In my pursuit for further educating myself when it comes to achieving financial freedom, I enrolled myself in a free online coaching in the Rich Dad Poor Dad lessons of Robert Kiyosaki.

In one of the chapters of the e-learning that I’ve been reading, Robert Kiyosaki suggested the Rich Dads Get Rich Strategies in which he used to get out of the rat race and become a business owner and investor.

I would like to share it all to you my readers so we can also use it to achieve financial freedom just like what Robert Kiyosaki did:

STRATEGY 1: Become financially literate.

The number 1 strategy to get rich is to become financially literate. Financial literacy is not always taught in schools. It requires proficiency in several areas: economic history, accounting, taxes, investing and building businesses. These are difficult subjects but don’t let the difficulty scare you.

Becoming financially literate has nothing to do with how far you got in school. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a failure in school, a jeepney driver, a janitor, or an executive of the company. What matters most is that you’re willing to educate yourself.

One of the things that I learned about financial literacy is on cash flow patterns. Based on these cashflow patterns, you would be able to determine if you belong to poor, middle class or rich persons.

Kiyosaki compared people with average financial intelligence vs. people with advanced financial intelligence:

People with average financial intelligence know only:

  • Bad debt, which is they try to pay it off.
  • Bad losses, which is why they think losing money is bad.
  • Bad expenses, which is why they hate paying bills.
  • Taxes they pay, which is why they say that taxes are unfair.
  • Climbing the corporate ladder instead of owning the ladder.
  • Buying shares of a company rather than selling shares of a company they own
  • Investing only in mutual funds or picking only blue-chip stocks

People with advanced financial intelligence know the difference between:

  • Good debt and bad debt
  • Good losses and bad losses
  • Good expenses and bad expenses
  • Tax payments and tax incentives
  • Corporations you work for and corporations you own
  • How to build a business, how to fix a business, and how to take a business public
  • The advantages and disadvantages of various investment vehicles: paper securities, real estate properties, and businesses

STRATEGY 2: Work to Learn

Most people focus on working for pay that rewards them in the short term; over the long term, this strategy can be disastrous because it doesn’t build up enough assets for a stress-free retirement. You’re not sure if your employer will be there for the next 10 years. What if you were laid off? Or what if the company closed?

If you want to be financially free, you need to seek work for what you’ll learn, not for what you’ll earn. This is one of the main reasons why I left my previous company. With my tasks, I am no longer learning and in that way, I feel rusty. It’s not always the pay that matters. It’s the satisfaction and the amount of learning that you get. The skills you learn when you work for someone else can be invaluable when you begin to work for yourself—and if you want to be financially free, you’ll have to work for yourself.

Kiyosaki said that there are three essential skills that we need to learn from our job while we are working for somebody else. These are Leadership, Management, and Sales & Marketing.

STRATEGY 3: Find Mentors, Build a Team

They say that no man is an island and that two heads are better than one. The same applies when you want to get rich and achieve financial freedom. You need to seek out mentors and advisors who can teach you the valuable skills you’ll need to become a business owner and investor. No one climbs Mount Everest alone, and you shouldn’t try to climb your personal financial mountain without the aid of others. Without support, you’ll never reach the top.

Kiyosaki said that “business is a team sport.” One thing is certain: When you want to get rich, you need to set out to work for yourself. In doing so, you’ll need more than just friends and family—you’ll need a team of professional advisors. According to Kiyosaki, one secret of the rich is their humility. They surround themselves with people who know more than they do. They surround themselves with experts.

STRATEGY 4: Work For Yourself

Kiyosaki said that most people work first for the owners of the companies that employ them, then for the government through taxes, and finally for the banks that own their mortgages. No wonder they have little left at the end of their working days! To escape the rat race, you need to work for yourself.
You should think like Rich Dad. Instead of saying, “but the odds of a start-up succeeding are against me—nine out of ten companies fail within five years,” say to yourself, “one out of every ten businesses succeeds within five years, and mine will be one!”

STRATEGY 5: Create Money

Kiyosaki said that “Money isn’t real. It’s just an idea!” Today, we are now living in the information age. The information age allows some individuals to get ridiculously rich from nothing more than ideas and agreements. There are people who makes a lot of money in the internet either by maintaining a website or by trading stocks and forex online. Today, it’s not at all out of the ordinary for millions to be made instantaneously out of nothing.

How do you create money?

Finding an opportunity that everyone else has missed.

Learning how to raise money through investments and assets.

Working with knowledgeable people to help you reach your financial goals.

STRATEGY 6: Give Back

Kiyosaki believe on charitable giving. Personally, I also believe on the universal law of nature and that’s Karma: “Do unto others what you want others to do unto you.”

Also, we should not forget Newton’s Law that states: “For every action, there’s an equal reaction.” If you’re a greedy Scrooge, people will respond to you in kind. You have to give money to get it back. Remember, give and you shall receive.

The rest is here:
6 Strategies To Get Rich

SEARCH ENGINE KEYWORD RESULTS :

Ramit Sethi, Author of I Will Teach You to Be Rich was interviewed by certified financial planner, Cathy Curtis at the Commonwealth Club of California event.

Ramit talked about his book and some of his philosophies on personal finance management.  I recorded the interview and wanted to share a few snippets from the discussion about his “Bulletproof Personal-Finance System”.

Watch the video and share in the comments your thoughts about his system. Have you tried it? Do you think it works? If not, why?

 

 

SEARCH ENGINE KEYWORD RESULTS :

Robert Kiyosaki Rich Dad Poor Dad Secrets of the Rich

 

Investing may seem daunting for a lot of people. Maybe you have tried it once and failed, or maybe you are simply frightened of losing your money.

To avoid losing any capital, you simply need to be aware of the main pitfalls and always avoid them. The simple, reliable rules for investing are:

1. Have a plan. Always ensure that you or your financial advisor draws up an appropriate investment strategy for you that incorporates your risk profile, timeframes and financial goals. As foolish as it seems, many people plunge headfirst into investing without thoroughly working through these fundamental issues.

2. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Obvious advice, but many people fail to follow it. Many people think that they are on the right financial track by paying off the mortgage on their family home and then buying another property for investment purposes.

Think about it! You have put all of your financial eggs in one asset basket – property. What happens if the property market collapses? Despite common thinking that this is a safe way to invest, the outcome is very risky. You have invested all of your well-earned money into only one area.

3. Build in appropriate timeframes. There is an old saying, “When the tea lady starts to invest in the stock market, it’s time to get out.” What this means is, when the share market is so high that everyone starts to clamber on board, it has probably reached its peak.

There are two ways of successful investment timing. The first is to always pick the low-end of the market to buy and the high-end of the market to sell. This is extremely hard to do. Even the best-informed experts have trouble. The second way is to choose good investments and stay with them over the long-term (say 10 years or more) and ride the waves of the market.

For safe, easy investing, choose the second method. Do not buy into the top-end of the market and sell once it starts to fall. You will definitely lose money this way.

4. Avoid high-risk investments. These include risky business ventures, highly speculative stock, tax avoidance schemes or too-good-to-be-true propositions that promise unusually high returns.

5. Avoid borrowing for your investments. Although some financial advisors advocate ‘gearing your investments’, this can be fraught with danger. Gearing means to borrow. If borrowing for investments takes you over your 40% fixed costs margin, you will be cutting it too fine, particularly if you lose your current income level.

6. Stay with the traditional and known. The best and surest investments are fixed interest, property and shares. Although all asset classes will fluctuate over time.

Work out the optimum mix for your investment profile, have a safe plan to work with and you can’t go wrong.

Go here to read the rest:
6 Rules for Investing

When it comes to lowering their monthly housing payments in the down economy, renters have homeowners beat.

Refinancing a mortgage requires plenty of paperwork, a stellar credit score and weeks of effort. But property owners faced with profit-sucking vacancies and cash-strapped tenants are increasingly willing to negotiate. According to a recent survey from rental property marketplace Rent.com, 68% of landlords reported lowering rents or giving one or more months free to retain tenants.

Try these five strategies to cut your bill:

Research the market

Learning what other people in your building and neighborhood are paying for comparable properties can help you figure out whether you’re overpaying, and how much room you have to negotiate, says Steven Cohen, the president of consulting firm The Negotiation Skills Company, which helps clients negotiate for better deals. Ask other renters what they pay, check similar property listings on Craigslist, and get a local comparison on RentoMeter.com. Cohen’s daughter Abigail tried that tip and found that others in her neighborhood on New York’s Upper West Side were paying an average 20% less than she was for a studio apartment. She brought those figures to her landlord and ended up with a new lease this summer for $1,550 instead of $1,850 — an 18% discount.

Play up qualifications

“If you aren’t a good tenant, you won’t have a strong case,” says Peggy Abkemeier, the president of Rent.com. “The landlord may not want to make concessions to get you or keep you in the unit.” Point out that you’ve always paid on time, have kept the property in great shape and haven’t had any complaints from neighbors. Renters hunting for a new place have less leverage here, but they can benefit from a reference from a previous landlord.

Take on a roommate

Obviously, the more people sharing your space the less rent you’ll pay. But landlords may also offer a break to fill under-housed units. When Eric Woodbury and two friends were apartment hunting in Medford, Mass., in July, one property manager offered them a three-bedroom unit for $2,000, or roughly $667 apiece. Or they could move into a $2,200 four-bedroom where one tenant was already in place, cutting the per-person rent to $550. “That was a big selling point for us,” he says.

Look beyond rent

If your landlord stands firm on the monthly rent, ask about other possibilities to cut costs. For example, you might negotiate for more utilities to be included or a discount on extras like storage space or parking. Rent.com found 38% of landlords were willing to reduce security deposits, and 8% relaxed pet policies (which typically include an extra security deposit).

Track vacancies

Turning over an apartment can cost a landlord thousands in upgrades, marketing and lost rent, Abkemeier says. If your building or community is looking more and more like a ghost town, you have plenty of leverage to negotiate. “I see and hear people moving out of my building all the time,” says Iris Karasick of New York City. Karasick already negotiated the rent on her one-bedroom on the Upper East Side down $100, to $2,155, earlier this year, and says she hopes the vacancies might help push it below $2,000 this fall. “I’m sure they’d rather have a good tenant in the apartment than have to hunt for someone new,” she says.

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5 Strategies to Lower Your Rent Now

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