RtK doesn't give you meanings, it gives you keywords to help you remember the kanji. Sometimes they do coincide with some common meanings, but I wouldn't rely on it too heavily to figure out what a sentence is saying.

In most cases, I'd say that the core meaning of the kanji retains itself throughout, even though the readings may change. The readings are more about historical word importations from China etc, vs. words that are originally Japanese. But for the most part, the general meaning behind each character remains more or less the same.

A lot of characters, however, don't mean anything when not in a word. The second character in 記憶 (memory) doesn't mean anything if it's just 憶 by itself.

I'd say don't worry about the meanings of the kanji too much. Worry about the meanings of the words.

Thanks to both of you for your explanation, I really appreciate the help

So what would you recommend is the best way to learn the readings and meanings? I'd imaging learning every reading for every Kanji as you go through RtK isn't the best way of doing it.

I've also heard a lot of people say not to bother going through RtK 2 when you finish with 1.

Thanks, sounds like a logical way of doing it.

I've read about Genki and do plan on picking up a copy when I get the money. I'm also going to get private lessons from an instructor with my girlfriend (we're learning together ) but that wont start for a little bit yet and I don't wanna sit around and do nothing when I'm so excited to be learning. Gotta take advantage of the beginners high after all lol