Finance Book

The life changing book that has been a personal finance best seller for over a decade written by author Robert T. Kiyosaki. This little book has changed the lives of many people and their perspective on money, who are in misery, not knowing how to make ends meet due to lack of financial education. The contents of this book, tells the story of a young man, who is the author himself, being brought up by his natural father the conventional way of getting a job, saving every penny, working hard and climbing the corporate ladder. At the same time, he also had a “second father” who taught him a different way to view things and how to start from scratch and build his business into an empire.

I am sure many of us can relate to the story on the part where we were being brought up the conventional way to become workers. As much as we don’t wish it to be that way, ironically, the education system plays a very big part in educating our fathers and their fathers to be trained into workers instead of educating them and inspire them to become business owners. Ignorance of other available choices, we are trapped in a eternal cycle of working for money, saving up and spending on wasting assets that constantly drains our finances and loses value over time. Welcome to the rat race! Unless we learn and educate ourselves on personal finance, we will be unknowingly stuck with only one way of thinking, and passing that knowledge on to the next generation. Talk about vicious cycle!

The main point of this book is to educate yourself on personal finance, which is to learn how to become financially independent by making money work hard for you and not you working hard to earn every single penny. It teaches you that you do not have to be a slave to money and to turn the situation to your advantage. There is no need for you to work for another person if you do not want to, in order to fulfill what you want in life. You are in control of your situation and you no longer need to take orders from anyone. You decide how much work you need. You are your own boss!

This book has certainly made a huge impact on my life, why not read it and see if it will change yours as well? Make that difference now.

By: Ben Ang

1. THINK AND GROW RICH – NAPOLEON HILL This book has single handedly changed my life, I read this from cover to cover then start over again, every time the I learn new and different things as my awareness grows. More millionaires credit this book to being the key to their success, than any other book.

2. THE SCIENCE OF GETTING RICH – WALLACE. D. WATTLES This book is based on the same philosophy as THINK AND GROW RICH, just explains things differently and it explains that getting rich is a science, and as a science, when you follow simple laws, you get the same results every time.

3. THE 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE – STEPHEN R. COVEY This book is a great way to raise awareness of how we think, and how we need to think to become more fulfilled and successful, this book also gives us some very good perception, and explains why we must shift our thinking.

4. RICH DAD POOR DAD – ROBERT. T. KIYOSAKI – This is a great book for all ages, in fact it was the first book I ever read in relation to money. This explains how rich people think and act, and also shows how the middle class and poor act and why they never get ahead.

5. THE ONE MINUTE MILLIONAIRE – MARK VICTOR HANSEN This is a great book to have if you only have a few minutes spare during each day, this has some amazing stories inside stories and is fantastic to read.

6. THE RICHEST MAN IN BABYLON – GEORGE S. CLASON This is a brilliant story about a man from Babylon who through organized and precise planning, become the richest man in his town, with just purely smart ideas on how to grow the income you already have.

7. ACRES OF DIAMONDS – DR. RUSSELL H. CONWELL This is a awesome short story of a guy giving up, right before he reached success. And how the lesson came around again, but due to previous failure, he too succeeded in the end.

These 7 Books must be read, and then Studied. They must be studied as a text book, rather than just something to read, and then acted upon accordingly!

By: Ryan Martin

I don’t usually read non-fiction, especially a non-fiction book that has to do with finances and money management. But when I was browsing through the friendly neighborhood book-shop the other day, I happened to pick up this book because of its catchy title “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” and its tag phrase “What the Rich teach their kids about money – that the poor and middle class do not!” Maybe it had something to do with my sorely depleted bank balance and the fact that the book promised to teach something about money that my parent’s hadn’t.

“Rich Dad, Poor Dad” has been written by Robert T. Kiyosaki with Sharon L. Lechter. Mr. Kiyosaki is a fourth generation Japanese-American. After serving in the Marine Corps as a helicopter gunship pilot during the Vietnam War, he took a job with the Xerox Corporation as a salesman. This is when he started to invest in real estate and other commodities and eventually started a company that introduced nylon and Velcro wallets, designed for surfers, into the market. Mr. Kiyosaki now runs a business and investment education company, Cashflow Technologies, Inc.

Ralph H. Kiyosaki, Robert’s biological father, was the former Superintendent of Education for the state of Hawaii. He was a highly educated man with a Ph.D. from Stanford University. He is referred to as “Poor Dad” in the book. The man referred to as “Rich Dad” was a neighbor who had never finished eight grade yet owned warehouses, a construction company, a chain of stores and three restaurants. While “Poor Dad” urged Robert to study hard so that he could earn money, his “Rich Dad” taught him how to invest money so that he would not be bound within the constraints of a nine-to-five job.

The book contains all the various lessons about money that Robert’s mentor, “Rich Dad” taught him. “Rich Dad” was rich and taught Robert how to get rich and stay that way. The contrast between the attitudes of the rich and the middle-class towards money is further reinforced by the teachings of “Poor Dad,” who had typical middle-class notions about money, and made just enough to pay his taxes and own a house, in spite of being so highly educated and working for the Government.

Mr. Kiyosaki says his main motive behind writing this book is to teach financial literacy to those of us who have not been blessed enough to have a “Rich Dad” to show us how to invest our money properly. He argues that the present educational system renders us financially incompetent and allows rich corporations and the Government to exploit us for money because of this lack of financial literacy. He offers many valuable insights into money management that he obtained from his “Rich Dad” and from his personal experience.

The most significant concept in the book that I found to be an eye-opener was his differentiation between a “business” and a “profession.” According to Mr. Kiyosaki, besides ones day-to-day job (or “profession” as he calls it), every person must also have a “business” where he can invest his money, and which will in turn generate money for him even when he is not working. He also goes on to explain the history of taxes and how the rich manage to legally evade paying a fortune in taxes through the formation of corporations. His definition of “assets” and “liabilities” was a revelation to me, and a sad one at that, because I realized that most of the things that I considered my assets were actually liabilities in the long run. He also gives detailed examples on how to manage ones cash flow so that returns from the assets can be invested into procuring more assets.

The book is very well written and, surprisingly for a book on the subject of finance, not at all dry or long-winded. Mr. Kiyosaki uses a lot of anecdotes to illustrate his ideas and the constant comparison between the wealth management strategies of “Rich Dad” and “Poor Dad” serves to reinforce the need to change middle-class mindsets about money.

I have read some criticism about this book, saying that the financial advice offered in this book is too general and not very accurate. Not being a financial genius myself, I wouldn’t be able to counter these claims. But, as a layman in the field of finance, I found this book very encouraging and motivational. It really made sit back and take a close look at where all the money that I am working so hard for was going. Even if I don’t actually use all the strategies outlined in the book and become a millionaire, it was still a very interesting read that has changed my outlook on money forever.

By: Vijay Ghosh