I read books, I can’t label myself as a voracious reader but I read around 7-8 books in a year. And, without any doubt, I can say that “Rich Dad Poor Dad” is one of the best books I have ever read. When I had completed reading the book “You Can Win” I felt that the book is good and inspiring. When I had completed reading the book “Memoirs of a Geisha” I felt that the book is very well written. But the kind of feeling I had experienced after reading Rich Dad Poor Dad is way different from what I have experienced after reading other books. Though I know I have to be like the person described in the book I never deliberately tried to take that path. But this book has forced me to approach finances and life as a whole in a new way.
The book starts by describing how middle-class and upper-middle-class are oblivious about managing their finances. The phrase used to describe our way of leading life is “Rat Race” and I can totally understand why the author said so. I have seen many in my life who knowingly or unknowingly gets trapped in the rat race.In the prologue, the author says that he is going to provide financial education but I felt that it is more of common sense which has become uncommon these days. This generation feels that spending money on things they like is the current trend and saving money is obsolete. We want big cars, big houses before getting settled down and we have loans to bolster us in doing so. But by taking loans without thinking twice we are losing control over our finances and EMIs are gaining control over us.
The author’s point is simple and straight forward, “Earn and Buy” rather than “Buy and Pay”, explore ways to create money rather than working hard for it. Most of the generations before ours did the same thing, they earned before buying anything. I have never seen any of my uncles buying a car before they turn 40. That is because they saved the amount they require to buy a car and didn’t depend on loans. Do simple math, you will find how much more you will end up paying if you take a loan. I don’t say I will never take a loan, but I will make sure that the loan doesn’t pull the money that I wanted to investment somewhere.
Share market and real estate are some of the examples provided in the book to create money. These ways usually seem to be impossible or at least difficult for many of us to implement. But once you start thinking in that direction it actually makes sense. So what did I do after reading the book? I didn’t do anything for a period of 10 days, the impact that the book had on me made it difficult for me to pick another book. I started thinking of “Creating Money” after 10 days. And, I decided that the share market is the best thing to go for. Though I was interested in the share market from the last 3-4 years I never tried hard to put my money in it. There are several reasons for it, one of the main reasons is the people who say that you will lose money if you buy stocks without knowing about the share market. But this time I just decided to go with it and thought I am ok even if I lose some money while experimenting. Somewhere I feel that the saying “At some point of time everything that needs to come together will come together to make things happen”. I read the book and at the same time, there was an article about CEO of SoftBank who had lost $4 billion at one point of time and rose to riches again. With that inspiration I started my investments in share market 3 months back, though I didn’t make any profits till now, I am ok to wait for some more time.
