As a money coach, I decided to go on a quest and find out what other financial gurus believed important about financial management and wellness. I decided to read as many financial books as I could and compare the similarities among their messages.
I did a google search for the most popular financial management books and started picking titles to read. The first book I read was “Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert T. Kiyosaki.
The author writes what he learned about money from both his own dad who he refers to as the “poor dad” and his friend’s father who he refers to as his “rich dad”. His own dad did not have good money management skills while the rich dad was an entrepreneur and believed that financial opportunities were everywhere. Robert’s own father had a great education and a great job but never looked outside the status quo and stayed in the “rat race” while his rich dad always looked beyond the norm to gain wealth. Robert’s own father wanted him to get a good education and a good job while his rich dad encouraged him to learn many different skills and work on building up the asset portion of his balance sheet.
Robert followed the advice of his rich dad to gain wealth. He stressed that wealth is not achieved by your income but by how much of your income you keep and invest in assets. Robert worked on his own wealth through buying assets primarily through real estate and small cap stocks. As of 2020, Robert Kiyosaki’s net wealth was $80 million. I think he has done pretty well.
Per Robert, real assets fall into the following categories:
- Businesses that do not require his presence: He owns them but they are managed by someone else.
- Stocks
- Bonds
- Income-generating real estate
- Notes
- Royalties from intellectual property such as music, scripts, and patents
- Anything else that has value, produces income or appreciates and has a ready market
In a nutshell, if you want to get out of the rat race and build wealth, keep your day job to eliminate liabilities, and build the asset column of your balance sheet.
If you are looking for an asset, make sure that you are investing in your 401k plan. Make sure that you are taking advantage of the company match. If you are not taking advantage of a 401k plan, you are not adding to your asset column or taking advantage of free money.
Recent Comments