10 Rich Dad, Poor Dad Steps For Financial Success

This article is an excerpt from the Shortform summary of "Rich Dad Poor Dad" by Robert T. Kiyosaki. Shortform has the world's best summaries of books you should be reading.

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Rich Dad, Poor Dad has a lot of useful advice on getting wealthier and becoming financially successful. What are the key Rich Dad, Poor Dad steps you need to get started?

Along with lessons from his rich dad and poor dad, author Robert Kiyosaki offers 10 Rich Dad, Poor Dad steps to help you get started on your journey to financial independence. Use these steps and get on your way toward achieving your financial goals.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad Steps: How to Get Started

The book offers 6 lessons on how to become financially independent. But you’ll also have to get started. These Rich Dad, Poor Dad steps can help you do that. The Rich Dad, Poor Dad 10 steps are designed to help you be motivated and have a set list of things to accomplish.

1. Need a reason greater than reality.

Find a deep reason you want to succeed. This is usually a combination of “wants” and “don’t wants.”

Examples: “I don’t want to work all my life. I don’t like being an employee. I hated that my dad missed my football games since he was obsessing about his career. I want to be free to travel the world when I’m young. I want control over my time.”

If you don’t have a strong reason, you won’t make it. It will sound like too much work.

2. Actively choose to be rich and think every day. 

Ask, what would a rich person do in this situation?

Invest in educating yourself. This is one of the most important Rich Dad, Poor Dad steps since you need to always be learning.

3. Choose friends carefully. Consciously make an effort to learn from them.

Don’t seek people for their money. Seek them for their knowledge. 

Find someone who has done what you want to do. Take them to lunch.

Don’t listen to frightened people who always advise caution or are pessimistic. They drag you down.

Funnily, rich people have friends who ask them for jobs or a loan, but rarely to ask them how they made money.

4. Master a formula (a way to make money) and then learn a new one.

Formulas lose their potency as they become more common. Keep reinventing yourself and finding new ways to create value.

5. Pay yourself first.

As described above, buy your assets first, and pay the bills last. The pressure will force you to creatively think of ways to generate more money. This is one of the Rich Dad, Poor Dad steps that you can practice regularly.

Importantly, this doesn’t mean don’t pay bills, or to incur greater debt. Don’t get yourself into debt in the first place. 

Don’t dip into your savings or investments. Protect your assets when the going gets tough.

6. Pay your advisors and brokers well. 

They provide valuable information and take time to educate you. 

Hire professionals who know what they’re talking about, and have skin in the game. An attorney who personally invests in real estate will be more helpful for your real estate matters.

Don’t short-change your brokers. Why would they want to hang around you if you’re not being fair?

You’ll be comfortable paying them better when you value your time and understand the value of what they give.

7. Buy assets that generate free money.

Find a way to put in money and get it back, then get free money into the future. Kiyosaki relates this to “Indian giving.”

Example: Buy a cheap house with cash, use rent to pay it off, and the house now generates money forever.

Sophisticated investors ask, “how fast do I get my money back?” 

8. Buy luxuries with income from assets only.

You must resist the temptation to spend any extra money you get. This requires fortitude.

Do NOT borrow money to get the things you want. Focus on creating money with the Rich Dad, Poor Dad 10 steps.

9. Find your personal hero. Emulate their behavior.

Learn how they make decisions, and how they got to where they are.

When negotiating, Kiyosaki “acts with the bravado of Trump.”

Heroes who make it look easy convince you to be just like them. “If it’s easy for them, I can do it too.”

10. Give to others first, and it’ll come back many times over.

This is true for money, a smile, love, friendship.

Help someone sell something, and sales will come to you.

Trust that reciprocity will work its way back.

Parable: a man is sitting in front of a stove with firewood in his arms on a freezing night. He yells, “when you give me some heat, then I’ll put some wood in!” Remember this when using the Rich Dad, Poor Dad 10 steps.

These Rich Dad, Poor Dad steps are meant to be a starting point, but you can use them anytime. Financial literacy and independence is an ongoing journey, and you’ll need to remember these Rich Dad, Poor Dad steps.

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Here's what you'll find in our full Rich Dad Poor Dad summary :

• The key differences in how rich dad and poor dad approached life
• Why it's a terrible idea to buy an expensive house
• How to overcome your own mental blocks to become wealthy for life

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