Robert Kiyosaki is a self-made multi-millionaire who likes to teach his students and readers about “financial literacy.” He claims that too many people focus on studying hard in school, getting good grades, finding a good job, buying a house, and investing long term in the stock market. These are all actions of someone who is financially illiterate. These actions are all part of “The Rat Race” the hope and endlessly spending of the wheel of people who work hard endlessly just to get higher raises and promotions in the hope of one day retiring at age 60. Kiyosaki is here to tell you how to expand your financial literacy in the hopes of retiring early and letting your money work you!

Robert Had a Rich Dad and a Poor Dad:

Robert had two fathers. Although one was his real dad and one was a close family friend and father-like figure to him. One was highly educated and intelligent with multiple degrees from the most prestigious colleges in America. The other dad did not even have a high school education. So can you guess which one was the rich dad and which was the poor dad? Conventional wisdom would tell us that the educated dad was rich and the un-educated dad was poor.

So who was the rich dad? It was the dad who didn’t finish high school! The rich dad learned to work for himself and worked to learn – not for money. The educated dad only learned scholastic and professional skills in school, but no financial skills. The rich dad focus on constantly tuning his financial skills. Their mindsets were different too. Poor Dad struggled hard to save a few dollars, the rich dad learned to prioritize obtaining assets. Their attitudes were different as well. The Poor dad constantly told himself he would never be rich, the rich dad - even in his early days told himself being broke is temporary and I will be rich!

Don’t Work for Money – Let Money Work for You:

Having a job where you are paid a wage is working purely for money. This is how people can never get truly ahead because they are always selling their time. Having money working for you means creating your own system and making others join it and let the money funnel in. It Learn to accumulate money first and let it start working for – whether that be your Steem account gathering followers and rewards or investing in real estate – letting your dollars do the heavy lifting and accumulating capital there.

Learn to Budget and Build Assets:

Kiyosaki is very clear about how to build the west way is to increase your financial future is to increase your cash flow, build up your asset column, and reduce liabilities and expenses. Cash flow is the amount of cash that comes in every month to you, you want to increase this as much as possible. Once you have this cash flow move it into assets: Real Estate, Cryptocurrencies, Stocks – things that appreciate in value over time. Do your best to make your liabilities as low as possible: decrease your rent cost, don’t buy a house with a huge mortgage, do not buy an expensive car above your means, etc.

The Middle Class Pay Taxes, Not The Rich:

This is a startling statement, and you may not believe it at first. If you think about it truly in America today, if you are middle class and work as an employee you probably pay at least 25% in income taxes. Think about that in terms of time. You work 3 out of 12 months for the government for free! That’s crazy!

The rich on the other hand have an army of smart attorneys and tax accounts to heavily minimize their tax liability. They can create legal pass through corporations with tax loopholes through companies and real estate ownership. Some of the rich pay in effective tax rate of only 10 or 15%, much less than the middle class!

Taxes were originially meant to take those from the more fortunate and redistribute to the greater good of the system,. In reality, as you can see the middle class ends up paying for more. It is up to you to decide if you want to give a way a ton of your income to the government that blows it or find creative ways to keep it for yourself!

Conclusion:

There you have it folks. A great book and insider wisdom on how to personally get and stay rich. This book will put you ahead in the financial literacy category. They do not teach about money in school, you have to learn about it for yourself! Robert Kiyosaki’s book will save you years of trial and error! I hope the lessons in the book helped you as teaching personal finance is one of my passions along with fitness.