Rich Dad Poor Dadbiggest game in the world. And in my own small way, I would like to
be part of this unprecedented evolution of humanity, the era where
humans work purely with their minds and not with their bodies.
Besides, it is where the action is. It is what is happening. It’s hip.
It’s scary. And it’s fun.
That is why I invest in my financial intelligence, developing the most
powerful asset I have. I want to be with people moving boldly forward.
I do not want to be with those left behind.
I will give you a simple example of creating money. In the early
1990s, the economy of Phoenix, Arizona, was horrible. I was watching a
TV show when a financial planner came on and began forecasting doom
and gloom. His advice was to save money. “Put $100 away every month,”
he said. “In 40 years you will be a multimillionaire.”
Well, putting money away every month is a sound idea. It is one
option—the option most people subscribe to. The problem is this: It
blinds the person to what is really going on. It causes them to miss major
opportunities for much more significant growth of their money. The
world is passing them by.
As I said, the economy was terrible at that time. For investors,
this is the perfect market condition. A chunk of my money was
in the stock market and in apartment houses. I was short of cash.
Because people were giving properties away, I was buying. I was not
saving money. I was investing. Kim and I had more than a million
dollars in cash working in a market that was rising fast. It was the best
opportunity to invest. The economy was terrible. I just could not pass
up these small deals.
Houses that were once $100,000 were now $75,000. But instead
of shopping with local real estate agents, I began shopping at the
bankruptcy attorney’s office, or the courthouse steps. In these
shopping places, a $75,000 house could sometimes be bought for
$20,000 or less. For $2,000, which was loaned to me from a friend
for 90 days for $200, I gave an attorney a cashier’s check as a down
payment. While the acquisition was being processed, I ran an ad
advertising a $75,000 house for only $60,000 and no money down.