Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach their Kids about Money that the Poor and Middle Class Do Not

by Robert Kiyosaki
Hennepin County Library paperback 183 pages
genre: non-fiction financial literacy

I wish I had kept track of the review I read that recommended this book. I wanted to read it as an educator - what is it that kids in less affluent families need to know? But as I read it, I thought about my own life and financial knowledge (or lack thereof). I still would rather follow Jesus, be poor, bless others, and store up my treasures in heaven. But here are some notes I made (before I return this to the library!) and things I'm still pondering:

page 55 - "Because students leave school without financial skills, millions of educated people pursue their profession successfully, but later find themselves struggling financially. They work harder but don't get ahead. What is missing from their education is not how to make money, but how to manage money. It's called financial aptitude - what you do with the money once you make it, how to keep people from taking it from you, how to keep it longer, and how to make that money work hard for you. Most people don't understand cash flow. A person can be highly educated, professionally successful, and financially illiterate. These people often work harder than they need to because they learned how to work hard, but not how to have their money work hard for them."

page 70 - he says that people like me (and most people) are 1. - working for the company, 2 - working for the government (taxes), and 3 - working for the bank (paying mortgage & interest)

page 112 - "Most people never win because they are afraid of losing. That is why I found school so silly. 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. We learn to walk by falling down. If we never fell down, we would never walk. The same is true for learning to ride a bike. I still have scars on my knees, but today I can ride a bike without thinking. The same is true for getting rich." I agree with him on making mistakes - too often, we're looking for students to "get it right" rather than to actually learn . . .

page 134 (back to theme of willingness to lose) "I've said that falling off my bike was part of learning to ride. I remember falling off only made me more determined to learn to ride, not less. I also said that I have never met a golfer who has never lost a ball. For top professional golfers, losing a ball or a tournament provides the inspiration to be better, to practice harder, to study more. That's what makes them better. For winners, losing inspires them. For losers, losing defeats them."

Lots to think about and consider. He readily admits that most taxes are paid in by the poor and middle class . . . for me it brings up thoughts of Leona Helmsley - "taxes are for the little people" or whatever she said. Interesting and sad. But he also says that giving is very important and that he and his wife give a lot of money away. But he basically advocates for making money off investments (real estate, stocks) and not paying taxes to the government.