Killer Cars

In an old entry, “My Crazy Mind at Work”, I stated that I was sick of money because it consumed me once and I saw things come and go. I am still trying to this day to reverse any bad effects of that time period (Staples anyone?). Now, I’m more lax when it comes to overspending, and it doesn’t bother me as much when I know I have debt accumulating. It also helped that my parents understand my debts because us college kids are poor and that my spending was justifiably reasonable.

However my views on money were changed the other day when I ran across a book that you may have head of. Rich Dad, Poor Dad, by Robert Kiyosaki. I read most of it (the important parts and not all the anecdotes) in one sitting because I was so intrigued.

It is written in the perspective of a man, who grew up with two dads, a rich dad and a poor dad. The poor dad was highly successful with a master’s degree, but hated money drowned himself in debt and bad spending. The rich dad was highly successful in the business field, was one of the richest men in Hawaii and always had good financial shape that he passed on to his family. He learned from the two of them as a child and later in life chose to ignore his poor dad because his rich dad made more sense financially. While I thought this was beginning to be shallow at first, what follows in the main parts and lessons of the book were far from shallow.

The most suprising bits I got out of it was how much we learn as kids about financial stability do not fit well in today’s society. For example,

• Instead of saying, “I work for my money”, wouldn’t it be better to say “My money works for me”?
• You can say, “The love of money is the root of all evil”, but isn’t the lack of money for yourself and your family as evil or worse?
• Instead of saying “I can’t afford it”, wouldn’t it challenge you more to say, “How can I afford it”?
• The average american works till May just to pay off the government in taxes. The poor pay themselves last in taxable incomes, wouldn’t it be better if your lifestyle paid you first before the government gets their share?
• The poor believe their biggest asset is their house, which is rarely ever true because most houses decrease in value. The rich drown themselves in profitable assets (anything that generates money) that take care of their liabilites (anything that takes away money). The poor will drown themselves in liabilities (big house, nice car, a superficial lifestyle) and will continue without realizing how much assets they need to cover themselves
• The poor educate themselves so they can make money. The rich, make money so they can learn.
• The poor believe that the government and your job should help in financial stability, while the rich believe in individual responsibilty and reliance.
• The poor would teach their kids, work hard in school so you can work for a good company. The rich would tell their kids, work hard in school so you can buy a good company
• The poor will focus most of their time on earned income, where taxes are heavy. The rich focus their time on portfolio and passive income, with many tax advantages.

All these I have retained from the last time I saw the book. It all makes sense, most of the stuff we learn as kids are useless in today’s world and if you can’t beat the rich, you might as well join ‘em.

So that whole ‘money is the root of evil’ just got reversed. I come to appreciate money now in terms of helping you achieve what you want. That said, if you see me poor all the time, its not because I hate money, it’s because I hate work.

Seriously, everybody has to like money is some way or another. What people hate to do, of course, is working for it. With so much to do in life that people don’t get to do because they were working all their life, it makes sense to get yourself rich to live it out.

If I ever got rich, I would want to retire early, say when I’m 40. I would buy a house in the north, south, east and the west. After that, I would help myself and others to buying lots of small things, (a movie collection, music collection, art) because big things are just too cliche. I would sit on my ass for weeks and never be bored, and when I do, I would send everyone on vacation. That sounds like fun.

I know that there is more than life than taking care of yourself, but just remember, ‘money is power’. What can’t you achieve, if you already did it for yourself?

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