Rich dad, poor dad – the story that formed my views on making money • Hacker News Board

Re: Rich dad, poor dad – the story that formed my views on making money

#21

Post by charlesdm » Fri, Jan 29, 2016, 1:37 PM UTC

breitling wrote: post #19

pkorzeniewski wrote: post #5

The problem with all these "how to get rich" books is that they're full of anecdotes, quotations, fictional stories, motivational bullshit etc. which make you feel good while reading them, but as soon as you put the book back on the shelf, it's all gone. It's just a temporary boost of energy and motivation, because reading requires almost no effort and more often that not it's just another way of procrastination. Ser…

> it's all gone Well, that depends. The core lessons really stuck with me and changed the way I thought about money. Especially about the cash flow differences between poor people vs rich people (income goes into assets and the income generated by assets is what can be spent). I would directly credit this book for my start in real-estate investments and for changing my mindset. I used to be blind to the opportunities…

Funnily, not many people think about money this way. Most people see it purely as something that needs to be spent.

Re: Rich dad, poor dad – the story that formed my views on making money

#22

Post by watmough » Fri, Jan 29, 2016, 1:41 PM UTC

pkorzeniewski wrote: post #5

The problem with all these "how to get rich" books is that they're full of anecdotes, quotations, fictional stories, motivational bullshit etc. which make you feel good while reading them, but as soon as you put the book back on the shelf, it's all gone. It's just a temporary boost of energy and motivation, because reading requires almost no effort and more often that not it's just another way of procrastination. Ser…

This is such a great point.

The bottom line, as I've always thought about it, is that if you can usefully create significant value, then you will always have a livelihood, and just basic common sense will get you to your goals.

"Creating significant value" is a pretty high bar though, and a different story.

Re: Rich dad, poor dad – the story that formed my views on making money

#23

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jan 29, 2016, 1:43 PM UTC

pkorzeniewski wrote: post #5

The problem with all these "how to get rich" books is that they're full of anecdotes, quotations, fictional stories, motivational bullshit etc. which make you feel good while reading them, but as soon as you put the book back on the shelf, it's all gone. It's just a temporary boost of energy and motivation, because reading requires almost no effort and more often that not it's just another way of procrastination. Ser…

[deleted]

Re: Rich dad, poor dad – the story that formed my views on making money

#24

Post by miseg » Fri, Jan 29, 2016, 1:47 PM UTC

charlesdm wrote: post #21

breitling wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's all gone Well, that depends. The core lessons really stuck with me and changed the way I thought about money. Especially about the cash flow differences between poor people vs rich people (income goes into assets and the income generated by assets is what can be spent). I would directly credit this book for my start in real-estate investments and for changing my mindset. I used to be blind to the opportunities…

Funnily, not many people think about money this way. Most people see it purely as something that needs to be spent.

Indeed, that's the point of Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Its framework of the four quadrants that define where your money is coming from stuck with me.

Re: Rich dad, poor dad – the story that formed my views on making money

#25

Post by twistedanimator » Fri, Jan 29, 2016, 1:50 PM UTC

Hands down the best book I have read on money is Your Money or Your Life: http://amzn.com/0143115766

I'm a naturally frugal person, but the book helped me formulate new ways of thinking about money and my relationship with it. The major concept being that money is a representation of your life energy. You work X hours a day at an hourly rate of $Y. Knowing those numbers allows you to think about purchases in a new way. For instance, "That new phone will cost me 2.5 days of work" or "If someone offered me $500 or the new phone, which would I take?" If you chose the $500, then you know you don't need to buy the phone.

I would recommend Your Money or Your Life before all other financial "self-help" books. In fact, I think I'm going read it again.

Re: Rich dad, poor dad – the story that formed my views on making money

#26

Post by miseg » Fri, Jan 29, 2016, 1:50 PM UTC

bitL wrote: post #18

pkorzeniewski wrote: post #5

The problem with all these "how to get rich" books is that they're full of anecdotes, quotations, fictional stories, motivational bullshit etc. which make you feel good while reading them, but as soon as you put the book back on the shelf, it's all gone. It's just a temporary boost of energy and motivation, because reading requires almost no effort and more often that not it's just another way of procrastination. Ser…

RDPD seemed to me as parasitic - the "solutions" there work only if somebody gets into trouble, like foreclosures etc. Not a "wealth creation" book, rather a misfortune-of-others exploitation one.

Interesting, I learned from it from a non-misfortune stance.

E.g.:

Work your job, but move towards income from a business.

(Not that I've gotten very far yet ;) )

Re: Rich dad, poor dad – the story that formed my views on making money

#27

Post by allwein » Fri, Jan 29, 2016, 1:53 PM UTC

pkorzeniewski wrote: post #5

The problem with all these "how to get rich" books is that they're full of anecdotes, quotations, fictional stories, motivational bullshit etc. which make you feel good while reading them, but as soon as you put the book back on the shelf, it's all gone. It's just a temporary boost of energy and motivation, because reading requires almost no effort and more often that not it's just another way of procrastination. Ser…

> do you think the majority of rich people prepared for "getting rich" by reading hundreds of motivational and self-help books?

No, I don't. But you know what they do have? They've grown up in a household and a culture that teaches them thousands of small lessons in being and staying rich. They don't have to read about it, because their parents and friends and lawyers and accountants and country club associates have all been reinforcing those lessons their entire lives.

Re: Rich dad, poor dad – the story that formed my views on making money

#28

Post by miseg » Fri, Jan 29, 2016, 1:55 PM UTC

branchless wrote: post #9

How I hate people like this. "Building assets and letting them work for you". For this you can read: "be the footsoldier for the banks who have a monopoly on money creation. Ask the bank to create money for you then use this to join the land monopolists. Then let those stupid little people who are actually creating wealth rent it back from you. This way you get a stream of their labour." For assets read "property". P…

I agree with not agreeing with his debt-based asset-building approach.

But you can still follow the same path in a tech way, such as selling your own product online. As you work on it, if it's producing income, that can begin to be an asset for you.

Re: Rich dad, poor dad – the story that formed my views on making money

#29

Post by ams6110 » Fri, Jan 29, 2016, 1:56 PM UTC

varlock wrote: post #15

petercooper wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sort of. I find reading other people's stories gives me "permission" to do and try things. I'm naturally quite a retiring person, but getting candid explanation of people's techniques and approaches has given me the "if they can do that, I can try it too" attitude numerous times (as has HN and numerous blog posts, to be fair - I can pinpoint certain things I've done to being inspired by specific pieces of content).

Could you give examples of things you've done and the HN posts that triggered them, please? I'm familiar with the feeling you describe (They can? Then I can too!) so I'm just curious to see what is in those posts that can inspire someone (content, semantics, anything).

I can't remember where I first read this, but one basic piece of advice I've carried in my head for at least three decades is "if you want to be good at something, find a person who is good at that thing, and then do what they do"

This helped me a lot in my first few jobs, i.e. identify a person who is successful and well respected, get to know them and try to do things the way they do.

Works in school too -- if you want to do well, do what the successful students are doing. Usually boils down to pretty simple stuff, e.g. studying a lot more.

Re: Rich dad, poor dad – the story that formed my views on making money

#30

Post by breitling » Fri, Jan 29, 2016, 2:03 PM UTC

bitL wrote: post #18

pkorzeniewski wrote: post #5

The problem with all these "how to get rich" books is that they're full of anecdotes, quotations, fictional stories, motivational bullshit etc. which make you feel good while reading them, but as soon as you put the book back on the shelf, it's all gone. It's just a temporary boost of energy and motivation, because reading requires almost no effort and more often that not it's just another way of procrastination. Ser…

RDPD seemed to me as parasitic - the "solutions" there work only if somebody gets into trouble, like foreclosures etc. Not a "wealth creation" book, rather a misfortune-of-others exploitation one.

I don't get it - you're not causing the foreclosure, so why feel guilty about it?