One of the early eye openers for me is about this book of the famous author Robert Kiypsaki entitled Rich Dad Poor Dad. This book was a huge success with millions of copies being sold worldwide. In this book, Robert Kiyosaki had two dads, one is his biological dad tagged as “poor dad” and one is his friend’s dad tagged as “rich dad.” Both dads taught Robert Kiyosaki how to reach his financial goals and achieve success but with different approaches.

His poor dad spent so much time in school earning him a doctorate degree landing on a high paying job but ended with a lot of bills left unpaid while his rich dad did not finish school but ended up owing a business empire. How did this happen? Just look at the contrasting ideas each dad have:

His poor dad says: “I CAN’T AFFORD IT!” while his rich dad says: “HOW CAN I AFFORD IT?”

His poor dad says: “MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL!” while his rich dad says: “LACK OF MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL!”

By viewing these two contrasting ideas, his poor dad’s brain stopped working when he said those, killing his initiative and promoting negativity while his rich dad’s brain kept on thinking on ways creating initiative and promoting optimism. Which one is best? Of course, undeniably, it’s rich dad’s ideas!

Robert Kiyosaki continued and coined the term RAT RACE. This is the race of our lifetime INCOME and SPEND. We receive our income regularly from our paychecks yet we spend the same to pay bills and satisfy our wants. We are now trapped in this rat race. We live our lives to pay our everyday bills! Now, how can we escape from this rat race trap? By understanding the Cashflow Quadrant.

This is understanding where our income flows. It was divided into two main sections. The left side called “Active Income” and right side called “Passive Income.” What’s the difference? Active Income says “You Work For Money” while Passive Income says “Money Works For You.”

It is then further subdivided into four quadrants. Quadrant 1 is the so-called Employees. Quadrant 2 is the so-called Self-Employed. Qudrant 3 is the so-called Big Business Owners. Quadrant 4 is the so-called Investors. Where do you belong to these four quadrants? Let’s examine it one by one:

Quadrant 1 - EMPLOYEES. I do think that most of us belongs here. We have a job. We have to work hard, follow instructions from our bosses and superiors and get paid. We don’t own our time. These are people who love security or tenure. They will work hard to climb up the corporate ladder. The higher they climbed the ladder, the higher they pay is. Sad to say, the higher their pay is, the higher also their taxes. And it’s not them getting rich, it’s their bosses, it’s their company. Time will come, they will get tired. Their body will collapse because of age. And when they stopped working, they will also stop receiving income.

Quadrant 2 - SELF EMPLOYED - They work for themselves. The difference with the employees is that self-employed own their time since they don’t have superiors. They can decide for themselves. These are people who loves to be independent. They don’t want to work for others, instead they want to work for themselves. These are doctors, lawyers, and small business owners. But still, they are an employee of themselves. And if they stopped working, they will also stop receiving income.

Quadrant 3 - BIG BUSINESS OWNERS - They love delegating tasks. They concentrate their efforts more on activities which produces most profits. They hire people who are more intelligent than them to do the work for them. They have built a solid system and they own it. They have built their resources to make this possible. And so they can leave for vacation and can leave work for some time but still earns money because there were people working for them. Examples of this are the taipans and tycoons and some franchisers who have built a solid business.

Quadrant 4 - INVESTORS - These are people who have built their assets and are not working for money anymore. Instead, the assets they have accumulated works for them providing them constant income even if they don’t work. These are people who are called “living on interests”. They are living thru the interests of their assets and investments. Money works for them. They have invested their money to have more money. They can differentiate which one is an asset and which one is a liability. Examples of these are investors in the stock market, real estate, etc.

Did you see the difference? The only way to escape from the rat race is by travelling from active income to passive income, from employee or self-employed to becoming a big business owner or investor. And this is the challenge that Robert Kiyosaki left to us readers.

As a final note, I’m leaving this quote from Mr. Kiyosaki.

“The rich buy assets. The poor only have expenses. The middle class buys liabilities they think are assets. The poor and the middle class work for money. The rich have money work for them.”