6 Lessons I Learned From Rich Dad Poor Dad

Never stop learning. When we stop learning, we stop growing.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad is a true story about the lessons about money that Robert Kiyosaki, the author, learned from his two "Dads", One Dad, a Ph.D. and Superintendent of Education, never had enough money at the end of the month and died broke.

His other Dad dropped out of school at age 13 and went on to become one of the wealthiest men in Hawaii.

In Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert explains how to make your money work hard for you instead of you working hard for it.

​Robert says,

The main reason people struggle financially
​is because they spent years in school but learned nothing about money.
The result is, people learn to work for money... but never learn to have money work for them

All of us were given two great gifts: the mind and time. It is up to you to do as you please with both. With each peso bill that enters your hand, you and only you have the power to determine your destiny. Spend it foolishly; you choose to be poor. Spend it on liabilities, and you join the middle class. Invest it in your mind and learn how to acquire assets, and you will be choosing wealth as your goal and your future. The choice is yours and only yours. Every day, with every peso, you decide to be rich, poor, or middle class.

Your future will be determined by the choices you make today, not tomorrow.

I'm sharing with you the six lessons I've learned from Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I hope you will learn something from this blog post. Enjoy and be blessed! ​

The Rich Don't Work For Money
​
​The rich work to acquire assets. The rich work to create passive income.

The poor and the middle class work for money.
​The rich have money work for them.

Rich Dad said, "There is a lot to learn. Learning how to have money work for you is a lifetime study. Most people go to college for four years, and their education ends. I already know that my study of money will continue over my lifetime, simply because the more I find out, the more I find out I need to know. Most people never study the subject. They go to work, get their paycheck, balance their checkbooks, and that's it. On top of that, they wonder why they have money problems. Then, they think that more money will solve the problem. Few realize that it's their lack of financial education that is the problem."

Why Teach Financial Literacy
​
​Financial Literacy Is The Key To Financial Freedom. ​You can't see money with your mind, you must learn to see it with your mind.

If you want to be rich, you need to be financially literate.

RULE ONE. You must know the difference between an ASSET and a LIABILITY, and buy assets. If you want to be rich, this is all you need to know. It is Rule No. 1. It is  the only rule. This may sound absurdly simple, but most people have no idea how profound this rule is. Most people struggle financially because they do not know the difference between an asset and a liability.

Rich people acquire assets. The poor and middle class acquire liabilities,
​but they think they are assets.

An ASSET is something that puts money in your pocket.
​A LIABILITY is something that takes money out of your pocket.

The rich buy assets.
The poor only have expenses.
​The middle class buys liabilities they think are assets.

Mind Your Own Business
​
Your money is your business. Your profession is not your business. Financial struggle is often directly the result of people working all their lives for someone else. Many people will have nothing at the end of their working days.

Ray Kroc once said, "There is a big difference between your profession and your business. Often I ask people, "What is your business?" And they will say, "Oh I'm a banker." Then I ask them if they own the bank? And they usually respond. "No, I work there." 

To become financially secure, a person needs to mind their own business. Your business revolves around your asset column, as opposed to your income column. As stated earlier, the No. 1 rule is to know the difference between an asset and a liability and to buy assets. The rich focus on their asset columns while everyone else focuses on their income statements.

Start minding your own business. Keep your daytime job, but start buying real assets, not liabilities or personal effects that have no real value once you get them home.

For adults, keep your expenses low, reduce your liabilities, and diligently build a base of solid assets. For young people who have not yet left home, parents need to teach them the difference between an asset and a liability. Get them to start building a solid asset column before they leave home, get married, buy a house, have kids, and get stuck in a risky financial position, clinging to a job and buying everything on credit.

Here are some kind of assets that Robert Kiyosaki suggested.

• Business that does not require your presence. You own them, but they are managed or run by other people. If you work there, it's not a business. It becomes your job.
• Stocks
• Bonds
• Mutual Funds
• Income-generating real estate
• Royalties from intellectual property such as music, scripts, patents.
• And anything else that has value, produces income, or appreciates and has a ready market.

Keep your daytime job, be a great hard-working employee,
but keep building that asset column.

An important distinction is that rich people buy luxuries last, while the poor and middle class tend to buy luxuries first. The poor and the middle class often buy luxury items such as big houses, diamonds, furs, jewelry, or boats because they want to look rich. They look rich, but in reality, they just get deeper in debt on credit. The old-money people, the long-term rich, built their asset column first. The poor and middle class buy luxuries with their sweat, blood, and children's inheritance.

​The History Of Taxes And The Power Of Corporations
​
​Study and make corporations.

Be smart and you won't be pushed around as much.

The Rich Invent Money
​
Take risks. Learn to create investment, start a company. The world is always handing you opportunities of a lifetime, every day of your life, but all too often we fail to see them. But they are there. And the more the world changes and the more technology changes, the more opportunities there will be to allow you and your family to be financially secure for generations to come.

I know why I continue to learn and develop.
​I do it because I know there are changes coming. I'd rather welcome change than cling to the past.

Great opportunities are not seen with your eyes.
​They are seen with your mind.

Sometimes you win and sometimes you learn.

In school, we learn that mistakes are bad, and we are punished for making them. Yet, if you look at the way humans are designed to learn, we learn by making mistakes.

Winners are not afraid of losing. But losers are. Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success.

There is always a risk, so learn to manage risk instead of avoid it.

Work To Learn - Don't Work For Money
​
​Learn how money works and how to make money work.

When you know you are ignorant in a subject,
start educating yourself by finding an expert in the field
​or find a book on the subject.

Invest first in education. In reality, the only real asset you have in your mind is the most powerful tool we have dominion over. Each of us has the choice of what we put in our brains.

Most people simply buy investments rather than first investing in learning about investing.