I recently completed Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki". I know I am late, I should have completed this book years ago, but I was not willing to read thinking that, the book will be highly technical and will be like a typical MBA lecture, full of Financial Jargons and unknown terms and acronyms but one my friend Yogesh Gupta suggested me to read this book and I started reading it. I was so impressed with the way of writing that, in the first day I completed almost 40% of the book. I was glued to this book and I completed this book within a week. I loved the way, the author has explained the boring subject in an engaging manner with the help of his real-life examples and interesting anecdotes.

While reading the book, I made a list of thoughts which I found intriguing and here in this article I am sharing those thoughts. Before you read any further, I must tell you that it's not a book summary, these are just the lines that I found fascinating and note-worthy.

  1. Money without financial intelligence is money soon gone.
  2. It's not how much you make, it's how much you keep, and how many generations you keep it.
  3. “If you want to be rich, you need to be financially literate.”
  4. “Rich people acquire assets. The poor and middle class acquire liabilities, but they think they are assets”
  5. In most cases, the simplicity of the idea escapes most adults because they have been educated differently.
  6. “If you find you have dug yourself into a hole... stop digging.”
  7. As a child, my dad often told us that the Japanese were aware of three powers; “The power of the sword, the jewel and the mirror.” The sword symbolises the power of weapons. The jewel symbolises the power of money. There is some degree of truth to the saying, “Remember the golden rule. He who has the gold makes the rules.” The mirror symbolises the power of self-knowledge. This self-knowledge, according to Japanese legend, was the most treasured of the three.
  8. when it comes to money, high emotions tend to lower financial intelligence.
  9. The rich buy assets. The poor only have expenses. The middle class buys liabilities they think are assets.
  10. The mistake in becoming what you study is that too many people forget to mind their own business. They spend their lives minding someone else's business and making that person rich.
  11. To become financially secure, a person needs to mind their own business. Your business revolves around your asset column, as opposed to your income column. The No. 1 rule is to know the difference between an asset and a liability, and to buy assets. The rich focus on their asset columns while everyone else focuses on their income statements.
  12. The best thing about money is that it works 24 hours a day and can work for generations.
  13. The reward at the end of the road for diligently taking the time to mind your own business.
  14. Buying a luxury on credit often causes a person to sooner or later actually resent that luxury because the debt on the luxury becomes a financial burden.
  15. “Be smart and you won't be pushed around as much.”
  16. As part of your overall financial strategy, we strongly recommend owning your own corporation wrapped around your assets.
  17. We all have tremendous potential, and we all are blessed with gifts. Yet, the one thing that holds all of us back is some degree of self-doubt.
  18. financial intelligence is a synergy of accounting, investing, marketing and law. Combine those four technical skills and making money with money is easier.
  19. the hardest part of running a company is managing people.
  20. “If you're not a good leader, you'll get shot in the back, just like they do in business.”
  21. “Job is an acronym for 'Just Over Broke.'”
  22. “Workers work hard enough to not be fired, and owners pay just enough so that workers won't quit.”
  23. McDonald's is excellent at business systems. The reason so many talented people are poor is because they focus on building a better hamburger and know little to nothing about business systems.
  24. The main management skills needed for success are: 1. The management of cash flow 2. The management of systems (including yourself and time with family). 3. The management of people.
  25. Work with people smarter than you and bring smart people together to work as a team.
  26. The skills of selling and marketing are difficult for most people primarily due to their fear of rejection.
  27. the greatest reason for lack of financial success was because most people played it too safe.
  28. “People are so afraid of losing that they lose”
  29. the reason people don't win financially is because the pain of losing money is far greater than the joy of being rich.
  30. A winner can take a loss and make it a win.
  31. For winners, losing inspires them. For losers, losing defeats them.
  32. Losers avoid failing. And failure turns losers into winners.
  33. our doubts often paralyse us.
  34. when it comes to investing, the world is filled with Chicken Littles running around yelling, “The sky is falling. The sky is falling.” And Chicken Littles are effective because everyone of us is a little chicken.
  35. The real world is simply waiting for you to get rich. Only a person's doubts keep them poor.
  36. Cynics criticise, and winners analyse.
  37. when you're in doubt and feeling a little afraid, just do what Col. Sanders did to his little chicken. He fried it.
  38. “The human spirit is very, very, powerful, It knows it can do anything.”
  39. Instead of saying, “I can't afford it”. It's better to say, “How can I afford it?”. The first statement closes the mind, the other opens mind to infinite possibilities.
  40. ”Do what you feel in your heart to be right-for you'll be criticised anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't."
  41. Arrogance is ego plus ignorance.
  42. Our culture has encouraged us to learn a profession so we can work for money, but failed to teach us how to have money work for us.
  43. “There is gold everywhere. Most people are not trained to see it.”
  44. Without a strong reason or purpose, anything in life is hard.
  45. In reality, the only real asset you have is your mind, the most powerful tool we have dominion over.
  46. A friend of mine, who is a rich woman, recently had her apartment burglarised. The thieves took her TV and VCR and left all the books she reads. And we all have that choice. Again, 90 percent of the population buys TV sets and only about 10 percent buy books on business or tapes on investments.
  47. Arrogant people rarely read or buy tapes. Why should they? They are the center of the universe.
  48. A truly intelligent person welcomes new ideas, for new ideas can add to the synergy of other accumulated ideas. Listening is more important than talking.
  49. Wise investors buy an investment when it's not popular. They know their profits are made when they buy, not when they sell.
  50. Master a formula and then learn a new one.
  51. If you're tired of what you're doing, or you're not making enough, it's simply a case of changing the formula via which you make money.
  52. The three most important management skills necessary to start your own business are:
    1. Management of cash flow.
    2. Management of people.
    3. Management of personal time.
    1. Don't get into large debt positions that you have to pay for. Keep your expenses low. Build up assets first. Then, buy the big house or nice car. Being stuck in the rat race is not intelligent.
    2. When you come up short, let the pressure build and don't dip into your savings or investments. Use the pressure to inspire your financial genius to come up with new ways of making more money and then pay your bills.
  54. Savings are only used to create more money, not to pay bills.
  55. A good broker saves me time in addition to making me money.
  56. A broker is your eyes and ears to the market.
  57. “Never ask an encyclopaedia salesperson if you need an encyclopaedia.”
  58. A wise investors must look at more than ROI; it's the assets you get for free once you get your money back. That is financial intelligence.
  59. To be the master of money, you need to be smarter than it. Then money will do as it is told. It will obey you. Instead of being a slave to it, you will be the master of it. That is financial intelligence.
  60. By having heroes / mentors, we tap into a tremendous source of raw genius.
  61. Whenever you feel “short” or in “need” of something, give what you want first and it will come back in buckets.
  62. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.
  63. Find someone who has done what you want to do. Take them to lunch. Ask them for tips, for little tricks of the trade.
  64. Finding a good deal, the right business, the right people, the right investors, or whatever is just like dating. You must go to the market and talk to a lot of people, make a lot of offers, counteroffers, negotiate, reject and accept.
  65. profit is made when you buy, not when you sell.
  66. Small thinkers don't get the big breaks. If you want to get richer, think bigger first.
  67. “The main reason people struggle financially is because they spent years in school but learned nothing about money. The result is, people learn to work for money... but never learn to have money work for them.”
  68. “Take responsibility for your finances or take orders all your life. You're either a master of money or a slave to it.”