March 31, 2018, Phoenix-
I just completed “Rich Dad’s Cashflow Quadrant”, by Robert T. Kiyosaki, also well known for his previous book, “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”. He reviews his own struggles with finances and concludes that the world of finance is comprised of four quadrants: E (Employee); S (Self-employed); B (Business owner) and I(Investor). The upshot is that the path to ending financial struggle ultimately lies in investing- using other people’s money to create wealth for oneself.
Mr. Kiyosaki goes far beyond dabbling in the stock market, though he does give several pointers on how to be successful in that aspect of finance. He is not as big on diversifying, as I would have expected. His emphasis is on intensive financial education, especially reading financial journals-and The Wall Street Journal.
What I’ve taken from this first reading of a powerful book is that I need to continue on the course I have set, though part-time work (which he says to make as temporary as possible, whilst saving and, bit by bit, investing) is likely for the academic year to come. He says to learn from mistakes, not to try to bury them. “Be bigger than your small!”, meaning to not let mistakes define oneself.
This is perhaps the greatest lesson that I have learned from the past seventeen years. It’s reassuring to see a “high marker” corroborate it.