I think it was around 2010 when I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, by Robert T. Kiyosaki. This was an amazing book to read! It’s three years later, and I recall two main points among the many chapters.
1) Fear of losing money is a major anchor to wealth (and happiness)
2) Assets pay you, and expenses cost you: the house where you live is an expense
The fear of losing money is a major impediment for most people. It is a risky thing to put it all on the line. I myself have been steeling myself for this, and even now, I am afraid to take a leap of faith to quit my job and try and work for myself. All the while, I am a firm believer in myself to earn good money with the skills I have all on my own.
In Robert’s book, he has an amazing parable of himself as a boy, learning from the Rich Dad about the emotional attachment to money. The one about himself as a boy at the convenience store, cleaning the floors. He figures out how to take discarded comics and create a library with them, earning a lot of money in the process. If you have a creative mind and are open to possibilities, you can create wealth. Money, fundamentally, is an abstract concept.
The other point that I enjoyed a lot is the counter-intuitive one about your house being a net expense. Assets pay you, expenses cost you. In order to live in your house, you must pay money into it. You pay into your mortgage and you pay bills and you pay to maintain the property. Nowhere in this equation do you see the house paying you back. Which makes sense. Everyone has to pay to live, because living is not free.
I have seen several people, including people close to me, buy a property to live in it because they didn’t want to waste their money on rent. This is a false comfort, because in fact they signed up for a significantly larger expense than simply renting. Without a significant downpayment, most homeowners pay a significant amount to the bank in interest. There are strata fees, taxes, maintenance, etc. Home ownership is a major expense.
My goal is to not necessarily be a Rich Dad, but instead balance my cash flows so my assets pay me the same value as my expenses.
Creatively Paid 