Posts Tagged ‘Ivan’

“RICH DAD POOR DAD – What the rich teach their kids about money that the poor and middle class do not!” by Robert Kiyosaki

This book was recommended to me by a friend, he was telling me how this book was so fascinating and that he completed the book within 2 days. At that time, I wanted to start reading again but did not know which book to start with. I had heard about “Rich Dad Poor Dad” for quite some time. Hence I decided to head down to Borders to purchase the book out of curiosity.

The book highlights the differences in the ways that the rich and the poor view money and how they handle it. In this book the author uses his experience of his own dad, a school teacher (also known as poor dad in the book) and his best friend’s dad, a businessman (also known as rich dad in the book). The book states various examples of how each dad handled their finances. And through their differences, we can relate to how we ourselves treat money; as a rich guy, or as a poor guy.

An example that stood out to me was when both dads were looking at an expensive car. Poor dad said immediately “I cannot afford this car; this car is not suitable for me”. While Rich dad said “How can I afford this car”?  Can you see the difference by just asking “how”? “How” opens our minds and urges our brain to think of means and ways to afford that car.

At that time both dads had equal financial status. However, one chose to think like a rich person while another chose to think like a poor person. That alone made the difference and rich dad became rich eventually.

Besides the mentality, rich dad also did something different which I find rather interesting.

You earn $1000 a month and monthly bills of up to $1000. A normal person would want to pay your bills quickly. After all, if I’m not in debt, and I still can survive, I’m considered financially well off.

However rich dad has a different take on this. He would choose to pay himself first and then pay his debts. He would leave $300 for himself and use $700 to pay his $1000 debt. Crazy you might say. But he says he would use the pressure by his debtors on him to earn that extra $300 he owed others. This way he increased his income to $1300. And he has $300 in his pocket to invest in his assets.

I would recommend this book just because it provides simple but amazing insights to how one views money. I would not say it’s a “guarantee get rich” book. But it has refreshing and interesting ways to manage our money.