The final book that I will evaluate in this series of reviews is titled Rich Dad Poor Dad and it is a phenomenal book that helped open my eyes to healthier financial literacy! The book is written in simple terms and the authors’ real life experience adds credibility to the potential to actually learn how to get my money to work for me. According to the author’s bio posted on his website Rich Dad , Robert Kiyosaki is an “Investor, entrepreneur and educator whose perspectives on money and investing fly in the face of conventional wisdom. He has, virtually single-handedly, challenged and changed the way tens of millions, around the world, think about money.
In communicating his point of view on why ‘old’ advice – get a good job, work hard, save money, get out of debt, invest for the long term, and diversify – is ‘bad’ (both obsolete and flawed) advice, Robert has earned a reputation for straight talk, and courage.”
The most important thing that the author helped me to realize was the difference between assets and liabilities. Don’t worry; I am not going to try to put you to sleep by talking about the different aspects of a balance sheet. However, I will say that before I read this book I used to believe that owning my home was my biggest asset, but according to Mr. Kiyosaki, home ownership is a liability not an asset. This makes sense to me now, because I understand that I am paying money out each month for the mortgage, insurance,taxes and occasional repairs. That makes it a liability. Assets bring money in. Owning a property and renting that house to another family and earning even a slight profit would be considered an asset. Whether you understand the difference or not, I recommend that you read Rich Dad Poor Dad, which is available through Amazon.com .
The author states that becoming financially literate takes time and that one of the smartest things we can do is to begin to invest in learning more about investing.
My next blog post will discuss in more detail things that can be done for single parents to plan for their financial future.