Blog | Personal Finance

Tap Into Your Financial Genius

Want to be rich? Use your financial genius to get there

Summary

• Everyone has a financial genius that needs to be awakened

• We are taught to be employees, not to be rich

• The first step in getting rich: find your reason

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When it comes to being rich, people often ask, "How do I start?" Well, put simply, getting rich starts with calling on our financial genius.

Each of us has a financial genius in us that is asleep and just waiting to be awakened. It lies asleep because our culture has educated us into believing the wrong things about money. We're taught to be employees and work for money rather than to be entrepreneurs and investors and have money work for us. We're taught not to worry about our financial future because our company or the government will do that for us.

The message taught about money from a young age is work hard, earn money, spend it, and when you run short, borrow some more. Unfortunately, 90 percent of the Western world subscribes to the above dogma, simply because it's easier to find a job and work for money than to make your own way and build your own wealth.

Teaching your kids to think like the rich

Growing up, Robert Kiyosaki had two models on how to think about money.

Poor dad, who was Robert’s natural father, ascribed to the above: go to school, get a good job, buy a house, and invest in a diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds, and mutual funds; or what we call at Rich Dad, the “old rules of money.”

Thankfully, Robert also had his rich dad, which was his best friend’s dad. He thought differently about money. He believed in minding your own business, as in starting your own business and making money work for you...not the other way around.

Because of rich dad, Robert learned how to think about money in terms of business and investing. This made him different from other kids. In fact, he started his first business when he was only nine, renting out throw away comic books.

At the heart of the difference between rich dad and poor dad was the different views they had on education. Poor dad believed in academic and professional education. Rich dad, however, believed in financial education.

While Robert loved and respected his poor dad, who was very well-educated academically and professionally, he knew in his soul that he did not want to follow in his footsteps. So well into his teen years, Robert studied under rich dad, who taught him many lessons about money.

Some of the money lessons he taught were:

• How to read a financial statement

• The difference between an asset and a liability

• How to create money out of thin air

• How your money gets stolen (legally)

• How to find good people

But one of the most important things he taught was that if you want to be rich, you have to have a reason.

Personal motivation for wealth

If you ask most people if they want to be rich, they say “yes.” But then reality sets in. They realize it's a lot of work to become rich. There is no getting rich quick. Facing these obstacles, they throw in the towel and take the easy route—getting a job and handing investments over to a broker.

Yet, there are clearly those in life who don't take the easy route. And there are those who are wildly successful where others aren't. What separates the successful from the unsuccessful? The answer is found in a reason.

Want to be rich? Define your wants and your don’t wants

A reason is simply a combination of "wants" and "don't wants." For example, Robert’s reason for getting rich began with his "don't wants," which defined his "wants."

He didn’t want to work all his life. He didn’t want what his parents aspired for, job security and a house in the suburbs. He didn’t want to be an employee. He didn’t want to be emotionally absent from his family and friends because he’s always working to make ends meet. He didn’t want to have nothing to pass on at the end of his life.

Out of these "don't wants," Robert developed his "wants."

He wanted to be free to travel the world and to live the lifestyle he loved. He wanted to be young when he did this. He wanted to be free financially. He wanted control over his time and his life. He wanted his money to work for him.

Knowing why you want to be rich is only half the work

Robert’s reasons were deep-seated and emotional. What are yours?

If they aren't strong enough, then the reality of the hard road ahead may be greater than your emotional reasons for getting rich.

Today is the day to determine your reason for getting rich. Make a list of your "don't wants" and your "wants." Make sure that your reason is strong and determined. If you find the right reason, and tap into your financial genius, you can find a way to get rich.

It all starts with you.

But that is only half the battle. You have to show up each and every day, even when you have setbacks. You have to put in the work. If you have a solid reason why you want to be rich and you’re willing to put in the work, you can attain your dreams.