Posts Tagged ‘Robert Kiyosaki’

Where To Learn Financial Literacy?

November 10th, 2009

Financial literacy is important if you want to achieve financial freedom. We have being taught about economics, balance check books, and basic accounting in school but school never teach us how to grow our balance sheet, minding our business and money. Thus it is our own responsibility to learn about financial education if we need to succeed in financial life. There are a few ways to can learn knowledge of financial literacy.

  1. Get a financial advisor - It is important to take note in the background of financial advisor, observe which cash flow quadrant they are from. Rich dad’s cashflow quadrant defines E-S-B-I as in E-Employee, S-Self employed, B-Business, and I-Investor. Most of the financial advisors are from the cash flow quadrants of S and E, meaning they are either self-employed or working for a financial institution such as bank or insurance company. If you want to be a successful business owner, probably this financial advisor who comes from S or E  is not the best to give you advise. However if you want to excel as an employee, the mentioned first two might just be fine to get you started.
  2. Pick up a few books – When picking up books, it is also important to note on the background of the author. It is important that we take advice only from the person who has already been successful in financial life. Robert Kiyosaki and Adam Khoo are best example authors that write good books about achieving financial freedom. Adam Khoo is a self-made millionaire who made his first million at the age of 26 years old. One of his popular books is Secret of The Self Made Millionaire. While Robert Kiyosaki is a successful business owner and real estate investor, and his best selling book around the world is the famous Rich Dad Poor Dad and Cashflow Quadrants.
  3. Play the Rich dad’s Cashflow 101 Game – This game is available in both PC version and board game.  The game basically simulates peoples role in financial life.  The goal of the game is to escape from rat race – as in escaping the typical middle class life of working for money in order to pay off debts. Playing this game you will learn some basic on reading income statement, expense, and balance sheet. Best thing about this game is that it simplifies so much that it is easy for beginner to understand as well, however in order to win the game, it takes a bit of financial literacy, which one will learn in the process of game play.
  4. Making Mistakes – Schools punish students for making mistake, yet the best way to learn is by making mistake. The more mistakes you make, the wiser you are. People who never make mistake are not that they are smarter, it is because they never attempt to succeed. So try taking action now, make your own mistakes and learn from it. Financial literacy learnt through experiences is priceless lessons one could ever learn in life.
  5. Join Seminar – Probably this is the highest priced investment in pursuing of financial education but could well worth the investment in long run. One good thing about attending a seminar is that most of them will get you involved in many useful training and interaction sessions. You don’t get this by listening to coaching audio and books. Besides, during seminar you get to know others who also have a same passion and interest as you. You can hardly find people who are as interested in money as you from the office.
  6. Online articles – Good thing about online article is that they are all free, all you need is to spend a bit time looking for good information. Web site like Ezinearticles.com and articlebase.com have abundant of well written articles focus on financial topics.  However, be warned that most articles might just be well written but not technically proven, so just treat it like a reference and try applying it (with no cost involved of course) and see if it works in real life.

The Largest Investment On The Planet – Real Estate

October 14th, 2009

I couldn’t help but quoting some content from Robert Kiyosaki’s latest book – Conspiracy of the Rich.

He was interviewed through a radio program by a financial expert.

The financial expert was asking Robert if the real estate is really dead, because so many people out there are losing money from real estate. If real estate investment is so bad, how can he still recommending people to invest in real estate.

This is his answer: “If you live on planet earth, you are invested in real estate. The house you live in, regardless if you own or rent is a real estate investment. The grocery store you shop at is someone’s real estate investment. Even boat harbors and marinas are real estate investments. McDonalds is the biggest real estate company in the world. Most people are born in the hospital and most people will be buried in a cemetery. Both are real estate investments. Someone is always making money from real estate. Like it or not, we’re all in real estate business”

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Since we are so close to the real estate investment world, we fail to realize everything around us has something to do with real estate. As i’m typing this, sitting on the sofa in my comfortable hotel room of The Marriot Group, i’m actually sitting on one of Marriot’s real estate invesment. It is everywhere; when you go to cinema, finding a car park, play tennis, football, shopping, dining at restaurant, and stock market. These are all real estate investment of someone else’s. Some one is always making money out of the real estate investmentand some one are losing money. In this case, i’m paying for Marriot’s return of real estate investment.

 

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Don’t Be Stupid

October 14th, 2009

I quote this teaching from Robert Kiyosaki’s latest book – Conspiracy of The Rich.

We all know the definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Yet, isn’t that what conventional investing advice asks of us – to keep investing for the long term, even when markets are crashing, and expect different results?

“In my lifetime, I have lost a lot of money. Yet with most losses came a valuable lesson. The primary reason I say this caller is asking a stupid question is because I believe she not only is failing to learn a lesson, she is actively making the same mistake. She is living out the definition of stupidity: Doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results.”

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However i would like to add that, the above quote didn’t mean to say that all long term investment is bad; for example a good company with great fundamental under excellent management will definitely strive in long term. A long term investment like a rental property in a good location that provide positive cash flow can serve you for a long time. The above quote simply imply the common misconception in many people’s indiscriminated long term investment perception.