Required Reading

It is kind of sad to see that this blog of mine was created last August. 7 months have passed and I've not even posted on it once. Well, this ends today.

Now to be on the way to leading a better financial lifestyle, a person would need to understand the basics of financial planning. In some countries, personal financial planning is a part of thier education system.

Over here, we don't have anything of that sort. We have people who work in financial industries who cannot for their own sake manage their own finances.

For those who love reading, I have a great recommendation. It's a really simple read, no big words, and very much based on story-telling.

It is called Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

I've read it 3 times over myself a few years back because it was simple and I wanted to grasp its main concepts. And of course, he preaches SAVINGS as a essential start towards financial freedom.

*Excerpts from Wikipedia on the book*

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The book is largely based on Kiyosaki's upbringing and education in Hawaii. The book highlights the different attitudes to money, work and life of two men, and how they in turn influenced key decisions in Kiyosaki's life.

Among some of the book's topics are:

the value of financial intelligence
that corporations spend first, then pay taxes, while individuals must pay taxes first
that corporations are artificial entities that anyone can use, but the poor usually don't know how
According to Kiyosaki and Lechter, wealth is measured as the number of days the income from your assets will sustain you, and financial independence is achieved when your monthly income from assets exceeds your monthly expenses. Each dad had a different way of teaching his son.
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While I do not advocate you to follow exactly what he does, his concepts do make sense, and he simplifies it to make sure its easy to understand.

After reading the book, a good way to remember what was taught in the book would be to play its board game, Cash Flow! Do note its kinda hard to find this board game over here.

I've had the privilege of playing this game once before, and yes I turned out to be the winner!
Well, of course, you would also need to luck of the dice. It's a simple game, and the situations in the game seems too easy, and we know in real life decisions are more difficult to make.

But nonetheless, it reinforces what you have read. Its a great game to introduce kids to financial planning and I do hope more parents actually teach kids about money.

Well anyways, I shall sign out here and I hope to post up something pretty soon.

Save and Invest!!