were not first on my list. To be rich was core value number one for me.
My rich dad then had me list my core financial priorities. My list went in this
order:
1. To be rich
2. To be comfortable
3. To be secure
Rich dad looked at my list and said, “OK. Step one is to write out a financial
plan to be financially secure.”
“What?” I asked. “I just told you I wanted to be rich. Why should I bother
with a plan to be secure?”
Rich dad laughed. “Just as I thought,” he said. “The world is filled with guys
like you who only want to be rich. The problem is, most guys like you don’t make
it because you don’t understand being secure, or being comfortable financially.
While a few people like you do make it, the reality is, the road to wealth is littered
with wrecked lives . . . wrecked lives of reckless people…people just like you.”
I sat there ready to scream. All my life, I had lived with my poor dad, a man
who valued security above all. Now, I’m finally old enough to be outside of my
poor dad’s values and now my rich dad is saying the same thing. I was ready to
scream. I was ready to get rich, not be secure.
It was three weeks before I could talk to rich dad again. I was very upset.
Everything I had done my best to get away from he put back in my face. Finally I
calmed down and called him for another lesson.
“Are you ready to listen?” rich dad asked when we met again.
I nodded, saying, “I’m ready but not really willing.”
“Step one,” rich dad started. “Call my financial advisor. Say, ‘I want a written
financial plan for lifetime financial security.’”
“OK,” I said.
“Step two,” said rich dad. “After you have a written plan for basic financial
security, call me and we’ll go over it. Lesson is over. Goodbye.”
It was a month before I called him. I had my plan and I showed it to him.
“Good” was all he said. “Are you going to follow it?”
“I don’t think so,” I said. “It’s just too boring and automatic.”
“That is what it is supposed to be,” said rich dad. “It’s supposed to be
mechanical, automatic, and boring. But I can’t make you follow it, although I do
recommend you do.”
I was calming down as I said, “Now what?”
“Now you find your own advisor and you write a plan on how to be
financially comfortable,” said rich dad.
“You mean a long-term financial plan that is little bit more aggressive?” I
asked.
“That is correct,” said rich dad.
“That is more exciting,” I said. “That one I can get into.”
“Good,” said rich dad. “Call me when you have that one ready.”
It was four months before I could meet with rich dad again. This plan was not
that easy…or as easy as I thought it would be. I checked in by phone with rich dad
every so often, but the plan was still taking longer than I wanted. Yet the process
was extremely valuable because I learned a tremendous amount talking to different
financial advisors. I was gaining a better understanding of the concepts rich dad
was trying to teach me. The lesson I learned was that unless I am clear, it is hard
for the advisor to be clear and able to help me.
Finally, I was able to meet with rich dad and show him my plan. “Good” was
all he said for a while. He sat there looking at the plan and then asked, “So what
did you learn about yourself?”
“I learned that it is not that easy to really define what it is I want from my life
because today we have so many choices . . . and so many of them look exciting.”
“Very good,” he said. “And that is why so many people today go from job to
job or from business to business . . . but never really get to where they want to go
financially. So they often spend their most precious asset, their time, and wander
through life without much of a plan. They might be happy doing what they are
doing, but they really do not know what they are missing out on.”
“Exactly,” I agreed. “This time, instead of just being secure, I really had to
think what I wanted to do with my life . . . and surprisingly, I had to explore ideas
that would never have occurred to me before.”
“Like what?” asked rich dad.
“Well, if I really wanted to be comfortable with my life, then I had to think
about what I wanted to have in my life. Things like travel to far away lands, fancy
cars, expensive vacations, nice clothes, big houses, etc. I really had to expand my
thoughts into the future and find out what I wanted for my life.”
“And what did you find out?” asked rich dad.
“I found out that security was so easy because I was planning on being secure
only. I did not know what true comfort meant. So security was easy, defining
comfort was more difficult, and I now cannot wait to define what rich means and
how I plan to achieve great wealth.”
“That’s good,” said rich dad. “Very good.” He then continued on by saying,
“So many people have been conditioned to ‘live below their means’ or ‘save for a
rainy day’ that they never know what could be possible for their lives. So people
splurge, get into debt by taking the annual vacation or buying a nice car, then feel
guilty. They never take the time to figure out what could be financially possible if
only they had a good financial plan . . . and that is a waste.”
“That is exactly what happened,” I said. “By meeting with advisors and
discussing what was possible, I learned a lot. I learned that I was really selling
myself short. In fact, I felt like I have been walking in a house with a low ceiling
for years, trying to scrimp, save, be secure, and live below my means. Now that I
have a plan of what is possible relative to being comfortable, I am now excited
about defining what the word ‘rich’ means.”
“Good,” said rich dad with a smile. “The key to staying young is to decide
what you want to be when you grow up, and then keep growing up. Nothing is
more tragic than to see people who have sold themselves short on what is possible
for their lives. They try to live frugally, scrimping and saving, and they think that
is being financially smart. In reality, it is financially limiting . . . and it shows up
in their faces and in their attitude in life the older they get. Most people spend
their lives mentally caged in financial ignorance. They begin to look like wild
lions trapped in small cages at the zoo. They just pace back and forth wondering
what happened to the life they once knew. One of the most important discoveries
people can make by taking the time to learn how to plan is to find out what is
financially possible for their lives . . . and that is priceless.
“The continual planning process also keeps me young. I am often asked why I
spend my time building more businesses, investing, and making more money. The
reason is I feel good doing it.While I make a lot of money doing what I do, I do it
because making money keeps me young and alive. You wouldn’t ask a great
painter to stop painting once he or she was successful, so why should I stop
building businesses, investing, and making more money? That is what I do, just as
painting is what artists do to keep their spirits young and alive, even though the
body ages.”
“So the reason you asked me to take the time to plan at different levels is for
me to find out what is financially possible for my life?” I asked.
“That’s it,” said rich dad. “That is why you want to plan. The more you find
out what might be possible for this tremendous gift called life, the younger at heart
you remain. People who plan only for security or who say, ‘My income will go
down when I retire’ are planning for a life of less, not a life of more. If our maker
has created a life of unlimited abundance, why should you plan on limiting
yourself to having less?”
“Maybe that is what they were taught to think,” I said.
“And that is tragic,” rich dad replied. “Very tragic.”
As rich dad and I sat there, my mind and heart drifted to my poor dad. I knew
he was hurting and struggling to start his life over again. Many times I had sat
down with him and attempted to show him a few of the things I knew about
money. However, we usually got into an argument. I think there is often that kind
of breakdown in communication when two parties communicate from two
different core values, one of security and the other of being rich. As much as I
loved my dad, the subject of money, wealth, and abundance was not a subject we
could communicate about. Finally, I decided to let him live his life and I would
focus on living mine. If he ever wanted to know about money, I would let him ask,
rather than trying to help when my help had not been requested. He never asked.
Instead of trying to help him financially, I decided to just love him for his
strengths and not get into what I thought were his weaknesses. After all, love and
respect are far more important than money.
– Abstracted from Rich Dad Guide to investing, by Robert Kiyosaki, pages 81-84
Ideas Worth Spreading 