"Rich Dad Poor Dad, What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money -- That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not

Rich Dad Poor Dad,

What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money

That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!

by Robert T. Kiyosaki with Sharon L. Lechter CPA

Warner Books Edition

Reading this book was a real paradigm shift for me. Many ideas I have had to let settle in my mind and process for a while. Robert had a best friend that he was inseparable from. The rich dad referred to is this friend's father. At the time he made the choice of who he would listen to, his own father had a good steady income and had accumulated a lot more "stuff." In past book reports I have lived with the ideas and used them enough that I might have been able to teach the ideas in my book report. Most of the ideas presented in this book are too new to me for me to be able to do that. One idea that is becoming more focused is the idea of what really constitutes an asset. Most of what I considered assets in the past are actually liabilities, and I have been in the process of getting rid of most of those over the past two years. I have hardly any "stuff" anymore, but I also have hardly any debt any more either. The temptation to get more "stuff" is still there, and I did purchase a Native American style pine flute yesterday, although I will probably only really play my tin whistle. I was actually looking for a Hohner Chromonica and all the music stores only sell CD's and no longer sell instruments or sheet music. Well? I *deserved* something didn't I? (Isn't this disease insidious?) My reasoning was I could play it after ten at night because the low soft tones wouldn't pierce the walls of my apartment like the whistle does. I should be in bed anyway.

Would I suggest you buy this book? Perhaps not if you can read a book and remember what you have read. Barnes and Noble sells a lot of used books for the new price. I have used a lot of books there myself. But I had to bring this one home to attack it with a yellow marker. There is a great deal of information in the two hundred pages in this book and the sixteen dollars was wisely invested.

Some questions to ask yourself and where to find the answers:

Are you a donkey working to get a carrot on a stick you never get? The answer is in Lesson One: The Rich Don't Work for Money. An oft repeated idea from that chapter is "A job is only a short term solution to a long term problem."

What are my assets? How can I tell if something I have is an asset? Lesson Two: Why Teach Financial Literacy? "Rich people acquire assets. The poor and middle class acquire liabilities which they think are assets."

Most of chapter one contrasts the thinking of the rich dad and the poor dad. These contrasts are also in other parts of the book and where the following do not come from chapter one, I will give the page numbers.

QUOTES:

Both men were strong, charismatic and influential. Both men offered me advice, but they did not advise the same things. Both men believed strongly in education but did not recommend the same course of study.

If I had only one dad, I would have had to accept or reject his advice. Having two dads advising me offered me a choice of contrasting points of view; one of a rich man and one of a poor man.

Instead of simply accepting or rejecting one or the other, I found myself thinking more, comparing and then choosing for myself.

The problem was, the rich man was not yet rich and the poor man not yet poor. Both were just starting out on their careers, and both were struggling with money and families. But they had very different points of view about the subject of money.

For example, one dad would say, "The love of money is the root of all evil." The other, "The lack of money is the root of all evil."

. . . one dad had a habit of saying, "I can't afford it." The other dad forbade those words to be used. He insisted I say, "How can I afford it?"

One dad recommended, "Study hard so you can find a good company to work for." The other recommended, "Study hard so you can find a good company to buy."

One dad said, "The reason I am not rich is because I have you kids." The other said, "The reason I must be rich is because of you kids."

One encourage talking about money and business at the dinner table. The other forbade the subject of money to be discussed over a meal.

One said, " When it comes to money, play it safe, don't take risks." The other said, "Learn to manage risk."

One believed. "Our home is our largest investment and our greatest asset." The other believed, "My house is a liability, and IF YOUR HOUSE IS YOUR LARGEST INVESTMENT, YOU'RE IN TROUBLE."

I noticed that people really do shape their life through their thoughts. For example, my poor dad always said, "I'll never be rich." And that prophesy became reality. My rich dad on the other hand, always referred to himself as rich. He would say things like, "I am a rich man, and rich people don't do this (should have used this one as I was taking the pine flute to the register)." Even when he was flat broke after a financial setback, he continued to refer to himself as a rich man. He would cover himself by saying, "There is a difference between being poor and being broke. Broke is temporary, and poor is eternal."

I notice that my poor dad was poor not because of the amount of money he earned, which was significant, but because of his thoughts and actions. As a young boy, having tow fathers, I became acutely aware of being careful which thoughts I chose to adopt as my own.(Shouldn't we as mature adults be just as concerned with that choice?)

page 142 (from Lesson Six: Work to Learn -- Don't Work for Money)

Both of my dads were generous men. Both made it a practice to give first. Teaching was one of their ways of giving. The more they gave, the more they received. One glaring difference was in the giving of money. My rich dad gave lots of money away. He gave to his church, to charities, to his foundations. He knew that to receive money, you had to give money. Giving money is the secret to most great wealthy families. . . . My educated dad always said, "When I have some extra money, I'll give it." The problem was there was never any extra. So he worked harder to draw more money in rather than focus on the most important law of money: "Give and you shall receive." Instead, he believed in "Receive and then you give."