Money Matters-How to Get Money to Work for You

Money Matters-How to Get Money to Work for You

My religion teacher always said that the love of money is the root of all evil.  She discouraged us from accumulating too much of it—at least that was the idea I picked up when she told us that material possessions didn’t matter to God…so why bother amassing all the wealth in the world when it couldn’t be brought up to heaven anyway? Good student that I was, I took everything that she said to be unquestionably true; I even jotted down some notes so I wouldn’t forget: Money=the root of all evil.

That is, until I read Rich Dad Poor Dad, which changed my thoughts on money, wealth and power forever. To be sure, Robert Kiyosaki isn’t that much of a writer—there are plenty of more talented writers out there who can better hold a reader’s interest—but the content of his books, most of them about how to get rich, has made him a bestselling author. In fact, Rich Dad Poor Dad became one of my all-time favorites soon after I finished it, mainly because of how well its lessons could be applied to my daily life.

Whenever I was feeling particularly rebellious, I would always ask my parents the same question: “Why should I waste my time studying subjects that could never be put to use in our everyday lives anyway?”

My mom always had the same answer for me, “Because if you don’t study, you won’t get good grades; if you won’t get good grades, then you won’t get into a good college and if you won’t get into a good college, how can you find a high-paying job that can pay all the bills?”

“Duh,” I always found myself saying, “Open your eyes, mom! Most of the rich people nowadays aren’t even college graduates—just look at Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft and the richest man in the world—he was a college dropout! The Facebook guy made it into the Forbes billionaires’ list and he doesn’t even have a degree in anything! If they can do it…why can’t I?”

Yes…why can’t I?

Robert Kiyosaki had two dads, a rich one and a poor one. One of them was an intelligent university graduate; the other never finished Eighth Grade. Both were successful in their chosen careers, but the other struggled financially all his life. One of them didn’t work for money; the other had money work for him. Despite his love for both dads, Robert decided to learn from his rich dad when it came to money…even though he was the one who never finished Eighth Grade. And now I’m learning what rich dad taught Robert from ages nine to thirty-nine: the secret of harnessing the power of money to create wealth. Here are a few of the lessons I picked up from the book, Rich Dad Poor Dad:

Money doesn’t solve all our financial problems; most of the time, it just makes things worse.

My religion teacher had a point when she said that the love of money is the root of all evil. Most people aspire to be rich because they believe that more money will make them happier and their lives simpler. But according to Kiyosaki, most people, if given more money, will only get into heavier debt. He asserts that more money isn’t the answer to all our problems; instead, we should learn to handle money and make it work for us. And how exactly do we do that? This leads us to the second truth…

Work for experience—not for the amount of money involved.

Robert Kiyosaki recommends young people to seek work for what they will learn, and not what they will earn. Most college students who get into the nursing profession nowadays are there because of the demand for nurses abroad and the high pay involved, not because they actually want to be there. This is a concrete example of letting money control our decisions and the kind of life that we choose for ourselves…and believe me; it only leads to more trouble in the end.

Know the difference between an asset and a liability—so you won’t get mixed up into thinking an asset is a liability and vice versa.

I actually didn’t know what an asset and a liability was until I read the book. Sure, I had some vague idea that one of them was good for you and the other a humongous pain in the butt, but I couldn’t distinguish between the two. I tried looking it up in the dictionary once but all I got was this ultra-complicated definition that made no sense whatsoever—at least to someone who hadn’t a degree in accountancy or business. Robert Kiyosaki’s terminology made things a lot easier… According to him, an asset is something that puts money into your pocket. A liability is something that takes money out of your pocket. Assets increase in value over time, while the value of a liability degrades with time. Try to look around you and maybe even ask yourself: “Which of my possessions are assets, which are liabilities?” You need to know the difference between the two if you ever plan on getting rich sometime.

Brush up on your math—so you won’t get cheated by crooked accountants of any sort.

I never liked Math. Numbers give me a headache. I can only add up to four digit numbers; after that, I become totally dependent on the calculator. Yeah, right. Being good in math is a vital skill if you want to become rich. The more money you have, the more accuracy is required or other people who are better at it than you are will take advantage of your weakness for their personal gain. It’s important that you be able to read financial statements lest your crooked accountant decide to cheat you out of millions of pesos. So, brush up on your math when it’s still early; you never know when it may come in handy.

Although it’s still true that a good education is an important component of success, we need to look further than that if we want to get rich and stay that way. A good education gives us the professional skills we need to make money but financial literacy is required to make money work for us, to be able to use the money that we earn into creating wealth. After all, it’s no crime to aspire for riches and worldly wealth. Money is not evil. It’s people who make it that way.

www.johnseiferth.com Part two of my interview with Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad Poor Dad and creator of the game CASHFLOW. In this segment, Robert explains the BI Triangle and why context is just as, if not MORE important than content. By context I mean the mission of the company, the team involved and the leadership. These pieces are more directly responsible for the success of the company than anything else. The content is the product, legal, systems (business, IT), communications (PR, marketing), and cash flow (accounting). These are what Robert refers to at the MBA portion of the business. All of them are extremely important. However, the one thing new business owners focus on the MOST, is the product. In this clip Robert explains that the product is the smallest and most insignificant piece of a business. The example he uses is McDonalds. The hamburgers they sell are really, very bad. But the business systems and context they have created makes it a great business. In fact, one of the best on the planet. Robert also gives more insight into the event coming up at the beginning of May. He mentions that if you are looking for happy camp, glide through the course, get out early and head to the bar, this is NOT THE COURSE FOR YOU! However, if you are looking for the best business and investing education you can get, anywhere, then join us. If you are ready to take your business and investing to the next level, get your tickets here. www.johnseiferth.com BONUS: I …