Finance Book

This is the third book in the Rich Dad’s series Robert Kiyosaki wrote after the hugely popular Rich Dad Poor Dad. Robert casual style of narration makes it both enjoyable and easy to digest the close to 400 pages book. I took about six weeks to complete the book.

This book focuses a great deal on the B-I side of the quadrant as well as the B-I Triangle. To become rich, we have to be both an investor and a business owner. To be a really great investor is to become an ultimate investor. A person who invests from the inside of the company, who takes the company public and sell the shares to outside investor. Robert also explained all the components of his B-I triangle, which Rich Dad taught him, to build a strong business dedicating one chapter for each component. If any of the component of the business is weak, the business will be in trouble and fail.

Although Robert gives very clear explanation to every concept, you still find his explanation open-ended, requiring you to figure out what is best for your own financial future. I have learnt many lessons from this book and summarized here below:

The various investor controls needed Different level of investor e.g. accredited, sophisticated. Increase finanancial intelligence. The need to have 3 financial plans. One to be secure, one to be comfortable, one to be rich. Understand financial statements. The 90/10 rule of money. The tax benefits enjoyed by a business owner compared to an employee and self-employed. The difference between saving and investing. See the flip side of the coin for any investment. Living in the information age versus industrail age. What it takes and how fast to be a billionaire in the information age. and much more… I like to recommend this book to those of you who wants to be a better business owner and investor. It would be better if you had read the first two books “Rich Dad Poor Dad” and “Rich Dad’s cash flow quadrant” as it builds on the fundamentals of the two earlier books.

By: Raymond Heng

While I’ve really enjoyed Robert Kiyosaki’s ideas—you probably know him from Rich Dad, Poor Dad, I have found that financial books written by women have a better understanding for the specific issues women deal with financially. It’s that resonance factor. Barbara Stanny, a trust fund baby who’s dad was the “H” in H&R Block, nearly lost her fortune allowing her husband to manage her money. When she suggested that she manage it, both her husband and her father laughed at the idea. With relatively little left in her trust fund, she educated herself in money management, then wrote, “

Prince Charming Isn’t Coming; How Women Get Smart About Money.” I just loved this book. The final chapter explains the importance of women gaining economic power and their potential for making powerful changes in the world. Barbara Stanny’s second book, “Secrets of 6 Figure Women” was even more packed with empowering insights and best of all, models of financial sustainability—women who had learned to overcome their fears and their programming and ask for all they deserved.

One of my favorite all time inspirational speakers, Jim Rohn says that everyone should become a millionaire; not for the money but for who you become in the process. Stanny echos that idea in Chapter 7: Strategy #4 Speak Up:

Asking for more is an act of self-love

Saying no is a show of self-respect

Refusing to settle is a statement of self-worth

Walking away is a sign of self-trust

She concludes the chapter with the idea that as you practice this, speaking up becomes something you have to do (vs. should do) because you know in your heart you are worth it. The chapter also explains why this is especially difficult for women.

No list of financial books worth reading would be complete without Suze Orman’s expertise. Though I’ve read criticisms for her soft approach, some stating that an article for men would never be written that way—I think that’s the whole point. If you want that style article, there’s plenty to choose from. Ormans philosophy is what sets her apart from the dry, left brain only mentality that just isn’t enough in and of itself. If a list of step by step how-to’s was enough, we’d all be living lifestyles of the rich and famous. God knows there’s enough straight talk out there. It’s refreshing to get it all in one package. Any one of her books is high on my list of recommended reading. Her latest one, “Woman and Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny” may be the best place to start, though one of my all time favorites is The Courage to be Rich: Creating a Life of Material and Spiritual Abundance.” Just the idea that it takes courage to be rich is intriguing enough, don’t you think? It’s packed with practical advice and some ideas that will help you think about money from a more empowered perspective.

O.K., so that makes four books; consider it a bonus! Each of these books is a good read guaranteed to alter the way you perceive your financial possibilities. Each book presents interesting ideas to follow through on but it isn’t just the major shifts, like setting up a Roth account that alter your financial future, it’s the accumulation of little every day thoughts and actions that lead to long term results. Trying to change too much at once can set you up for failure. The best way to alter your financial reality is by gradually altering the mental maps that dictate the way you perceive the world. Little shifts, inspiring ideas, absorbed consistently, over time is the way our brains best acclimate to new information and the changes we would like to experience in life, like positive cash flow and increased net worth. With that in mind…

Bonus Book #5: A real treasure in the world of outside of the box money management: Don’t Stress – Manifest: 21 Truths to Set You Financially Free by Barbara Zagata. This empowering little book is so inspiring and so enjoyable, you’ll want to read it again and again. In a way, it’s the Law of Attraction in action! and it’s so much more. Best of all, if you’re feeling hopeless about your finances you don’t have to wait for Amazon to mail you your next dose of motivation because Don’t Stress Manifest is available as a super affordable get-it-now e-book.

By: Barbara Zagata

If I’d never read ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’ by Robert Kiyosaki, my outlook on life would be so different. I’d still believe that job I have should go to support my lifestyle, and that any budgeting I do should be for the purchase of my next toy, like a jet-ski or a motorbike. No way, not me, not now… here’s why.

I’d never been much of a finance or business oriented person – I was always more interested in history. But what I know now wasn’t really taught in schools anyway. Schools teach kids to be workers – it’s blunt but it’s absolutely true. The school system is not designed to make us all comfortably well off. It’s designed to benefit rich industrialists. Having a job is not freedom, it’s not certainty, it most likely won’t make you wealthy, and odds are it won’t help you fulfill your dreams for the future.

These sort of ideas are promoted by Robert Kiyosaki in ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’, and they really speak to me. He tells the story of having been brought up with two father figures giving him conflicting advice. The two also came from different backgrounds, and were going different places. The examples used in the book illustrate Kiyosaki’s points perfectly. It’s such a well written, well rounded text, it should be mandatory reading in all schools.

Kiyosaki turns concepts of finance and assets upside down. Let me give you an example. Kiyosaki believes- and I do too now that I’ve read his explanation – that the house you live in is not an asset, it’s a liability. The conventional thought is that your home is something that features large on the assets column, but Kiyosaki disagrees. This is because of the amount of money you pay for it.

Let’s say for example that your home is worth $300,000. Your mortgage on the home… well what you pay per week will change depending on your financial institution. But over a 30 year loan term you’ll end up paying almost $600,000 for your $300,000 home. And that doesn’t even take rates, maintenance, repairs and other ongoing costs into account.

There are legitimate ways to make that gloom and doom scenario much brighter – and they’re legal.

Similarly with the stock market: the general consensus is that you need serious cash outlay to be a big player on the stock market – well let me tell you now that’s just not true. You’re not looking in the right place, and I’m not talking hot stock tips here. There are tried and true ways of making ongoing income from the stock market that don’t involve outlaying large amounts of money.

That’s all legal too – and practically anyone can do it.

The thing that astounds me about Robert Kiyosaki’s book is that the ideas and concepts are explained so plainly, and the most complex of notions is clearly laid out for interested persons or all levels of investment knowledge to be able to understand. The ideas he espouses are easily transferable to the real world you live in. Don’t waste another minute of your life. This book is right up there with Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich”.

By: Erik Rosenzweig