Review of Robert Kiosakis ‘starting point for anyone looking to gain control of their financial future’, according to USA TODAY.
I received this book together with The Personal MBA as a birthday present and read it in early September, as it also became the second suggested book of our Book Club. The first book was 7 Habits of Highly Effective People which I read before.
Content
In this book, Robert Kiosaki tells the story about how and what he learned about money. Allegedly, he learned many of these important lessons while still young (starting when he was nine years old). Each of the ‘big’ lessons have their own chapter, though they are referenced back and forth.
Lessons:
- The Rich Don’t Work for Money
- Most people only work to pay their bills. Don’t do that.
- Why Teach Financial Literacy?
- Even though many people think that more money would solve their problems, it could make their situation worse long-term
- Common examples are people who won the lottery
- Education is the only way how most people could change their situation long-term
- Mind Your Own Business
- Getting rich is hard without your own business (they scale much better).
- Afford luxuries only from income through assets
- The History of Taxes and the Power of Corporations
- Historically, only the rich were taxed
- Income taxes for corporations can be less than for individuals
- A lot of things can be bought with pre-tax-money (also true in Germany, e.g. when self-employed)
- It’s expensive to not know the (tax) law
- The Rich Invent Money
- Luck is created like money is: Understanding more rules enables you to take advantage better
- A strong financial foundation starts with a strong financial education
- Work to Learn - Don’t Work for Money
- Most highly educated but poorly paid individuals are one skill away from great wealth
- It’s best to go broke before 30, you can still recover easily
- Specialization: salary goes up, but choices diminish
- Some of the most important skills are Selling and Marketing
Yes, it is somewhat inconsistent and undirected. After them, there are chapters about Overcoming Obstacles (Arrogance will lose you money, among others), Ten steps to get started, To-dos, and final thoughts.
Review
I am glad I read it, but I would not recommend it. The reason being that there is valid criticism to parts of his detailed advice - sometimes its outdated information, blatantly wrong, or otherwise banned activities.
Try to get on top of your financial education though! Financial Intelligence for Entrepreneurs helped me with this, while most advice of this book is not applicable.
Main Takeaways
My main takeaways were simple: I need to learn more about money, and learn more about sales and marketing.
Financial Education is Important
Rich Dad Poor Dad left a deep impression on me about the importance of a financial education - which I lacked. The book I read immediately after was The Personal MBA, which had a high-quality list of recommendations. I decided to read Financial Intelligence for Entrepreneurs and How to Read a Financial Report, after which I started tracking my own finances using beancount to learn more about money.
Sales And Marketing are Important
Something I also got ‘sold’ at was that communication skills are key to success. Oddly enough, this already was one of my overarching learning goals.
At this point, I see ‘sales’-skills as a subgroup of communication skills focusing on educating the other person about specific details and showing them new perspectives. Marketing seems like a powerful way to use data effectively for helping specific people.
This view is probably wrong, so I’m excited to learn a more view about it in the future. I already own How to Win Friends and Influence People, To Sell is Human and crucial conversations, but it will be some time until I’ll get around to reading them.
(Note: Things changed, and I’m currently reading the communication classic Talk like TED instead, so its review will probably be out first.)
Criticism
I liked the ‘study-session’-chapters. These were sub-chapters after each chapter, with a compact review in part and thought-provoking questions. I would like other books to have something similar.
While the structure was clear while reading it, it somehow falls apart when taking a look at the overall content of a chapter. He is wildly jumping across topics, with no discernible reason. For me, the most annoying part was that he rarely answered questions he asked in earlier parts of a chapter - he was dodging the answer, exploring a number of ‘related’ topics without conclusion.
I liked the repetitiveness of certain ideas when he took a new perspective about the original idea. Sadly, this was not always the case.
I encountered this criticism sometime after having read the book. Looking back, I’m glad I didn’t take most parts at face value.
While I do have to thank this book much for my current enthusiasm and knowledge about finance (not directly, but at least indirectly), it’s questionable to recommend it given the amount and validity of the criticism. I’m glad I read it, but it’s unlikely that I’ll take another look into it.
Favorite Quotes
There is a difference between being poor and being broke. Broke is temporary, poor is eternal.
Most of the time, life does not talk to you. It just sort of pushes you around.
[..] it’s easier to change yourself than anyone else.
Intelligence solves problems and produces money. Money without financial intelligence is money soon gone.
Accounting is possibly the most confusing, boring subject in the world, but if you want to be rich long-term, it could be the most important topic.
More money seldom solves someone’s money problems. Intelligence solves problems.
[the] rich buy luxuries last, while the poor and middle class tend to buy luxuries first.
Financial Intelligence is simply having more options.
Of course, there is always risk. It is financial intelligence that improves the odds. [..] The smarter you are, the better chance you have of beating the odds.
Sometimes you win and sometimes you learn. But have fun.
You want to know a little about a lot.
The ability to sell - to communicate to another human being, be it a customer, employee, boss, spouse, or child - is the base skill of personal success.
Be a little greedy. It’s the best cure for laziness.
It is true that your world is only a mirror of you.
Stop doing what is not working, and look for something new.
Action always beats inaction.