Rich Dad Poor Dad

One dad would say, "The love of money is the root of all evil." The other said, "The lack of money is the root of all evil."

One of the reasons the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and the middle class struggles in debt is that the subject of money is taught at home, not in school.

Our staggering national debt is due in large part to highly educated politicians and government officials making financial decisions with little or no training in the subject of money.

One dad had a habit of saying, "I can’t afford it." The other dad forbade those words to be used. He insisted I ask, "How can I afford it?"

"My brain gets stronger every day because I exercise it. The stronger it gets, the more money I can make."

People really do shape their lives through their thoughts.

There is a difference between being poor and being broke. Broke is temporary. Poor is eternal.

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

"The avoidance of money is just as psychotic as being attached to money."

So many people say, "Oh, I’m not interested in money." Yet they’ll work at a job for eight hours a day.

A doctor, wanting more money to better provide for his family, raises his fees. By raising his fees, it makes health care more expensive for everyone. It hurts the poor people the most, so they have worse health than those with money. Because the doctors raise their fees, the attorneys raise their fees. Because the attorneys' fees have gone up, schoolteachers want a raise, which raises our taxes, and on and on and on. Soon there will be such a horrifying gap between the rich and the poor that chaos will break out and another great civilization will collapse. History proves that great civilizations collapse when the gap between the haves and have-nots is too great.

In life, it’s not how much money you make. It’s how much money you keep.

Rich people acquire assets. The poor and middle class acquire liabilities that they think are assets.

An asset puts money in my pocket. A liability takes money out of my pocket.

"A fool and his money is one big party."

"If you find you have dug yourself into a hole… stop digging."

The Japanese were aware of three powers: the power of the sword, the jewel, and the mirror. The sword symbolizes the power of weapons. America has spent trillions of dollars on weapons and, because of this, is a powerful military presence in the world. The jewel symbolizes the power of money. There is some degree of truth to the saying, "Remember the golden rule. He who has the gold makes the rules." The mirror symbolizes the power of self-knowledge. This self-knowledge, according to Japanese legend, was the most treasured of the three.

"An intelligent person hires people who are more intelligent than he is."

Schools were designed to produce good employees, instead of employers.

Wealth is a person’s ability to survive so many number of days forward—or, if I stopped working today, how long could I survive?

The rich focus on their asset columns while everyone else focuses on their income statements.

Financial struggle is often the result of people working all their lives for someone else.

Start minding your own business. Keep your daytime job, but start buying real assets, not liabilities.

My rich dad just played the game smart, and he did it through corporations—the biggest secret of the rich.

If you work for money, you give the power to you employer. If money works for you, you keep the power and control it.

Each dollar in my asset column was a great employee, working hard to make more employees and buy the boss a new Porsche.

The single most powerful asset we all have is our mind. If it is trained well, it can create enormous wealth.

Financial intelligence is a synergy of accounting, investing, marketing, and law.

Job is an acronym for "Just Over Broke."

"So if most of you can cook a better hamburger, how come McDonald’s makes more money than you?" The answer is obvious: McDonald’s is excellent at business systems.

The most important specialized skills are sales and marketing.

The primary difference between a rich person and a poor person is how they manage fear.

Another saying in Texas is, "Everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die."

Rich dad believed that the words "I can’t afford it" shut down your brain. "How can I afford it?" opens up possibilities, excitement, and dreams.

"What I know makes me money. What I don’t know loses me money.

There is gold everywhere. Most people are not trained to see it.

IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A STRONG REASON, THERE IS NO SENSE READING FURTHER. IT WILL SOUND LIKE TOO MUCH WORK.

The sophisticated investor’s first question is: "How fast do I get my money back?"

"God does not need to receive, but humans need to give."

He is yelling at the pot-bellied stove, "When you give me some heat, then I’ll put some wood in you!" And when it comes to money, love, happiness, sales, and contacts, all one needs to remember is to give first.

"A real investor makes money in an up market and a down market.

Warren Buffett, America’s richest investor says, "Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing."

"What is your goal in life?" The answer is found in the simple, yet profound, statement by a Vietnamese monk, Thich Naht Hahn: "The path is the goal."

Edison said, "I did not fail 1,014 times. I successfully found out what did not work 1,014 times."

References

1. Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!