Book Review: Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

Perhaps the biggest limiting belief I had that needed to be crushed before I could even think about getting the life of my dreams, was my negative attitude towards money. I began to realise that my thoughts and subsequent actions revolving around those bits of paper and metal, were seriously holding me back. It took a few months of work, analysing and deconstructing thoughts that had lived with me since I was a child and replacing them with positive ones but I eventually got to the stage where I viewed money in a totally new light. If only I’d read “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” back then! Because this book not only will destroy any negative limiting beliefs on the subject, it also tells you exactly how to get hold of the stuff and make it work for you. This is practical, actionable stuff – not just law of attraction visualisations and affirmations.

Why is it that the rich seem to be getting richer and the gap seems to be widening between them and the poor? The main reason is this; most of us don’t THINK about money the way wealthy people do. And just as importantly, we don’t ACT the same way when we do have it. We use it differently. Robert Kiyosaki knows this better than anyone. This book is his story of life growing up in America with two Dads. One of them his own biological father; poor Dad. An intelligent, academic, relatively successful man – who never made much money. The other was his friend’s Dad; a wealthy and very successful businessman who always had money. Why was it that his Dad struggled with money, despite having a decent wage and respectable job with the government but his friend’s Dad, who was certainly not as well educated, had all the wealth? What he discovered under the wing of his second “Dad”, was that it was all about mindset.

PERCEPTIONS AROUND MONEY

Poor Dad had a negative attitude towards money. He looked down on people who were rich, believing they must be crooks or dishonest in making their wealth. He viewed money as “the root of all evil”. That it was a sin to have large amounts of it. These are the kind of attitudes prevalent among much of society – including myself 18 months go! It wasn’t that I felt it was “evil” but I certainly had picked up from somewhere that it was wrong to have lots of it and I would feel guilty if I was, say, a millionaire.

My specific limiting beliefs also included worrying about money way too much. As early as 7 years old, I remember crying in my bedroom as I looked around at all the toys my parents had bought for me which I’d hardly ever played with.

I felt guilty for some reason, probably because I knew growing up that we didn’t have much money – not compared to other kids I went to school with. I knew our neighbourhood was considered a bad one. I knew we lived in public housing and what that meant.

I also picked up habits from my father in particular, which made me stingy and constantly trying to penny-pinch. His generation was brought up to believe that money was something you had to graft for and so you shouldn’t waste it. It was hard to come by and you had to use it sparingly. Saving and being thrifty was considered a skill and highly respected. Especially coming after the war, when things really were in scarcity. And it’s that scarcity mindset that has dominated the lives of a whole generation – and the ones afterwards, who it has been passed down to. Unfortunately, what I’ve learned and what Kiyosacki explains so well, is that with a negative mindset towards money, one of lack, scarcity, fear of losing it and struggling to get it, you will never be wealthy.

Someone with a scarcity mindset would add that “money doesn’t matter” but let’s face reality; it DOES matter. It’s not THE most important factor in a good life but we have to be honest; it can make a HUGE difference. It does make the world go round. It won’t buy happiness but it can get you freedom which will enable you to do more of the things that make you happy. But here’s the thing; if you know what money really IS and understand how to make it work FOR you, so it becomes your slave rather than the master it is for most, your whole attitude towards it will change. Rich Dad, Poor Dad does a brilliant job at explaining this. Firstly, that money is just a piece of paper – nothing more.

We view it as being “evil” or “scarce” because we see it as a commodity – but it’s NOT! It’s a tool which enables us to GET commodities – nothing more. A tool so we don’t have to use the old barter system. It’s a good thing! Life is much easier because of it.

Once you start to realise that money only has power over you because of your VIEW of what it is, it can then get working for you.

CREATING WEALTH

Kiyosaki goes on to tell how his rich Dad uses his money to create more of it. He invests it wisely, creates multiple streams of income and this in turn, makes him wealthier. What people without this wealthy mindset do, is spend everything they have coming in (mostly on stuff they don’t need) and invest in the wrong things; namely, liabilities instead of assets. Perhaps the most important take-away from this book is that most of us confuse assets and liabilities.

We see a mortgage as a good investment, when in actual fact, it’s a liability that is keeping us in debt for the rest of our lives and COSTING us money – preventing us becoming wealthy.

This will be a tough concept for many to accept because it’s not what society has rammed down our throats our whole lives; work hard long hours, save as much as you can (for a rainy day), get in debt with a mortgage and loans for anything you want and one day, you might be lucky enough to get a pay rise or a higher ranking position. BULLSHIT!! If that’s the life you want to live, don’t buy this book! If you want to find a different way, one full of financial freedom, then this book is a must-read. But what is the biggest asset you can own?

“The single most powerful asset we all have is our mind. If it is trained well, it can create enormous wealth in what seems to be an instant.” ~ Robert Kiyosaki