To whom it may concern,
Since this is my first time making a thread, I feel the need to share a little about myself. If you’re only interested in the book review, feel free to skip ahead. My name is Alexander Monnin. I am currently a college student majoring in Electrical Engineering. I will graduate in May 2019, get a full time job and begin investing in real estate on the side. My goal is to build wealth and have the opportunity to quit my day job by the time I’m 40 (emphasis on opportunity because I do enjoy engineering).
I read Rich Dad Poor Dad at least a year ago and several other personal development books since. About a week ago, I decided to go all out in real estate and committed to seriously educating myself over the next 2 years to prepare myself for when I have money to invest. So to do that, I will be writing book reviews on real estate books in my free time.
Rich Dad Poor Dad
By Robert Kiyosaki
“If you want to be rich, you need to be financially literate.”
If you are looking for a book about investing strategies or tactics, this book is not for you. I would not call Rich Dad Poor Dad a book about real estate. Instead, this book teaches people how to be financially literate, which above all, may be the most important thing to building wealth.
The first step to becoming financially literate is understanding the difference between an asset and liability, and also understanding the effects of them. According to the book, the key to gaining wealth is acquiring assets and keeping your liabilities as low as possible. An asset is something that puts money into your pocket and a liability is something that takes money out of your pocket. This is the first thing that people should know when trying to build wealth. I know some people will disagree with these definitions, but the truth is that these are concepts and you can call them by whatever name you want. In the end, rich people find ways to put money in their pocket while decreasing the things that take away their money.
The next thing to understand is that putting your money into liabilities before you have assets is essentially digging yourself a grave. For example, many people buy themselvess their dream home before they can afford it. They don’t understand the expenses that come with it. They don’t understand that a house will have larger fees like property taxes and upkeep fees that will never go away. People who fall into buying a house too early will be forced to pay their liabilities first and have little to none to put into assets. This leads to lost time, loss capital and a lost chance to gain experience investing.
“People who avoid failure also avoid success.”
You will never find a golfer who never lost ball or find a biker who never fell of their bike trying to learn. This is true of investing. You will make mistakes when investing, it's inevitable. It happens to all investors. Unfortunately, most people know this but use it as a reason not to invest.
You can play to win or you can play not to lose. Fear of losing should not keep you out of the game. You can’t let fear control you. Above all, take calculated risks and trust yourself. You will make mistakes, but you will learn from them. If you really keep at it and don’t give up, you will become successful.
Since this is my thread, I will keep it short and stop here. These were my top takeaways from Rich Dad Poor Dad. If you are just getting started into investing, then this is a wonderful book for you. My next review will be on Real Estate Investing - A Complete Guide to Making Money in Real Estate in your Home Town by David Lindahl. Comment what you think and let me know if you know any good books on real estate.
Alexander Monnin
P.S. Feel free follow or reach out to me.
