Lesson 2: What items in your financial portfolio say about your wealth— Rich Dad’s Prophecy by Robert Kiyosaki
Mr. Kiyosaki is well known in the world of business books. Writing linchpin get rich books like Rich Dad, Poor Dad and Rich Dad’s Cashflow Quadrant, Kiyosaki has settled himself as an author a lot of aspiring business people have on their bookshelves by default. I personally read three of his books this year and found each and every one of his highly insightful to my young understanding of the business world.
I am currently pursuing a Bachelors of Business Administration that is going to cost upwards of a quarter of a million dollars and I’ll say, I’ve learned more about the logic of doing business through those three books that cost me no more than twenty five dollars than I have in most of my business classes. His books more so focus on strategies on how to handle things like assets, liabilities, expenses, and income streams, whereas a formal education more so teaches you how to calculate each of them and put them into reports. Which of the two understandings do you think will make you a better business person? Employee?
The part that made things click for me came out of one of his lesser known books by the name of Prophecy. In Prophecy he makes a list that itemizes the types of financial vehicles, sources of income, and habits that people across the Rich, middle, and poor classes have. The list goes like this:
This for many people will be tough to see as it holds what could be something hard to swallow. Kiyosaki always pushes his readers to strive to be financially free and will tell a reader to stop reading if they aren’t up for the challenge.
I will say, he does generalize a bit to what he defines as financially rich, middle class, or poor. To him, rich means top five percent. To a lot of Americans, rich means having fifty thousand in a savings account. With that said, take this list with a grain of salt as it isn’t pure fact as the “metric” this list is divided by is highly subjective to an individual’s expectations of financial success.
Kiyosaki then goes on to explain that once you understand what types of “games” you have to play to get to where you want to be. all you have to do is play that game. In other words if you truly aspire to be rich, you’re going to have to learn how to manage relationships and assets like those listed in the rich section. If you’re comfortable being in the middle class, then just play the financial game of the middle class. The tough part is putting in the work to get to where you want to be as studying how to manage financial vehicles isn’t always the most entertaining or most exiting thing. That is where most prevail.
Kiyosaki also makes it very clear that there is a game that is knowingly played by the rich of the world that is not taught in schools. The reason for that can be debated by anyone, but the truth is that if you want to learn how to be rich you yourself are going to have to learn how to play the game of the rich. There currently isn’t any pre-packaged education vehicle that guarantees you a ticket to be part of the 1%. Not even a quarter of a million dollar education guarantees you that. That type of education, if anything, can on occasion make it more likely that you end up in the middle class.
There’s a lot more to his books and ideas that no one can possibly cover in a couple of paragraphs, but for 2021, I recommend to take a look at that list and figure out where you want to be in 5, 10, 15 years from now, and then take that goal and develop a plan of attack and figure out the game that people play to get to where it is you want to be financially. Everything compounds and efforts in which you concentrate usually find their date of maturity. Make year one 2021!
Kiyosaki, R. T. (2013). Rich dad’s prophecy: Why the biggest stock market crash in history Is still coming — and how you can prepare yourself and profit from it! Scottsdale, AZ: Plata Pub.
Edited by Jarett Joldersma
