Rich Dad Poor Dad

Heard about the Rich Dad Poor Dad books for a long time, finally borrowed them from the library and read three of them over the past few months — Rich Dad Poor Dad, Rich Family Smart Family, and Why the Rich Are Getting Richer.

There are some things I learnt, such as a different way of looking at what are assets and what are liabilities — assets are what puts money in your pocket, liabilities are what takes money away from your pocket. I don't agree with everything Robert Kiyosaki wrote though; well, maybe that's why I'm not rich? 🤣

Anyway, he writes a lot about financial education, which seems to be that the rich don't work for money, to earn money from taxes (he regards money saved from tax avoidance as money earned), and buying assets using 0 capital (by debt, of course).

The thing is, using debt to buy assets is risky unless you have certainty that those are really assets that can put money in your pocket. He doesn't say how to identify such assets, which to me is then the real financial education. Without knowing how to identify assets, getting into debt to buy assets (which turn out to be liabilities because they take money out of instead of into your pocket) is very risky. It does, however, make me think again about considering using margin at times for stocks that I am very confident will go up.

I'm naturally a risk-averse person though, so I'm still thinking about it. Hah!