窮爸爸富爸爸

石家莊外國語學校-2020年書.影.音閱讀寫作指導材料——《窮爸爸富爸爸》書評

4 Crucial Lessons From 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' that Changed the Way I

Think About Wealth

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When I read "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" in my 20s, I took away four lessons on building

wealth that I've carried with me through my life and career.

I learned that most people work for money, but the rich make money work for them;

and that it's not how much money you make — it's how much you keep.

I also learned that rich people acquire asts, but others acquire liabilities they only

think are asts; and that financial struggle often comes from a lifetime of working for

someone el.

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I became a fan of Robert Kiyosaki in my 20s. His book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" opened

my eyes to the world of wealth. Early in life I learned there are fundamental differences

between how the rich think and act toward money compared to everyone el. I began to

adopt tho same thoughts and strategies, and found them to be completely true.

There were four crucial lessons from "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" that changed my

financial life:

1. Most people work for money — rich people have money work for themlves

This lesson has become such a cliché that many consider it to be a myth. But it's

absolutely true.

Talk to just about anyone about how to make money, and the conversation will

inevitably gravitate toward jobs. That's not wrong thinking either, at least not early in your

life. The first step toward building wealth is generating a basic income. If you have no

asts, and no skills you can ll to the general public in exchange for money, a job is

certainly the most convenient way to produce a cash flow.

But the difference between rich people and everyone el is that the rich don't stay in

the job pha for very long. They realize early that to become rich, they need to become

the people who hire others into jobs, and not a job holder. By contrast, the rest of us

typically spend our lives in the job pha. And we're trapped once they believe that a job is

the only way to earn money. That locks you into working for money for the rest of your

life.

But the rich learn the virtue of becoming business owners early. And running a

business is, more than anything el, about learning how to leverage resources and people

to earn more money than you ever could by exchanging your own labor for a wage.

For example, as a business owner, you can gravitate toward your talents — tho skills

and abilities you have that hold the greatest potential for you to earn big money. Once there,

you can either hire others as employees or u subcontractors to do the work that generates

the income. Esntially, you become the overer of the business, rather than a front-line

worker.

As the business becomes more profitable, you invest some of tho profits

into building your business and increasing your income.

2. It's not how much money you make that matters — it's how much money you keep

One of the behaviors that most parates the rich — especially the lf-made rich —

from others is the emphasis on saving money.

One of the fundamental obstacles for most people is that budgetary priority goes to

spending. Saving gets only what's left over. For example, let's say you have a net houhold

income of $5,000 per month. After paying necessary expens and a few luxuries, you have

$250 left to put into savings.

That means only 5% of your net monthly income is going into savings. And in many

houholds, even that amount is swallowed up by unexpected expens. In others, the

amount ems so insignificant the savings effort is abandoned entirely.

The situation is very different among the rich, particularly among tho who aspire to

become wealthy. Though financial planners may recommend saving and investing 10% or

15% of your income on a regular basis, the aspiring rich may save 30%, 40%, and even

50% or more of their income.

There's no question that saving that amount of money can only be accomplished if

you can successfully live well below your means. That arrangement is usually temporary.

As savings and investments grow, so does the income they generate (which is what we're

going to discuss in the next ction).

Let's work an example using the same $5,000 monthly income we ud above. The

only difference is this person saves and invests 50% of his income each month, or $2,500.

Assuming an average annual return on a portfolio of stocks and bonds (but favoring stocks)

this saver will accumulate over $1,276,000 in just 20 years.

In other words, he'll be a millionaire within 20 years. And that doesn't even reflect the

fact that both his income and his savings and investment contributions may increa over

the years. This is an illustration of how much money you keep makes a bigger difference

in the long run than how much you make.

3. Rich people acquire asts — not liabilities they think are asts

One of the major misconceptions so many have about rich people is that they all

inherited their money. But that belief t is completely lf-defeating. Look at anyone who

is a lf-made millionaire, and there's an outstanding chance he or she spent most of their

life acquiring asts that generate income.

This is the exact opposite of many other people think. Embracing the consumer

mindt of the media and advertising culture, they instead "invest" their money in personal

posssions they believe to be asts. Probably the best example is the family home. Most

people think of it as the biggest ast they have, and even devote a disproportionate

percentage of their income both to acquiring and maintaining it.

But even while a hou can build value over time, it's not an income-generating ast.

Quite the opposite: It costs you money to keep it. It's really not an investment until and

unless you ll it, take your cash, and invest it in something that will produce income.

Wor, the majority of middle-class homes are heavily financed. That may be

understandable when the home was first purchad. But many people engage in equity

stripping by taking home equity lines of credit and cond mortgages when enough equity

builds in the home. Others engage in rial refinancing, consolidating their first and cond

mortgages, or taking cash out every few years. The long-term result is that while the value

of the home ris, so does the amount of debt.

Other non-income generating "asts" include cars, recreation equipment, furniture

and entertainment equipment, and vacation homes. All may feel good to own, but none

generate any income.

Typical asts acquired by the rich include stocks, bonds, investment funds, income-

generating real estate, real estate investment trusts, and business. What all have in

common is that they either have the ability to generate a steady income, increa in value,

or both.

Over time, the growth in income-generating asts results in a higher income.

Eventually, the income being produced by tho asts may be sufficient for the owner to

live comfortably without having to work anymore.

4. Working all your life for someone el can lead to financial struggle

This isn't an attempt to demean anyone who spends their lives working for someone

el. Instead, it's to emphasize doing so holds the very real potential for a lifetime of

financial struggle for most people. The fundamental limiting factor with being an employee

is that you're always trading time for money. And since you only have so much time to give

to your employer, it creates an absolute limit to how much you can earn.

But that's only the most obvious limit. At a more basic level, you will always earn less

than your effort produces. For example, though your work may generate $50 an hour in

revenue to your employer, you may only earn $25 for each hour spent. It must be that way

becau your employer cannot afford to keep you on the payroll without making a profit

on your work.

There are also limits to how much an employer will pay for any position, regardless

of the quality of your work. For example, let's say you work in an occupation where the

pay range is between $50,000 and $75,000. Even if you're exceeding the best expectations

of the job, you'll probably never make more than $75,000.

By contrast, if you made a decision to begin lling your skills either on a business-

to-business basis or to the general public, you may find yourlf easily earning $50 an hour.

And as you grow in your skills and your capacity, that may gradually ri to $75 an hour,

$100 an hour, and more.

When you're lf-employed, there is no ceiling on what you can earn. The more you

can earn, the more you can save and invest to gain real wealth.

And there's something el I found out in my own business experience. When you're

lf-employed, you're free to take your business in any direction. That means taking on

more challenging — and profitable — business directions, and even creating additional

income streams.

With lf-employment comes other benefits as well. For example, there are retirement

plans, like the SEP IRA and the Solo 401(k), that can enable you to shelter a larger

percentage of your income and build a much larger retirement portfolio than you can

through a typical employer plan.

Taking the Solo 401(k) as an example, you can save up to $19,500 as the employee

portion, even when you're lf-employed. But the plan also allows you to save an

additional 25% of your net business compensation, up to $56,000. Apart from the huge tax

deductions you'll get from that kind of plan, imagine how much money you could

accumulate in 15 or 20 years? A ven-figure balance is likely to be the rule than the

exception.

Not only does lf-employment remove any income ceilings, but it also creates the

ability to build up your asts faster than you can as an employee.

Building wealth might take some big changes

The lessons from Robert Kiyosaki aren't meant to make you feel your situation is

hopeless if you've been handling your finances the way the majority of people do. Rather,

it's to give you an insight as to how rich people become rich. That involves major

behavioral changes. But if you can embrace them as part of your financial routine, the

entire monetary dynamic in your life will change for the better.

Even if you can't save and invest 50% of your income, t a more reasonable goal. 20%

or 30% will take you longer to reach your goal, but it will get you there eventually. The

point is, if you want to improve your financial situation in a meaningful way, you'll have

to make more substantial changes in the way you e and handle money.

The rich have already figured that out. You can become one of them by doing what

they do.