Rich Dad, Poor Dad
I’ve just finished reading Robert Kiyosaki’s persuasive paperback, Rich Dad, Poor Dad in which he champions financial literacy as a route to the lifestyle you want.
I’m feeling.. dumbstruck at his sheer brass neck and simultaneously terrified of what I might do next..
Either that or I’m away off to speculate on some impossibly ludicrous real estate deal and lose lots of money.
Let me give you an example of the type of wild stories he relates. (Wild to you and me, who were educated to study hard, get a good, steady job, buy a house, get into debt, take a nice holiday every year, get into more debt and then work ’til we retire to pay it all off.)
He relates how he once saw a property he wanted to buy. So, he went to see his friend and sold it to him. [BEFORE BUYING IT]. He then had the money to buy it. So, he did (for less than his friend paid him for it!) and transferred ownership to his friend. He ended up several thousands of pounds better off, basically for arranging the purchase of a property he knew someone else would want.
So, what does he have to say? Well, he’s what we’d call a self-made man I suppose. He started a comic rental library aged 11and today has acquired more valuable ‘assets’ than he has ‘liabilities’ (two major themes of the book). His assets fund the lifestyle he wants and the liabilities he cannot avoid.
He is sore on the current school system, which teaches young people precious little about finances. To counter this, he recommends attending financial literacy courses, which may cost several hundred pounds each, but will bring a massive ROI. His principles are:
- Have a reason greater than reality
- Choose daily
- Choose friends carefully
- Master a formula then learn a new one
- Pay yourself first
- Pay your brokers well
- Be an Indian giver
- Assets buy luxuries
- The need for heroes
- Teach and you shall receive
The main reason people struggle financially is because they spent years in school but learned nothing about money. The result is, people learn to work for money… but never learn to have money work for them. (Robert Kiyosaki)
Take risks. My take on this is that if you’re the type of person who takes chocolate every night at 10.25pm, just before bedtime at 10.30pm, then you’d be better borrowing a Mills and Boon than a Kiyosaki from the library.
