Lesson 1 - The Rich Don't Work for Money

Robert Kiyosaki is one of my favorite authors, and I have most of his books. There are some similarities between his philosophy and that of George Clason in The Richest Man in Babylon (another great read!). To use your example, most people want to play golf (a somewhat expensive sport) on their own hard earned dollars, rather than having a business or a system up and running that pays for their luxuries. Rich people work... they simply do not work like the poor and middle class. The rich work differently with a different goal in mind - to get their money to work hard for them and to make more money. Best wishes on your endeavors! (And thanks for your comment!)

You are right. Rich people work for different goal. I read the Cash Flow Quadrant of Rich Dad. I really learn a lot about the cash flow of the rich. That is what makes the difference between the rich and the poor.

Although I enjoy reading them, I sometimes find Robert Kiyosaki's books difficult to understand. Cashflow Quadrant is a case in point. He seems to believe that the best areas to find wealth are in the B (Big Business) and I (Investor) quadrants. In my first reading of the book, it seemed that these were the only two areas where Robert believed that a person could become wealthy. Upon further reading (and looking at his other books), it seems to me that Robert also believes that it is possible for a person to become wealthy as an E (Employee) or an S (Self-Employed Specialist). They simply need to become superstars and then manage their assets wisely. Each of the four quadrants has its advantages as well as its difficulties. The E and the S quadrants are heavily taxed. The B and the I quadrants take a lot of skills (such as organization and coordination and financial knowledge) that the average person would need to learn and acquire. I believe that I have learned a lot from Robert Kiyosaki, and while his materials are fairly easy to read, the concepts require some time and re-reading in order to understand. Thanks for your reply!

Work in a big company, try to learn more experience, save enough money and then start our own empire, that's cool. Good plan i once thought about, i'm still far away from it. The process of learning is long and taxing. Good luck

I think that maybe the statement is one that has a double meaning. The rich don't work for money - they have the ways and means to work toward whatever interests they wish to follow. AND - The rich don't work for money - as in, money is not their boss and the driving force for which they work; instead, they have learned to master the game of money and know how to put money to work for them. I am not sure that it always takes money to make money. Robert Kiyosaki, at least, disagrees with the idea that it takes money to make money. It would be an interesting challenge, though, to put together a packaged idea for how people could make money without money. My friend, MillionaireAnonymous, coaches people in the Philippines on this very topic - and his blog has outlined how he took a little bit of money and multiplied it many times. It's an intersting story to follow. I agree with the need for a strategic plan; otherwise, people will start working and keep going aimlessly, spending their money and ending up at retirement not knowing what happened to their lives (or their livelihood) and their ability to support themselves. Best wishes to you as you try to figure out your plan and your way to financial independence!

WOW,such a long comment.But~I finished reading, completely. Eh, it's our mind that should be changed. We make ourselves slaves for money, buy everything aftering thinking about money, is it cheap? how much should i pay, how much was left in my account. we compare a lot at the cost of time sometimes. I'm a slave for money too, every month i worry about the money left, i get my salary, no other income, i just work, get money, use it. No investment, as i don't much money, no my own business, i just work for others, do whatever my boss told me to do, and i don't care what general people outside our company in the society need and what i can do for them. So, here i agree that the rich does have something different, whoever accomplish must have a certain ability. And thereby hangs a tale. There's a reason everywhere. Thanks YOU for your comment. It really helps me. Good luck

Thanks again for your reply! I agree with what you say. The mind needs to be changed. It is the mind that makes a person rich or poor. A poor mind will pursue a poor person's habits. A rich mind will pursue a rich person's habits. A poor person sells his time for money. The poor person then trades his money for trinkets and luxuries - or things that are purchased and consumed. A rich person also sells his time, but the rich trade for things that will improve their situation in life. A poor person may own a chicken and sell the eggs to buy food for himself. He is hungry, after all, and needs to eat. A rich person may also own a chicken and sell the eggs. But even though he is hungry, the rich person disciplines himself to follow a plan to buy more chickens. He works until he has many chickens producing many eggs that he can sell before he starts buying the same kinds of food that his poor friend had started buying out of the labor of his one chicken. Having built a chicken empire, the rich person continues to multiply his means for producing eggs and producing an income, until he can also afford sheep and goats or cows. The rich person has taken the little money that he started out with and put it to work for him. Until he reaches a point of financial freedom, he will need to continue working until he no longer needs to trade his time for money in order to survive. There is a good lesson in a book called The Richest Man in Babylon. A person should set aside one tenth of their income in order to accumulate it for an investment. One tenth is substantial, yet it is not an impossible amount for a person to set aside. In the course of ten months, a person will have set aside one month's wages that they can use for investments - for purchasing something that will put money into their pocket... versus having spent all that money on things that make me feel good today but are gone tomorrow! Glad to have helped. I enjoy writing on this topic. Best wishes to you!

Hi! The first lesson in Rich Dad, Poor Dad, is that the Rich don't work for money. Kiyosaki goes on to say that the Rich make money work for them, but I think that his meaning is a little more complex. It is true that the Rich have money, and so they can put their money to work for them by using their money to buy resources, such as other peoples' time, etc. Where I think that Kiyosaki's meaning is a little more complex in the statement "The Rich don't work for money," is seen when you put the Rich into contrast with the Poor. The Poor work for money. If work did not give them some form of money, they wouldn't do it. The Poor have a high concern for the security that money can buy, and so they go to work in order to get money - and then they deplete their money buying what they believe will bring them security and comfort. The Rich, already have money. (But the theory is that, even if the Rich did not have money, they would operate in much the same way. It's kind of like Donald Trump going from having billions of dollars to being billions of dollars in debt and going back to having billions of dollars again.) The Rich do put other resources to work for them - other peoples' time, other peoples' money. But the Rich, not needing money in the same way that the Poor need money, have a different underlying motivation for working. Robert illustrates this with a story about how his "Rich Dad" (actually, the dad of his friend, Mike) put young Robert and Mike to work in a convenience store. At first, Rich Dad paid them little, and later, he paid them nothing. The Poor would say that Rich Dad was being cheap, and that his cheapness and his unfairness to the two boys (and others like them) was the reason for his wealth. Instead, Rich Dad was trying to teach them a lesson - to use their minds to see the opportunities to gain wealth without slaving after money. Robert and Mike eventually came up with an idea for a business venture, while they were working in Rich Dad's store, that allowed them to generate (for young boys) a significant amount of income. They saw an opportunity in something that was being discarded from the store and turned that discarded product into a source of income for themselves. So, the rich don't work for money. They do use their money to buy other resources and make those resources work for them. But I think that there is a little bit more underlying the statement. The Rich have an underlying philosophy - that it is not money that drives them to work in the first place, but a different focus or mission - one that looks for ways to find what people need and meet those needs - all the while understanding that if they do their job and do it well, the money will simply follow. Thanks for your comment!

:) I think what he is trying to say is: Everyone needs money in order to survive. If money becomes your master, then you will spend your whole life chasing after money. (It is like a donkey that is tied to a cart which chases after a carrot that its owner dangles in front of its nose to get it to go where the owner wants.) If you become the master of money, then money will come to you and work for you. A person who cannot control his fear of what would happen to his life without money... or his greed (which spends more than he can afford) - such a person is out of control and does not have control of himself. Someone else is controlling him - his emotions, which make him a slave that works for money. As I said before, the trick seems to be to overcome your emotions, or rather, to harness those emotions and put them to work for you to find ways to make money become your slave rather than the other way around. There's nothing wrong with finding a job that you enjoy. I'd like to find something that I enjoy and do it without having to get paid... and still have the money to survive! :)