Retire Young Retire Rich

Robert Kiyosaki continues his best-selling Rich Dad series, with this book, provocatively titled, ‘Retire Young Retire Rich’. Ask the majority of people what their ultimate goal is and many would say that they want to retire young and rich (I know I do!). However, ask those same people how they are going to achieve it and what actions they are taking now, you will probably get a blank stare.

Robert is continuing his crusade to educate people that the old way of preparing for your retirement is no longer the right way. Just putting cash to one side in the stock market and working in the rat race is a sure way to retirement poverty. To illustrate the fact he points out that in the States by 2010 the first of 75 million baby boomers will begin to retire. If they each collect say $1,000 per month from their government pension plans and another $1,000 from the financial markets via their own savings, then that is $75 billion per month from the government and $75 billion from the markets! $150 billion a month coming out will cause a few ripples in the economy.

The book therefore sets out how to can go about securing your financial future. As with all of his books, Robert focuses on 3 key investment areas: real estate, paper assets and business. Real estate is undoubtedly the firm favourite with him, as it produces solid cash flow with very little work.

The main theme of the book is how you can use leverage in your life to build a secure financial foundation. Leverage is defined as the ability to more with less. Robert says that leverage is the reason some people become rich and others do not. Leverage is power. He uses the story of David and Goliath to demonstrate how with the leverage from his sling, David was able to slay the giant.

But what do you have in your life that can be leveraged? Here are just a few examples of what you can leverage.

Firstly, Robert says if you want to retire young and rich you have to leverage your mind and use the power of your brain. Leverage however can work both ways - negative and positive, so it’s important you harness the right power! Robert points out that “The biggest challenge you have is to challenge your own self doubt and your laziness. It is your self doubt and your laziness that define and limit who you are.”

The key to using your mind is to find out the reason why you want to be wealthy. Once you have that, the ’how’ will quickly follow.

The message in all of Robert’s books in that you can use debt to buy assets which generate income. This is leverage is its best form - using other people’s money to help you be financially free. Debt to buy income generating assets is seen as ’good’ debt, while most people today have ’bad’ debt.

Business

Another example on the use of leverage is business owners who employ people to work for them. Business owners get rich by leveraging off the staff they employ. They can achieve more by using other people’s time. Are you working hard for yourself, or are you someone else’s leverage?

What is your plan to get rich? Is it what Robert calls a ‘slow plan’ where you just save, or is it a ‘fast plan’ which makes you richer and richer with less and less work? Your plan should have an exit strategy already mapped out showing how and by when you will financially free. The book shows how to come up with a fast plan that leverages your vision of a rich future.

Although most of the ideas are covered in other books in the series, the focus on leverage brings a different slant. If you are looking for ideas and the motivation to change the way you are planning for your future, then the book is a good buy.

Robert Warlow

Review copyright by Small Business Success©

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