Of rich and poor

Writer of the acclaimed book, “Rich Dad Poor Dad”, Robert Kiyosaki elaborates on his theory about money and success

September 17, 2014 04:03 pm | Updated 04:03 pm IST - New Delhi

LEARNING ABOUT MONEY: Robert Kiyosaki, writer of “Rich Dad Poor Dad"

LEARNING ABOUT MONEY: Robert Kiyosaki, writer of “Rich Dad Poor Dad"

Robert Kiyosaki, writer of “Rich Dad Poor Dad” is emphatic that there is lack of financial education in the system prevalent in the schools world over. “There is no financial education in the institutions. Why don’t they teach about money in schools? It should be part of the school curriculum. Otherwise why do we go to school for?” the author says. He seems qualified to say this since his book has sold over 26 million copies though originally it was self-published in 1997. He adds, “Most teachers know nothing about money so what they will teach the kids.” He was in New Delhi recently to speak at the two-day National Achievers Conference 2014.

Terming financial intelligence as financial IQ, he defines it “as the ability to solve financial problems”, adding “most Americans though highly educated cannot solve financial problems.” Giving an example, he says, “If you can't pay your rent of 1000 dollars then your financial IQ is less than 1000 dollars.”

In fact in 1996 he invented the board game “Cash Flow –– Rich Dad and Poor Dad”. According to Robert, it is the “only game in the world which teaches basic accounting and helps the participants to know the difference between assets and liabilities. The reason I used games is because that is how I learnt about money by playing monopoly and it taught me about money, strategies etc. Today I play monopoly in real life – I own hotels, companies and oil wells.”

To prove the point that games enable faster and better learning he displayed the cone of learning on his computer. He explained it thus: “I did not invent it and came into being before I invented the game. It shows that reading and lectures are least effective for learning. Simulating the real experience helps in 90 per cent of learning. The reason why games are a better teaching tool is because they involve you mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually.”

Citing his example he goes on to add that playing monopoly “inspired me to learn about money”. He says the same thing is applicable to his board game too “which acted as a stimulation for people to start studying and read more. A university started using my board game to teach MBA students the basics of accounting.”

Drawing the difference between rich and poor, he explains: “The rich people have assets and poor and middle class people buy liabilities that they think are assets, so they think that their house is an asset, their car is an asset, their watch is an asset – they are really liabilities. The difference between rich and poor people is not their education it is the assets versus liabilities.”

Elaborating this concept he says, “Rich do not work for money. What the rich work for is acquisition of assets. Assets provide money. So every year I start more and more businesses, buy oil wells, so every year I get richer and richer whereas the poor and the middle class they want their pay check. Pay checks are taxed the highest.”

Thrilled on his first visit to India, the author says he loves history and has read a lot of it pertaining to India. “I always wanted to come here.” According to him most of his countrymen think of India as a picture of poverty where as he sees it as a “huge untapped brain power” which he predicts will be soon released and comments: “As far as raw intellect is concerned Indians are very, very smart. Given the tools, their intellect will be magnified. India is going to be information power. In fact, it already is.”

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