Hey Lathan, first thing I would say is keep reading roberts books you will get a better idea of what he means, it took me atleast a year before I started to understand his teachings. One of the very first things he teaches is cash is trash, because centrals banks are increasing the money supply so fast therefore decreasing the value of your savings. Even though he says do not save money that does not mean you should not have a certain amount of cash in the back as a reserve if you have rental homes, personal bills etc just understand there is a difference between saving money to be rich and having a certain amount of money in the bank as reserve. When robert talks about not living below your means he doesnt mean go be stupid and over leverage yourself hes talking about instead of saying I can't afford that nice house,car etc hes trying to get you to think how can I afford this, as robert would say living below your means kills your spirit which I agree. You sound just like me when I first started all the gurus are out there selling there advice and it is very easy to become overloaded and not know which way is right. For me personally I make sure that I am learning from people that are rich based on what they did not how good they can sell, and I have actually found that a lot of the best advice and information comes from people who aren't selling something an example would be kyle bass very succesful guy not selling any books or anything that I am aware of but everytime he is on tv or at seminar I learn a ton just by listening to the guy. I hope this helps

I think RK is trying to challenge your thought process with the phrase"How can I afford this?"  Just don't give up and eat cheap food, wear ratty clothes and be satisfied.  Work that brain!

 Haha, had the same issue myself.  Conceptually, I understand what he's getting at...it's just hard to put into practice (and often I find it difficult to locate his examples of how to put those words into practice). 

In this case, I believe (someone correct me if I'm wrong) that he states "don't live below your means" as a way to break the paradigm that one must "live below their means" in order to get rich and/or as a general way of life.  The idea being that it doesn't challenge one to do what is really important: expanding income.

The example that makes the most sense is a business that is losing money.  It can either "live belows its means" (i.e. cut back on expenses, lay off workers, save money here and there) or it can "expand its income" (i.e. increasing sales).   Once you break out of that mentality, I guess it's onto phase 2 (??).

To be honest, reading "Increase Your Financial IQ" helped put a lot of beginner concepts into perspective, even though that book came out way later than RDPD (it was the second book I read).   

I can only assume that it makes sense at the beginning to save up/budget your money (most importantly, PAY YOURSELF FIRST by depositing money into your savings and treating it like a bill that MUST be paid so you don't skip it) and then use it to invest in assets.  Since you already seem to have your mind set on the end goal, make sure you continue to find ways to expand your income.  Challenge yourself to do that, rather than always cutting back or living below your means. 

Think that's about it.