Wisdom of Rich Dad

I think many of you would agree that a lot of us are employees. We have a definite working time schedule. We have a boss. We work on a particular role. Basically, we work hard to sustain our day to day living.

But if you want to achieve financial freedom, you should not just work hard but work smarter! Yes, you will earn more by working harder. You will work even harder if you got promoted because of the additional responsibilities and tasks that will be assigned to you. You will become probably rich because of overtime and pay raises but definitely you would sacrifice a lot.

You will risk your health because of stress. You will lessen the time for your family and friends. In short, you will not enjoy the fruits of your hard work if you will only just work harder. Added to that, the government is your number 1 beneficiary if you work harder. Your pay gets taxed first even before you get it.

Don’t just work hard, work smart too. How to work smart? Here are some of the the things that you could do to work smarter!

Work like a smart entrepreneur. If you have the capacity to become an entrepreneur, start a business. An entrepreneur leverages his resources and hires people who are smarter than him to work for him. Yes, he will work but on the supervisory level only. He delegates tasks and he gets rich by doing it. These are the tactics of taipans and tycoons.

Learn financial intelligence. If you would just work hard and even harder, you will definitely end up burnt out of your work. If you are financially literate, you would accumulate assets while you are working. And as these pile of assets accumulate over time, it would be sufficient to provide you with your needs without working. Choose to be the ‘rich person’ as Robert Kiyosaki said and not the ‘poor’ and ‘middle class’ persons who buy liabilities they think are assets.

Work for passive income. As I already mentioned in previous posts, passive income is your money working for you. Try to work little by little for passive income while you have your job. And as your passive income grows, then that would be the time to go full time for it.

Ultimately, working smarter is shifting from either the Employee (E) and Self Employed (S) quadrant of the Cashflow Quadrant to either Big Business Owner (B) and Investor (I) quadrants.

Admit it — at some time in your life, you’ve said to yourself, “I wish I was rich.”

That desire is not a crime — but it may be leading people to waste their money, and their time, at a popular weekend workshop we’ve been investigating.

The workshop is called “Learn to Be Rich” — maybe you’ve seen the ads on the Internet, transit, or heard them on the radio? They feature Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad — one of the bestselling financial help books ever written. And the workshops are popular — rolling into towns across Canada every weekend, filling ballrooms with people eager to learn how to turn around their financial fortunes.

People are told they will learn valuable skills in real estate development, or how to play the stock market. But at Marketplace, we were hearing complaints about the three-day workshops (that cost $500), so we decided to enrol in one on real estate.

The problems started within the first half-hour, where our instructor told us we weren’t, in fact, going to get the tools needed that weekend to get rich. Turns out, this weekend workshop was just a primer — we really needed to sign up for more advanced courses. And the cost for those? A mere $12,000 to $45,000!

But there was to be no discussion of the price — our trainer told us if we didn’t like it, he would tell us to leave.

In fact, throughout the weekend, we felt bullied and pressured to sign up for the advanced courses (where the real money was to be made). There was some instruction, but when we met with real estate lawyer Bob Aaron, he called what we were taught “bad advice,” and said many techniques were just plain “dumb.”

To make matters worse, our instructor misled us with a whopper of a tale, and later blew up at participants because not enough people took the opportunity to shell out up to $45,000 for more courses. You’ll see it all in our story tonight, but it left us questioning what financial guru Kiyosaki thought about it all.

When we caught up with him, even Kiyosaki admitted there were problems with some of the tactics used in the workshops that bear his Rich Dad brand.

Bottom line? That age old nugget holds stands — if a weekend workshop on how to be rich sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Erica Johnson is a journalist and co-host of CBC News: Marketplace, Canada’s award-winning consumer affairs show. CBC News: Marketplace airs each Friday night at 8:30 p.m. on CBC Television.

Financial planning is needed for those of you who want to achieve your financial goals, as well as the old saying “Failing to plan equals planning to fail” if you do not make plans in the financial planning or the plan is still not good then you’re planning to fail.

Try to think for a moment: people who have done just planning to fail, especially who do not plan, certainly will fail. as Robert T. Kiyosaki always emphasized in every book of the mega best seller: The Importance of Having and continue Sharpen your financial intelligence because that is what will bring you to financial freedom.

To make a financial plan is still much that is not understood by most people about issues related to financial issues. for example, people want to save in order to prepare for a down payment on a house, may not know how much to save each month, and probably also can not predict what the price will be the future home, questions such questions will arise and many will not be able to easily answered because of lack of knowledge about the “financial planning”.

In this case you may need the help of a financial planner to help you create a financial plan which if the plan is executed, then you are running to achieve financial goals that have been defined.

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Going to school, getting a job, staying out of debt, diversifying your stock portfolio and investing in a retirement plan in which the government will take care of you in your old age has, according to Robert T. Kiyosaki of Rich Dad’s Conspiracy of The Rich, become the new fairy tale.

The author of the #1 bestselling finance book of all time, Rich Dad Poor Dad, with follow-ups such as Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing, Rich Dad’s Prophesy, has upped the ante once again with his newest addition to the Rich Dad franchise by challenging societal norms regarding personal and financial success in light of the recession and repeated U.S. government bailouts.

According to Kiyosaki, the central banking system (most specifically, the Federal Reserve System of the United States) was designed — conspired — in a way that cash flows directly into the pockets of the rich, where hard-working taxpayers simply cannot win the old-fashioned way, especially in a deflated economy.

In simple and often pleonastic language, the author explains the relationship between big banks and government, debt and America, and financial education and the poor.

One of the biggest conspiracies Kiyosaki explores is the lack of financial education in schools, which the author pins all the way back to when industrialist John D. Rockefeller created the General Education Board under a Prussian system, churning students into cogs and not independent thinkers.

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I would like to briefly talk to you about opportunity. Many people fail to see opportunity before them – either because they claim they are too busy or because they just are not looking in the right place. Or maybe it’s because they have immersed themselves in life: from their job to their children, there really isn’t much time for anything else.

Oftentimes, people miss opportunities before them because of these reasons – or should I say, excuses.

A great opportunity lies ahead of us over the next few years. Those who have prepared have already reaped the benefits and will continue to do so. There are people out there profiting off of this recession. There are people who have used this recession as their opportunity.

I would like to share a quote with you to further explain what I mean: “Success always comes when preparation meets opportunity.” Most often attributed to a Mr. Henry Hartman, on whom I was unable to find information, this quote resonated deeply with me since I first heard it.

Instead of looking at the recession as a bad thing, look at it as an opportunity to accumulate wealth. Look at it as a stepping stone for your retirement goals. Look at it as a chance to start a business. Look at it as a chance to prepare.

As Robert Kiyosaki, entrepreneur and author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, has said: “This crisis is the biggest opportunity in the history of the world.” This statement could not be more true. It just depends on how you look at life.

I firmly believe that, in America, anything is possible. I believe people come here looking for a better life. Whether rich, middle class, or poor, there is always a chance for you. While we may not all start off in the same position in the marathon of life, there are always opportunities for us to cross the finish line together. Don’t let fear or self-doubt stand in your way.

So what can you do to start? Here are a few suggestions:

1. Get your financial education, as Kiyosaki always says. (And yes, there is ALWAYS time. It just depends on what you want to spend your time doing).

2. Read magazines and newspapers like Forbes, Money and The Wall Street Journal. Watch channels like Fox Business and CNBC. CNBC is a great place to learn about money and entrepreneurship.

3. Read as many books as you can. My suggestions to get you started are: Rich Dad Poor Dad by Kiyosaki, The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas L. Friedman, and The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss.

4. Don’t ever stop being a student. Take classes and attend seminars on finance, economics, and investing.

5. Learn about handling your personal finances.

6. Get out of bad debt as quickly as possible – particularly credit card debt.

7. Save money and invest in things like real estate – so your money doesn’t lose value. There are many opportunities for novice investors out there as property values continue to decline. Do your due diligence. (You may even have a chance to help somebody in foreclosure by assuming their mortgage).

I have implemented, or am in the process of implementing, all of these strategies. They are all things I have read about or learned about over the past few years. I would not recommend them if I didn’t think they would work. Some things may not work for you. That’s fine. The point is to try things and learn things that will make life better for you and your family.

Here’s to your success this year and in years to come.

I’ll see you at the finish line.