you want to be successful both in your personal and financial life.