Robert Kiyosaki tells the story of his two Dad’s in his childhood. His own father and the father of his best friend. While he loved both, they were very different when it came to dealing with finances and both men shaped his thoughts about money and investing.
Rich Dad Poor Dad shows you how to start a journey to wealth by teaching you the right mindset, accounting basics and wealth building strategies, even if you’ve had no clue about personal finance until now.
This book is a modern classic of personal finance. Although
controversial and often heavily criticized, people have decided it’s worth
reading – otherwise it wouldn’t have sold over 2 million copies.
Rich Dad Poor Dad Lessons
Lesson 1: The Rich Don’t Work for Money
Lesson 2: Why Teach Financial Literacy?
Lesson 3: Mind Your Own Business
Lesson 4: The History of Taxes and The Power of Corporations
Lesson 5: The Rich Invent Money
Lesson 6: Work to Learn—Don’t Work for Money
Many of us are too afraid of being branded as a weirdo, in order to exit the rat race. We let two main emotions everyone has around money dominate our decisions: fear and greed. That’s why we still stick to the outdated mantra “Go to school, go to college, get a job, play it safe.” when in reality no job is safe any more.
For example, when you get a raise at your job, a wise choice would be to invest the extra money in something that builds wealth like stocks or bonds, which has medium to high risk, but also a very high reward. Maybe you
find a good fund with a 60% chance to double your money within a year, but a 40% chance of losing it all. However, most likely your fear of losing the money altogether will keep you from doing so.
But when your greed takes over, you might then spend the extra money on an improved lifestyle, like buying a car, and the payments eat up the money – this way you’re guaranteed to lose 100%. This already gives you a glimpse of how important it is to educate yourself financially. Since we receive no financial education in school or college, sadly, this is entirely up to you.
Look around and you’ll see plenty of financially ignorant people in your own life. Just take a look at local politicians. Is their city in debt? Your mayor might be a great mayor, but unfortunately, no one ever taught him how to deal with money.
For the same reason 38% of Americans don’t save anything for their retirement. The only way for you to counteract this is to start now.
Today is the youngest you’ll ever be, so take a close look at what you can and can’t afford. This way you’ll be able to set realistic financial goals, even if it means waiting a few more years for that shiny new BMW.
Next, adopt the mindset of “work to learn” instead of “work to earn”. Take a job in a field you have no clue about, such as sales, customer service or communications, to develop new skills – you never know what they
might be good for. Set aside 5% of your income each month to buy books, courses and attend seminars on personal finance to start building your financial IQ.
The first step towards building wealth lies in the mindset of managing risks, instead of avoiding them and learning about investments will teach you that it’s better to not play it safe, because that always means missing out on big potential rewards. Don’t start big, just set aside a small amount, like $1,000 or even $100, and invest it in stocks, bonds, or even tax lien certificates. Treat the money as if it’s gone forever and you’ll worry less about losing it.
As soon as you start your journey towards wealth, you’ll realize that it’ll be quite a long one. That’s why it’s important to stay motivated. Kiyosaki suggests creating an “I want” and an “I don’t want” list, with items like: “I want to retire at age 50.” or “I don’t want to end up like my broke uncle.”
Another idea is to pay yourself first each month. Take the portion of your salary you want to spend on stocks or your financial education, invest it and pay your bills afterwards. It’ll create pressure to be creative in making money and show you what you can afford.
Use your money to acquire assets instead of liabilities. Assets are stocks, bonds, real estate that you rent out, royalties (for example from music) and anything that generates money and increases in value over time. Liabilities can be cars or electronics with maintenance costs and monthly payments, a house with a mortgage, and of course debt – basically anything that takes money out of your pocket each month.
There’s no rush. Just stay at your full time job and “mind your own business”. In this case, your job is what pays the bills and your business
is what makes you wealthy. Build your business on the side and use it to invest in assets until your assets eventually become the main source of your income. You can even file a corporation to be taxed only after you’ve earned and invested, instead of being taxed before investing as an employee and trying to live off what’s left.
The most important thing is that you start today. You are your own biggest asset, so the first thing you should put some money into is yourself.
My Rich Dad Poor Dad Review
It is said that that most of the story is made up but that there’s so much criticism around Robert and the book. However, that doesn’t make it less of a good story or advice.
The book isn’t too long either, and the initial story is mostly covered in the first 50 pages, so I highly recommend you get a copy of Rich Dad Poor Dad and read it yourself. ?
Who would I recommend the Rich Dad Poor Dad summary to?
The 9 year old who just got her first allowance, the 42 year old who’s worried about her job being secure and anyone who doesn’t know what the definition of an asset is.
Rich Dad Poor Dad Summary
“There is a difference between being poor and being broke. Broke is temporary. Poor is eternal.”
“Money comes and goes, but if you have the education about how money works, you gain power over it and can begin building wealth.”
“People’s lives are forever controlled by two emotions: fear and greed.”
“So many people say, ‘Oh, I’m not interested in money.’ Yet they’ll work at a job for eight hours a day.”
“Thinking that a job makes you secure is lying to yourself.”
“Intelligence solves problems and produces money.”
“You must know the difference between an asset and a liability, and buy assets.”
An asset puts money in your pocket. A liability takes money out of your pocket.
“Illiteracy, both in words and numbers, is the foundation of financial struggle.”
“Money often makes obvious our tragic human flaws, putting a spotlight on what we don’t know.”
“Cash flow tells the story of how a person handles money.”
“Most people don’t understand why they struggle financially because they don’t understand cash flow.”
“The number-one expense for most people is taxes.”
Higher incomes cause higher taxes. This is known as “bracket creep.”
“More money seldom solves someone’s money problems.”
“The fear of being different prevents most people from seeking new ways to solve their problems.”
“A person can be highly educated, professionally successful, and financially
illiterate.”
“Many financial problems are caused by trying to keep up with the Joneses.”
Once you understand the difference between assets and liabilities, concentrate your efforts on buying income-generating assets.
“The problem with simply working harder is that each of these three levels takes a greater share of your increased efforts. You need to learn how to have your increased efforts benefit you and your family directly.”
“Wealth is a person’s ability to survive so many number of days forward—or, if I stopped working today, how long could I survive?”
“The rich buy assets. The poor only have expenses. The middle class buy liabilities they think are assets.”
“The rich focus on their asset columns while everyone else focuses on their income statements.”
“Financial struggle is often directly the result of people working all their lives for someone else.”
“The mistake in becoming what you study is that too many people forget to mind their own business. They spend their lives minding someone else’s business and making that person rich.”
“To become financially secure, a person needs to mind their own business.”
“Financial struggle is often the result of people working all their lives for someone else.”
“The primary reason the majority of the poor and middle class are fiscally
conservative—which means, ‘I can’t afford to take risks’—is that they have no financial foundation.”
“One of the main reasons net worth is not accurate is simply because, the moment you begin selling your assets, you are taxed for any gains.”
“A new car loses nearly 25 percent of the price you pay for it the moment you drive it off the lot.”
“Keep expenses low, reduce liabilities, and diligently build a base of solid assets.”
According to Kiyosaki, real assets fall into the following categories:Stocks, Bonds,Income-generating real estate, Notes (IOUs), Royalties from intellectual property such as music, scripts, and patents. Anything else that has value, produces income or appreciates, and has a ready market
“Businesses that do not require my presence I own them, but they are managed or run by other people. If I have to work there, it’s not a business. It becomes my job.”
“For people who hate real estate, they shouldn’t buy it.”
Kiyosaki generally holds real estate less than seven years.
Start minding your own business. Keep your daytime job, but start buying real assets, not liabilities. When Kiyosaki says mind your own business, he means building and keeping your asset column strong. Once a dollar goes into it, never let it come out.
“The best thing about money is that it works 24 hours a day and can work for generations.”
“An important distinction is that rich people buy luxuries last, while the poor and middle-class tend to buy luxuries first.”
“A true luxury is a reward for investing in and developing a real asset.”
Kiyosaki’s rich dad did not see Robin Hood as a hero. He called Robin Hood a crook.
“If you work for money, you give the power to you employer. If money works for you, you keep the power and control it.”
“Each dollar in my asset column was a great employee, working hard to make more employees and buy the boss a new Porsche.”
Kiyosaki reminds people that financial IQ is made up of knowledge from four broad areas of expertise:
Accounting, Investing, Understanding markets, The law
“A corporation earns, spends everything it can, and is taxed on anything that is left. It’s one of the biggest legal tax loopholes that the rich use.”
“Garret Sutton’s books on corporations provide wonderful insight into the power of personal corporations.”
“Often in the real world, it’s not the smart who get ahead, but the bold.”
Kiyosaki sees one thing in common in all of us, himself included. We all have tremendous potential, and we all are blessed with gifts. Yet the one thing that holds all of us back is some degree of self-doubt.
In Kiyosaki’s personal experience, your financial genius requires both technical knowledge as well as courage.
Kiyosaki always encourages adult students to look at games as reflecting back to them what they know and what they need to learn.
“Games reflect behavior. They are instant feedback systems.”
“Financial intelligence is simply having more options.”
“The single most powerful asset we all have is our mind. If it is trained well, it can create enormous wealth.”
“The world is always handing you opportunities of a lifetime, every day of your life, but all too often we fail to see them.”
Richard uses two main vehicles to achieve financial growth: real estate and small-cap stocks.
“Simple math and common sense are all you need to do well financially.”
“The problem with ‘secure’ investments is that they are often sanitized, that is, made so safe that the gains are less.”
“It is not gambling if you know what you’re doing. It is gambling if you’re just throwing money into a deal and praying.”
“Most people never get wealthy simply because they are not trained financially to recognize opportunities right in front of them.”
“Great opportunities are not seen with your eyes. They are seen with your mind.”
“You want to know a little about a lot” was rich dad’s suggestion.
“Job is an acronym for ‘Just Over Broke.’”
“Look down the road at what skills they want to acquire before choosing a specific profession and before getting trapped in the Rat Race.”
“Education is more valuable than money, in the long run.”
“The reason so many talented people are poor is because they focus on building a better hamburger and know little to nothing about business systems.”
The main management skills needed for success are:
Management of cash flow
Management of systems
Management of people
“The most important specialized skills are sales and marketing.”
“To be truly rich, we need to be able to give as well as to receive.”
“Giving money is the secret to most great wealthy families.”
“The primary difference between a rich person and a poor person is how they manage fear.”
There are five main reasons why financially literate people may still not develop abundant asset columns that could produce a large cash flow. The five reasons are:
Fear, Cynicism ,Laziness, Bad habits , Arrogance
“For most people, the reason they don’t win financially is because the pain of losing money is far greater than the joy of being rich.”
“Failure inspires winners. Failure defeats losers.”
“Real estate is a powerful investment tool for anyone seeking financial independence or freedom.”
“A great property manager is key to success in real estate.”
The most common form of laziness is staying busy.
“Rich dad believed that the words ‘I can’t afford it’ shut down your brain. ‘How can I afford it?’ opens up possibilities, excitement, and dreams.”
“Whenever you find yourself avoiding something you know you should be doing, then the only thing to ask yourself is, ‘What’s in it for me?’ Be a little greedy. It’s the best cure for laziness.”
Richard has found that many people use arrogance to try to hide their own ignorance.
“There is gold everywhere. Most people are not trained to see it.”
“To find million-dollar ‘deals of a lifetime’ requires us to call on our financial genius.”
A reason or a purpose is a combination of ‘wants’ and ‘don’t wants.’”
“Most people simply buy investments rather than first investing in learning about investing.”
Richard believes one of the hardest things about wealth-building is to be true to yourself and to be willing to not go along with the crowd.
“The rich know that savings are only used to create more money, not to pay bills.”
“The sophisticated investor’s first question is: ‘How fast do I get my money back?’”
If Richard could leave one single idea with you, it is that idea. Whenever you feel short or in need of something, give what you want first and it will come back in buckets.
In the world of accounting, there are three different types of income:
Ordinary earned, Portfolio, Passive
Recommended Reading
If you like Rich Dad Poor Dad, you may also enjoy the following books:
How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Secrets of The Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker
Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill
Buy The Book: Rich Dad Poor Dad
Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki : Summary14 min read
