Chapter 2 Chapter 1 - Rich Dad, Poor Dad

I have two dads, one rich and one poor.A well-educated, extremely smart, with a Ph.D. aura, he once completed a four-year undergraduate degree in less than two years, and then furthered his studies at Stanford University, the University of Chicago, and Northwestern University, and in All of these schools got full scholarships; in contrast, my other dad didn't even make it through 8th grade. It should be said that the careers of the two fathers are quite successful, and they have been diligent all their lives. Therefore, both of them have rich incomes.Yet one of them struggled with personal financial problems his entire life, and the other became one of the wealthiest men in Hawaii.One dad left a huge legacy of tens of millions of dollars for churches, charities and family, while the other left only a few bills to pay.

In fact, both of my dads were strong, charismatic people with extraordinary influence over others.Both of them gave me a lot of advice, but the content of the advice was always different; both of them also believed in the power of education, but the courses they recommended to me were never the same. If there was only one father, I could simply accept or reject his suggestions; however, two fathers gave me diametrically opposed suggestions, which objectively gave me the opportunity to compare and choose.Looking back now, this is actually a comparison and choice between the concept of the rich and the concept of the poor, and the result of this comparison and choice determines my life.

Due to the opposing views of the two fathers, I couldn't get a unified statement, so I couldn't simply accept or reject these suggestions. I found that I had more thoughts, comparisons and choices. Some people may say: This is completely unnecessary, as long as you do what your rich dad taught you, you will naturally be rich, so what else do you choose?The problem is, my rich dad wasn't rich and my poor dad wasn't poor when he gave me advice, and both were just starting their careers, and both were struggling with money and family.However, their understanding of money is so different, it is as if one father would say: "The love of money is the root of all evil"; while another father would say: "Poverty is the root of all evil."

Who among them will succeed?Who will be rich?Who should you listen to?I was just a little boy at the time, and it wasn't easy for me to have two equally influential dads.I want to be a good and obedient boy, but the two dads speak completely different words. Their views are so compatible, especially when it comes to money. It makes me curious and confused. I have to Spend a lot of time thinking about what they say. I spent a lot of time asking myself "why did he say that" and then asking the same question about what another dad said.I think it would be much easier to simply say, "Oh, he's right, I agree" without thinking about it yourself, or to say no, "This daddy doesn't know what he's talking about."And yet, these two dads I love with differing views forced me to think about every issue I disagreed with and ultimately form my own.This process, that is, the process of thinking and choosing instead of simply accepting or denying all, proved to be very beneficial to me in the long years that followed.

I've come to realize that one of the main reasons why the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, and why the middle class is always in debt, is that their ideas about money don't come from school, but from school. from family.Most of us learn about money from our parents.When a pair of poor parents cultivate their children's financial management concept, they can only say: "Study hard in school."As a result, their children may graduate with honors, but also inherit the financial style and mindset of poor parents--you know, because of parental indoctrination, these concepts begin to be formed at a very young age.

As far as I know, there is as yet no real basic curriculum on "money" in American schools.School education only focuses on the education and cultivation of academic knowledge and professional skills, but neglects the training of financial management skills.It also explains why so many savvy bankers, doctors, and accountants who excel in school spend their lives struggling with financial problems; the country's precarious debt problems are also due in large part Politicians and government officials, some of whom are highly educated but have little or no necessary financial training.

I often wonder what to do when our society has millions of people who need medical assistance?Of course, the family and the government will bail them out.But what about when health funds and social security funds run out?This is not to worry about people. If we continue to give the burden of teaching children financial management to those parents who are on the verge of poverty or have fallen into poverty due to their lack of financial knowledge, it is difficult to imagine that only family and social relief can cure the disease. Their "poor" disease realizes the prosperity of the whole society.

Since I had two influential dads who I could learn from, forcing me to consider each dad's opinion, I realized how powerful a person's outlook can be over a person's life.For example, one dad likes to say things like "I can't afford it," while another dad forbids it by saying, "How can I afford it?" The other is an interrogative sentence, one that makes you give up and another that pushes you to figure it out.Saying "I can't afford it" prevents you from using your brain to figure out what to do, explains Get Rich Quick Dad; asking "How can I afford it" engages your brain.Of course, this does not mean that people have to buy everything you want, it just emphasizes that you must constantly exercise your mind-in fact, the human brain is the best "computer" in the world.Rich dad often said, "The more you use your brain, the more you work with it, and the more you work with it, the more money you will make."In his view, it is mental laziness to say things like "I can't afford it" so easily.

Although both dads are hard workers, I have noticed that when it comes to money, one dad tends to figure it out, while the other dad is used to letting things take their course.In the long run, one father's financial management ability became stronger, while the other's financial ability became weaker and weaker.I imagine the results are similar to the physical difference between a person who goes to the gym a lot and someone who always sits on the couch watching TV.Just as regular physical exercise strengthens your body, regular mental exercise increases your chances of attaining wealth.Laziness will definitely weaken your constitution and reduce your wealth.

As I said earlier, my two dads had many differences in perception.One dad thought the rich should pay more taxes to take care of the less fortunate; another said, "Taxes punish hard work and reward laziness."One dad said, "Study hard and get a job at a good company"; another would say, "Study hard enough to find and be able to buy a good company."One said: "The reason I am not rich is because I have children"; the other said: "The reason I must be rich is because I have children".One forbids talking about money and business at the dinner table, the other encourages these topics at mealtimes.One said: "Be careful when making money, don't take risks"; the other said: "Learn to manage risks."One believes "our family's house is our largest investment and asset" and the other believes "our family's house is a liability and if your house is your largest investment you are in trouble".Both dads will pay their bills on time, but with the difference: One pays at the beginning of the period, the other does not.

A dad trusts the government to care about you and meet your needs.He's always concerned about things like salary increases, retirement policies, health benefits, sick days, paid holidays, and other perks.He was impressed by two of his uncles who joined the military and received retirement and Social Security after 20 years.He likes the military's practice of distributing medical subsidies to veterans and setting up welfare agencies, and also likes the life process of obtaining a stable career through college education.For him, labor protection and job subsidies sometimes seemed more important than the profession itself.He often said: "I have worked hard for the government and I am entitled to these benefits". The other dad, who believed in total financial independence, rejected this "should be" mentality and believed that it created a group of weak, financially dependent people.He advocates competition. One dad saves hard while the other keeps investing. One dad taught me how to write a great resume to land a good job; the other taught me to write an ambitious career and financial plan to create entrepreneurial opportunities. As the product of two powerful fathers, I have had the privilege of observing how different ideas can shape a person's life, and I have found that people do shape their lives with their thoughts. For example, my poor dad always said, "I was never rich," and it became true.The rich dad always described himself as a rich man.He would say things like, "I'm a rich man, and rich people don't do that" when he said no to something, and even when a serious setback bankrupted him, he still thought of himself as a rich man.He would encourage himself like this: "The difference between the poor and the bankrupt is this: Bankruptcy is temporary, and poverty is permanent." My poor dad would say, "I'm not interested in money" or "Money doesn't matter to me," and my rich dad would say, "Money is power." Although the power of thought can never be measured or evaluated, I have begun to pay explicit attention to my thoughts and my self-expression since I was a young boy.I noticed that poor dad was poor not because of how much money he earned (although that was important), but because of his thoughts and actions.I must choose and use with great care the ideas that both of them convey to me.Well, I have two dads, who should I listen to: the poor dad or the rich dad? Both dads value education and learning, but both have a sense of what matters.Opinions about what should be learned are divided.A dad wanted me to study hard, get good grades, and get a good job that paid a lot of money. He wanted me to be a professor.Lawyer or accountant, or MBA. Another dad encouraged me to learn how to make money, to understand how money moves and make it work for me. "I don't work for money," he says over and over again, "money works for me." When I was 9 years old, I finally decided to listen to my rich dad and learn how to make money from him. At the same time, I decided not to listen to my poor dad, even with all his fancy college degrees. Robert.Frost's Teachings Robert.Frost is my favorite poet. Although I love many of his poems, my favorite is the following "The Road Not Taken".Whenever I read this poem, I can get some inspiration from it: The unchosen road is divided into two roads in the forest, but unfortunately it is difficult to do both. The wanderer stood there for a long time, staring into the distance. Winding and winding, hidden in the jungle. I choose another way, which is reasonable and fair. The dense grass is sparsely populated and is waiting for people to pass. Wherever the footprints pass, the two roads are the same. The two roads stretch out in the middle of the forest, and there are no traces of fallen leaves. I choose to go all the way, knowing that the road is endless. I doubt whether it will be possible to switch back from now on. Decades later, talking often sighs. There are two roads in the forest, and the road is sparsely populated. I have entered this road alone, and the circumstances are different. —Robert.Frost (1916) Different choices have different fates. Over the years, I have often thought about this poem by Frost.Indeed, choosing not to follow the advice and attitude of my highly educated dad when it came to money was a painful decision, but one that shaped the rest of my life. Once I had decided whom to listen to, my money education began in earnest.Rich dad taught me for 30 years, until I was 39 years old, when he realized that I had understood and fully understood what he had been trying to tell me repeatedly. . Money is power, but even more powerful is education about money management.Money comes and goes, but if you understand how it works, you have the power to harness it and start building wealth.The reason why they just want to stop doing it is that most people have not grasped the real law of money operation after receiving school education, so they have been working for money all their lives. Since I was only 9 years old when I started studying money, my rich dad only taught me some simple things.By the time he had said and done everything he wanted to teach me, there were only 6 main lessons in total, but those lessons had been repeated in my mind for over 30 years.The following content of this book is an introduction to these 6 courses, and its form is as simple as when my rich dad taught me.These lessons are not answers but a guide, a guide to help you and your children build wealth in an uncertain and rapidly changing world. Lesson 1 The rich don’t work for money Lesson 2 Why teach financial literacy Lesson 3 Focus on your business Lesson 4 The history of taxes and the power of corporations Lesson 5 Investing for the rich Lesson 6 Don’t work for money