This book is written by a man about his two dads who influenced him; one was his biological dad, the other was his best friend’s dad. Both were very nice gentlemen, but they had different mindsets; the difference being financial education.
The one dad was educated, a hard worker in the educational system, earning a lot of money, yet was always indebted – the Poor Dad. The other was a high school dropout, but a smart worker who became rich and wealthy – the Rich Dad.
The main difference between both Dads was their mindset – that is, on how money was looked at. Poor Dad placed emphasis on getting a good education, getting a good job, so that they could work for money and earn lots of it. Rich Dad emphasized learning about how money works, and letting money work for you.
Rich Dad focused on increasing assets and limiting liabilities. To him, simply, an asset is anything that puts money in your pocket, while a liability is anything that takes money out of your pocket. He feels that financial education is the key to wealth – learning how to explore the differences between income and expenses, as well as assets and liabilities, and therefore increasing your assets (which also increases your income), while simultaneously limiting your liabilities. To be financially educated you need to know about accounting, investing, markets, and law.
The book totes that there’s a difference between your profession and your business. Your profession could be a salesman, while your business could be to acquire income-generating real estate. To become secure, financially, a person needs to learn how to ‘mind your own business’. The rich mind the income from their asset columns by growing it, while the poor mind the income from their expense columns (physical labour). The rich buy assets, while the poor only have expenses, and the middle class have liabilities which they think are assets.
He touts the value of the corporation, in business, to the rich, since corporations cushion the rich from taxes. Whereas taxes were originally intended to punish the rich, it backfired. Now it’s the upper middle class which pays the taxes for themselves and the poor, for the most part.
The author encourages persons to take action to awaken the financial genius within themselves. This includes not taking the easy way out, choosing to become rich and carefully choosing the right friends to accomplish this, paying yourself first and your brokers well, using your assets to buy your luxuries, and giving, especially when you are in need yourself.
This is a very enlightening and valuable book.