EVERYONE believes this money lie...
“In order to be rich, you have to live below your means.” – said by EVERYONE including your parents, your teachers, your church, television, radio, the internet, etc.
Everyone knows the above statement is true. Except…
It is a complete LIE!
One of the most challenging things about this lie is how ingrained it is in society.
If you weren’t lucky enough to have a rich dad to teach you about money, then lies like this probably make up your ideas and attitudes toward money. Most people believe they must be true because they’ve heard them all their life.
“In order to be rich, you have to live below your means” is a lie. It’s a dangerous lie because it kills your spirit.
On the surface, “Live below you means,” seems to make sense, but the only people who live below their means are poor people.
The rich don’t live below their means. Rather, they make more and better means.
My poor dad would always say, “We can’t afford that.”
My rich dad said, “Rather than live below my means, I’ll make more money to get what I want.
Rather than say, ‘I can’t afford that,’ I ask, ‘How can I afford that?’”
“Live below your means,” is a poor mindset because it teaches you to think too narrowly. It shrinks your own view of yourself into a victim.
Rather than teach you to be creative in making more money, it teaches you to lazy and pathetic and just accept your situation. It does not push you to be better.
When I want to splurge on something, I don’t look at where to cut costs to afford it, I go buy or build an asset to offset the cost of what I want.
So, instead of always looking for what expenses I can cut to afford something, I’m always looking to expand my wealth to cover the cost of what I want.
It’s a completely different mindset, and it’s the way my rich dad taught me to think.
For instance, some years ago I wanted to get my dream car. I could have paid cash for the car, or I could have decided to eat out less…
Instead, I invested in assets that would provide enough cash flow to cover the monthly cost of my new toy.
It took a little longer, but six months later my investments were creating enough cash flow to pay for my car—and some. In the process, I got my dream car and also built my wealth by buying a money-making asset.
This is the core of thinking like rich dad instead of poor dad. Think like an investor or an entrepreneur. Identify what you want and work out a plan to get there in a smart way through assets.
If you “live within your means”, you can never add assets, so you’ll never break the chain of cutting costs and budgeting to afford something. Eventually you means will run out and you will be left with very little or nothing.
If you want to think like rich dad instead of poor dad, begin asking, “How can I afford that?” rather than saying, “I can’t afford that.”
In the process, you’ll go from a poor mindset to a rich one—and you’ll also break out of the pattern set by a lifetime of being told, “Live Below Your Means.”
Don’t let money kill your spirit,
Robert Kiyosaki
I listen Rich dad poor dad many times :)